Chapter 2 - THE LAST THING THEIR FATHER LEFT
Child Protective Services arrived forty minutes later.
By then, Lily and Owen had eaten half a turkey sandwich each and shared a carton of chocolate milk.
Owen saved the last piece of his sandwich.
“For later,” he explained.
Five-year-olds shouldn't think like that.
But children who don't know when their next meal is coming learn quickly.
Rebecca sat in an airport security office down the hall.
She had already called an attorney.
Twice.
Marco returned carrying two coffees.
“You're supposed to be on your way home, sir.”
“So are they.”
He looked toward the twins.
“Fair point.”
A CPS caseworker named Sarah Bennett sat across from Lily.
She spoke gently.
“Do you have grandparents?”
Lily nodded.
“Grandma Ruth.”
“Where does Grandma Ruth live?”
Owen finally looked up.
“Michigan.”
Sarah smiled.
“Do you know her last name?”
“Whitaker.”
Sarah wrote it down.
Rebecca had told police there was no available family.
Another lie.
Marco quietly stepped away and made a call.
Ten minutes later, he returned.
His expression had changed.
“Colonel.”
I followed him away from the children.
“What?”
“Ruth Whitaker exists.”
“Good.”
“Not exactly.”
He handed me his phone.
There was an old missing-person report on the screen.
Ruth Whitaker had reported Lily and Owen's father missing for thirty-six hours approximately seven months earlier.
His name was Captain Ethan Mercer.
Former Army.
My eyes stopped on the photograph.
I knew that face.
Not well.
But I knew it.
“Sir?”
“I met him.”
Marco stared at me.
“Where?”
“Fort Bragg.”
Years earlier.
Ethan Mercer had been a young logistics officer.
Smart.
Quiet.
The kind of man who asked questions nobody else thought to ask.
I remembered something else.
He had once helped uncover missing equipment from a procurement chain.
Marco read the rest of the report.
“His death was ruled an automobile accident.”
“When?”
“Six months and nineteen days ago.”
I looked toward Lily and Owen.
Rebecca married Ethan less than two years before his death.
She became the twins' legal guardian afterward.
Marco lowered his voice.
“There is more.”
“Go ahead.”
“Ethan carried a life insurance policy.”
“How much?”
“Three million.”
That alone proved nothing.
But Marco wasn't finished.
“The twins are the primary beneficiaries.”
I looked toward Rebecca's security room.
“And Rebecca?”
“Trustee until they turn eighteen.”
Now I understood why she hadn't simply surrendered custody.
She needed control.
But why abandon them?
Unless something had changed.
I returned to Owen.
“Buddy.”
He looked up.
“Can I see your bear?”
He immediately hugged it tighter.
“No.”
“That's okay.”
I sat beside him.
“Did your dad give it to you?”
He nodded.
“The night before he died.”
My attention sharpened.
“What did he say?”
Owen thought carefully.
Then he whispered,
“Never let Rebecca take him.”
I looked at the teddy bear.
One seam along its back had been repaired by hand.
Different thread.
May you like
Different stitching.
Something was inside that bear.
