Chapter 7 - The Daughter They Said Was Dead)
The hospital records said Grace Miller had no heartbeat when delivered by emergency cesarean section.
Dr. Carter had signed the document herself.
For nearly five minutes, she could not speak.
“I saw the monitor,” she finally said.
Caroline stared at the photograph on Alvarez’s tablet.
“You were wrong.”
“I was there.”
“So was Luke.”
Dr. Carter’s face tightened.
“I checked.”
“What did you check?”
“The fetal monitor. Then after surgery, a resident informed me the baby could not be resuscitated.”
“Did you see her body?”
Dr. Carter stopped.
Caroline saw it.
“No.”
“I was treating you.”
“You didn’t see her.”
“No.”
“Who was the resident?”
Dr. Carter’s eyes moved toward the archived file.
She searched.
Her expression changed.
“Jonathan Pierce.”
Caroline felt ice move through her veins.
“The psychiatrist?”
“At the time he was completing a combined residency. He later transferred into psychiatry.”
Detective Alvarez immediately called her team.
Caroline looked again at the photograph.
Alive.
Grace alive.
“How old would she be?”
Dr. Carter answered.
“Almost three.”
Caroline touched the screen.
A little girl somewhere.
Maybe.
If the photograph was truly Grace.
“What does A2 mean?”
Alvarez returned after making the call.
“We found similar codes in Arthur’s property records.”
“And?”
“A appears to correspond with female births.”
“Then why A2?”
“We don’t know.”
Caroline stared at all the children.
“Where are they?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Within hours, federal investigators joined the case.
Not because of domestic abuse.
Not even because of Grace.
Arthur Miller’s private clinic network had crossed state lines.
Medical records had been altered in several jurisdictions.
Women had been declared miscarried after pregnancies that might have produced live infants.
Some newborn death certificates could not be matched to burial or cremation records.
Caroline listened while Special Agent Thomas Reed explained it.
“How many women?”
“At least eleven we’re examining.”
Caroline felt nauseated.
“And babies?”
“We don’t know.”
He avoided her eyes.
“Say the number.”
“Possibly eight.”
Caroline covered her mouth.
Eight children.
Stolen.
Maybe more.
She thought of the photographs.
Numbers instead of names.
“What was Arthur doing with them?”
Reed answered carefully.
“We believe some children may have been placed with families through private adoption arrangements.”
“Sold.”
“Possibly.”
“But Grace?”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because the notes beside your pregnancy classify her separately.”
“What do they say?”
Reed hesitated.
Caroline’s voice hardened.
“What do they say?”
He showed her a photograph of a burned document recovered from Arthur’s fireplace.
Only part of it survived.
SUBJECT C. MILLER
PREGNANCY 2
FEMALE
PATERNAL REJECTION
MATERNAL ATTACHMENT HIGH
TRANSFER APPROVED
ARTHUR OVERRIDE
Caroline read the words twice.
“What did Luke want?”
Reed looked at her.
“We believe Luke wanted the child removed.”
“And Arthur?”
“Arthur approved the transfer.”
“Transfer where?”
“We don’t know.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
Luke had pushed her down the stairs.
Grace survived.
Then they told Caroline her daughter died.
They drugged Caroline until her memory fractured.
And someone carried Grace out of the hospital.
A knock came from the doorway.
Sarah entered holding an envelope.
“This was left at the nurses’ station.”
Everyone tensed.
“By whom?” Reed asked.
“We don’t know. Someone found it under a clipboard.”
Reed put on gloves.
Inside was a photograph.
A little girl sitting on a swing.
Blonde hair.
Blue sweater.
Approximately three years old.
The crescent birthmark near her collarbone was visible.
Caroline stopped breathing.
On the back, someone had written:
YOUR DAUGHTER IS ALIVE.
May you like
Beneath it:
DON’T LET ARTHUR FIND HER FIRST.
