Page 71 of Not This Night

"Money, a gun, and..." Rachel trailed off, squinting at the fine print on the clipping, the car's interior light too dim to do justice to the details. But she'd seen enough.

"Anything useful?" Ethan prodded, watching her scrutinize the images.

"More than you know." Her voice was a low growl, barely audible above the hum of the road.

"Blackmail," she whispered to herself, the pieces slotting together in her mind, a puzzle nearing completion.

Tires screeched as Rachel’s foot slammed against the pedal. The car lurched forward, engine roaring in protest as she navigated through the darkening streets. She clutched the steering wheel, her knuckles white with determination. There was no time to waste.

"Blackmailers hoard their leverage," she said, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Keep records, proof..."

"Of what?" Ethan asked, his voice tight with anticipation.

Rachel flicked on the overhead light, snatching another glimpse at the yellowed newspaper clipping. It depicted a group of women, faces lined with grief and anger, protesting outside a stark building—the clinic. The headline mentioned forced sterilization, a scandal buried by time but not forgotten. Not by those who lived it.

"The fertility totems, the symbols" — Rachel's words came out rapid-fire — "they weren't just morbid decorations. They were a message, a statement."

“Wait, huh?”

She turned. “You know about the forced sterilization of Native women, don’t you?”

Ethan just stared at her. “I… I’ve heard… What do you know?”

She said, “A lot. The sterilizations began in the early 20th century. It was a government initiative — an ugly part of our history. Native women were coerced into undergoing these procedures, often without their informed consent or even their knowledge."

Ethan's face paled, his eyes wide with disbelief as he absorbed her words. "You think this is about that?" he asked, his voice a harsh whisper. Outside, the world streaked past, the hum of the car's engine a low rumble beneath their conversation.

Rachel nodded grimly, her gaze returning to the road ahead. "I do," she confirmed. "It fits. The victims, the totems... even Lucy Thompson's suicide."

"But..." Ethan stumbled over his words, struggling to make sense of it all. "How does Charlie fit into this? And Miguel?"

Rachel kept her eyes on the road, her profile hardened by grim determination as she answered, "That's what we're going to find out."

The chatter of radios and dispatch calls filled their silence as they drove on—each report another echo in the grim symphony of events unfolding around them. But for Rachel Blackwood and Ethan Morgan, it all faded into background noise. They were focused on one thing alone—the truth hidden deep within a stained piece of history.

Rachel was still murmuring to herself, piecing it together. "It's a shameful part of history. Back in the day, there were cases of forced sterilization happening at clinics around the country. Native American women, particularly." Rachel's voice was steady, but her heart pounded. "The government, the medical institutions—they treated Native women like they didn't have the right to control their own bodies. Eugenics, they called it: a blight on our history."

Ethan went silent, probably grappling with the grim reality of it all. Rachel kept driving in the silence, her mind working in overdrive.

"Miguel's wife... what if she was one of those victims? There are still doctors who secretly practice eugenics. It’s horrific." The hypothetical question hung in the air like smoke, noxious and choking.

"And Charlie knew about this?" Ethan's voice was thick with disbelief and an undercurrent of something more—outrage, maybe.

"Perhaps." Rachel's gaze was fixed on the road ahead, but her mind was elsewhere—piecing together a puzzle whose picture was becoming ever clearer. "If Charlie threatened to expose Lucy's past... that might have driven her to despair..."

“But why would Lucy kill herself over that? It’s not like she did anything wrong.”

“Maybe… the baby?” Rachel said. “The one she went in to abort… what if it belonged to Miguel? I noticed he was a few years older than the others. The friend group. They were teenagers, right? What if she was underage?”

Ethan whistled.

Rachel's temples throbbed with adrenaline as her thoughts spiraled. The dark roads seemed to stretch on endlessly, matching the twisted path her investigation was taking. "We know Lucy got pregnant young... Miguel might have been a father in his teens. But what if he didn't even know the child existed?" she mused aloud. “What if… what if he didn’t know his wife was sterile?”

Ethan's silence was heavy with thought. "And Charlie used it against them? That kind of secret... it could ruin lives."

“What if she had the sterilization to protect her husband? If Miguel would’ve been in trouble for a statutory charge, she might’ve wanted to cover up the pregnancy…”

“And her friends?”

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