Max watched him leave. His reaction was over-the-top, and there was no reason for it. She checked her email. Grover Mills had confirmed he would be home to meet with her this evening, at his house in Fredericksburg. It was more than an hour drive, but she wanted to go to him, to a place where he and his wife would feel most comfortable talking to her.

Something was off with Simon.

She would find out what it was.

Chapter Eleven

Lucy and Nate arrived at King Investigations shortly before their ten a.m. meeting. The business was run out of a corner suite in an office building on the edge of the River Walk.

A young receptionist with a nameplate that read Charlotte King smiled as they entered, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “May I help you?”

They showed their badges. “Agents Kincaid and Dunning to see Miranda King. She’s expecting us.”

Charlotte inspected both their badges and their photos before she said, “One moment.”

The young woman stood and left the small lobby, went down a hall and out of their sight. To the right, open doors showed a conference room with a table for six, a couch and two chairs, and bookshelves packed with legal tomes.

Charlotte returned a moment later and said formally, “Please wait in our conference room. Mrs. King will be with you shortly.”

Lucy and Nate entered, and left the door open. “Sean knows these people?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, he’s worked with them.”

“Maybe if you called yourself Lucy Rogan we’d get a warmer reception.”

Lucy didn’t concern herself with Charlotte’s distance—everyone had a story, and she respected the bubble people put around themselves. She had one, too, though over time she’d let more people get close.

Miranda King strode in a moment later carrying a file. She was in her fifties, fit and clearly muscular, as if she’d worked on a farm most of her life, dressed in jeans, a blazer, a simple button-down shirt, and well-worn cowboy boots. “Hello, Agents. And Lucy, I feel like I know you! Sean texted me earlier and said you were coming by, and that you and Nate weren’t dick agents.”

Lucy didn’t know what to say to that, but Nate laughed.

Miranda closed the door and motioned for them to sit. “Don’t be mad at him, he knows I had a douchebag of a federal agent on my heels after my husband died, long story. You said you wanted to talk about the Albrights, and I cleared with the family that I can talk to you about the case. You found their bodies. I’m not surprised.”

“All but the youngest child,” Lucy said. “They were killed within two weeks of their initial disappearance, and Nate and I are beginning to think they never left the country, or came back almost immediately.”