“Yeah. Four people shot execution-style and buried in a mass grave near the Kendall–Kerr County border in the middle of nowhere.”

Ballistics was incomplete because there was evidence of eight points of entry, but only six bullets had been recovered. Those bullets came from two different .45 pistols. The teenagers had been restrained—two sets of zip ties had been found still around their wrists—and the father had additional injuries to his skull, indicating blunt force trauma prior to the execution. Probabilities leaned to having been cold-cocked with the butt of a gun.

“Ash went above and beyond, but the FBI still has some of the best tools. Though they gave a two-month range, there’s a probability graph that shows the most likely time they were killed was between September 17 and September 27. Probabilities decrease the further away from those dates. That’s primarily from the soil samples that were collected in the area—samples that weren’t contaminated by the flood—coupled with the state of the bones and an etymology report. But it’s very difficult to pinpoint an exact date. We have nothing from Kerr County yet, only what Rachel said—they were last seen on September 21.”

“They didn’t leave the country,” Nate said.

“There’s evidence that they did.”

“I want to see it—the car driving across the border doesn’t mean they’re the people who drove it. Border Control doesn’t generally regulate who is going to Mexico.”

It was a good point, but there should be a photo of the driver as the vehicle passed, and Lucy didn’t think that the investigating detective would have made the assumption without hard evidence. “The investigators must have that information—tapes or photos from Border Control. They would have contacted the FBI attaché in Mexico with a BOLO.”

“Doesn’t the report say?”

“None of that information is in here.”

“It doesn’t sound like we have much of anything.”

“An ID is a good start,” she said, “but we need the original investigators’ reports. Who they talked to, how the money was embezzled and if any has been recovered, what evidence they have that it was Albright—over and above her leaving the country—who else she might have been close to. Her family was killed. Not to justify her murder, there is no justification, but if she had a partner and double-crossed him or her, then yes, I could see how she might be targeted. But her family? Her children? That’s … beyond cruel.”

Nate didn’t say anything for a minute, then asked, “Do you think the kid is alive?”

She was surprised at the question. “I think,” she said slowly, “that he wasn’t killed with his family. Either he wasn’t there at the time, or there was another reason to bury his body in a different place. Evidence, perhaps.”

“Who the fuck executes kids,” Nate muttered.