Chapter 5 - The Rockford Tapes
The heavy wooden lid of the tool chest lifted with a low groan of iron hinges.
Inside, beneath a layer of rusted wrenches and old plumbing manuals, sat a faded blue leather binder and three black external hard drives.
I pulled the binder out first, setting it on the concrete floor beside my knees.
I opened the cover.
Inside were newspaper clippings—dozens of them, carefully cut out and pasted onto heavy white paper.
The top headline, dated August 12, 2022, read:
LOCAL COLLEGE STUDENT CLARA PENDELTON REPORTED MISSING IN ROCKFORD
Beneath it were follow-up articles:
SEARCH INTENSIFIES NEAR ROCK RIVER CANAL POLICE QUESTION LOCAL CONSTRUCTION CREW INVESTIGATION STALLS AS LEAD DRYS UP
Pasted among the clippings were handwritten notes, written in Mark's clean, precise engineering script:
Target area: Route 20 intersection. Traffic camera log unavailable. Driver unit: White Ford Transit. Plate match: 44-B-819.
I gasped, covering my mouth with both hands as tears flooded my eyes.
Mark hadn't just been following the news. He had been tracking her. He had been mapping her last known location with the precision of a professional investigator.
I grabbed the binder and the three hard drives, locked the tool chest, and ran up the basement stairs.
Sarah was standing in the kitchen, holding a glass of water. She gasped when she saw my face.
"Laura! What is that? What did you find?"
"Call Detective Miller," I breathed, dropping the blue binder onto the kitchen island. "Call her right now."
Within twenty minutes, two police cruisers arrived back at Cedar Lane. Detective Miller walked into my kitchen, her face grim as she picked up the blue binder and flipped through the pages.
"Where did you find this?" Miller asked.
"In his father's old tool chest in the basement," I said, wiping my face with my sleeve. "Detective, please tell me what's happening. Was my husband involved in her disappearance?"
Miller looked at the handwritten notes on the pages, her eyes narrowing. She pulled out her radio.
"Unit Four to Main. Get Tech Services down here with an encrypted reader for three external drives. And notify Rockford PD that we have potential primary case material."
She turned back to me, her voice dropping into a quiet, compassionate tone.
"Mrs. Bennett... four years ago, your husband didn't live in Columbus."
I stared at her. "What?"
"We just ran his social security history," Miller said softly. "Mark Bennett changed his legal name six years ago in Indiana. Before that, his name was Mark Vance."
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"No..." I shook my head, stepping backward. "No, we met in Chicago! He told me he was raised in Ohio!"
"He lied to you, Laura," Miller said flatly. "Four years ago, Mark Vance was the lead site foreman for a commercial paving company working in Rockford, Illinois."
