Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,4

think,” she said slowly, “that he wasn’t killed with his family. Either he wasn’t there at the time, or there was another reason to bury his body in a different place. Evidence, perhaps.”

“Who the fuck executes kids,” Nate muttered.

Nate was right, they had very little information. The original investigation began out of the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office when the Albrights were considered missing persons. Once the embezzlement came to light, Laura Williams, from the San Antonio FBI office, joined the investigation, but the information was thin: No one had seen or heard from anyone in the family after they crossed the border.

The FBI had warrants to monitor the Albrights’ bank and passports, but considering they’d left the country, there wasn’t much they could do unless someone spotted them.

Truly, with their caseload Lucy wasn’t surprised nothing more had been done. People could disappear for years, especially in another country or if they had good fake identities. Harder to do with children, but certainly not impossible. But now this was a murder investigation. The FBI investigated homicides only under limited circumstances; this multi-jurisdictional case with a federal embezzlement charge could go either way, but Lucy was glad that Rachel took it.

She wanted this case, too. Not only to find out what happened to this poor family, but because the complexity of this investigation would keep her mind off her family and Thanksgiving.

Lucy didn’t see how Ricky Albright could be alive. Where would a nine-year-old go without someone informing the authorities? Could he have been living on the street? Maybe for a short time, but for three years? There had been a missing persons report filed on the Albrights, and the US consulates and the FBI attachés in Mexico would have their identities for the BOLO. If Ricky had been picked up anywhere, he would have popped—his photo and description had been part of the original report.

Lucy didn’t care what Denise Albright had done: She vowed to get justice for the family.

She checked her messages while Nate drove. Ash Dominguez was at the gravesite with two cadaver dogs and their handlers from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. They were expanding the search at the gravesite, then heading to the Albright house.

He ended his message with:

I want to find that boy and give him a decent burial.

She’d talked to Ash on and off over the last two months as he worked the forensics end of the investigation and knew that he’d taken the case to heart. She would almost say he was obsessed, but in a good way. Having a crime scene investigator as smart and involved as Ash working so hard could make the difference in solving this cold case.

After filling Nate in on Ash’s plans with the dogs, she said, “There’s so much we don’t know. I don’t have a list of people they interviewed or who was even the last person to see them alive. The two detectives—Carl Chavez and Garrett Douglas—talked to a few people after Glen Albright didn’t show up to work. Didn’t treat it as a missing persons case until Denise Albright’s employer reported the embezzlement nearly a week later.” She flipped through the thin report. “After the embezzlement came to light—and the family hadn’t been found—they got a warrant and searched the house. Luggage appeared to be missing and a full garbage bag of shredded paper was found in the garage. No reservations in their names on planes, trains, et cetera. Family, friends, said they didn’t know the family was leaving town.”

“Suggesting they left in a hurry.” Nate paused. “If they left at all.”

It was clear Nate thought they’d been killed the day they went missing—and the “proof” that they left the country was wrong. If he was right, then their murder was premeditated and the killer intentionally sent the police down the wrong trail.

Lucy planned to re-interview everyone Chavez and Douglas spoke with—the principal where Glen worked, the Young family that Ricky had gone home with that Friday after school, the owner of the construction company that accused Denise Albright of embezzlement. She’d like to have Laura navigate them through the financial complexities, but Lucy didn’t know when she’d be free.

Lucy kept coming back to why Ricky Albright wasn’t buried with his family. Maybe he wasn’t at home when the killers arrived. Did they kill the family, then go back for Ricky? Yet there was no evidence that the family had been killed at their house. No blood, no sign of violence. Only that they had