Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,108

two in the afternoon—and we need a safe place for Ricky. He can’t go into the system—not until we know he’s safe. He’s on edge, Lucy—I don’t know how else to describe it. He doesn’t want to leave but is doing it anyway—his choice. But he’s not comfortable. He’s been living with this fear for a long time, I don’t know if he even knows what he’s afraid of anymore, but being here in the middle of these mountains with a man he trusts and considers a father figure has been his only constant for three years.”

Now they were getting into a sensitive area. Ricky Albright was a minor child, and he was also a witness to a crime. But Nate was right—if he was in the system Chavez might be able to get to him, if not Chavez he could call in someone else. There were more than a few people involved in this conspiracy. Ricky said that four men came to his house that day three years ago … were they in Chavez’s employ? Or did they work for Harrison Monroe? Was there a connection between Chavez and Monroe?

“Bring him to Saint Catherine’s,” she said. “I’ll talk to Father Mateo, I’m sure he’ll take him for a few days. No one will think to look for him there. Plus Father has experience with boys like Ricky.” Scared, defiant, with the ability to disappear if they had a chance.

“And who deals with CPS? We can’t hide him indefinitely.”

“No one. As far as society is concerned, Ricky is dead or still missing—protecting him is our number one goal.”

“And do you tell Rachel?”

“I don’t know. I think I have to … and pray she agrees with our plan.”

Chapter Twenty-six

Sean and Max spent all morning and most of the afternoon driving by every property that Harrison Monroe had bought or sold, per the real estate transactions that Sean’s Realtor had pulled for him. Max was growing increasingly frustrated because there was nothing unusual about the properties. They were mostly vacant land.

“It’s not common to buy a piece of property and sell it a year later without improvements,” Sean said. “It’s a perfect money-laundering scheme.”

“Except that it leaves a paper trail.”

“Like Ryan said, without anyone specifically looking for it, he can get away with it. The statute of limitations is, I think, ten years. And we don’t have access to his tax returns—we don’t know what he’s claiming or what he’s doing with the land, if he’s renting it for cattle grazing or adding improvements or what.”

“This is a waste of time,” Max said. “We’ve driven by nine properties, nothing has jumped out at us as wrong. Nothing is wrong. If he’s laundering money we’re not going to see it hanging from the trees.”

“Testy, aren’t we.”

She was. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be with Ryan and Eve and not think about Victoria Mills or Denise Albright, money laundering or murder.

She frowned. Denise and her family didn’t deserve to be murdered. Victoria didn’t deserve to die. But for the first time, Max thought a case was unprovable. They needed someone to talk.

“We need to push Simon,” she said.

“You mean Mitch.”

“Don’t start.”

“I wish you’d trust me on this.”

“I wish you’d trust me.”

They’d gone round and round about whether Simon or Mitch was more likely to turn.

“I have an idea,” Sean said.

“All ears.”

“We split up. You push Simon, I push Mitch.”

“And potentially screw up a police investigation?”

Sean laughed. “When have you cared about that?”

She smiled. “Detective Reed believed Grant was guilty, but she must be skeptical now that he was gunned down.”

“Unless she thinks it was related to his alleged motive—that he’d embezzled the money to pay off his gambling debt. Which he didn’t, because the police froze his assets and returned the money to his company.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Bookies don’t like killing their debtors because there’s no way to get them to pay—so the threat against Stan’s sister would work, but killing him would not. But if they thought he could never pay because his embezzlement failed and he was in jail, they could kill him as a warning to others who might default. At least—that might be what Reed’s thinking.”

“Has Lucy talked to her yet?”

“She hasn’t told me if she has.” He looked down at his phone. “Nate has Ricky Albright. He’s safe. They’ll be back tomorrow early afternoon.”

“It’s about time we have good news.” Poor kid, Max thought. To lose your entire family and go into hiding