“We’re done. We covered the ground between here and the Youngs’ house, no bodies. Ricky Albright wasn’t buried in the area, I’m pretty certain.”

The dog handler concurred, then excused himself to take a call.

Ash looked like he’d failed. Lucy said, “Ash, we’re making progress. Knowing he’s not here is good.”

“How? We need to find his body.”

Lucy didn’t want to tell him everything—they were really going out on a limb thinking that Ricky was still alive—but she wanted to give him hope. She looked at Nate and he knew what she wanted. He nodded. “Ash,” she said quietly, “we’re still at the beginning of our investigation, but Nate and I think Ricky might be alive. That he might have gone into hiding because he witnessed something he couldn’t process or— We don’t know, it’s just speculation at this point, but we have some evidence that he was alive late the night his parents disappeared. We’ll let you know as soon as we know anything definitive.”

“Thank you. I don’t know why I’m taking this so personally.”

“Because you care and you want justice. This whole case is … well, it’s depressing, but we’re going to find out what happened. We’re piecing together the family’s last day and I think Ricky is the key—dead or alive—in finding out what happened.”

Nate said, “Ash, don’t come out here, or to the gravesite, without backup, understood?”

“Uh, okay. I wouldn’t.”

“Everyone needs to be cautious.”

They left the same way they came in. A block after they passed the strip mall, the SUV was behind them again.

“Be alert,” Nate said. “No front plates, I want to find out who they are.”

He backtracked and headed toward the high school. The SUV followed. He pulled into the parking lot and the SUV continued down the street. Then Nate immediately reversed and pursued the vehicle.

The driver knew immediately and pushed on the gas.

“Shit,” Nate mumbled. The SUV was too far ahead for them to see the plates. It ran a stop sign, then turned right. Nate pursued.

“Oh shit!” Nate said again. “Tag team. Hold on.”

Lucy looked in the mirror. A second SUV, identical to the first, was right on their tail. It sped up and started to pass them on the left, crossing into oncoming traffic.

The windows were tinted and Lucy couldn’t see the driver.

Suddenly the SUV intentionally swerved and clipped Nate’s bumper. Nate anticipated it and compensated, controlling the spinout and avoiding a serious accident. By the time he turned and was facing in the right direction, both SUVs were gone.

Nate pounded his fist on the steering wheel and sped in the direction they’d disappeared, but as they looked up and down streets they didn’t see them.