If someone had tried, there should be records and inconsistencies to investigate.

The account that reached me at the bedside was not automatically the same as every original hospital record.

That distinction became important.

Early checks identified information about the infant’s care that did not agree with the documents Mark had presented or relied upon.

The inquiry was still developing, but there was enough contradiction to treat the baby as a living child who needed to be located, rather than allowing a summary of death to end the search.

I sat with my hands together while the investigator explained that much.