Chapter 29
Mary’s old barn out on Marcella Trail near Foley still held a few flecks of red paint. The battered metal roof had a missing
panel, but a new lock shone on the sliding glass door. Blake hadn’t expected to have a problem getting in. Mary had told them
nothing was out here on the old property, but he and Paradise decided to check. Mary hadn’t been out here in years.
Paradise’s expression mirrored his disappointment. “Now what?”
Blake stepped to the lock and yanked on it, but it refused to budge. “Maybe there’s another door. You go around the west side
to the back and I’ll go this way.” He walked the length of the barn and down the east side. He passed two fly-speckled windows
on this end, so he held out hope there was a door along the back, but he and Paradise found no door, just a long expanse of
weathered gray boards.
“The windows might not be locked.” He started with the closest one, and it stood open half an inch. “Let’s try this one.”
He shoved it up and the earthy smell of hay and dirt rushed out to meet him. He examined the opening. “I don’t think I can
get my shoulders through this.”
Paradise stepped in front of him. “Hoist me up.”
“I don’t know what’s in there. Let’s look at the other windows. I suspect none of them are locked.” After walking around the
building, he found he was right—but they were all the same tiny dimensions. And too filthy to be able to make out much beyond
their grimy glass.
“I’m perfectly capable of getting in there. Maybe there’s a key inside that fits the lock.”
He wanted to argue but he caught the stubborn tilt of her chin and the flash of independence in her eyes. She called it smothering
her, and while he didn’t understand how his protection was a bad thing, he had promised to do better, so he dropped to his
hands and knees. “Stand on my back and slide in feetfirst. Who knows what you might find under the window, so don’t risk going
headfirst.”
She climbed onto his back and grabbed the top of the window casing before standing on the sill and shining the flashlight
app on her phone into the dark space. “I can get in okay. I’ll try to find a light.” She slid feetfirst into the interior.
He heard something metal clatter. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Her voice echoed off the high ceilings inside. “The place is littered with Coke cans.”
A light came on and he spotted her moving past a pickup to the wall by the door. He squinted through the window. A rack held
rakes and tack gear as well as old Folgers coffee cans with who knew what in them. Paradise ran her hands along the shelf
and the hooks by the door. He turned his attention to the truck, but he couldn’t make out much detail. A tarp covered most
of the cab, and only the bed showed it was white.
Mary had been right about the color. He tamped down his excitement. They still had no proof of anything.
Paradise turned to face him with a key ring dangling from her hand. “There’s a key!” She retraced her steps to the window and handed him the ring. “See if it fits.”
There were several keys on the ring. One belonged to a Ford vehicle, but one appeared to be the right size. He jogged around
the side of the barn to the front and went to the sliding door. The small key clicked into it and unlocked it. “I’m in!”
He removed the lock and slid open the door. Dust motes flickered in the dying sunlight flooding into the opening. The interior
smelled of old wood, and he stepped onto the floor’s wide wooden planks. There were animal stalls to his left with a hayloft
overhead. The open space where the truck was stored vaulted to the top of the roofline.
“Get your camera ready,” he said.
Paradise nodded and turned her phone to face the vehicle while Blake grabbed one end of the tarp and pulled it off. Dust flew
into the air, and he coughed. The truck under the tarp was a white Ford, probably around a 1995. Rust crusted the wheel wells
he could see, and a few dents crinkled the driver’s side.
He shone his phone flashlight at the damage. “There’s blue paint. I’ll have Nora get a sample. She’ll want to collect it herself.”
Paradise snapped several pictures, then moved to the front of the truck. “I’ll check the bumper.” She bent over to examine
it and snapped another couple of photos. “There’s a dent here but no paint.”
“Let’s pray the sample matches what’s on Allen’s truck.”
She rejoined him. “But even if it does, the accident report says he died of a drug overdose. How do we prove Dean killed Allen—especially
when we don’t trust Greene to investigate it properly?”
“What about talking to Rod? He might light a fire under Greene.” Blake went to the open window and closed it as far as it would go, leaving a small gap like before.
He followed Paradise outside under the darkening skies.
“Let’s go grab some barbecue and take it home for dinner.
Maybe Dean will be there, and we can see how he acts.
” He opened the passenger door of his truck for her, and she climbed in.
Paradise hadn’t been very talkative since he picked her up after work today. He’d tried to give her space until she was ready
to mention the reason, but he sensed a worry that ran deeper than the truck investigation.
He got behind the wheel and started the engine. “Did you have a rough day at work?”
She fastened her seat belt. “Just normal stuff. I had coffee with Abby before I opened the clinic. There’s so much I don’t
remember, but she does. I should have talked to her sooner. That monkey music box we found in the lemur enclosure? It was
the same one the man gave me when my parents were killed.”
He had started to pull away from the barn, but he braked. “Abby recognized it?”
“Her parents bought it at auction after the murders, and it’s been at Dillard Ranch all this time in the basement. Abby filled
in some gaps in my memory. She has no idea how it got from her dad’s to the lemur habitat. Oh, and get this—she saw Adams’s
pickup in front of Bea Davis’s house.”
He pulled onto the road and listened to Abby’s memories of the day before the murder. This long after the murders, there would
be no way to trace where the music box had been purchased—or by whom.
The aroma of beef brisket wafted through Jenna’s kitchen as Paradise cleaned up the remnants of the barbecue meal.
The boys had demolished their plates plus what was left of the cornbread, leaving only crumbs, before running off to get ready for bed.
Blake had polished off the rest of the baked beans.
She carried the dirty plates to the sink, scraped the leavings into the garbage disposal, then loaded the dishwasher.
