“Stan didn’t kill her. He told me the first time I saw him in prison. Broke down completely but said he had no choice, that Marie and the boys would be dead. And he said something that has haunted me for the last two months.”

“What?”

“He said, ‘They’ve killed an entire family before, they’ll do it again. They have no remorse.’”

“The Albrights.”

“I honestly believed that Denise had left the country, so did Victoria. She even looked for them once, a year after they left, couldn’t find them, but didn’t think too much of it. She was Victoria’s best friend. Victoria loved those kids, she would never have allowed anyone to hurt them. If she knew—she would be a force. She had everything about the operation, from the very beginning. Scorched earth. Victoria did nothing subtle.”

“Where is everything now?”

“They’ve got it.”

“Who are they?”

“Harrison and Faith. And—and I hate to say it, I don’t want to believe it, but I think Simon knew. If he didn’t know, he was lying to himself. He and Harrison were close, they used to make every decision together … though when Denise left, something changed with them. I think it was because of the way Harrison was managing the gambling operation. But now…”

“Maybe guilt over killing an entire family.”

“I can’t see Simon being part of that. And there was no reason to kill Victoria.”

“Except that the Albrights’ bodies were found. She would have known. If she knew that Harrison had them killed, would she have gone to the authorities?”

He nodded. “No doubt in my mind.”

“Who else knew about Victoria and Harrison’s affair?”

“I don’t think anyone knew. They were discreet. I knew only because I walked in on them once. It was when we were separated, she was living in the house, but we were friendly. I came by without calling because I needed some files, and I saw them. We talked about it later, I just told her to be careful, because she deserved better than a cheating husband.”

“And maybe she planned on telling Faith and he killed her.” It was a story as old as time.

“That wasn’t Victoria’s style. She might leave him unless he told Faith, but I think she liked the way things were. She was very independent. She didn’t need someone all the time. And she liked the game, the fun of the affair.”

Still, Sean could picture murder between the lovers, especially if Victoria had found out about the Albrights. The news reports on the bones were all over the media that Friday. It was only a matter of time.

“Mitch, you have one shot at this—take this to the FBI now.”

His phone rang; he wanted to ignore it, but caller ID was Ryan Maguire.

“Hey, Ryan.”