Chapter 7
Detective Ruiz did not let anyone touch the USB drive.
Not me.
Not Sophie.
Not even the officers at the scene.
She sealed it in an evidence bag and handed it to a technician.
“We verify it before we believe anything on it.”
I understood.
But understanding didn’t stop the thought from repeating in my head.
Lauren was driving.
Lauren was driving.
Lauren was driving.
Sophie sat beside me in an ambulance while a paramedic checked her wrists.
There was a red mark where David had grabbed her.
Nothing worse.
Physically.
Emotionally, I didn’t know.
She stared toward the abandoned gas station.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you believe him?”
I wanted to lie.
Instead I said, “I don’t know.”
“What if it’s true?”
“We’ll deal with what’s true when we know it.”
She looked down.
“I’m sorry I left.”
I pulled her against me.
“I was terrified.”
“I know.”
“Never do that again.”
“I won’t.”
Then she whispered, “I just wanted Mom back.”
My chest broke.
“I know.”
“I thought if I got the video, maybe I could know what happened.”
“You should never have had to do that.”
“You weren’t doing anything.”
The words were painful because, from her perspective, they were true.
“I called the police.”
“After four years.”
I closed my eyes.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
She leaned against me.
“That’s what everybody keeps saying.”
We returned home after midnight.
Lauren was gone.
Ruiz had taken her to the station for further questioning.
Jason was still there.
My mother had fallen asleep on the couch from exhaustion.
Daniel made coffee nobody drank.
At one-thirty in the morning, Ruiz called.
“We recovered one video file from the drive.”
I stood in the kitchen.
Sophie was asleep upstairs now.
“Is it real?”
“We’re still authenticating metadata.”
“What does it show?”
A pause.
“Mr. Bennett, I’d rather discuss that in person.”
My heart started pounding.
“Tell me.”
“Come to the station.”
“I’m not leaving Sophie.”
“Bring someone to stay with her.”
“What does it show?”
Ruiz sighed.
“It shows part of your wife’s collision.”
I gripped the counter.
“And Lauren?”
“Come to the station.”
That told me enough.
Daniel stayed with Sophie.
Jason insisted on coming with me.
I almost refused.
Then I realized he had spent four years wondering about Rachel too.
We drove in silence.
At the station, Ruiz brought us into a small interview room.
A laptop sat on the table.
She looked at Jason.
“Mr. Mercer, you are here as a potential witness. Do not interrupt.”
He nodded.
Ruiz turned the screen toward us.
“The footage appears to have been recorded from a dash camera inside a vehicle traveling behind Rachel Bennett’s car.”
My hands went cold.
“It begins approximately ninety seconds before the collision.”
“Play it.”
She did.
Rain.
Windshield wipers.
A dark road.
Rachel’s silver sedan ahead.
I recognized it instantly.
My breath disappeared.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then the camera vehicle accelerated.
The speed display in the lower corner climbed.
Forty-eight.
Fifty-five.
Sixty-two.
Rachel’s taillights grew closer.
Jason covered his mouth.
The vehicle moved toward her rear quarter.
There was a jolt.
Rachel’s car swerved.
Recovered.
Then the camera car struck her again.
Harder.
Rachel’s sedan fishtailed.
Crossed the center line.
Corrected.
Then disappeared toward the guardrail.
The camera car braked.
I heard someone screaming.
A woman.
“No! No, no, no!”
The recording continued.
The vehicle stopped.
For several seconds, only rain filled the screen.
Then the driver’s door opened.
A figure ran into view.
Lauren.
Four years younger.
Same face.
Same hair.
Same woman I had slept beside for eighteen months.
She ran toward the guardrail.
The video shook as someone else climbed from the passenger side.
David.
He grabbed Lauren.
She screamed.
“I didn’t mean to hit her!”
My body went numb.
David shouted something I couldn’t hear.
Lauren fought him.
“We have to call someone!”
He pulled her toward the SUV.
“She’s alive!”
My heart stopped.
I looked at Ruiz.
“What?”
