"WE'VE INITIATED PROTOCOL," said Thierry, the captain of the prison's elite Unite d'Intervention Tactique---the Tactical Response Unit---on the phone with Delannoy as Delannoy traveled back to the prison.330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46bLQOV1th
"The prison is locked down?" Delannoy said. "The bloodhounds are out?"
"Yes, sir. But as I said, I don't think she's in the prison, and I don't think she's on foot."
"You think she drove Josette's car right out?"
"Affirmative, sir." It had taken everyone a few minutes, unfortunately, to sort through the confusion. When Maria first discovered that bed 1 in the infirmary's secured area contained not the prisoner but a drugged prison guard----Josette----the initial reaction was that Mischa Barton was somewhere still within the walls of the prison, carrying a Glock handgun. Lockdown procedures had been put in place and a search initiated. It took a few minutes before they realized the second, critical piece of information----that while Josette was lying in bed 1 in a drug-induced slumber, her car had been driven out of the prison, through the main gate, at 2:06 A.M.
They had lost precious minutes. Maria called for the lockdown at 2:12, and they didn't realize that the prisoner had breached the perimeter until a minute ago---at 2:20 a.m.
Thierry grudgingly smiled. Had to admire her brass. Mischa Barton had driven right out of the damn prison.
He looked at his watch, which was synced up to the official prison clock. It was 2:21. "So she's had basically a fifteen-minute head start," he said.
"How far can she get in fifteen minutes?"
Obviously, that answer varied. In Thierry's experience, a desperate inmate will ride whatever has worked for her thus far----in this case, Josette's car. Basic human nature says to keep running, as fast as you can; distance is the most important goal. Get as far away as possible, as fast as possible.
"Her options include the following, as I see it," Thierry said. "She could get rid of the car and try to hide out in the countryside. There's plenty of terrain around here. She could take the bus. She could take the train. Or she could just---drive."
"Drive where?"
Thierry sighed. "Anywhere, sir. The airport wouldn't make much sense, because she has no passport. But there are plenty of roads she could travel in all directions, sir, and then she could access our highways."
"Can we block the roads?"
"Block the roads?" Thierry shook his head, even though he was talking on the phone. "It isn't feasible. By the time we get up the manpower to do it, she'd have had an opportunity to go almost anywhere. The perimeter we'd have to draw would be----it would just be unworkable."
Delannoy let out a string of expletives. Thierry held the phone away from his ear.
"Sir," he said, "in the time we've been on the phone, we've flashed her photo everywhere. The police have it. The toll collectors have it. And the police are being dispatched right now to the bus and train stations. That's a good start. Understand, Barton was hoping that her ruse would last a long time. She hoped that Maria would never walk up to that secured room, that she'd be content to watch things on that monitor from the hallway. She figured Maria wouldn't be able to see Coralie, who was directly under the camera. and she wouldn't realize that the person lying in bed 1 was Josette. And Mischa put enough drugs in those women to keep them quiet for several hours."
"Where are you going with this, Thierry?"
"I'm saying," he replied, "that Mischa probably thinks we don't know she's gone yet."
"Ah. Maybe so."330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVm7KEqOtk0
"She thinks she has a little breathing room, sir. She thinks she's got the flexibility to make some decisions. Like getting rid of a car that, very soon, is going to be hot. I mean, she's pretty smart, right? She seems to be."330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvePk0lQTd
Another set of cusswords came over the phone line. Delannoy wasn't feeling complimentary toward Mischa Barton at the moment.330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9IwjPrQWBg
Delannoy sighed through the phone. "She's very smart," he conceded. "So what's this smart lady who thinks she has some time on her hands going to do, Thierry?"330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNedKZjKOLJ
Thierry nodded to himself. "My bet?" he said. "If there's a train anytime soon, she takes it."330Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLEjLISNx4
