Chapter 16 - The Man Behind the Paper
Violet met with a trained child forensic interviewer rather than being questioned over and over by worried adults. She described the man she had seen at Bellwether: silver-rimmed glasses, a soft voice, and a habit of tapping the table twice before saying a child's name. Investigators compared her account to independent evidence; nobody coached her toward a conclusion.
Leonard Price wore silver-rimmed glasses. In the clinic video recovered from Room 214, a man's hand tapped a table twice just before the camera angle shifted. His face was off-screen.
Leah obtained warrants for specific financial accounts and storage units linked to Price. The records showed a network of false invoices funneling money from a development company into an unapproved pediatric program. Richard's copied records helped investigators identify what documents had been altered and which staff members might testify.
A laboratory consultant explained that the children had not been given ordinary vitamins. The formulation was under investigation; its ingredients and effects required careful testing. The evidence pointed toward unlawful experimentation, but Leah refused to make claims that the science couldn't yet support.
One former nurse told investigators she'd refused to administer medication after discovering a mismatch between a child's chart and a labeled bottle. Her supervisor reassigned her the next day. She had saved her complaint email and the reply ordering her to drop it. 'I thought I was being a nuisance,' she admitted. Leah answered, 'Sometimes doing your job means refusing to be quiet.'
Price's lawyer called every warrant an abuse of power. Price himself went on a local radio show and described Elena as a disgruntled spouse manipulating her children.
Nora heard the broadcast playing at the nurse's station. She rushed into the room and asked her mother, “If everybody hears him say it, will they think it's true?”
Elena turned off the radio. “Some might. But truth doesn't get smaller because a loud man talks over it.”
That evening a state police vehicle intercepted a moving truck outside Price's storage facility. Inside were boxes of records and portable equipment. The driver agreed to speak with investigators.
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He said Price had ordered everything removed before dawn.
Then he added, “They told me the doctor was waiting at the drop-off.”
