Accused Blues

By Tuba321

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Chapter Three

They sat there for a few long seconds. Jake looked at Elwood. He was staring at the gap with a certain concentration. He new that look. "Oh, come on El we don't even know that we've done!"

Silence.

Elwood stared at the gap for another second and then threw the gear shift into reverse.

"Wait...!"

Elwood shot backwards about 50 feet and threw the shift back into drive. "Got to get this just right." He muttered.

Jake new this was coming but, didn't like the idea. "You're not seriously going to--"

Elwood hit the gas and the Bluesmobile jolted forward.

Jake covered his eyes as Elwood steered the car toward the gap. One look and he knew he might scream. Although, he thought I don't think he'd kill us on purpose.

Elwood, for his part, was trying to be as in tune with the force as possible. And that meaning trying to do one thing at exactly the right time.

When they hit the ledge they both felt the tell-tale jolt of the car leaving solid ground. The car went flying.

It didn't go 70 feet.

The car only went to about 55 feet(an unusual distance for a car) before sailing 2 feet and hitting the ground.

Elwood, concentrating, slammed down on the brake and turned the wheel to the right, sharply, so the car would be drifting to the left.

Jake, eyes covered, knew none of this until they hit the bridge wall.

Opening his eyes he found that they were right back to where they had started, off the highway, at the base of the unfinished bridge. His jaw dropped.

After a few minutes of pure shock, he realized that Elwood hadn't said a word. He turned to look at his brother, who, by the looks of it, had hit his head when they had slammed into the wall and was currently unconscious.

This was a terrible thing, because the unfortunate wailing of sirens was behind them.

"This is not my day." He muttered.

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This is my day, this is my day… Officer Thomas Matthews kept thinking to himself. He was, in fact, in the lead of cars that had almost nabbed the pair in the car ahead. But, wouldn't you know it, they dived off a bridge. So now he had to drive all the way back down the bridge, past the dirt, on to the highway, and be right back where they started.

Okay, this is my day, but there are a few minorsetbacks.

Hopefully.

He had been working on this case for about, oh, only three years. The cops in the office(fulfilling their jobs of standing around the water cooler and eating donuts) called it the One Who Got Away case. Matthews had been hoping to change the title to The One Who Got Caught. So, naturally when the call came about a Dr. Robert Malcolm being murdered by a tall, black suited man, he jumped to handle it once and for all.

Once he knew the description, he asked around all the jails. Pretty much every jailer in the jail just outside of Chicago knew the men. Heck, they even gave more of a description then he would've guessed. The Blues brothers, the jailers had told him. Due to their good behavior and being in the band, they had been allowed to keep the suite, tie, sunglasses, and hat. Not only that, but they were released early.

That was a dumb idea.

For the year that they were in prison, all murders ceased. The story on the One Who Got Away case was that each murder was the same, forced poisoning, and, just to make an impression, a slashed X across the back of the fallen man's shirt. Details were important, none murdered were female, none were famous, but they did seem to have something in common, they all had origins from Germany.

"Hey! What does this do?" Said an annoying voice.

Matthews turned slowly toward, his poorly picked partner. His name was Marcus Jason. Marcus was about 5 and a half feet tall, had eyes that seemed to pop out, and a mouth that declared, "I'm loud and I know it." Matthews hated these kind of people, he had a short fuse which meant a shorter patience. "That's the police scanner." He said with a forced calmness.

"Oh." Marcus said, as if that was that. After a brief moment of silence, he started again. "What are we doing here again?"

Twitching, Matthews answered. "We're busting two suspects."

"Oh." Said Marcus again. "Then why are we shooting?"

Will you just SHUT UP!?!? Thought Matthews thought furiously. He didn't know why but Marcus just had the most annoying voice he'd ever heard. No matter what Marcus did it sounded like intentional and annoying yelling.

Apparently realizing that he wasn't getting an answer, Marcus went on. "If their suspects, then I don't think we have any proof. So, if we don't have any proof we shouldn't be shooting at them, to take them to jail for something that we don't know that they did."

Silence.

"Hello?"

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Finally reaching the downed, black-and-white car, Matthews finally had an answer for Marcus besides, You're annoying and don't know what your talking about.

"Marcus, you know why we're suspicious? These two people are criminals. One for an armed robbery. The other for being the worst traffic hazard in history. Another is that they both dived off a bridge to avoid being caught." He sighed. What could Marcus say about that?

"We were shooting, you know." Said Marcus so a-matter-of-factly that it took almost all of Matthews concentration to not pound him over the head then and there. Seeing the impending rage, and ignoring it(as usual) he went on, "We pulled up, turned on the siren, and started shooting. They probably didn't want to get killed."

Matthews didn't answer, he just got out of the still-running car and inspected the scene before him. A black-and-white 1970s dodge police car. It looked as if someone had worked very hard on restoring and keeping it in good condition.

It was empty.

He groaned loudly and as all the other cars showed up, practically yelled into his radio, "It's empty!" Groans were followed from officers who shared his ambition.

One officer, Stevenson, called over the radio, "Should we take it in, sir?"

At that moment Matthews watch decided to beep twice, indicating pretty much all of them were off shift. To his mild amusement, a chorus of other beeps were heard from closer cars. "Nah, paperwork'll take hours." He sighed. "Let's go home."

Cheers sounded from a few cars.

Walking to his car, he past Marcus. He hadn't seen him get out. Not like it mattered. When Marcus walked over to the car, Matthews decided to let out some of his steam. "Get your own ride!" He growled and pulled away.

If there had been a shout from Marcus, Matthews failed to hear it from the unison of all the cars driving away, none stopping.

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In his uncomfortable position, Jake groaned. Laying in the trunk of the car, stretched out as far as possible(which wasn't much) he realized how much he hated the luring darkness.

At the thought of being arrested again for something he probably didn't do wasn't pretty. So he had grabbed Elwood, opened the trunk and hopped in. About two minutes after he closed it, the sirens came. Silence didn't last long after a loud "It's empty!" was heard. Then the usual sound of cars driving away were heard.

Elwood, to the left of Jake, shifted unconsciously. Obviously feeling as uncomfortable as Jake, possibly worse.

Thinking about Elwood, Jake had another few startling moments of shock at what his brother had just done. With that came the revelation that he did it to escape something that they didn't do. Both of them had purposely tried to lay low as much as possible. Neither one of them could have done something.

Next to him, Jake heard shuffling and a groan of, "What happened?"

Not facing him Jake replied with, "Man, you have no idea." With a sudden thought coming to mind he added. "Let's get outta here."

He tried to open the trunk pushing against it with what might he had. Unfortunately, that didn't work and he had the sinking feeling that he didn't think this through enough.

Fortunately, Elwood had. Pushing against Jake enough to tell him to move, Elwood worked his magic. Due to the dark he had to feel around the door for what he was looking for until he found it. The latch to the lock. Taking out a piece of string, he placed it under the latch and pulled. Not only that but he kicked the door. Finally, if fell open.

A cop was standing outside.

TBC…

A/N: For anyone's information I based the Marcus character on Eddie Deezen after a night of watching 1941.