Chapter 3 - The Case in the Trunk
Nora never remembered leaving the car.
Later she remembered pieces.
Alma's bleeding hands.
The smell of hot antifreeze.
A branch scraping her cheek.
Her own voice saying, "I can't," while her body kept moving anyway.
Alma got one arm around Nora's chest and dragged her through the windshield opening.
They collapsed on a narrow strip of dirt between the sedan and the cliff wall.
The car moved.
"Go!" Alma screamed.
They scrambled upward as the sedan finally tore free.
It fell through the fog.
There was no explosion. No movie fireball.
Just crashing metal, snapping branches, then silence far below.
Nora started sobbing.
"The case."
Alma looked at her.
"Forget the case."
"My father—"
"Your father is dead. You are not."
Nora hated her for saying it.
She also knew Alma was right.
Sirens approached above.
Daniel slid down the slope with a rescue rope around his waist.
"Nora! Oh God."
He reached for her.
She slapped his hand away.
He stared at her as if she had injured him.
"You hit my car."
"My brakes failed."
Alma made a noise somewhere between a cough and a curse.
Daniel looked at her. "Stay out of this."
"I jumped off a cliff into this," Alma said. "Too late."
Paramedics reached them minutes later.
Nora's blood pressure was dropping.
One medic asked Daniel what happened.
Daniel answered before Nora could.
"She lost control. My mother tried to stop her. I tried to block the car."
Nora stared at him.
He did not blink.
Celeste cried beautifully for the deputies.
Nora almost admired the technique.
At Grayhaven Medical, doctors found a partial placental abruption.
The baby's heartbeat was still present.
"We may need to deliver tonight," Dr. Hsu said.
Nora nodded, then asked for police.
Daniel stepped closer.
"Nora, you're confused."
"I'm not confused."
"You hit your head."
"You said forgive me."
His face changed.
Tiny. Fast.
But the nurse saw it.
So did Alma.
Then a deputy entered with a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was Nora's phone, cracked but working.
"We found this near the road," he said. "There's a video recording still running."
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Daniel went white.
