Chapter 8 - THE TRAP
On Monday morning, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office filed upgraded charges against James Carter: Attempted First-Degree Murder, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Child Abuse resulting in Serious Bodily Injury, and Witness Tampering.
A bench warrant was issued for his immediate arrest without bail.
However, when state troopers surrounded Dad’s blue siding house at the end of the residential street in Lancaster, he was gone. His pickup truck was missing from the driveway. His cell phone was turned off.
"He’s running," Detective Miller told me as she stood in my hospital room on Monday afternoon. "We’ve put out an All-Points Bulletin across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. But if he has cash hidden away, he could be anywhere."
"He isn't anywhere," I said, looking out the hospital window at the grey November sky. "I know where he is."
Detective Miller leaned in. "Where?"
"My grandmother’s old cabin in the Pocono Mountains," I revealed. "It’s been abandoned since she died eight years ago. Property taxes are paid through the estate trust fund—the trust fund he embezzled from. He thinks nobody remembers that place because he never took Caroline or Mom there."
"Are you sure?" Miller asked.
"He took me there once when I was ten," I said, a dark memory resurfacing. "He told me it was the only place where no one could hear you scream if you got out of line. He keeps an old backup truck and cash stashed in the tool shed behind the cabin."
Detective Miller immediately drew her radio. "I'm calling State Police Troop R in Dunmore. We’ll send a tactical unit to surround the perimeter."
"Wait," I said, standing up from my bed for the first time without assistance, holding onto the IV pole. "He won't come out if he sees state troopers. He’ll set the cabin on fire or shoot at them. You need him to believe he’s still in control."
"What are you suggesting, Melissa?" Miller asked suspiciously.
"Use Caroline," I said. "Have Caroline call his backup burner number. Tell him she’s bringing him ten thousand dollars in cash from her savings so he can escape across the border. Tell him she’s coming alone."
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Detective Miller shook her head. "No way. That’s too dangerous. We can't put a civilian in the middle of a tactical operation."
"Caroline wants to redeem herself," I said firmly, looking Miller in the eye. "And my father is a narcissist. He believes Caroline is completely loyal to him. He will never expect that she’s leading a SWAT team straight to his door."
