“And not go to the police?”

“It’s just speculation right now, but what if she wanted to get her family someplace safe, then turn herself in? Especially if she had committed a crime. Or if she uncovered a crime but was too scared to come forward. The Kiefer money was easy for her to access,” Lucy added.

“We need more to back this up,” Rachel said, “but I’ll find out if there’s anyone or any organization we need to look at. We can compare the names and businesses to her client list.”

“That would be helpful,” Nate said.

Rachel left, passing Laura Williams as she walked in.

“Lucy, Nate, sorry that I haven’t been able to talk at all this week. This trial is insane.”

“We appreciate your time.”

Laura dropped her briefcase and coat on a chair in the corner of the room and sat down with a sigh. “Too bad we couldn’t have met at a bar. After today I need a glass of wine.”

Nate smiled. “We won’t keep you long.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll live. I hate this part of the job. Sitting around waiting and waiting and then giving your testimony and having some jerk lawyer try to cross you up by throwing irrelevant questions into the mix. But I think we’ll be okay. Go back tomorrow.”

“Thank you for all this.” Lucy waved to the stacks of paper she and Nate had been going through.

“Not me, our analyst pulled everything out. But I read my notes when I had a break today, I’m up to speed.

“First,” Laura said, “while three million dollars is a lot of money, it’s only three million dollars, if that makes sense. We had another case shortly after this that we needed all hands for—a graft and corruption case in Austin. Took down three corrupt officials and a half-dozen employees in a kickback scheme that ultimately cost hundreds of senior citizens their homes when they couldn’t pay fees they should never have been charged. These were things you and I might not notice—but someone on a fixed income, they get slammed and then threatened with levies and fines and it adds up. I wish I could prosecute those bastards all over again.”

“I take it you won.”

“Damn straight. But it took over a year of my life. I was practically living in Austin. And we had the photo of Albright and her family crossing the border. We sent out BOLOs, sent the file down to our legal attaché in Mexico, but there’s not much we can do until they’re spotted, and then we have to play jurisdictional footsies to get them back. Not for a minute did I think they were dead. What do you think happened?”

“We believe they never left the States,” Lucy said.