Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,48

of the fact that the bodies were found in Kerr County, and that they have been dead for three years, we don’t think they actually went to Mexico.”

Douglas shook his head. “You’re making this far more complicated than it needs to be. My theory has always been based on the evidence we had. They left the country. Now that their bodies were found, it’s clear they returned for some unknown reason. Maybe they didn’t have all the money Denise Albright stole and needed to come back for it. Or maybe she felt guilty and wanted to make amends. Maybe they had new identities and were trying to re-assimilate. Hell if I know. But they left, I had the Border Control photo, and I had the witness.”

“The photo is bullshit,” Nate said. “That driver could have been any white male.”

Lucy jumped in before Douglas kicked them out. “If Denise wanted to make amends, who killed her? It’s a valid question. Say your theory is correct and they returned for an unknown reason, was she working with someone? That’s the only explanation. If so, they might have a reason to kill her—a partner in crime.” Killing Denise is one thing, but her children? Still, what else made sense?

“Exactly,” Douglas said, as if she had come around to his way of thinking.

Lucy had … in a sense. She just didn’t believe they’d left the country. Her partner likely took the money, killed them, and fled. Someone with the technical skill to push the three million through multiple entities until he became virtually untraceable.

“Then we need to find her partner,” Lucy said calmly. “When you investigated the original embezzlement and missing persons case, did a name come up? Someone who may have been working with her to steal the funds?”

He didn’t say anything for a second. “Well, no. She was a sole proprietor, didn’t even have a secretary. It was our impression from the beginning that she worked alone, stole the Kiefer money, and when Kiefer said he was going to audit the account she panicked and left the country. It fits the timeline to a T.”

“Then she didn’t have a business partner. So who would kill her?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said with a half smile.

Nate said in a low voice, “We don’t have to guess. We have to investigate.”

“You’re talking about a three-year-old case. The woman had many clients. Maybe she stole from someone else. Ask your people in the FBI, they have all her client records. Maybe one of them discovered she’d embezzled from them and killed her. They would then have no reason to come forward. Why are you giving me shit on this when your people took the case three years ago?”

Lucy said, “You are the detective of record and you talked to Denise’s friends, family, neighbors. The files were … well, incomplete.”

“Because when we learned they left the country there was no reason to continue beating a dead horse. Their credit cards didn’t pop, they didn’t call friends or family, we had no reason to believe that they’d returned.”

“So it was a closed case,” Nate said.

“Inactive,” Douglas corrected. “Now active again.” He looked at Lucy, who she figured he felt was more reasonable. “So what do you think happened to their son? His body wasn’t found with the others. Are you buying the PI’s theory that someone in the family called the grandparents in Arizona the Christmas after they disappeared?”

He certainly remembered the case—or had read up on his files when he knew they were coming in.

“This is just conjecture,” she said, “but logically, he was killed at the same time as his family but for some unknown reason was buried elsewhere. We have cadaver dogs out looking at an expanded grid. I hope we find him so we can lay him to rest with his family.”

“Me too,” the detective said, showing compassion for the first time. But was it an act? She couldn’t be sure. Maybe she’d adopted Nate’s theory that the cops were incompetent—which she fully believed—or corrupt, which she didn’t want to believe.

She didn’t like Douglas. His investigation was mediocre at best, and he was being an ass to her and Nate. She didn’t think he was guilty of anything but incompetence, except that one question seemed off. Calculated. He wanted to know what they knew about Ricky Albright.

They were going to have to investigate this case without the help of Detective Douglas. Not just because he was ineffective three years ago,