Epilogue 1
The Peak
Black Widow Wins Appeal, Baby Widow Goes on Honeymoon
Interview with Colin Mills and Chloe Mills, née Stark, by Barry MacGregor
Three months after the death of Lucy Wheeler, the human trafficking ringleader out of Mt. Lance who impersonated a police detective in Devil’s Peak, I sat down with two people whose stories I’ve been following for over two years.
They’ve been married for just over a month, and to say I was surprised by their nuptials would be an understatement.
On an unseasonably hot spring morning much like today, Chloe Mills’ mother, Caroline Stark, was arrested for the murders of her three husbands spanning over the course of eleven years.
The Peak was the first media outlet to dub Caroline Stark the Black Widow, and it’s a notorious nickname that scrolled across the bottom of television screens across the nation after her arrest and during her trial.
Colin Mills, the Devil’s Peak detective responsible for Caroline’s arrest, kept such close tabs on the Black Widow’s daughter in the months after her arrest that various journalists, including myself, started to notice.
Eventually, we identified Chloe as the Baby Widow, and that nickname landed just as well as her mother’s did—at least for us.
“I absolutely hate that name,” Chloe told me during our interview.
When I asked her why, she went on to explain that since her mother’s successful appeal, the Black Widow moniker isn’t even a logical one anymore, considering the medical examiner who raised the red flag on her third husband’s death withdrew his original report, changing the man’s manner of death from homicide to accidental.
“Since there’s no Black Widow, there should be no Baby Widow,” she argued.
And I can’t say I don’t agree with her. “I also hate spiders,” she added, shivering dramatically.
Her new husband laughed beside her, reaching over and resting his hand in her lap.
The production lights gleamed off their shiny, new wedding bands, and I couldn’t resist asking the hard questions.
Multiple journalists had photographed Chloe and Colin in the year after her mother’s sentencing, and while Chloe generally appeared calm and content—deviously delighted even, some might say—in Colin’s presence, Colin’s scowl was hard to miss. So, I wondered, what changed?
Colin glanced at his new wife, and a slight blush crept up his neck before he reached over and pushed her long, blonde hair behind her shoulder. “It’s hard to say,” Colin gushed, unable to tear his gaze from his blushing bride. “We spent a lot of time together. I saw a different side of her.”
I have wondered myself how many different sides to Chloe Stark there are.
I’m a journalist, so naturally I spend a lot of time with the people I write stories about.
I’m not proud to admit that sometimes my subjects don’t always enjoy my presence, but Chloe seemed to mostly tolerate me.
She burst out a laugh when I suggested that, before agreeing that tolerate was the right word to describe her feelings toward me.
I photographed her leaving the court room, her makeup slightly smudged after sitting through her mother’s sentencing hearing.
I photographed her and her friends—The Terror Trio—laughing outside the local hotspot, Sip & Spin.
I even photographed Chloe Stark running on the track at the local high school and visiting the coffee shop downtown.
There was one time not too long ago that I resisted snapping a picture of her coming home covered in mud, which I regret, but she thanked me for.
I wrote entire articles on this woman’s coffee drinking habits, because the public was enthralled with her, as was I.
There’s just something about her that draws you in. Something that makes you feel safe, while at the same time making you feel a little bit on edge, like that sweet smile she always gives is hiding something deeper. Something darker.
When I asked Colin if he agreed with that assessment, he pursed his lips in thought.
“She’s got sharp canines in that smile of hers,” he joked, perhaps referencing the wild animal skulls Chloe collects.
She let me tour her basement full of skulls not too long ago, and I was again surprised at this side of Chloe I didn’t know existed.
In the face of everything she’s been through, she’s creative. She’s carefree. She’s loyal. She’s always happy—except when she’s not, Colin muttered pointedly.
I asked what her mother is planning to do with her newfound freedom, and Chloe said her mother picked up her black Suburban from their formerly shared home and hit the road for an extended cross country road trip.
“She’s taking full advantage of her freedom.
I hope she finds herself again in the world,” Chloe said.
“She forgave me before I even apologized,” Colin cut in, sounding a bit regretful about arresting her all that time ago.
“She met my mother. She’s happy for us.” Chloe’s eyes softened as it became her turn to reach into Colin’s lap, squeezing his hand in hers.
“She’s a good person, and I’m lucky to call her my mother-in-law. ”
I suggested Widow-in-law. They both raised their eyebrows in a silent scold.
When I asked if the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Mills were planning a honeymoon, the overhead lights twinkled in their bright eyes, and I have to admit, it looked a little like they both had sharp teeth in those smiles of theirs.
There was a beat of silence in the room before Colin encouraged Chloe to share where they’d be honeymooning, to which Chloe squealed, “Cuba!”