Chapter 24 - Harper Refuses to Run Again
Harper did not take the news well.
She threw up.
Then she wanted to leave Indiana.
Adam supported it.
Richard supported it.
Eleanor wanted Milo on the first flight somewhere warm and anonymous.
I understood every reaction.
Bell disagreed.
“Running without a security plan creates more exposure.”
Harper sat at Melissa’s office table with both arms wrapped around herself.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Stay somewhere controlled.”
“How long?”
“Until Lawson is caught.”
“That could be weeks.”
“It could be hours.”
She looked at me.
“What would you do?”
“Listen to Bell.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“The man who ignored him and drove to Mercer’s lodge?”
“Growth.”
Even Bell laughed.
Harper finally agreed to stay in a secured hotel under police protection.
Milo remained with Adam’s parents.
That separation hurt her more than fear did.
She called him every night.
On the second night, Milo asked a question none of us expected.
“Mommy, are bad people coming because you used to be bad?”
Harper went silent.
Adam closed his eyes.
I was in the room because none of us wanted her alone.
She swallowed.
“I made bad choices, sweetheart.”
“Are you bad?”
“No.”
She started crying.
“I’m trying very hard to be good.”
Milo thought about it.
“Grandpa said people are what they do today.”
Richard looked away quickly.
Harper smiled through tears.
“Grandpa’s right.”
After the call, she sat quietly.
Then she looked at Dad.
“You told him that?”
Richard shrugged.
“Kid asks a lot of questions.”
The next morning, Lawson made another mistake.
He called Cynthia.
Police had her line monitored.
He demanded she withdraw her cooperation.
She kept him talking for four minutes.
Long enough.
The signal originated near an abandoned farm property owned by Lawson’s cousin.
State police surrounded it.
They found food.
Clothing.
A sleeping bag.
Weapons.
But Lawson had already gone.
Behind the barn, officers found tire tracks.
A neighbor reported seeing a white utility van.
At Reed Recovery, Leon checked our regional towing database.
“White van?”
“What?”
“We recovered one yesterday.”
My skin went cold.
“Where?”
“Driver abandoned it near Lafayette.”
“Where is it now?”
“Overflow lot.”
We evacuated the area immediately.
Police searched the van.
No Lawson.
But inside the glove compartment was a parking receipt.
Downtown Indianapolis.
Printed that morning.
Bell stared at it.
“Decoy?”
“Maybe.”
Then Tyler called from dispatch.
“A guy is asking for Richard.”
“Who?”
“Says he’s from a parts supplier.”
My pulse jumped.
“Description?”
“Fifties. Gray jacket. Baseball cap.”
I ran.
The man stood outside the main office.
When he saw me, he turned.
“Wade!”
He sprinted.
I chased him across the lot.
He climbed the damaged front gate.
I was ten yards behind.
He reached the road.
A sedan waited.
Before he could open the door, Richard’s forklift rolled from behind a stack of crushed vehicles.
Dad lowered the forks across the driveway.
Lawson froze.
The sedan accelerated away without him.
Police cruisers were already approaching.
Lawson ran toward the drainage field.
He slipped on frozen mud.
Got up.
Ran again.
Bell’s vehicle cut him off from the opposite side.
Lawson reached inside his jacket.
Every officer shouted.
“Hands!”
For one terrifying second, I thought he would pull a gun.
Instead, he dropped something.
A prepaid phone.
Then raised his hands.
He was arrested forty feet from the same yard he had tried to destroy.
Richard climbed down from the forklift.
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You blocked an armed fugitive with a forklift.”
“He was in my driveway.”
“Our driveway.”
Dad smiled.
“Even better.”
Lawson was placed in a cruiser.
As it drove away, Harper called from the hotel.
“They got him?”
“Yeah.”
She began crying.
Not fear this time.
Relief.
For the first time in weeks, our family could finally sleep without wondering who was standing outside.
But the biggest fight was still ahead.
Mercer’s criminal case.
May you like
MidState’s civil claim.
And Harper’s decision to testify publicly against the man who had built his fortune from people exactly like her.