If only they could have talked to Dean tonight, but he’d left fifteen minutes before they stopped to buy food.
Before she could start the dishwasher, Blake embraced her from behind and buried his face in her hair. “Yum, you smell like
barbecue with a side of delectable skin and kissable lips.”
“It’s more likely the odor is that of old barn and manure.” She turned around to hug him. His broad hands ran over her back
and settled at her waist, where he paused to pull her close for a kiss. His firm lips coaxed a response from her, and she
wrapped her arms around his neck and released her need for him. He palmed her cheek with one hand and deepened the kiss.
When it ended, she rested her forehead against his chin. “You’re really amazing, you know. Always supportive, always ready
to catch me when I stumble, always my one constant when the ground under me seems to be turning to quicksand. I don’t deserve
you, but I’m glad you’re mine.”
His biceps flexed around her as he pulled her tighter against him, and his pulse quickened under her ear. “I love you so much,
babe. I’ll hold tight to you the rest of my life.”
The light flipped on overhead, and Paradise jumped and started to pull away. “It’s just Mom.” He pressed his lips against her hair and turned her loose to face Jenna’s amused expression. “Are the boys ready for their story?”
“Almost. I told them they could play on their iPads for half an hour. I wanted to catch up on what you found out from Hez
today.”
Paradise shot a glance at Blake before deciding she should handle this. Jenna had mentioned the will to her, not Blake, and
if anyone took the heat for revealing the facts to Hez, it should be Paradise. “Hez is concerned that you’d heard about a
will. He doesn’t believe you consulted an attorney—correct?”
Jenna’s smile vanished, and her gaze darted to Blake before landing back on Paradise’s face. “He’s right, of course. It didn’t
seem important. I mean, Mary said the will had likely been destroyed. Was I supposed to tell her I didn’t believe her? What
did Hez think I should have done if I was told there was no will?”
Paradise shut the dishwasher door and turned it on. “He says a judge might ask if you made any calls to try to find the truth
about the will.”
“Who was I supposed to call? Lots of people I know do an online will and get it notarized at the bank. Does he really think
anyone would suspect me of fraud in buying the property? I didn’t have the first idea about how to find a missing will.”
“Did you call anyone at all?” Blake asked.
“No. I didn’t even call Hez. It didn’t seem important. Even at the auction, no one questioned Mary’s right to sell the property.”
Blake approached his mom and hugged her. “Don’t let this bug you, Mom. I don’t think there’s a will out there. When no will
was found, Mary would have had an attorney appoint her as executor. I would guess the attorney would have done at least a
cursory search for a will.”
Paradise didn’t want to upset Jenna by contradicting Blake, but Mary might have told the attorney they didn’t have a will. A lot of people didn’t. She couldn’t see an attorney doing an extensive search for a missing will if the spouse said there was none.
Jenna’s chest heaved a sigh. “I’ve been praying about this, Blake, and I think we have to search for the will ourselves. It’s
the right thing to do.”
“Jenna, that’s crazy!” Paradise waved her hand around the cute cottage Jenna had infused with so much warmth. “Even if there
is a will, Dean killed his own uncle.”
“We don’t know that.” Jenna pulled a chair out from the table and sank into it as if her legs wouldn’t hold her any longer.
“These are just things. If we try not to face the truth, it will hang over our heads forever. We’ll always wonder what the
right thing to do was. We have to keep our hearts pure.”
Blake dropped into a chair and put his head in his hands. “Mom’s right. I’ve been struggling with it too—that’s why I’ve been
so desperate to find out if Dean killed Allen. If he’s a murderer, the law is clear on what happens next. He’s not allowed
to benefit from the will, and he’ll go to jail.”
“But what about Mary? She’d have to pay back the purchase price, and I don’t think she has the money.”
“She could make payments.” Jenna sighed and rubbed her forehead. “If a judge believes I wasn’t to blame in some way. That’s
for the law to figure out though. Our job is to do what’s right in God’s eyes, not our eyes.”
“But that’s so hard,” Paradise burst out. “What about real justice?”
“God’s in charge of that detail.” Blake straightened and pulled Paradise down on his lap.
“We have to take it one step at a time and see where things lead. Believe me, I’m praying we can prove Dean killed Allen, but we also need to take the next step to walking our own straight path and not let our desire to have our own way lead us along a crooked path. ”
This was all over Paradise’s head. There was so much about the faith walk she didn’t understand yet, but if God took everything
from these people she loved, she wasn’t sure she could live with it.
Jenna smiled at them snuggled together. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone and go read.”
The man she loved exuded strength in so many ways—not just his muscular build. Paradise leaned her face against Blake’s and
realized she could do something about this. “I don’t want to wait any longer, Blake. Let’s get married right away. I don’t
need a big wedding. We can get a marriage license and have a simple wedding at the church with your family.”
She felt his surprise radiate through his sinews and muscles, tightening along the length of his form where she sat pressed
against him. Her enthusiasm for the idea amped up a notch. “I have the apartment, and we can squeeze everyone in. I can redo
the second bedroom for your mom and the boys. There’s enough room to put in a bunk bed and another bed.”
He palmed her face and stared into her eyes for a long moment. The joy in his expression gradually morphed into disappointment.
“I see what you’re doing, babe. You think we’re going to lose everything, and you want us to have a place to stay, don’t you?”
His hands came down on her shoulders, and he gently slid her off his lap to rise and pace the living room. “It’s sweet of
you to offer, but this isn’t how I want our life together to start.” He swept his hand around the living room. “It’s hard
enough getting alone time with you here. With us all crammed into your apartment, what kind of beginning to a marriage would
that be?”
He was turning her down? The shock left her speechless.