Chapter 4: The Name Gerald Pryce
Daniel left the room.
No one stopped him.
No one followed.
His footsteps moved down the hallway and then a door closed somewhere deep in the house — not a slam, which would have been easier to hear.
Just a quiet, final click.
Mrs.
Howard had not moved from her chair.
Officer Chen stood near Vanessa with his hands folded in front of him.
Vanessa had stopped talking.
She stood with her arms crossed, her jaw set, her eyes moving between the study door and the front entrance as if she were calculating something.
Detective Ruiz stepped into the hallway with Elena.
"Can you walk?" he asked.
"Yes."
"The paramedics are two minutes out.
I'd like them to check you before we go any further."
"I understand." She paused.
"Gerald Pryce has a storage unit in the name of a company called Aldren Consulting.
The address is in the audio file.
He kept physical copies of everything — photographs, schedules, a log of my movements.
He was thorough."
Ruiz looked at her.
"How long have you been building this?"
"Six weeks for the cameras.
Eight months for everything else."
"Eight months," he repeated.
"She made her first move the week after I told Daniel I was pregnant," Elena said.
"She came to me alone in the kitchen.
She told me the baby wouldn't change anything.
That this family had a way of handling problems quietly." She paused.
"I didn't know what she meant at first.
I found out three weeks later when I nearly fell down these same stairs.
The rug at the top had been folded under at the corner.
Just enough."
Ruiz wrote something in his notebook.
"I couldn't prove it then," Elena said.
"So I waited.
And I watched.
And I let her believe she was winning."
The front door opened.
Two paramedics came in with a bag and a portable monitor.
Elena sat on the bottom stair and let them work.
Her blood pressure.
The baby's heartbeat.
The paramedic — a young woman with short hair — pressed the monitor gently to Elena's stomach and watched the reading.
"Strong," the paramedic said.
"Both of you."
Elena closed her eyes for just a moment.
From the study, Vanessa's voice rose again.
"I want to call my lawyer right now.
You cannot hold me here without—"
"Ma'am." Officer Chen's voice was flat and patient.
"You can make that call at the station."
"I am not going to any station.
I live in this house.
I have rights—"
"Vanessa."
Mrs.
Howard had spoken.
Her voice was not loud.
But it cut through everything.
Vanessa stopped.
The older woman rose from her chair.
She walked to the study doorway and stood there, looking at her daughter-in-law.
"I defended you," Mrs.
Howard said.
"Every time Elena came to me.
Every time she tried to tell me something felt wrong, I told her she was imagining it.
I told her she was being dramatic.
I told her she needed to trust this family." She stopped.
"I told my son's wife, who was carrying my grandchild, that she was the problem."
Vanessa opened her mouth.
"Don't." Mrs.
Howard's voice didn't rise.
It just became very precise.
"I am not finished."
She looked at the notebook still lying on the desk.
At the burner phone.
At the second envelope.
"Gerald Pryce," she said.
"I know that name."
Vanessa went very still.
"He came to the house once.
About seven months ago.
You told me he was a contractor.
You said he was giving an estimate for the east garden renovation." Mrs.
Howard turned to look at her daughter-in-law directly.
"There was never any renovation, was there?"
Vanessa said nothing.
"Was there?"
"It was complicated," Vanessa said finally.
"You don't understand what she was doing to this family.
What she was planning.
I was protecting—"
"You hired a man," Mrs.
Howard said, "to hurt a pregnant woman.
My son's wife.
My grandchild." She picked up her handbag from the side table near the door.
"I have nothing more to say to you."
She walked out of the study, past Officer Chen, past Vanessa, and sat down on the stair beside Elena.
She did not speak.
She simply sat.
Elena looked at her.
Mrs.
Howard looked straight ahead.
After a moment, she reached over and placed her hand on top of Elena's.
Neither of them said a word.
Detective Ruiz watched from the hallway.
He finished his notes.
He capped his pen.
Then his phone buzzed.
He read the message.
His expression didn't change much — but his posture did.
He walked back to the study door.
"Officer Chen," he said.
"Gerald Pryce was picked up twenty minutes ago at his storage unit.
He had the physical files on him." He looked at Vanessa.
"He's already talking."
Vanessa's face did something complicated.
The calculation came back for a moment — and then it collapsed.
"What did he say?" she asked.
Her voice was smaller now.
"Quite a lot," Ruiz said.
"Including the name of the person who called him this morning and told him to destroy everything."
The color left Vanessa's face entirely.
"That call was also recorded," Elena said from the staircase.
She hadn't turned around.
"I had his phone mirrored six weeks ago.
Same night I installed the cameras."
May you like
Vanessa looked at the back of Elena's head.
For the first time since the front doors had opened, she had nothing left to say.
