PROVIDENCE - For 10 days, Dennis Isom played a cat-and-mouse game with the police.

After allegedly bashing his teenage wife in the head with a hammer, the 45-year-old registered sex offender taunted detectives about whether or not they could catch him alive.

But until a pack of police cruisers surrounded the car carrying Isom and his girlfriend last week, Sgt. William Merandi said the pursuit was a nail biter.

"We've become obsessed with this case because he was calling us saying, 'You're going to have to kill me,'" Merandi said.

Domestic-violence investigators Glendon Goldsboro and Tara DaSilva carried out a dogged pursuit, he said, spending days and nights on surveillance, chasing bad leads and dead ends, fielding teasing calls from Isom - all the while worried that time was running out.

Isom's young wife, Racine McLaughlin, had refused the investigators' insistence that she move into a "safe house," where she could be hidden. While in the hospital, she'd changed rooms several times, by police request, to keep Isom from finding her. When she was released, she wanted to return to a normal life and choose where she would live, Merandi said.

"She was always in danger. We wanted to make sure she always had protection," he said.

The 19-year-old woman was lucky that two people rushed to help her when Isom attacked her on Oct. 7, Merandi said. "I believe if somebody didn't intervene, we would have buried her," he said.

The investigators were worried that Isom would find her again, before they found him.

The Providence man's criminal record shows a history of violence spanning about three decades. He's spent the last 15 years imprisoned on and off at the Adult Correctional Institutions, Merandi said.

Isom has been convicted of several crimes - he's assaulted cops, raped women, and been caught for forgery, counterfeiting, and various other criminal charges. He's been arrested by police in East Providence, Providence, Pawtucket, Cumberland, Warren, and by the state police. He's been arrested 15 times just in Providence, Merandi said.

Isom was convicted in 1988 on two counts of first-degree sexual assault, making him a registered sex offender. However, he wasn't currently registered, Merandi said. Sex offenders are required to notify the Police Department when they change addresses, but Isom had moved several times over the last year or so and hadn't told the police, Merandi said.

Isom and McLaughlin had been together for about two years, and married for six months, until she abruptly left their River Avenue apartment last month, Merandi said. She said Isom had been beating her, and she got a restraining order to last three years, he said.

On the morning of Oct. 7, a friend was driving McLaughlin to work at the Foxy Lady when they saw Isom waiting in the parking lot, according to the police. They drove away, trying to elude Isom, but he followed them to the friend's house on DePasquale Avenue, Merandi said.

The friend ran inside to call the police, leaving McLaughlin in the car. He heard a crash, and saw Isom smashing through the car's windows with a hammer, beating McLaughlin, Merandi said. The friend and another man chased Isom away, and an ambulance picked up the badly injured woman.

The chase was on.

DaSilva and Goldsboro were gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses moments after the attack when they got their first tip: Isom had bought a one-way airplane ticket to Florida.

Investigators went to Logan International Airport in Boston, T.F. Green Airport in Warwick as well as area bus and train stations. Merandi contacted the Florida authorities and faxed copies of Isom's picture and information to all 27 airports in that state. False alarm.

"When you think you're so close, you couldn't be any colder," Merandi lamented.

They tracked down Isom's cell phone number and called him, Merandi said. They tried persuading him to turn himself in, he said.

Isom said he would, then said he wouldn't, Merandi said. He said they would have to kill him first. He tried explaining.

"He said he didn't mean to hit her with a hammer. He only wanted to hit her a few times. He was upset," Merandi said.

They tried tracing the cell phone signal, but it didn't work, Merandi said. They hung out in Isom's favorite bars until 2 a.m., hoping he'd walk in. He didn't. They staked out a dealership where Isom was supposed to return a rental car, but the rental return records were faulty and they'd missed him, Merandi said.

They tracked down his parents, and his friends. They followed leads to Brockton and Dorchester, Mass. They found a girlfriend, Jeanette Coia, 48, of Johnston, and staked out her house, believing he was staying there, Merandi said.

The investigators changed their vehicles often, so they wouldn't be detected, Merandi said. They used their private cell phones, running up the bills, keeping in touch with McLaughlin to make sure she was safe, and Isom, to get him to stop running, he said.

"He really actually believed we'd never get him," Merandi said.

Then, last Thursday night, in the middle of the Red Sox-Yankees game, the investigators got a break.

At 10 p.m., Goldsboro got a tip: Isom was at his girlfriend's place on Angelico Street in Johnston, driving a gray Ford Contour, Merandi said.

DaSilva was out on medical leave, so Goldsboro roused investigator Clarence Gough from the baseball game and Merandi from a dinner out with his wife.

All three headed to Johnston, but Goldsboro got there first and saw the car. Merandi called the Johnston police, asking for unmarked police cars to the address. Merandi said the police were afraid that Isom was armed, because he had threatened that the police would have to kill him.

Merandi was on the phone with the Johnston police when Goldsboro made a frantic call to him. Isom and Coia had gotten into the car and were driving away.

Plans changed. Merandi called Providence police, as Goldsboro followed the Ford and radioed ahead where the couple was driving.

They got no farther than Webster Avenue in Providence, Merandi said. Six Providence police cruisers corralled the Ford, and the couple surrendered, he said.

Isom was arrested and charged with domestic felony assault with intent to murder and violating a restraining order; he had about $5,000 in crisp $100 bills on him that police believe he was going to use to flee the state, Merandi said. Coia was charged with harboring a fugitive. (Isom is being held at the ACI on a probation violation; Coia was released on $10,000 personal recognizance, Merandi said.)

The investigators finally faced the man they'd been searching for, after nearly two weeks.

"Glenn said, 'Dennis, I got ya,' " Merandi said. "What else could he say?"