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 left in a hurry.

Had they been grabbed there? Or as they were leaving town? Maybe they’d planned to disappear for some reason … because Denise stole all that money?… and the killers followed them.

If they followed them to Mexico, they would have killed them in Mexico, where their bodies would likely never be found or identified.

Lucy frowned. She was already thinking like Nate, that the family had been killed before they went to Mexico, when so far the evidence pointed that they’d left the country and returned within a week.

What were you thinking, Denise? Were you scared? Maybe you left without thinking, then came back to turn yourself in … and then what? You had a partner? Someone who didn’t want to come clean? Killed you and your entire family?

That actually made sense. Guilt was a powerful emotion. And being on the run was hard, especially with a family.

Yet … that didn’t explain what happened to Ricky.