BooksBarbecue
Back Cut and Run Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Prologue
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-one
  27. Chapter Twenty-two
  28. Chapter Twenty-three
  29. Chapter Twenty-four
  30. Chapter Twenty-five
  31. Chapter Twenty-six
  32. Chapter Twenty-seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-nine
  35. Chapter Thirty
  36. Chapter Thirty-one
  37. Chapter Thirty-two
  38. Chapter Thirty-three
  39. Chapter Thirty-four
  40. Chapter Thirty-five
  41. Chapter Thirty-six
  42. Chapter Thirty-seven
  43. Chapter Thirty-eight
  44. Chapter Thirty-nine
  45. Also by Allison Brennan
  46. Praise for these other novels by New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan
  47. About the Author
  48. Newsletter Sign-up

For now … he had one place he could stay and be safe.

And hoped that no one found him until he figured out who he could trust.

Chapter Five

The high school principal Anita Vargas didn’t tell Lucy and Nate anything they didn’t already know: Glen Albright had taught in the school district for nearly twenty years, the last fifteen at the high school. He’d been popular among both staff and students. He hadn’t told anyone they were leaving town, didn’t request a substitute, and appeared to be devoted to his wife and family. Vargas had been shocked when the police told her his wife had embezzled from a client and left the country.

The older daughter, Tori, had been a popular student, received mostly Bs and Cs from her teachers, and had been known to cut class on occasion. But even though she wasn’t a strong student, the teachers liked her because she was outgoing and friendly and exuded school spirit. She was active in the drama club and had just been cast as the lead in the winter play when she disappeared.

Becky was far more studious, a straight-A honors student. In addition, she had made the varsity volleyball team as a freshman. She wasn’t as outgoing as her sister but was far more disciplined in her work.

All in all, the visit to the school had been mostly a bust, though they confirmed the information in the file, talked to Becky’s best friend—who hadn’t heard from her since she walked out of volleyball practice the Friday afternoon they disappeared.

That tidbit hadn’t been in the police reports—that Becky had dressed for volleyball, but her sister came in and said they had to go, that there was a family issue. That was the word she used—issue, not emergency.

“I tried calling Becky that night, but she didn’t answer her cell phone,” her best friend, CeCe, had said. “I tried again on Saturday like a half-dozen times, and Sunday, and when she didn’t come to school on Monday I knew something was wrong. I knew she was … well, that something was very, very wrong.”

CeCe didn’t have any other information; Becky hadn’t told her that they were going on a trip and had been making plans for the weekend before she left that Friday. Nothing was out of the ordinary … until Becky didn’t answer her phone.

After the school, Nate and Lucy checked in with Ash at the Albright house. The cadaver dogs had found nothing—which was good, Lucy thought, though Ash seemed heartbroken. He didn’t believe that the boy was alive, and he felt that he’d missed something. He was going to return the following day with the dogs and go over the entire area between the Young house and the Albright house.