Page 73 of Off Limits Daddy

"Somebody with the deep pockets like you have, I bet you could pull whatever you want off,” I said.

He smiled as he set a mug of coffee in front of me and then sat across from me. "I think it's the first time I've ever really liked being wealthy. Money really can buy just about anything you want."

Including murder, I thought. "Jonny Walters was found in the river today. It's unclear how or why he died, whether was murder or an accident, or maybe he jumped, but —"

Oliver shook his head. "Jonny wouldn’t have jumped. The guy was happily married and expecting a baby."

"Is there any chance he was back working with Wally?"

Oliver shook his head. "Mind you, I'd only seen him once recently and that was a month or so ago. But the guy I saw seemed genuine in getting his life back in order. He was working at the auto parts factory, he seemed happy with his wife, excited to be having a baby. I don't see it unless Wally somehow dragged him back in."

"Would you know of any reason he would do that? I talked to Frankie at the bar. There seemed to be some idea that perhaps Jonny owed Wally."

"That's possible." Oliver looked at me, his eyes filled with worry. "Wally thinks I owe him something. That's why your being here could be a problem."

I nodded. "I get it. He's basically told you he took care of Donovan Patrick. But we have no proof of that. The thingis, Oliver, Jonny tried to kidnap Aiden Brennan from school a couple of weeks ago."

Oliver's eyes widened. "What? Duncan's foster kid?"

"Yes. Would he do that for Wally?"

Oliver shook his head. "Not unless Wally was holding a gun to his head."

"The fact that Jonny was found dead today suggests that that may have been the case. Is there anything that you can tell me about Jonny, or maybe something Olivia remembered that could help me?" I was beginning to feel like the walls were closing in. That at some point, Wally would become even more brazen than he was in sending Jonny to kidnap Aiden. Would Wally send his goons to descend on Duncan's house? Maybe it was time to move them to a safe house.

"I can't think of anything offhand."

"What about the source for all the social security numbers? Can you think back to anything Liam might have said to you?"

"Liam hadn't said anything. I had no clue what he was doing until I talked to Jonny and Darcy. You’re the FBI. You haven't found anything?"

My hands were wrapped around my mug, but the warmth of the cup wasn't doing anything to warm the chill. "I've looked through everything. The kids involved all had different homes, different social workers, handled out of different offices. I haven’t found anything to link them all unless their systems were hacked."

"Were they all in this area?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was it all over Massachusetts, or just in the Boston and surrounding area?"

"It was just this area. Why?"

"The way the system is set up is that there are units within the offices, each involved with different aspects of child welfare.And then there's supervisors of those units and then there are the supervisors of the office."

I nodded my understanding.

"But between the office and the state level, there are area directors. Maybe the source is there."

How would I not have considered that before? "How do you know all this?”

“I learned it when I was trying to find out why it was so easy to steal social security numbers from foster kids. No one watches for it. I’ve been developing a program to help with that.”

“This could be helpful. Thank you." I stood. "I appreciate your help, Oliver. And congratulations on your engagement. I'm glad that you and Lindsay have found your way back together."

He walked me out, and I left, heading back to the office. When I got to my desk, I immediately researched the hierarchy of the Department of Social Services and who was the director of the area. But I knew who it was. I’d met her the day Duncan and I went to meet Ms. Thomas.

Julia Racine.

A sick feeling came in the pit of my stomach. When I did my search on her before, I'd made a mistake of thinking she was the head of the office and not in charge of the area. God. It wasn’t a small mistake.

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