Chapter 7: What Pryce Remembered
Dr.
Harlan Pryce lived in a walk-up in Astoria.
The building had a broken intercom and a front door that opened with a push.
Marcus's associate confirmed the address at twelve-forty in the morning.
Julian went alone.
He told Marcus he wanted no attorneys present for the first conversation.
Marcus told him that was a terrible idea.
Julian went anyway.
Pryce answered the door in a bathrobe, older than his photographs, with the particular look of a man who had been waiting for a knock like this for a long time and was almost relieved it had finally come.
"Mr.
Sterling," he said.
"You know who I am."
"I've known who you were since the night your wife called me." He stepped back from the door.
"Come in."
The apartment was small and very clean.
Pryce sat in the chair nearest the window.
Julian sat across from him.
"I'm not going to insult you by pretending I don't know why you're here," Pryce said.
"Then don't."
Pryce looked at his hands.
"She came to me six weeks before the birth.
She had already done her research — she knew about a billing irregularity at the clinic that could have cost me my license at the time.
She said she needed a problem managed.
That was the word she used." He paused.
"She said the woman was unstable.
That she had signed a private adoption agreement and then changed her mind and was going to cause a public scene that would harm everyone involved, including the children."
"And you believed her."
"I believed the leverage she had over me." He looked up.
"She paid me to falsify the death record, arrange a sedated discharge under a false identity, and sign off on a transfer document that made it look voluntary.
She also paid two nurses and an orderly.
I don't know what happened to them after.
I lost contact with the clinic when I lost my license."
"Elena never signed anything."
Pryce was quiet for a moment.
"No.
She didn't."
"Victoria told me tonight that she has intake forms with Elena's original signature consenting to a private adoption."
"There are no such forms.
I would know.
I processed every document from that admission." He paused.
"If she's claiming those exist, she had them created recently.
As a contingency."
Julian looked at him steadily.
"I need you to put everything you just told me in a sworn statement."
Pryce didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
"Tonight."
"Yes." He reached toward the side table and picked up a folder.
He held it out to Julian.
"I've had this prepared for eight months.
Since I lost my license and realized she had no more reason to protect me if I became inconvenient." He paused.
"I was waiting to see if she would come for me first.
She didn't.
So here we are."
Julian took the folder.
Inside was a twelve-page handwritten account, signed and dated, with copies of the original clinic records — the real ones — attached.
"There's a name on page nine," Pryce said.
"The orderly who was in the room when Elena was discharged.
His name is Daniel Reyes.
He's still in New York.
He saw everything.
He's never been paid for his silence — Victoria apparently decided he was too low-level to bother with.
That was a mistake."
Julian stood.
"Mr.
Sterling." Pryce looked up at him.
"I understand if this ends with charges against me.
I'm not asking for anything.
I just want you to know that I have thought about that girl every day for four years.
What was done to her was wrong.
I knew it then.
I did it anyway." He looked back at his hands.
"I'm sorry that doesn't mean very much at this point."
Julian looked at him for a long moment.
"It means something," he said.
"Not enough.
But something."
He left.
Marcus was waiting in the car outside.
Julian handed him the folder without speaking.
Marcus opened it, read the first two pages, and reached for his phone.
"Reyes," Julian said.
"Daniel Reyes.
He was an orderly at the clinic the night of the birth.
Pryce says he's still in the city."
"I'll find him." Marcus was already dialing.
"Julian.
This is enough.
Between the notebook, the clinic records, Pryce's statement, and Reyes as a witness — this is enough."
Julian looked out the window at the dark street.
"She filed that restraining order tonight," he said.
"She had it ready."
"Yes."
"She's been planning for this moment for four years.
She had a contingency for every scenario except one."
Marcus looked up from his phone.
"Which one?"
"Elena walking through that door." Julian paused.
"Victoria planned for Elena to be found.
She planned for Elena to be confronted.
She planned for Elena to make a claim and be dismissed." He turned to look at Marcus.
"She never planned for the boys to recognize her.
She never planned for Leo to say the name out loud in front of me." He was quiet for a moment.
"Four years of preparation.
And it came undone because a four-year-old boy knew his mother's song."
Marcus held his gaze for a moment.
May you like
Then he looked back at his phone.
"Let's go make sure it stays undone," he said.
