Chapter 7 - the woman in the second car
Lucy met Colleen at an empty church parking lot.
The older woman sat inside her sedan clutching a cloth envelope.
“I should have told you years ago.”
“Start with why you followed Nathan.”
Colleen explained that Margaret called her on the night of the crash.
Nathan had left Robert’s office carrying financial records and the paternity report. Margaret feared he would go directly to police.
She asked Colleen to follow him and persuade him to return.
“Why you?”
“He trusted me more than your mother.”
“Did Chelsea follow too?”
“I saw her red sedan leave the office before Nathan.”
Lucy remembered Chelsea driving a red sedan that year. It was sold one week after the crash.
Colleen followed Nathan onto the bridge road.
Snow had begun falling.
Chelsea’s car stayed behind Nathan for several miles, then accelerated and pulled beside him.
“They were shouting through the windows,” Colleen said. “Nathan tried to move away.”
“What happened?”
“A dark pickup came from behind me.”
“Whose?”
“I couldn’t see.”
The pickup passed Colleen, struck the rear of Nathan’s car, and forced it toward the barrier.
Chelsea braked.
Nathan’s car broke through the rail and disappeared down the embankment.
Colleen stopped.
Chelsea did not.
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I did.”
“Did you tell them about the pickup?”
“Sheriff’s Deputy Owen Marsh arrived first. He told me there were no tire marks from another vehicle.”
“You saw it.”
“He said shock changes memory.”
“And you accepted that?”
“He knew my son had a drug arrest. He said I could lose my job and home if I gave a false statement.”
Colleen told investigators she had seen only Nathan’s vehicle lose control.
The dark pickup vanished from the report.
“What happened to Nathan’s phone?” Lucy asked.
“Chelsea came back after the ambulance left. I saw her near the wrecked car.”
“Did you confront her?”
“She said she was collecting family property.”
Colleen opened the cloth envelope.
Inside was an old hospital bracelet.
ELISE WARREN.
“Where did you get this?”
“The night Dany was born.”
Colleen had driven Nathan and Elise to a private maternity clinic outside the city. Margaret did not approve of the relationship because Elise came from a poor family and had once worked for Chelsea’s company.
Nathan planned to marry her.
After his death, Margaret told Elise the crash happened because Nathan stole from Robert and was fleeing police.
“She said the family would take the baby and blame Elise for the theft,” Colleen whispered.
“Did you believe her?”
“I believed enough.”
Margaret arranged a private placement with Lucy, who had already been approved as a foster parent.
Elise refused to surrender Dany.
Then Dr. Blake sedated her after delivery.
“When she woke, the baby was gone,” Colleen said.
Lucy’s body went cold.
“You helped take him?”
“I carried him to the agency car.”
“You handed me a stolen child.”
“I thought Margaret had legal authority.”
“You watched Elise refuse.”
Colleen began crying.
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
“Margaret told me she left the state. Later she said Elise died from an overdose.”
“Did you verify it?”
“No.”
Another adult had accepted a convenient death without a body.
Lucy asked about the forged signature.
Colleen denied writing it, but she gave Margaret copies of Elise’s clinic forms. Margaret could have traced the signature.
“Why call me about Robert’s box now?”
“Because Chelsea threatened to destroy it. I knew it might contain the paternity proof.”
“Or evidence against you.”
Colleen looked away.
Both reasons were true.
Lucy took the bracelet.
“Did Robert know you carried Dany out?”
“No.”
“Then you let him trust you while he investigated everyone else.”
“I was trying to correct what I did.”
“You were deciding the order of truth again.”
Colleen lowered her head.
Before leaving, she gave Lucy one more item.
A motel receipt from the night after Nathan’s crash.
Chelsea had rented a room under a false name.
The vehicle listed on the registration was a dark pickup.
Not the red sedan.
Chelsea had access to both vehicles.
Colleen said:
“I thought the pickup belonged to Grant’s construction company.”
Grant had not yet married Chelsea then, but his family business owned several trucks.
Lucy showed him the receipt.
Grant studied the plate number.
“That truck was stolen from our lot the afternoon Nathan died.”
“Who reported it?”
“Chelsea.”
“Was it recovered?”
“Yes. Burned outside Ames.”
Grant looked toward the motel signature.
“She signed the theft report before Nathan crashed.”
Chelsea had created an explanation for the pickup’s disappearance in advance.
Then Lucy noticed the receipt’s second guest name.
Owen Marsh.
May you like
The sheriff’s deputy who dismissed Colleen’s account had shared Chelsea’s motel room after the crash.
👉 Chelsea and the first deputy at Nathan’s scene had registered together under false names before his death was ruled an accident.
