The Child Stealers — Bill Craig

What happens when an agency designed to help and protect children goes horribly wrong? Here is a cautionary tale! One man. One woman. They are all that stand between Child Protective Services and their victims! While at lunch, Detective Sergeant Jack Riley and his partner Detective Sergeant Ken Alston interrupt an attempted kidnapping and recover the child even though her mother is murdered before their eyes. Moria Riley is interviewing a woman whose son was removed by CPS a year before and has now vanished without a trace. Suddenly a CPS supervisor and a missing persons cop show up at the door and remove the woman being interviewed. On the way to jail, the CPS supervisor shoots the cop and the woman. What their dual investigations reveal is that a group of highly placed individuals at Health and Human Services are using the Child Protective Services to remove children who meet certain specifications from homes and then making them disappear. They seem to be working for a mystery man named Steele. Jack and Ken go after Steele, following the pipeline from Chicago to Mexico. Moria takes Calliope as well as Julie Carr and Ken's girls and heads for the one place CPS cannot touch them. In the relative safety of The Valley, Moria makes a decision about Calliope and her future. Meanwhile Jack and Ken have a final showdown with Steele, a man who turns out to be one of Riley's oldest adversaries!