Cut and Run (Lucy Kincaid #16) - Allison Brennan Page 0,85

mom and dad and Joe were … were … were dead. So I didn’t say anything.”

She paused, bit her lip. “I’m really sorry.”

Lucy said, “You were scared, we all understand how that feels. Why did Ricky go to Mexico?”

“We decided to get a bus ticket to Austin because we thought that was far away enough and he could trust the police there. One of our friends moved there, and we went to his birthday party the summer before, so it just, I don’t know, it just felt right. And it’s a whole different police department. But getting to the bus station would be hard, it would take hours on his bike, and I knew my uncle Javi—he’s not a real uncle, he’s my mom’s cousin, but we call him Uncle—he was coming to visit the next week. I said maybe Ricky could hide in his truck, then get out when he got to town. He could take a bus to Austin, or go to the police in San Antonio or another town that Javi stopped in.

“So Ricky slept in the tree house at night, and during the day he stayed in the woods. He kept out of sight. I brought him food. And he said maybe he should talk to my dad. So we were going to, on Tuesday, when Dad got home from work. But then the two detectives came and Ricky got scared again. Because one of them was the man in his house.” Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t tell them this. You really can’t. Ricky wasn’t lying about the men in the house. He said they shredded all his mom’s papers and two of the men went upstairs and got suitcases to make it look like everyone just left. Ricky said they’d kill us all if he said anything and he didn’t have anything anymore because his family was dead and he didn’t want my family to be dead, too.”

Now Ginny was crying, and so was Jill, who sat down next to her and put her arm around her daughter. “Honey, no one is going to hurt us.”

“But they killed them, Mom! They did, and … and it just made sense that they would h-hurt us if they knew that Ricky was here. They told us that Ricky’s mom took a lot of money and disappeared with her family to Mexico, and I know they didn’t, and Ricky knew they didn’t, and so did the police! They lied to us, and so when Uncle Javi left, Ricky said he was going all the way to Mexico with him and just disappear. I thought maybe when Javi found out Ricky was in the truck that he would come back, but he didn’t. And— Well, I got this a couple months later.”

She pulled a worn, tightly folded piece of notebook paper from her pocket and slid it over to Nate. Lucy read over his shoulder:

G: I’m okay. Javier is very smart and teaching me everything he knows about cars and fixing things. He said I can stay as long as I want. He’s teaching me Spanish. It’s very quiet here and he has a dog. I don’t have a family anymore and I can’t trust the police. Be careful. Never, ever, ever tell them you know where I am because they might hurt your family like they hurt mine. I miss you and Joe. But you can’t tell Joe anything because he can’t lie. R.

“Can I keep this?” Nate asked. “I’ll make a copy and give it back to you.”

“Is Javi going to get in trouble?”

“No,” Nate said. “He didn’t know Ricky was in his truck, right?”

Ginny shook her head. “Not until they got all the way to his house.”

“He might not be in trouble with you folks,” JJ said, “but he and I are going to have a word.”

“Dad—” Then Ginny looked down when JJ gave her a stern look.

“We just want Ricky home safe,” Lucy said. “He has an aunt and grandparents who are worried about him.”

“Can you even do that? Keep him safe?” Jill asked.

Lucy opened her folder and showed Ginny photos of Detectives Chavez and Douglas. “Which detective interviewed you?”

“They were both here,” Ginny said.

“Who was Ricky scared of?”

She frowned. “He didn’t say. He just said that one of them was at his house and shredded all his mother’s papers and found what he was looking for.”

“Found what?” Nate asked.

“I don’t know. Something. A folder or papers or something like that. Ricky didn’t know what