almost every afternoon. If Ricky had a fault, it was being late. Time was more a suggestion to him.” She smiled sadly at the memory. “Half the time his mom or dad would be calling over here for him because he forgot a dentist appointment or it was past dinner. All I really remember about that day was that it was six and I called out to the tree house that it was six and did Ricky want to stay for dinner. He ran in, said he couldn’t, that he was late getting home. I told him to go ahead and I’d call his parents and tell them he was on the way.”
“Who did you speak to?”
“No one. I called the house phone, no one answered, and I left a message on their answering machine.”
“And you’re certain it was six in the evening.”
“Yes—a few minutes after six, in fact. JJ, my husband, owns an auto repair shop in town and he’d opened a second storefront in Boerne, which is thirty minutes from here. Thursdays and Fridays—at least back then—he worked extra hours to get the new place off the ground. He would always call me when he was leaving so I’d know when to expect him, and I looked at the clock. It was after six on the microwave. I saw Ricky’s backpack on the kitchen table and realized he was still here. Called him, he rushed in, grabbed his backpack, and ran off. Not more than five minutes after I called him out of the tree house.”
That was consistent with the report from three years ago, so Chavez’s theory that the timing was fluid and they didn’t remember exactly when Ricky left was not correct. While it had been three years, the family had been interviewed shortly after the Albrights went missing, so likely they remembered the details.
“Did you know the family well?” Lucy said.
“I talked to Denise often, but always about the kids. Sleepovers and that sort of thing. I’ve of course met Glen and Ricky’s older sisters, and Becky babysat on occasion—she was the younger girl, but much more responsible, in my opinion. I never thought twice about leaving the kids with her.”
“Did you socialize outside of the kids?”
She shook her head. “Other than Ricky, we didn’t have a lot in common. I’m a stay-at-home mom but do a lot of volunteer work, mostly through our church or the VA. I wanted a large family, but we had trouble conceiving, and the pregnancy with the twins was very difficult. I didn’t think I would be able to have more kids, and so when this girl came along I was surprised. A happy surprise.” She rubbed her stomach.
“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Lucy said.
“We didn’t have a lot in common,” she repeated. “Nothing. I always had the feeling Denise looked down on me for not going to college and choosing to stay home. Early in our marriage we moved a lot—JJ was in the Army, so we lived on base wherever he was stationed. The twins were born at Fort Buchanan, in Puerto Rico. That was the fourth base we lived on. When they were three, we moved to Fort Hood. He was deployed for eighteen months, and then shortly after chose not to reenlist, and we moved here. He’d given the Army twelve years and felt it was time for a new chapter.
“I take classes here and there when I’m interested in something, but I never felt I needed to spend the money on an advanced education when all I really wanted was to make a nice home for my family and help people through my church. I don’t think Denise respected my choices. So no, we didn’t socialize.”
“We were hoping that we could talk to Joe and Ginny. Ricky might have said something to them about what was going on with his family.”
“The police told us that Denise embezzled money from one of her clients and left the country. Are you saying that didn’t happen?”
“No, but no one has seen the family since that Friday, so we need to look at the investigation with fresh eyes and confirm all the facts.”
Jill frowned, her hands rubbing her large stomach. “Joe and Ginny are going to be so upset when they find out that Ricky is … is dead.”
Lucy glanced at Nate, then said, “We don’t know what happened to Ricky. We found the remains of his parents and sisters, but not him. That’s why it’s so