Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,17

Mexico …

No, they didn’t. The men in his house killed them and Ricky would be dead, too, if he had come home after school. As soon as they left, he’d call the police …

That man is a policeman.

A short man with a dark mustache. Probably a hundred cops who looked just like him. Would he be able to tell him from a bunch of cops? And what if they were all cops here? Who could he trust if the police were bad guys?

He missed his mom and dad so much. He didn’t want to think about them being gone … and maybe he got it wrong. He could wait here, they might come back, right?

Or the bad guys could come back. And you don’t know who is good and who is bad.

He waited long after the men had left. Until silence echoed in the house. Then he waited longer. By the time he climbed out of the closet, it was dark, but he didn’t dare turn on a light. What if someone was watching? What if they were waiting for him?

He went upstairs and realized that the men had taken his duffel bag and some of his clothes. He dumped all his schoolbooks on his desk and filled his backpack with anything he might need, then went to his parents’ room.

That’s when the tears fell.

They were really gone.

He took the money out of his mom’s jewelry box, her “fun money,” she said. A couple hundred dollars. He would need to go to the police, but not here. He’d think about what to do, who to talk to.

For now … he had one place he could stay and be safe.

And hoped that no one found him until he figured out who he could trust.

Chapter Five

The high school principal Anita Vargas didn’t tell Lucy and Nate anything they didn’t already know: Glen Albright had taught in the school district for nearly twenty years, the last fifteen at the high school. He’d been popular among both staff and students. He hadn’t told anyone they were leaving town, didn’t request a substitute, and appeared to be devoted to his wife and family. Vargas had been shocked when the police told her his wife had embezzled from a client and left the country.

The older daughter, Tori, had been a popular student, received mostly Bs and Cs from her teachers, and had been known to cut class on occasion. But even though she wasn’t a strong student, the teachers liked her because she was outgoing and friendly and exuded school spirit. She was active in the drama club and had just been cast as the lead in the winter play when she disappeared.

Becky was far more studious, a straight-A honors student. In addition, she had made the varsity volleyball team as a freshman. She wasn’t as outgoing as her sister but was far more disciplined in her work.

All in all, the visit to the school had been mostly a bust, though they confirmed the information in the file, talked to Becky’s best friend—who hadn’t heard from her since she walked out of volleyball practice the Friday afternoon they disappeared.

That tidbit hadn’t been in the police reports—that Becky had dressed for volleyball, but her sister came in and said they had to go, that there was a family issue. That was the word she used—issue, not emergency.

“I tried calling Becky that night, but she didn’t answer her cell phone,” her best friend, CeCe, had said. “I tried again on Saturday like a half-dozen times, and Sunday, and when she didn’t come to school on Monday I knew something was wrong. I knew she was … well, that something was very, very wrong.”

CeCe didn’t have any other information; Becky hadn’t told her that they were going on a trip and had been making plans for the weekend before she left that Friday. Nothing was out of the ordinary … until Becky didn’t answer her phone.

After the school, Nate and Lucy checked in with Ash at the Albright house. The cadaver dogs had found nothing—which was good, Lucy thought, though Ash seemed heartbroken. He didn’t believe that the boy was alive, and he felt that he’d missed something. He was going to return the following day with the dogs and go over the entire area between the Young house and the Albright house.

By the time they were done, it was after five, and Nate drove back to the Young house.

The father, JJ Young, answered the door before Nate knocked.