When discussing Jimmie Lee Mason Jr., Lieutenant Bobby Martin of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office frequently uses the word coward.

“The most cowardly won’t come forward,” he says of Mason, who is still on the lam following the September 4, 2011 murders of Thomas “Tom Cat” Davis and his girlfriend Jenlee Foster. “They hide out being cool but it’s being a coward to be so cold and calculating like he was and then to run. A man will stand up to his charges and won’t run. He has no street ‘cred’ to me.”

The one thing Martin is sure of, Mason is not in the state of North Carolina. “It’s believed he’s with family somewhere out of state. No matter how long he runs it’s not going away. Somebody remorseful, someone feeling bad about what they’ve done would turn themselves in.”

Martin said Mason has impacted the lives of three families — Davis’s family, Foster’s family and his own.

Davis and Foster had a child together whom family members are now caring for. “Tom Cat’s family wants closure,” Martin said, as does Foster’s family. “Jimmie is putting them (his own family) in jeopardy. Family is family but there comes a time in life when you need to do the right thing. The right thing is it’s time for him to turn himself in.”

Martin believes Mason was a key cog in the wheel that led to the two murders. “He had an inside track. He was treated like royalty. He was family to Tom Cat. For him to go in and just brutally murder Tom Cat and his girlfriend and leave a small child, that’s brutal.”

No beef was detected between Davis and Mason, Martin said, and while Davis didn’t live the perfect life, “Everyone I interviewed spoke highly of him. He looked after his family and helped people in the community.”

Mason’s father also lived life on the lam until he was caught by feds and charged with drug dealing. “He changed his name and started a new life,” Martin said.

But, the lieutenant said, Mason is not his father. “His dad was running from drugs. Jimmie Mason is running from murder.”

Martin believes family or buddies dabbling in the narcotics trade are helping Mason. “Jimmie Mason is probably sitting around thinking he’s safe but being cautious. I would probably think he’s trying to keep what he’s done out of his mind. I hope it haunts him every day.”

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Martin at 252-593-1018 or Crimestoppers at 252-583-4444.