She left the handbag on the seat. The wallet stayed inside it. She tucked the broken phone beneath the passenger side, dropped her scarf across the console, and after one terrible second of hesitation, slipped off one shoe and threw that in too. A smear of blood from a cut near her hairline marked the inside of the door when she leaned in. She saw it and did not wipe it away.
The car was angled badly already, with one wheel sunk into mud near the lip of the slope. Claire braced both hands against the frame and pushed. Nothing happened. She pushed again, harder this time, her shoulder screaming. The wheel shifted. Pebbles slid. Then, with a sudden ugly lurch, the hatchback tipped forward and vanished over the edge.
Claire heard branches snapping, metal striking rock, then one final heavy crash below. The car would drop into the swirling river below. It was out of her hands now; Claire knew that looking down would serve no purpose.