Hide/Seek/NYC: RUNDOWN: Day 11, 12/9/00

DAY 11 RUNDOWN

In the end, there was no place left to hide.

At approximately 1:15 PM on Saturday afternoon, Fugitive Zoe met her match in the cramped quarters of Jack and Co. Tuxedos on E. 86th Street. Her captor was none other than Mark Tafoya, the man who brought down Fugitive Jason on Day 9.

With that, Hide/Seek/NYC came to a close. The streets are clear. The Hide/Out is empty. The Fugitives are free.

A victim of some clever detective work and a difficult Saturday Day Task, Zoe said she did not feel the post-game sense of freedom that Fugitives Jason and Chris expressed earlier in the week.

"I felt a lump in my throat," she said, discussing the moment of capture. "It was defeat. Chris and Jason said it was almost a relief -- and I was definitely coming down with something and not feeling so good about myself last night when I was hanging out with the homeless people in Penn Station -- but it wasn't a relief for me. I definitely wanted to win."

Tafoya, who added $10,000 to the $500 he won on Thursday, sympathized with the fallen Fugitive. "I felt horrible," he said at Command Center. "I still feel horrible."

But he didn't feel so horrible on Saturday morning as he crafted a clever and devious plan to trap Zoe on the streets of the Upper East Side. Tafoya was on to the Task early in the day, recognizing that Command had charged Zoe to wear a high hat on Park Ave. (as per Irving Berlin's lyrics in "Putting on the Ritz.")

After pondering the situation, Tafoya decided that Jack and Co. could come into play. Just before noon, he made his way to the second floor formal wear shop, where he had a conversation with the man running the store, Louis. "Has a woman been in today asking for a top hat?" Tafoya asked.

She hadn't, but Tafoya was undeterred. He explained the situation to Louis and gave him his cell phone number. "If she comes by, please call me on this number and pretend like you're ordering a pizza. I'll come right over." Louis agreed, and, after buying a tie for a formal event he was scheduled to attend later that evening, Tafoya headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he thought Zoe might be hiding out.

About an hour later, Tafoya had left the Museum and was walking on E. 82nd St., between 5th and Madison Aves., when his cell phone rang. "Hi, this is Louis. I want to order a pizza."

"Try to keep her there. I'll be right over," Tafoya said.

He then ran to Jack's on 86th and Lexington, hit the buzzer for the store, and darted up the stairs. Meanwhile, upon hearing the buzzer, Zoe knew she was doomed. In an act of desperation, she hid behind a tie rack. It was no use. Tafoya entered the store and approached her. "Fugitve Zoe," he said. "You're caught."

Within in minutes, Command hit the scene, along with the day's webHunter Jay Holler and Day 5 webHunter Alison McCarthy, both of whom had been in touch with Tafoya that morning.

Despite the premature end to her quest for $10,000, Zoe was in good spirits upon her return to Command. "I'm glad I played," she said. "I feel like I was perfectly suited for this. I really thought I had a great chance of winning."