Chapter 7: The Third Name
The call rang out.
Richard set the phone face-down on the coffee table between us.
Neither of us spoke.
The silence had a different quality now — not the silence of a difficult conversation paused, but the silence of something new entering the room.
"Who is that?" I said.
"Someone I need to deal with."
"That name is on the shell company documents."
He looked up sharply.
"You've seen the incorporation records."
"I told you three weeks ago that I had read the file."
"I didn't know you meant—" He stopped.
Pressed his fingers against his forehead.
"His name is Warren Pryce.
He was a consultant.
He set up the structure.
I used him because he came recommended and because he said it was standard practice for defense contractors managing multi-vendor procurement."
"And you believed him."
"At the time."
"And after the time?"
Richard said nothing.
The phone buzzed.
A text this time.
Richard didn't move to pick it up.
"He's been calling more frequently," Richard said.
"Since last week.
Since the board started asking questions internally."
"What does he want?"
"He wants to know what I've told investigators.
He wants to know if his name has come up." Richard looked at the phone without touching it.
"He wants me to tell him that I haven't mentioned him."
"Have you?"
"No.
Because until tonight I was still trying to manage this quietly." He finally looked at me directly.
"But if what you're telling me is true — if cooperation is the only path — then Warren Pryce is the first name I give them."
"Is there more than what's in the file?"
A pause.
"Yes."
I kept my expression still.
"How much more?"
"Enough that when I give them Warren Pryce, they will understand that I was not the architect of this.
I was a participant.
There is a difference."
"That difference will matter to your attorney.
It will matter to the board.
It will matter to the federal investigators when they become involved, which they will."
"Federal." He said the word like he was testing its weight.
"The contracts involved government procurement.
That makes this a federal matter, Richard.
Your attorney should have already told you that."
"He told me it was possible."
"It's not possible.
It's certain.
The question is whether you are a cooperating witness or a primary subject when that process begins."
The phone buzzed again.
Richard picked it up this time.
Read the message.
His jaw tightened.
He turned the phone and showed me the screen.
The message from Warren Pryce read: *I know about your wife.
I know what firm she works for.
If you don't call me back in the next hour, I start making my own arrangements.
You don't want that.*
I read it twice.
"He's threatening you," I said.
"Yes."
"And he's referencing me specifically."
"Yes."
I stood up.
"Screenshot that message.
Send it to your attorney right now, tonight, before you do anything else." I picked up my bag.
"Then call your attorney and tell him everything about Warren Pryce.
Everything.
Not the version you've been managing.
Everything."
"Where are you going?"
"I need to make a call."
I went to the kitchen.
Closed the door behind me.
Called Grace.
She answered on the second ring.
"Warren Pryce," I said.
"He's in the incorporation documents as the shell company's registered agent.
Richard just received a threatening message from him referencing me by name and referencing my firm."
A brief silence on Grace's end.
"How explicit was the threat?"
"Implicit but clear.
He said he would start making his own arrangements if Richard didn't call him back."
"Do you have the message?"
"Richard has it.
I've told him to screenshot it and send it to his attorney."
"Okay." I could hear Grace moving, a door closing on her end.
"This changes the shape of the investigation.
If Pryce is actively attempting to interfere—"
"He may have done more than interfere.
Richard says there's more than what's in the file.
He says Pryce was the architect and he was a participant."
"Is he willing to say that formally?"
"I think he's getting there."
"Claire." Grace's voice was careful.
"You know you can't be the one to bring him there."
"I know.
I'm telling you so you can move quickly.
Pryce is scared.
Scared people do unpredictable things."
"Understood.
I'll call the board's counsel tonight."
I stood in the kitchen for a moment after the call ended.
Through the closed door I could hear Richard's voice — low, controlled, the tone of a man finally telling his attorney the truth.
I filled a glass of water.
Drank half of it.
Warren Pryce had made a mistake, threatening a compliance attorney by name in a written message.
May you like
People like Warren Pryce always believed the threat was the power.
They never understood that the moment they sent it, the power had already shifted.
