He paced the small, crowded trailer. “I lost everything. I couldn’t keep staff, I couldn’t fulfill my obligations to the federal government—it was a federal contract. I was lucky that the AUSA and the FBI agent who worked the case were able to prove I didn’t steal the money, otherwise I would have lost more than my business. I used my own money to pay off my creditors. That meant I had to shut down. But I shut down without debt. Still lost everything.”
He sounded bitter and angry, but then he looked at the picture of his daughter and his expression softened. “I knew Denise for years—I just can’t picture this…” He cleared his throat. “So what happened? I don’t understand why she was killed. Was she killed for the money?”
“We don’t know yet,” Lucy said. “We just got this case this morning when the bodies were identified. I want to go back to something you said—I was under the impression that Denise Albright was your employee.”
“No. She worked for me, yes, but I was one of at least a dozen clients. Mostly small to medium-sized businesses, it was her specialty. She worked for me for eight years—eight years! I trusted her. And then this. I’d wanted to leave a legacy, a solid business for my grandchildren. Now, I’ll be working here until I retire because I don’t have the heart or energy to start another business from scratch, not now. I’m not complaining—I have a job, a good job. Good, honest work. But it’s not my company, my people. And I’ll never forgive her for stealing that from me. My reputation and my legacy mean more to me than the money.”
Chapter Three
Lucy and Nate stopped at a small cafe in Bandera for a late lunch. While waiting to be served, Lucy called Zach Charles, the analyst for the Violent Crimes Squad, and asked if they had a list of Denise Albright’s other clients. “Laura Williams with White Collar might have that information,” she told him, “but it wasn’t in the file that Rachel gave us.”
Zach promised to have something by the end of the day.
As they ate, Lucy said, “While I think everyone is capable of killing under the right circumstances, I don’t see Kiefer hurting this family.”
“I agree,” Nate said. “Whoever killed this family is uniquely cold. Brutal. Absolutely no regrets—he killed three kids.”
Two, Lucy thought—two because they hadn’t found Ricky Albright’s remains. She still leaned toward the idea that he was dead, but until they found his body there was a chance, however slim, that the boy was still alive.
But if he’s alive, where has he been for the last three years?
She sent Zach a message and copied in Laura Williams, in case she already had the information, and asked if there was any evidence of Albright—husband or wife—having a gambling or drug problem, or any other addiction or debt that might explain the theft. Or a family member who had an addiction. It didn’t quite feel right, but it was something—a reason for her taking the money in the first place.
How does someone go from law-abiding to criminal overnight?
Denise Albright had no criminal record … but Lucy also knew that might not mean anything. Maybe she wasn’t as squeaky clean as she seemed to be. Yet … she had a family, roots, friends, a career. How did someone with so much to lose end up embezzling so much money?
She didn’t see drugs—on the little they knew about the family, she didn’t think one of them would have such a serious problem that it would cost millions to cover up. Gambling? That was possible. Gambling could incur huge losses that Albright may have been desperate to pay off. For her or her husband.
Or she could have been blackmailed—maybe having an affair, or she or her husband had done something illegal. She didn’t know the family well enough to know whether they were the type who might hit and run or gamble away someone else’s money. Albright was an accountant—maybe she did accounting for the wrong people.
And that was the crux of the problem. She didn’t know the family, not well enough to profile. All she knew was on the surface—three kids, two-income household, living an hour outside of San Antonio possibly for the quiet lifestyle, possibly because it was cheaper. House on a couple of acres. She had to look into the kids as well. Grades, disciplinary actions. If there was a sudden dip in grades it could signal something wrong in the house.
Until she knew who the Albrights were before they died, there was no way she could effectively work this case.
“What are you thinking?” Nate asked.
“We don’t know them,” she said. “We don’t know Denise or Glen or their kids. If we don’t know them, we can’t understand why she took the money—or who killed her.”
“We can assume that the three million dollars is the motive.”
“It appears to be … but that would mean she took the money for someone else.”
“Blackmail?”
“Maybe. But if blackmail, why kill her if she paid?”
Nate thought on that. “Let’s assume they left the country as everyone thought. Instead of paying the blackmailer, they decided to run. The killer tracked them down.”
“Then why not kill them in Mexico where their bodies wouldn’t be found?”
“Maybe the killer kept the kid as insurance, sent the family back to the US to get the funds.”
“But the money was all transferred electronically. It’s not as if they had cash buried.”
“Unless she converted the funds to something tangible—like gold or bonds.”
“Is that easy to trace?”
“Depends. Laura would have a better handle on that.”
“Still doesn’t explained why they were murdered.”
“Maybe she took money from other clients,” Nate suggested. “Maybe Kiefer wasn’t the only victim.”
“And then what? She worked for someone who would rather kill than file charges?”
“Especially if that someone wasn’t running a legal business.”
It was a possibility but seemed a stretch. This was why Lucy didn’t work in White Collar. Her husband, Sean, understood how financial crimes worked—and didn’t work—but she would much rather solve an old-fashioned homicide than figure out how money was laundered.
Lucy said, “We need to talk to friends, family, neighbors. The Young family that were the last known to have seen Ricky Albright. He was last seen hours after the girls and the parents. That in and of itself seems odd.”
“Because if they were planning to leave the country, they would have told Ricky to come straight home after school.”
“Exactly. Or picked him up at school, or at the Youngs’. He didn’t leave until six o’clock. I want to confirm everything they told the detectives three years ago, and ask the kids if there was anything Ricky said that made them concerned. Something out of character.”
“They would have told the original investigators.”
“If they asked the right questions. At the time, the kids were nine, going on ten. Fourth grade. Maybe the detectives didn’t even talk to the kids.”
“They might not remember three years later.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But when your best friend disappears, you tend to remember everything that happened the last day you saw them.”