Chapter 30
Blake and Paradise stood at the edge of the pond with the visitors who had disembarked on the safari truck. The group was
from a local middle school. Bertha had noticed them, and the hippo’s eyes and nostrils were the only part of her visible above
the water. Blake glanced around to make sure everyone had crowded close for Paradise’s lecture. She was in her element when
talking about animals.
He still couldn’t believe her marriage proposal last night, but he didn’t want to start a new life with all of them packed
into her tiny apartment. He didn’t want her pity.
Paradise turned toward the group with a smile.
“You might wonder why there’s a strong fence between us.
Bertha is a very friendly hippo and would never hurt someone on purpose—at least we’ve never seen any sign of aggression from her—but hippos are the second-largest land mammal in the world.
Only elephants are larger. Bertha’s bite is three times the strength of a lion’s, and her teeth are formidable.
You don’t want to get a nibble from her.
Hippos are social creatures, but Bertha has been here by herself.
We recently learned we will be receiving a male hippo in a few weeks, and we think Bertha will be happy with the addition.
A group of hippos is called a bloat or a pod.
Or sometimes just a herd, but I like the other terms better. ”
A teenage boy at the front of the group waved his hand. “Does she live in the water all the time?”
“Hippos have no sweat glands, so they have to be in the water quite a lot,” a girl next to him said. “Right?”
“That’s right. And they can hold their breath for five minutes. They often sleep underwater—we call that rafting. She’ll often
do that with her nostrils sticking above the water’s surface.”
Blake let them ooh and aah over Bertha and walked away to check his phone. Hez was supposed to call with an update on his
research into the probate case surrounding the Steerforth property. Call me was in a text from his cousin. Blake held up his phone to Paradise, who nodded that she’d keep the group together. He returned
Hez’s call.
“Hey, that was fast,” Hez said. “I’ll be brief since I know you’re working. Dean contested the probate, but he had no evidence
other than his own word. Mary claimed she’d looked for the will and couldn’t find it. In a deposition, she said the only person
who claimed Allen had made a will was Dean. She’d signed Allen’s truck over to Dean before he contested the probate, and they
had a sharp argument about it. She kicked him out of the house, and he left town when the court denied his petition. The judge
found no compelling evidence to believe him.”
“What does that mean for us?” Blake asked.
“If the will is found, Dean would reopen probate to have the sale set aside. Mary would have to repay him, but you’re still out of the property.
The court would kick everything back to being between Mary and Dean.
Your mom isn’t automatically protected as a good-faith buyer, though the judge could still find she had no responsibility to find the will.
It’s all speculative. Even if she’s found not liable, she’d have to wait to be repaid once this all played out.
Property costs more today, so finding another place could be problematic. ”
“Would it be possible for Mary to give Dean what she received for the sale and let us keep the property?”
“That would have to be negotiated on their own. I have my doubts Dean would agree to that, but I could be wrong.”
“I could try to talk to Dean and see what he intends. Mom thinks we should search the property for the will.” A long pause
ensued, and Blake pulled his phone back from his ear to see if the call was still connected. It was. “Hez, you there?”
“I’m absorbing that crazy news. I should have expected Aunt Jenna would come to that conclusion. Her integrity is admirable,
but I can’t say I agree with a move like that. It’s not her responsibility to ensure Allen’s wishes are carried out. Especially
with the cloud of suspicion Dean is under.”
“I’ve been torn about it,” Blake admitted. “It’s hard to know what’s the right thing to do, but I’m going to search and whatever
happens is God’s will. In the meantime I’ll talk to Dean and let him know we know about his assertions and ask what he intends
to do if we find it. I might be able to get a feel for his guilt or innocence in Allen’s death. I have good instincts that
tell me when someone is lying.”
Blake saw several guests move toward the safari truck. “I’d better go. It’s time to head to the next safari stop. Thanks for
your work on this, Hez. I’m sure we’ll owe you for more than our standard free hours.”
“Not in this lifetime.” Hez’s chuckle was low and relaxed. “I’m not about to trample on people I love when they’re hanging
by a thread.”
Blake thanked him and ended the call. Hanging by a thread. That was a good way to put it. What did the future hold if they lost the park? The loss would affect all their employees
and volunteers—people he cared about like Clark and Mason, not just his family. It felt like a doomsday event was heading
their way, and he couldn’t figure out how to move them all to safety.
Blake parked his truck behind Paradise’s building and shut off the engine. “I thought we’d walk over from here. Mary said
Dean usually gets off around eight, so we should head that way.”
Paradise unfastened her seat belt and opened her door. She took his hand and they crossed the street. She hadn’t said much
when he told her what Hez had discovered about the probate case. Jenna hadn’t either. There was no point in discussing what
might be coming until they got a sense of Dean’s intentions. Paradise’s mind worried the situation like one of her kittens
with a catnip mouse.
