Or she could have been blackmailed—maybe having an affair, or she or her husband had done something illegal. She didn’t know the family well enough to know whether they were the type who might hit and run or gamble away someone else’s money. Albright was an accountant—maybe she did accounting for the wrong people.

And that was the crux of the problem. She didn’t know the family, not well enough to profile. All she knew was on the surface—three kids, two-income household, living an hour outside of San Antonio possibly for the quiet lifestyle, possibly because it was cheaper. House on a couple of acres. She had to look into the kids as well. Grades, disciplinary actions. If there was a sudden dip in grades it could signal something wrong in the house.

Until she knew who the Albrights were before they died, there was no way she could effectively work this case.

“What are you thinking?” Nate asked.

“We don’t know them,” she said. “We don’t know Denise or Glen or their kids. If we don’t know them, we can’t understand why she took the money—or who killed her.”

“We can assume that the three million dollars is the motive.”

“It appears to be … but that would mean she took the money for someone else.”

“Blackmail?”

“Maybe. But if blackmail, why kill her if she paid?”

Nate thought on that. “Let’s assume they left the country as everyone thought. Instead of paying the blackmailer, they decided to run. The killer tracked them down.”

“Then why not kill them in Mexico where their bodies wouldn’t be found?”

“Maybe the killer kept the kid as insurance, sent the family back to the US to get the funds.”

“But the money was all transferred electronically. It’s not as if they had cash buried.”

“Unless she converted the funds to something tangible—like gold or bonds.”

“Is that easy to trace?”

“Depends. Laura would have a better handle on that.”

“Still doesn’t explained why they were murdered.”

“Maybe she took money from other clients,” Nate suggested. “Maybe Kiefer wasn’t the only victim.”

“And then what? She worked for someone who would rather kill than file charges?”

“Especially if that someone wasn’t running a legal business.”

It was a possibility but seemed a stretch. This was why Lucy didn’t work in White Collar. Her husband, Sean, understood how financial crimes worked—and didn’t work—but she would much rather solve an old-fashioned homicide than figure out how money was laundered.

Lucy said, “We need to talk to friends, family, neighbors. The Young family that were the last known to have seen Ricky Albright. He was last seen hours after the girls and the parents. That in and of itself seems odd.”

“Because if they were planning to leave the country, they would have told Ricky to come straight home after school.”