She rewound.
Turned the volume higher.
Lauren’s voice.
“She’s alive! David, she’s moving!”
I stood so fast the chair fell backward.
“No.”
Ruiz paused the video.
“What happened to Rachel?”
“She died at the scene.”
“But she was alive.”
“According to this footage, Lauren believed she was.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“What happened next?”
Ruiz looked at me.
“You need to sit.”
“No.”
“Mark.”
“Play it.”
She did.
David dragged Lauren back toward the vehicle.
She was crying.
They argued.
Then another pair of headlights appeared in the distance.
David shoved Lauren into the driver’s seat.
He ran around the vehicle.
The video ended.
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“There is no additional file on the drive.”
I stared at the black screen.
“She left Rachel.”
Ruiz said nothing.
“She hit my wife and left her.”
“Based on what we’ve seen, Lauren was driving.”
Jason stood.
“I’ll kill her.”
Ruiz snapped, “Sit down.”
Jason’s face twisted.
“That was my sister.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You threatening a suspect inside a police station helps no one.”
He sat.
I couldn’t feel anything.
Not anger.
Not grief.
Nothing.
Just emptiness.
Then one thought surfaced.
“She married me.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“Four years after that night, she married me.”
I laughed once.
It sounded horrible.
“She helped Sophie choose a dress for our wedding.”
Jason lowered his head.
“She moved into Rachel’s house.”
I pressed both hands against the table.
“She slept in Rachel’s bedroom.”
Ruiz spoke carefully.
“We don’t yet know what happened after the video ended.”
“What else is there to know?”
“Intent matters.”
“She rammed Rachel’s car twice.”
“Yes.”
“Then left.”
“Yes.”
“And later deliberately arranged to meet me.”
Ruiz said nothing.
I stared at her.
“You think she planned all of it.”
“I think we follow evidence.”
“What did Lauren say when you showed her the video?”
Ruiz’s face changed.
“We haven’t shown it to her.”
“Why?”
“Because she changed her story before we had to.”
I froze.
“What story?”
Ruiz closed the laptop.
“Lauren says David forced her to drive that night.”
Jason scoffed.
“Of course.”
“She says he threatened her.”
“Do you believe her?”
“That isn’t my job.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Ruiz opened her notebook.
“She says David followed you and Rachel after the fundraiser. He became fixated on Rachel. On the night of the crash, he drove Lauren to Seattle. He allegedly forced her behind the wheel and ordered her to frighten Rachel.”
My stomach twisted.
“And she obeyed?”
“She says she believed he would hurt her if she refused.”
“She hit Rachel twice.”
“She says the second contact was accidental.”
I remembered her voice on the video.
I didn’t mean to hit her.
Maybe that part was true.
It changed nothing.
“Why didn’t she call 911?”
“She says David took her phone.”
“And after?”
“She says he threatened her for years.”
“Then she married me.”
Ruiz nodded.
“She says she did that because she felt responsible for Sophie.”
I stared at her.
“That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard.”
Jason whispered, “She wanted to replace Rachel.”
I thought about every time Lauren had told Sophie to call her Mom.
Every time Sophie refused.
Every argument.
Every family photograph.
Every complaint Lauren made about Rachel’s belongings still being around.
She hadn’t been competing with a ghost.
She had been standing in the life created by the woman she helped kill.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
His breathing was heavy.
“Mark, Sophie woke up.”
“Is she okay?”
“She found something.”
“What?”
“She went into your office.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did she find?”
“A folder.”
“What folder?”
“I don’t know. It was taped under the bottom drawer of Lauren’s desk.”
I looked at Ruiz.
“What’s in it?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Pictures.”
“What kind?”
“Pictures of you.”
My skin went cold.
“Me?”
“You and Rachel.”
“How old?”
“Before the crash.”
I stopped breathing.
Daniel continued.
“And Mark…”
“What?”
“There’s one of Sophie outside her elementary school.”
I closed my eyes.
“After Rachel died?”
“No.”
May you like
His voice cracked.
“Before.”
