Chapter 4 - The House With Two Cellars
Thomas knew where the blue ledger was before anyone else.
Gero’s company had once operated from a converted farmhouse outside Potsdam. Thomas had visited the property four years earlier when Gero asked him to invest in a housing project.
The building had two cellars.
One appeared on the architectural plans.
The other did not.
At 9:30 p.m., police surrounded the property.
Brenner ordered Thomas to remain behind the tactical line.
“My daughter is inside.”
“So is an armed suspect.”
“I have entered worse buildings.”
“And tonight you are a civilian.”
Thomas stared at the dark farmhouse.
Every window was covered.
One vehicle stood near the rear entrance: Rüdiger’s Mercedes.
No sign of Gero.
Brenner allowed Thomas to identify the hidden cellar entrance from an old property photograph. A stone well behind the barn concealed a maintenance tunnel leading beneath the house.
The tactical unit entered from both directions.
Beate waited inside a command vehicle with Dr. Richter monitoring her blood pressure and the baby’s heartbeat.
Every minute stretched.
Then gunfire cracked through the night.
Beate gripped the edge of the seat.
The radio erupted with commands.
One officer was injured.
A suspect had barricaded himself belowground.
A woman had been located alive.
“Is it Julia?” Beate asked.
No one answered immediately.
Then Brenner’s voice came through.
“We have her.”
Beate began sobbing.
Julia had been tied to a metal chair inside the hidden cellar. Rüdiger stood behind her with a pistol and a can of gasoline. He threatened to burn the records and kill them both.
He surrendered only after police entered through the tunnel and cut the electricity.
Gero was not there.
The blue ledger was.
It contained handwritten records of payments to doctors, municipal inspectors, judges, and private security contractors. Gero and Rüdiger had used the construction company to hide bribes, tax fraud, and stolen investor money.
Several entries referred to Beate.
B.M. — dependency established.
B.M. — teaching contract terminated.
B.M. — medical narrative prepared.
The final entry made Thomas turn pale.
Delivery contingency: maternal crisis. Infant transferred to G.M. Medical Trust.
Gero had created a private trust to control the baby’s inheritance and medical decisions if Beate died or became mentally incapacitated.
Beside the entry was Dr. Weiss’s name.
The hospital administrator had agreed to help him.
Julia was taken to the hospital with a concussion and bruised wrists. Before sedatives pulled her into sleep, she told Brenner what she had overheard.
Rüdiger and Gero had argued in the cellar.
Rüdiger wanted to flee.
Gero refused.
“The baby is the final signature,” Gero had said.
Beate did not understand.
Grace did.
The inherited investment fund included a family-company share that would pass to Beate’s child at birth. Until then, Gero could not sell the asset without Beate’s consent.
If Beate died after delivery, Gero would control the infant’s shares as surviving father.
The child was not only someone he wanted to possess.
The child was a financial key.
Police examined the farmhouse records and found something even more disturbing.
Gero had prepared a sequence.
First, Dr. Weiss would transfer Beate to a private maternity unit.
Then medication would create confusion, respiratory distress, or premature labor.
Dr. Falk would document a psychiatric crisis.
If Beate survived, she would be placed under protective confinement.
If she died, Gero would become the grieving widower raising their son alone.
The belt attack had not been part of the original plan.
It happened because Gero’s control was slipping.
And the camera had recorded the moment he became careless.
At 2:08 a.m., Beate woke with severe abdominal pain.
Blood soaked the hospital sheet.
Dr. Richter entered and immediately called for the obstetric team.
The placental separation had worsened.
The baby’s heart rate began dropping.
“We may need to deliver now,” Dr. Richter said.
“I’m only thirty weeks.”
“I know.”
“Will he survive?”
“We will do everything possible.”
Thomas stood beside the bed wearing the helpless expression of a soldier facing an enemy he could not fight.
Beate took his hand.
“If anything happens to me—”
“Nothing is happening to you.”
“Papa.”
He looked at her.
“Do not let Gero take my son.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“I swear.”
As the team rushed Beate toward surgery, Brenner received an alert from the hospital’s security system.
Someone had entered the restricted maternity floor using Dr. Weiss’s access card.
The security camera showed a man wearing surgical clothing and a mask.
He carried a black medical case.
Thomas recognized the way he walked before the man looked toward the camera.
Gero had entered the hospital.
May you like
And he was moving toward the operating rooms.
---
