Chapter Forty-Four

"I don't disbelieveit," Diana said. "After all, I saw it. I just don't understand why. And I'd really like to, considering the woman held a shotgun on us."

Our debrief with Mike and Jennifer had to wait until Shelton was done with us.

No big surprise he let Diana go first.

No big surprise, either, that Tom showed up at the sheriff's department, making sure I was okay and following me home to make sure all over again, before kissing me thoroughly, saying we'd talk about this more, then going home to his daughter.

I didn't mind the showing up and the kissing, accepted the going home to his daughter as part of the package of our relationship, but the future talking wasn't my favorite.

"What started it," I said, "was remembering Mrs. P's apostrophes. And that reminded me of talking to Robin Kenyon about them."

"Well, that explains everything," Diana said.

We couldn't get all of us together until after Mike's last broadcast. He'd traded his on-air wardrobe for a t-shirt and probably jeans. The rest of us were in t-shirts, too. I was in bed after a long shower, with Shadow and Suzie Q on nearby beds.

It was a remote pajama party.

"It does explain everything," I agreed. "Instead of saying Ulla's and Chester's, Mrs. P said Ulla and Chester's. He was Ulla and Chester's much-loved boy."

None of the others jumped up and shouted Eureka!

I wrote it out on a piece of paper, then held it up so all could see.

Another couple of non-Eureka! beats, then Jennifer said, "Oh.... Oh."

"You've got it Jennifer?" Diana asked.

"It's that rule Mrs. P talked about. I don't remember what she called it, but I thought of it as fighting over custody or joint custody — that's not what it was called, but my friend's parents were getting divorced and she had to talk to a judge about stuff like that, so that's what I connected it to."

"Makes sense. Now, can you explain it to these other two, who must have been sleeping when Mrs. P taught them that lesson."

"When each person gets his or her own apostrophe, it's like individual custody, but—"

"Mrs. P didn't talk about custody," Mike objected. "Take it out of custody."

"Fine," Jennifer said with irritation nibbling the edges of her voice. "Say you're talking about... about a new van for the station. If you say Diana's and Elizabeth's, then they each get one. But if you say Diana and Elizabeth's, then it's joint and they're sharing one."

"Heaven forbid sharing a news ride with Elizabeth," Diana muttered. "Everything would be over by the time we got to the assignments."

"But that wasn't about vans or custody—" Mike broke off with a whistle.

He'd gotten it. So had Diana.

Having caught up after her timeout for a crack about having to share a ride with me, she said, "He was Ulla and Chester's much-loved boy, meant the two of them. Together. When you explained it to Robin, you were saying Wendy and Brenda were not a couple, but Mrs. P was saying Ulla and Chester were. But—"

"Don't rush it. So, the apostrophes got me thinking of them as couple. A unit. Joint." I nodded acknowledgment to Jennifer. "And that got me thinking maybe they really had been a couple. I did wonder if I should give it any credence."

"Not because Mrs. P isn't an entirely reliable source, but whether she said what I thought she said—"

"With Mrs. P's enunciation, you heard it, all right."

"That was the conclusion I came to. In fairness," I said meekly, "I did immediately dismiss the possibility that Mrs. P hadn't meant the grammatical distinction."

"Oh, yeah, she meant it. She wouldn't have gotten her apostrophes wrong. Not ever," Jennifer said.

"So I started thinking what if they had been a couple. And I remembered Ulla had worked for the Barlows before he brought her and Keefe to work and live at the ranch, which started me thinking about the hijinks he might have committed that led to his break from the family. Getting the help pregnant might have been one thing to the Barlows, but wanting a role in the child's life?"

"But he didn't marry her, acknowledge Keefe," Jennifer protested.

"No, he didn't. Maybe he couldn't make that big of a leap from the Barlows. Who knows — maybe Ulla didn't want marriage. Maybe she wanted to protect him from any possibility of Barlow interference. Anyway, wondering if Keefe could have been Chester's son put a whole new light on the DNA results."

"You think that's why he took the test? He suspected?"

"We can't know for sure, but I'd guess no. I'd guess he truly took the test hoping to find he was descended from Oscar and Pearl. But the results would have shown that he had relatives and that almost certainly would have led to connecting the dots to his parentage. If Keefe didn't have the knowledge to do that, Robin Kenyon did."

"But Chester didn't leave him anything in his will." Jennifer was not liking how Keefe was treated.

"Officially, he didn't leave anybody anything. Wendy talked like Chester left the ranch to her, but that wasn't ever true. James Longbaugh said everything went to Chester's closest relatives — known relatives — which included Wendy, but also her brothers. They, basically, gave her the ranch. Continuing the previous generations' washing of hands when it came to anything Chester related."

"So, if Keefer Dobey proved by DNA that he was Chester's son he could have claimed a share of the ranch," Mike declared.

I raised my shoulders. "Maybe's the best we can do. For sure, he'd have to establish paternity first. And the fact that the estate was distributed decades ago... It would go through the courts and that makes it's hard to predict."

"But Wendy could have thought it meant that," Mike said.

"Oh, yes. She could have. