“Yes—a few minutes after six, in fact. JJ, my husband, owns an auto repair shop in town and he’d opened a second storefront in Boerne, which is thirty minutes from here. Thursdays and Fridays—at least back then—he worked extra hours to get the new place off the ground. He would always call me when he was leaving so I’d know when to expect him, and I looked at the clock. It was after six on the microwave. I saw Ricky’s backpack on the kitchen table and realized he was still here. Called him, he rushed in, grabbed his backpack, and ran off. Not more than five minutes after I called him out of the tree house.”

That was consistent with the report from three years ago, so Chavez’s theory that the timing was fluid and they didn’t remember exactly when Ricky left was not correct. While it had been three years, the family had been interviewed shortly after the Albrights went missing, so likely they remembered the details.

“Did you know the family well?” Lucy said.

“I talked to Denise often, but always about the kids. Sleepovers and that sort of thing. I’ve of course met Glen and Ricky’s older sisters, and Becky babysat on occasion—she was the younger girl, but much more responsible, in my opinion. I never thought twice about leaving the kids with her.”

“Did you socialize outside of the kids?”

She shook her head. “Other than Ricky, we didn’t have a lot in common. I’m a stay-at-home mom but do a lot of volunteer work, mostly through our church or the VA. I wanted a large family, but we had trouble conceiving, and the pregnancy with the twins was very difficult. I didn’t think I would be able to have more kids, and so when this girl came along I was surprised. A happy surprise.” She rubbed her stomach.

“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Lucy said.

“We didn’t have a lot in common,” she repeated. “Nothing. I always had the feeling Denise looked down on me for not going to college and choosing to stay home. Early in our marriage we moved a lot—JJ was in the Army, so we lived on base wherever he was stationed. The twins were born at Fort Buchanan, in Puerto Rico. That was the fourth base we lived on. When they were three, we moved to Fort Hood. He was deployed for eighteen months, and then shortly after chose not to reenlist, and we moved here. He’d given the Army twelve years and felt it was time for a new chapter.