Chapter 2 - WHAT CAIUS SAW
Caius spoke to a child forensic interviewer three hours later.
I was not in the room.
Aloysius was not in the room.
Noeline was not in the room.
That was important.
The interviewer did not begin with:
Did your father steal the baby?
She began with school.
His age.
What he liked.
Who lived at home.
Then hospital.
What did he remember?
Caius said he had come to visit that morning after breakfast.
Aloysius brought him.
I had been asleep.
The newborn was beside me.
Caius asked if he could touch her toes.
Aloysius said:
“No.”
Why did that matter?
Because the night before, Caius had touched the baby’s foot while I held her.
He remembered the cast discussion.
There was no cast yet.
Orthopedics planned to begin treatment after discharge.
But the left foot curved inward.
Caius called it:
“her sleepy foot.”
The pediatrician had gently corrected him.
“It isn’t asleep.”
Caius thought the phrase was funny.
That morning he noticed the baby’s foot still turned inward.
Then Noeline came in.
Checked me.
Checked baby.
Later, the newborn was taken out for a routine screening and weight check.
This matched the chart.
Noeline documented the transfer.
Aloysius followed partway into the hall with Caius.
Then told Caius to sit in the family lounge.
Caius did.
A few minutes later, Aloysius came back pushing the bassinet.
The baby was crying.
Caius said:
“Her blanket was different.”
Could blankets change?
Yes.
Hospital white blankets were everywhere.
Not proof.
Then:
“I looked at the foot.”
Which foot?
Left.
“Was it sleepy?”
“No.”
Then Caius asked Aloysius:
“Where’s her foot?”
Aloysius told him:
“She’s fine.”
Caius followed.
At one point, he saw through a partly open procedure-room door.
Two clear bassinets.
One baby crying.
One quiet.
Aloysius stood between them.
Caius said:
“He picked up ours.”
Then:
“He put her in the other one.”
The interviewer asked:
“How did you know which baby was yours?”
“The foot.”
Good.
Concrete.
Then Aloysius carried the other baby toward our room.
Caius followed.
He asked:
“That’s not her.”
Aloysius told him to stop.
Then:
“Mom needs this baby.”
Caius did not understand.
Back in my room, he stood between Aloysius and the bassinet.
Asked:
“Where did you put her?”
Aloysius slapped him.
Then the words I heard:
“Keep quiet. That baby is your sister now.”
The interviewer did not ask him to repeat more than necessary.
No need force a six-year-old into a perfect chronology.
Children remember in pieces.
Later, investigators compared Caius’s account with access logs.
Aloysius’s family badge had recorded entry into the newborn screening corridor.
He was authorized to accompany our infant to the family waiting threshold.
He was not authorized to enter the procedure alcove itself.
How did he?
A door had been held open during an emergency response.
At 9:14 a.m., another postpartum patient began hemorrhaging in a nearby recovery room.
Two nurses and one tech moved quickly.
A supply door stood open for seventy-six seconds.
Aloysius entered during that period.
The camera angle showed him entering.
It did not show what happened inside.
Privacy design created a blind corner.
At 9:16, he exited pushing a bassinet.
Which bassinet?
The video quality showed blanket and general shape.
No readable band.
Then the room.
Aloysius returned with the baby at 9:18.
Noeline came back minutes later.
Caius confronted him.
That fit.
Not proof alone.
But it fit.
Then hospital security checked every infant on the unit.
One additional ID anomaly appeared.
A baby girl in the newborn observation room had a band electronically linked to me.
The clasp on that band also showed tampering.
The baby had an inward-turning left foot.
I was not allowed to run into the nursery and take her.
That nearly broke me.
But the hospital did the right thing.
A second mismatch does not authorize a parent to grab a baby.
Both infants were placed under continuous observation.
No band removed.
No feeding change without physician authorization.
Independent DNA samples ordered.
Maternal samples from me and the other registered mother.
Paternal samples where legally appropriate.
Newborn samples.
Chain of custody.
Photographs.
Cord-blood records.
Heel-stick records.
Birth weights.
Footprint scans.
Every redundant identifier they had.
The other mother was still recovering from emergency surgery.
She had not yet been told the full story.
Her baby might be in my room.
Mine might be in observation under her identifier.
Two mothers.
May you like
Two newborns.
One man who had walked through an open door.