She still felt blindsided by his rejection of her marriage proposal. Did he not love her enough to make a plan to do something
unconventional?
Uncertainty was her usual state of mind with the way she’d had to expect circumstances to change on a day-to-day basis. Even
after her stint in foster care, she’d never stayed at a job more than three years for various reasons. Her shoulder gave her
a sympathetic twinge, and she rubbed it.
They stood off to one side in the back lot of Chet’s BBQ and waited for Dean to make an appearance. The aroma of smoked meats
wafted toward them, mingling with sweet scents from the bakery on the next street over. But she wasn’t hungry, not when the
coming confrontation would tell them what to expect.
Blake gave her fingers a comforting squeeze. “This will be over soon.”
The word over felt ominous when she knew what the changes could mean, but she nodded. Learning to trust anyone, even Blake, came hard to
her, and after his reaction last night, she was even more uncertain of their future.
The wooden screen door in the back opened and banged shut. Dean carried a take-out bag and wore a smile that vanished when
he spotted them. The wind blew his curly brown hair onto his forehead, and he approached with a cautious expression.
“Hey, Dean, you have a minute?” Blake’s tone was friendly and easygoing.
“That’s about all I have. My girlfriend’s waiting at my apartment.”
“We won’t keep you long. Your aunt told me you’d been looking around for a will you think might be stashed at the property.
And my camera caught you entering my apartment. Touch DNA showed it was you.”
Dean’s brown eyes darted away and his jaw slackened for a long moment before he took a step back. “Uh, I’m not sure what she’s
talking about. I mean, yeah, I contested the probate when Uncle Allen died.”
He doesn’t want to admit he’s trespassed.
Paradise saw the same realization dawn on Blake’s face. She clung to his hand and squeezed his fingers. Dean’s reluctance
to admit the truth might be something Blake could use.
“If you do find the will, I wondered if you’d be amenable to your aunt Mary paying you what we paid for the land.”
Paradise watched Dean’s thought process and the accompanying emotions flicker across his face. Fear, disbelief, calculation,
and finally hope. “Well, I don’t know. It’s worth a lot more now.”
“Not that much. If you sold it elsewhere, you’d have to figure out what to do with the animals. Some of those came with the property. Some lions and a tiger and other big animals.”
Dean shrugged, and his brown eyes went hard. “I’d just shoot them.”
Blake’s jaw flexed, but his voice was even when he spoke. “And where would you bury them? You can’t just let them rot on the
ground.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s right. You’d have to take them.”
“Some of them aren’t ours,” Blake reminded him. “They originally belonged to your aunt and uncle.”
“Whoever buys the land for the rare earth could deal with it.” The second the words were out of his mouth, Dean gritted his
teeth and exhaled. He hadn’t meant to say that.
Blake recoiled and glanced at Paradise. “Rare earth?”
“Never mind. I’ll figure it out. But you shouldn’t count on keeping the property.”
“If there was a will,” Paradise added.
“Oh, there’s a will, all right. I saw it with my own two eyes.”
“The probate court didn’t find any evidence of one.”
“Says who?”
“My attorney checked it out. You were unable to bring any proof to the court.”
“That doesn’t mean the will doesn’t exist. I know it does, and I’ll find it.”
“Maybe your uncle destroyed it.”
“He didn’t have ti—” Dean broke off and brushed past them on his way to the truck.
Blake clung to Paradise’s hand, and they watched him go. “Did he start to say Allen didn’t have time?” Paradise whispered
when Dean’s tires spit gravel in his urgency to get away from them.
“I think it’s likely.” Blake rubbed his head. “I think he killed his uncle. I wasn’t sure before, but I can sense his desperation. He’s found out about the rare earth somehow, and that’s driving this new determination to find the will.”
“I think so too.” She walked with him back to her building. “I’ve got some steaks I can grill for dinner.”
He hesitated. “I probably should go home and tell Mom what happened. Not only is Dean determined to find that will, but he
plans to sell it and have the property destroyed by mining. He has no care for neighbors or the land.”
“I’ll grab them and meet you at the house then. I’ll fix dinner and you can talk to your mom. Do you think she’ll still be
determined to look for the will?”
“Probably. Honestly, I don’t know what’s right. Do we actively try to turn the property over to someone who plans to destroy
everything around us, someone who’s a murderer as well? He has no conscience. I could sense it.”
Paradise could, too, but she didn’t want to sway him if he had a strong conviction on what to do. She tried to imagine the
animals dispersed across the country and the land with gaping holes. The buildings would be gone. And what about their neighbors?
How could allowing such destruction be the right thing to do?
The bright future she’d envisioned seemed more and more elusive.