Chapter 5 - The Dead Social Worker
“An agency arranged everything,” Vanessa said.
Her words came faster now.
“A private family-services organization. I was instructed to leave the children at the gate. Someone was supposed to collect them.”
Ryker held her gaze.
“Name the organization.”
“Midwest Child Placement.”
Marco typed the name into his phone.
Ryker asked, “Who was your contact?”
Vanessa looked toward the watching passengers.
“Caroline Mercer.”
Marco’s eyes lifted from the screen.
“Caroline Mercer died three years ago.”
The blood drained from Vanessa’s face.
“That’s impossible.”
“She was a Cook County caseworker,” Marco continued. “There’s an obituary and a department memorial notice.”
Vanessa’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Ryker studied her.
He knew liars.
The confident ones added detail.
The frightened ones repeated themselves.
The trapped ones attacked.
Vanessa chose the third.
“You think because you have money, you can intimidate me?” she demanded. “Daniel hated you. He said you were obsessed with controlling him.”
Ryker felt the accusation, but he did not react.
Daniel and Ryker had argued shortly before Daniel’s death.
Daniel wanted to delay a company sale. Ryker believed they were running out of time to stop an internal fraud scheme.
Their final conversation had ended badly.
“You don’t get to dictate my family’s life,” Daniel had said.
Ryker had answered, “Then stop hiding what’s happening.”
For eleven months, those had been the last words Ryker remembered.
Vanessa saw the hesitation in his eyes.
She smiled again.
“He never wanted you near those children.”
Lily stepped out from behind Ryker’s coat.
“That’s not true.”
Her small voice silenced everyone around them.
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
Lily reached beneath her pink sweater and pulled out a thin chain.
A tiny brass key hung from it.
“Daddy gave me this,” she said. “He said Mr. Ryker knows the box.”
Ryker stared at the key.
He did know it.
It belonged to a private document case hidden in Daniel’s old office wall.
An office Vanessa claimed had been emptied after the funeral.
Ryker looked at Marco.
“Call Chicago headquarters.”
Vanessa lunged for Lily’s necklace.
Ryker caught her wrist before she could touch the child.
“Don’t,” he said.
May you like
This time, nobody mistook his restraint for weakness.
👉 The key opened a box Daniel had hidden before his death—and Vanessa was willing to hurt a child to keep it closed.
