Chapter 7
The baby kicked again.
This time Beate did not gasp in panic.
She placed both hands over her belly and breathed the way Dr. Richter instructed.
In.
Hold.
Out.
Thomas watched her like the room depended on the rhythm.
Maybe it did.
Gero’s voice came through the phone again.
“Beate, you are embarrassing us.”
The old words landed with less force now.
Not no force.
Less.
Because they landed in front of witnesses who did not bow to them.
Detective Brenner asked, “Mr. Miller, where are you right now?”
He did not answer.
“Mr. Miller?”
“This is harassment.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at home.”
Thomas looked at the detective.
Brenner wrote it down.
Beate whispered, “He keeps a bag in the truck.”
Everyone turned toward her gently, not sharply.
She looked terrified of having spoken.
Thomas kept his voice low.
“What kind of bag?”
Beate swallowed.
“Papers. Cash. My hospital card. He said if I ever made him look bad, he’d take the baby before anyone believed me.”
Dr. Richter’s hand tightened around the edge of the examination bed.
Detective Brenner spoke into the phone.
“Mr. Miller, do you have Beate’s medical documents in your possession?”
Gero said nothing.
That silence was not proof of everything.
But it was not nothing.
Thomas felt an old military instinct rise.
Secure routes.
Secure records.
Secure witnesses.
He looked at Nathan? No Nathan in this prompt. No, keep persons. Maybe child services? Not in prompt. Need only staff/detective doctor. Could introduce clinic admin no.
Thomas turned to Dr. Richter.
“Can you flag her file?”
The doctor nodded.
“Already done.”
Beate blinked.
“You can do that?”
Dr. Richter’s voice softened.
“We can protect access to your care.”
Another small door opened.
Not freedom yet.
But proof that Gero did not own every key.
On the phone, Gero finally spoke.
“You people are making a mistake.”
Thomas raised the phone slightly.
May you like
“No. You did.”
Read Chapter 8 👉 Because once Beate mentioned the bag, the case stopped being only about what happened in the nursery.
