“No,” Lucy said slowly. “Nate and I believe there were multiple people involved in this conspiracy, which may include a law enforcement officer.”

“Well, shit. I hope you have hard evidence to back that up.”

“We will. Which brings me to why Nate isn’t here.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“We’ve retraced Ricky’s steps the day his family disappeared and believe he’s alive and has been hiding out in Mexico.”

Lucy told her everything about their interviews, showing her the letter from Ricky to Ginny, and what Ricky told Ginny the day the two detectives from the sheriff’s department came to interview the family. Then she told her that Nate had gone down to Ciudad Victoria with Ginny’s father to find Ricky.

Rachel was quiet. Too quiet, and Lucy feared the worst.

“You believe this girl,” Rachel finally said.

“Yes. Ricky didn’t tell her which cop had broken into his house, Detective Chavez or Detective Douglas. But he was terrified of at least one of them.”

Rachel sat there for another long minute, her face blank, but clearly she wasn’t happy with this turn of events. No one wanted to go after a fellow cop—but it was their duty and obligation.

“Tell me about the cops.”

Lucy recapped her experience with Douglas and Chavez, and added, “Honestly, it could be either of them, but Douglas avoided us on Monday and cut our conversation short on Tuesday. We were followed both days after we left the sheriff’s department.”

“Are you saying that one of the detectives followed you?”

“No, I doubt it. The vehicles were unmarked black SUVs. We need Ricky to identify who he saw, and we need his written statement about what he heard when he was hiding in the closet.”

“Which any defense lawyer will throw out. He was nine years old at the time, he’s remembering something that happened more than three years ago. If the prosecution even put him on the stand, which I highly doubt they would, the defense would destroy him without even trying that hard.”

“I’m going to do my job and find evidence outside of Ricky’s testimony, but if one of those cops is involved, we need to take him down. If we go after both of them and only one is guilty, it’ll taint our relationship with that department for decades. Talking to the bank manager—if I can prove he’s lying—could give us the information we need.”

She reminded Rachel about the unclear photo from the border that could have been anyone, and that all evidence suggested that the Albrights were killed that Friday—and therefore Denise couldn’t have transferred the money the following week.

“There’s one more thing. You heard about the shooting at the courthouse.”

“Yes. Your husband was there.”

Rachel did keep her ear to the ground.