Silent Boy [ENGLISH]

22.

Thomas watched the sleeping silhouette in his bed sleep peacefully as he pulled on gray classic trousers and a black light shirt over himself. Scarlett's long, thick hair was scattered in waves across the pillow, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. He could watch her all day without getting bored. There was something soothing about watching the person you had feelings for sleep peacefully.

He walked over to the bed again, put his lips to her forehead, and stroked her cheek. Scarlett made a short movement and continued to sleep. That brought a smile to his face. His soul ached that he would have to leave her alone, unable to hug her and listen to her sleep peacefully on his chest. He had to leave. He had to visit Nicolas and Bianca Schmidt.

Fortunately, the Schmidt family was not very far from Thomas, only about half an hour. Certainly less than John and Mary Smith. Thomas parked in front of a small house in the suburbs and knocked on a heavy wooden door. After the third knock, a black woman appeared on the door, with clean skin and naturally curly hair tied in a bun. She was in her late forties. And she was very surprised to see him at her door. An expression of unrecognizability formed on her face.

"Can I help you?" A ringing voice echoed.

"Are you Mrs. Bianca Schmidt?" She nodded silently, still keeping the same expression on her face. Thomas pulled out his ID. "I'm Detective Thomas Calligan of the California P.D. I have a few questions for you. Is your husband here? "

She stared at him for a few moments without answering, and then called her spouse, Nicholas. Nicholas was a man with blue eyes, blonde restless hair with apparent wrinkles on his face and eyeglasses. His forehead furrowed, as did his wife's, as a sign of not recognizing the unannounced guest.

"He says he's from the police," his wife said quietly.

"From the police?" His eyebrows raised in semicircles. "Did I forget to pay a parking ticket?"

Thomas laughed at that.

"I would say this is a little more serious than that. There is the boy you adopted, if I'm not mistaken. Sebastian. "

They exchanged glances briefly and reluctantly swallowed the lump. Silently, they stepped away from the door and let him inside. Their house was modestly arranged and nothing came to the fore. They seemed to live a modest life.

Thomas settled into a comfortable armchair by the window from which the morning rays of the sun came. Bianca and Nicholas looked as if they were sitting on a thousand tiny thorns that were giving them deadly pain.

"The information I have tells me that you adopted Sebastian Carter, didn't you?" He casually flipped through his black stereotypical notebook.

"Yes, we did," Bianca confirmed timidly. "What has he got to do with this?"

"Have you ever abused Sebastian, Mr. Schmidt?" He decided not to spend hours asking questions. He knew he didn't have much time to play a good detective as usual.

''What? That is absurd,'' he replied in disgust. "What kind of man do you think I am?"

"Maybe you get angry easily. Maybe Sebastian did something that made you angry. Maybe he was restless and you decided to beat him up a little to get better. "

"Enough!" He said angrily. "You did not come to my house to make such accusations about me. Shame on you!"

Thomas decided to drop the ball for a moment.

"We loved Sebastian. We would never hurt him. I would never hurt him."

"All right, Mr. Schmidt," he cleared his throat. "Where is Sebastian now?" He tried to play with them.

"We ... don't know," Nicholas replied.

''How so? He went to a friend's house and never came back? "

"No," he shook his head. "We had to bring him back."

"Bring him back?" Thomas raised an eyebrow. "There is no such thing as reverse adoption."

"We know," Bianca said.

"As far as I remember, you were the first adopters. He was in a foster family before that. "

"Yes, that's right," Bianca replied. "But a woman from Second Chance came to tell us we had to bring him back."

''Woman?''

"Yes, woman," she replied uncertainly. "She said that they went through all the paperwork once again and that they determined that we did not meet all the conditions to have a child."

Thomas stroked his chin and frowned, deep in thought. Woman? This is not something that fits into the pattern and their theory.

"By any chance, do you remember that woman's name?"

"Of course," they said unanimously. "She is the woman who denied us the most valuable thing in life," Nicholas said bitterly. Bianca got up and walked slowly to a nearby drawer from which she pulled a piece of paper. She handed it to Thomas.

Sebastian's name and surname were written on the paper and there was a picture of him when he was a child. His face was pale and a little timid. No wonder considering how many rejections he had encountered in so few years.

"He was a very good child. Frightened, but good", Bianca said with tears. "He had the brightest eyes that were full of darkness that only he knows about. So beautiful, yet so dark. "

Thomas was stroking a piece of paper. "I'm sorry you experienced that," he said sympathetically. "But I really need to know her name."

"Elizabeth Hallow," Nicholas said. "That's her name."