Chapter 7: What Vanessa Said Last
The formal interview happened on a Wednesday.
Elena was not in the building.
She was at her obstetrician's appointment across town, lying on a narrow table while a technician moved a monitor across her stomach and pointed at a small, fast, rhythmic pulse on the screen.
"Right on schedule," the technician said.
"Good," Elena said.
She looked at the ceiling.
She thought about the interview room.
She thought about Vanessa sitting across from Detective Ruiz with her lawyer beside her, deciding how much to give away and how much to hold back — not understanding that there was nothing left to hold.
Her phone was face-down in her bag.
She had decided not to check it until she was back in the car.
The appointment ended.
The technician handed her a printed image — grey and white, the shape of something becoming real.
Elena sat in the car for a moment before she started the engine.
She looked at the image.
Then she picked up her phone.
Four messages from Ruiz.
One from Daniel.
One from the family lawyer, whose name was Mr.
Calloway and who had been very efficient and very careful since the night he arrived at the house.
She read Ruiz's messages in order.
The first: *Interview underway.
She brought two lawyers.*
The second: *She's trying to put everything on Pryce.
Claims she hired him only for surveillance.
Denies the rest.*
The third: *Pryce's second statement was just entered.
She stopped talking for eleven minutes.*
The fourth: *She's changed her position.
More when I can call.*
Elena put the phone down.
She started the car.
Ruiz called when she was ten minutes from home.
"She gave us the Friday plan," he said.
"In exchange for consideration on two of the lesser charges."
"What was it?"
"Pryce had arranged for someone to be at the house.
A woman — a fake social worker.
The plan was to report concerns about your mental stability during pregnancy.
Enough to get an emergency evaluation ordered.
Once you were removed from the house for assessment, Pryce would have had access to plant the forged documents in a location that would have been harder to explain."
Elena pulled to the side of the road.
"They were going to have me committed," she said.
"Temporarily.
Long enough to shift the narrative.
Long enough for Vanessa to control what Daniel heard while you were gone." Ruiz paused.
"It was not a simple plan.
It had been constructed carefully over several months."
"And the woman.
The fake social worker."
"Already identified.
She's a former administrator Pryce used on at least one prior case.
She'll be charged separately."
Elena looked through the windscreen at the street in front of her.
An ordinary street.
A woman walking a dog.
A child on a bicycle.
"What happens now?" she asked.
"The prosecutor files formal charges by end of week.
Conspiracy.
Harassment.
Interference with a protected person — that's the pregnancy classification.
And based on the second notebook, they're adding a charge related to the prior case.
The woman who miscarried." He paused.
"Her name is Diane.
She's been contacted.
She's agreed to speak with us."
"Is she all right?"
"She's angry," Ruiz said.
"Which is probably healthy."
"Yes," Elena said.
"It probably is."
She was quiet for a moment.
"Ruiz," she said.
"When Vanessa changed her position — when she stopped talking for eleven minutes.
What happened after that?"
A pause on the line.
"She asked if you were in the building," he said.
"What did you tell her?"
"That you were at a prenatal appointment.
That the baby was fine."
Another pause.
"She didn't say anything after that," Ruiz said.
"For a long time.
And then she said—" He stopped.
"She said, 'I knew she'd win.
I knew it from the beginning.' And then she asked for a break."
Elena sat with that for a moment.
"Thank you," she said.
"For telling me."
"I'll be in touch before the filing," he said.
"Take care of yourself."
She ended the call.
She sat on the side of the road for another minute.
The woman with the dog had turned the corner.
The child on the bicycle was gone.
She picked up the printed image from the passenger seat.
The small grey shape.
The fast pulse.
May you like
She put the car in drive.
She went home.
