On the way to Henry Kiefer’s business, Lucy fielded an irate call from Ash.

“The fucking sheriff’s office never called the family!”

Lucy had never, in the two years she’d known Ash, heard him swear.

“When we were done at the gravesite, I called Denise Albright’s parents because they’ve been paying the mortgage. They co-signed for the family twenty years ago and were still on the deed. I just talked to them as if they knew what was going on … and they didn’t. No one called them. I feel like shit.”

“I’m so sorry, Ash. If I’d known, I would have called—”

“The sheriff’s department promised me they were on top of it. Hours ago. This is what happens when you have a multi-jurisdictional clusterfuck.”

“How did they take it?”

“I didn’t tell them. The ME’s office is going to call them—probably talking to them now. I backtracked, said we had a lead and were investigating the family’s disappearance and wanted access to the grounds. They were more than happy, said we could go in the house as well, that they’ll call the tenants.”

“They’re renting out the place?”

“Yeah, though I doubt there’s any need to go inside. All the belongings are in storage. Personal property paid for by the family, Kerr County has papers, books, computers, that stuff, in their evidence locker. But here’s the thing: The parents—Betty and Martin Graham—said they never believed that their daughter fled the country.”

“Parents sometimes have a hard time believing ill of their children.”

“They didn’t comment on the embezzlement charges, just that they wouldn’t have taken their kids to Mexico. None of them spoke Spanish. They don’t have property or friends who live down there, and they never even vacationed there. The only reason they had passports is because they went to England for a cousin’s wedding a couple years before they disappeared.”

“And now that we know they are buried close to home, you think they never left at all.” Like Nate, Lucy thought.

“It makes no sense that they’d leave and return a week or two later.”

“Unless they left, felt guilty, and returned so Denise could turn herself in. But someone stopped her. A partner, maybe.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely possible, you’re a good cop, you’ll find the truth,” Ash said. “Anyway, the detective here told me he would call the parents, and he didn’t, and I’m frickin’ mad about it. These folks are incompetent. They saw only what they were supposed to see and nothing more. They were manipulated by the killer, and finding justice for this family is going to be an uphill battle three years later. I gotta go, unless you need something?”

“No. Call if you find anything.”

She ended the call.

“He’s heated,” Nate said.