Chapter 7 - THE CHILD WHO WAS ERASED
Claire stared at Henry.
“A baby?”
Henry nodded.
“An infant wrapped in a yellow blanket.”
Eleanor, listening through Daniel's phone, went silent.
Then she asked, “Was the baby Rebecca's?”
“I don't know,” Henry answered. “Nobody told me.”
Claire sat back.
Until now, Rebecca Hale had been a missing woman connected to corporate fraud.
But a baby changed everything.
“Did Rebecca seem injured?” Daniel asked.
Henry thought carefully.
“She had bruises on her wrists. She looked frightened. I remember she kept asking where they were taking the child.”
“What did the driver say?”
“That the baby would be safe.”
Claire felt anger rising.
“Who was driving?”
“Laurent.”
The room became silent.
Eleanor spoke softly.
“My father?”
Henry nodded.
“Laurent drove the sedan. I followed in the company van.”
Daniel asked, “Did you see them enter the hospital?”
“Yes. A doctor met them at the rear entrance.”
“Do you remember his name?”
Henry's expression changed.
“Whitmore.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
“The medical examiner.”
Henry nodded.
“He wasn't the medical examiner yet. He worked part-time at the hospital.”
Claire felt a strange sense of dread.
The same man who had signed Julien's death certificate had also helped transport Rebecca and an infant to a psychiatric facility.
Nothing about that could be a coincidence.
They left Henry after obtaining his signed statement and arranging for him to speak with an attorney.
On the drive back, Claire called Eleanor.
“I need you to ask your mother whether Rebecca had a child.”
Eleanor hesitated.
“She's going to ask why.”
“Tell her everything.”
An hour later, Katherine Beaumont agreed to meet them in person.
She was flying into town.
Meanwhile, Daniel began researching Willow Creek Medical Center.
The facility had opened in 1968.
It had been privately owned.
It closed after allegations of improper patient confinement and missing financial records.
Its largest donor had been the Beaumont Family Foundation.
Daniel stared at his laptop.
“This is worse than I thought.”
Claire leaned closer.
“What?”
“The foundation paid for an entire wing of the hospital.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Possibly legitimate philanthropy. But there are also payments labeled confidential care services.”
Claire frowned.
“For Rebecca?”
“Maybe. We need patient records.”
“Would those still exist?”
“Some records may have been transferred to the state archives. Others might have been retained by the successor organization.”
Claire looked at the address.
“Let's go there.”
The old hospital stood behind a chain-link fence several miles outside town.
Its windows were boarded.
Weeds pushed through the cracked pavement.
Claire remained near the fence while Daniel photographed the property from the public road.
The building looked abandoned.
But something caught her attention.
Fresh tire tracks.
Someone had driven onto the property recently.
A white delivery van was parked near the rear entrance.
Claire pointed.
“Look.”
Daniel lowered his camera.
“There's someone maintaining the property.”
They found the current owner's name in county records.
An investment company.
Northbridge Holdings LLC.
Claire stared at the screen.
“The same company that received the stolen pension money.”
Daniel nodded.
“Which means whoever controls Northbridge still controls this building.”
They left without approaching.
At a nearby coffee shop, Daniel received an email from a former colleague at the state records office.
Several patient admission logs had survived.
He opened the attachment.
Claire leaned forward.
The list contained names, dates, and patient identification numbers.
On November 19, a woman had been admitted under the name Rachel Hayes.
Age twenty-seven.
Diagnosis: Acute stress reaction.
Accompanying infant: Female.
Claire whispered, “Rebecca.”
Daniel examined the notes.
“There was no physician's signature authorizing involuntary admission.”
“Is that unusual?”
“Very. Especially for someone held for more than seventy-two hours.”
Claire looked at the infant's entry.
The child had been transferred the following week.
Destination: Private guardianship.
No guardian's name.
No adoption record.
No further information.
Eleanor called.
“My mother says Rebecca was pregnant.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Did she know who the father was?”
“No. Rebecca wouldn't say.”
“Did she give birth before she disappeared?”
“My mother says nobody knew she'd had the baby.”
Claire looked toward Daniel.
“We need to find that child.”
Eleanor's voice trembled.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“My mother says Rebecca once told her she was terrified of Laurent.”
Claire felt cold.
“Why?”
“She refused to explain. But she said he had something he could use to destroy her life.”
Daniel began examining archived birth records.
The child would now be twenty-three years old.
A young woman who might have no idea where she came from.
Claire thought of her own childhood.
Growing up without a father.
Watching her mother carry grief like an invisible weight.
Somewhere, another young woman might have spent her life asking questions no one would answer.
Claire promised herself she would find her.
That evening, Katherine Beaumont arrived.
They met at a small hotel away from the estate.
Katherine was in her late fifties, with dark hair streaked with silver and the exhausted expression of someone who had spent years trying to forget.
She embraced Eleanor tightly.
Then she turned toward Claire.
“Your father was a good man.”
Claire swallowed.
“Thank you.”
Katherine sat down.
“Rebecca came to see me the day before she disappeared. She was crying. She told me Laurent had threatened her.”
“What did he want?”
Katherine looked at Eleanor.
Then back at Claire.
“He wanted her to sign papers claiming she had stolen money from the foundation.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why would she agree?”
“Because he threatened to take her baby.”
Eleanor's face went pale.
Katherine continued.
“Rebecca said the child was the only thing keeping her alive.”
Claire asked carefully, “Did she tell you who the father was?”
Katherine began crying.
“She said the father was someone who believed he could own people.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“Laurent?”
Katherine shook her head.
“No.”
A terrible silence followed.
Katherine looked toward Eleanor.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“Rebecca told me the baby's father was Armand Beaumont.”
