Chapter 7 - LAUREN TALKS
Lauren entered the proffer room with two attorneys.
One criminal.
One family.
She was no longer wearing my ring.
Good.
Her first sentence:
“I did not know Evan was going to try to kill Rachel.”
Naomi later told me prosecutors stopped her.
“We have not concluded attempted murder yet.”
Precision.
Lauren corrected:
“I did not know he intended to make her car go off the road.”
Better.
“What did you know?”
“That he wanted to scare her.”
My stomach turned.
The plan, according to Lauren:
Retrieve the backup drive.
Follow me.
Force me to stop.
Convince me not to meet Daniel Reeves.
Get me to sign a statement saying my audit concerns were preliminary and internally resolved.
That alone was criminal coercion territory depending on conduct.
“Why Hollow Creek?”
Evan chose it.
Low traffic.
No cameras.
Lauren objected to that location.
Messages supported part.
LAUREN:
Why there?
EVAN:
Because she won’t make a scene if nobody is watching.
LAUREN:
That sounds insane.
EVAN:
It’s a conversation.
Then Lauren admitted the affair continued.
She wanted Evan to leave me.
He promised after “the audit problem” ended.
At 8:31, they followed me from the city.
At 8:54, Lauren called me.
I did not answer.
At 9:05, Evan flashed headlights.
I kept driving.
At 9:11, my video began.
At 9:14, Evan tapped my rear bumper.
Lauren screamed at him.
“Stop.”
At 9:16, he did it again.
“What did he say?”
“She thinks I won’t touch her.”
At 9:18, Lauren told me through her open window:
“Rachel, just stop.”
That matched audio.
Then the road approached the damaged retaining barrier.
Recent floods had weakened it.
Did Evan know?
Lauren said:
“I don’t know.”
Then:
“He told me, ‘If she won’t pull over, we push her toward the barrier.’”
There.
“What did you think he meant?”
“Crowd her lane.”
“Did you agree?”
“I said no.”
“Then what?”
“He swerved.”
“Into Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“One hard hit.”
“My car went through?”
“Not immediately.”
That was important.
Lauren said my vehicle spun.
Hit the guardrail.
Stopped partly sideways.
Still on road.
I opened my door.
I do not remember that.
“What happened?”
“Rachel got out.”
My stomach dropped.
I had believed I went over inside the first crash.
No.
Lauren continued.
“I got out too.”
“Evan?”
“Yes.”
“What happened between them?”
“They argued.”
About the drive.
About fraud.
About divorce.
I said:
“I copied everything.”
Evan demanded to know where.
I told him:
“Somewhere you’ll never find.”
Was that true?
I could not remember.
Lauren said I threatened to go directly to federal disaster-fraud investigators.
Then Evan grabbed me.
I hit him with something.
Maybe my phone.
I ran toward my car.
He followed.
Lauren tried to stop him.
“Then?”
Lauren began crying.
“He got into the SUV.”
“And?”
“He said if Rachel left, we were done.”
“What did you do?”
“I got into the passenger side because I thought he was leaving.”
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“He drove at her.”
Silence.
Not at the car.
At me?
Lauren corrected:
“At her car. Rachel had gotten back inside.”
She claimed Evan struck the rear quarter panel while I tried to pull away.
My vehicle rotated.
The damaged barrier broke.
Car went over.
“What did Evan do?”
“Stopped.”
“Did you call 911?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“He took my phone.”
That sounded convenient.
Evidence?
Her phone went offline at 9:22.
Recovered later from a storm drain near Evan’s garage? We could establish.
“What did he say?”
Lauren stared at the table.
“She chose this.”
That sentence.
Then they drove to another access point.
Evan searched for my phone.
Could not find it.
They found my ring near the road.
Evan took it.
At 10:04, Lauren got out at a convenience store.
She called a rideshare from another phone? Her phone supposedly taken. Store camera showed her use landline? We can make it.
Her fear was real.
Her responsibility too.
She left without calling police.
Not until four days later when I returned.
Why?
Because she feared fraud charges.
Because she was having an affair.
Because she believed I was dead and cooperation would implicate her.
None excused silence.
But Lauren had not struck my car.
She had not told Evan to do it.
She had participated in the coercive pursuit.
She had stolen my drive.
She had left me in a ravine.
Different acts.
Different culpability.
Then prosecutors played the recovered video audio.
At 9:18:
LAUREN:
Rachel, just stop.
At 9:19:
EVAN:
Push her toward the barrier.
Lauren’s voice:
No, Evan—
Impact.
Then the file ended.
For the first time, the central question changed.
Not whether Evan was involved.
May you like
Whether he meant to send me over the edge.
And the answer was still hidden inside the three minutes the phone had not captured.
