Cooper Mall

I'm noticing a pattern here.

Their connection felt familiar in a way she hadn't expected.

Slowly, Tanya let herself become someone who could fall in love again.

Dates turned into partnership, partnership into marriage, and then they went into business together.

A company called RWI Logistics leased them as a team.

Trucking became more than work.

It was proof that by the turn of the century, Tanya had become someone no one would ever connect to the girl once known as Margot Freshwater.

She was a mother to grown children, a grandmother, a long-haul trucker, a widow who rebuilt, remarried, and kept moving.

Her life had been completely transformed, and except for her location on a map, nothing in it pointed back to her old identity.

Nothing at all.

Were you noticing the world around you changing and thinking to yourself, people might be able to find me?

Like, were you thinking that at all?

No, it didn't cross my mind.

Which is why she never imagined that on an ordinary night in Columbus, a certain special agent had finally caught up.

Special agents Greg Costas and Greg Elliott had eyes on the apartment.

No sirens, no backup, no drama.

Just one unmarked car on a quiet Columbus street and a whole lot of hoping this wasn't another dead end.

Costas had been carrying this case for years, but now that he was sitting 20 yards from our front door, he wasn't exactly feeling heroic, more like nauseous.

And with the arrival of Greg Elliott from Tennessee, it was now a multi-state operation.

The minute they saw Tanya walk out that front door, everything kicked into high gear.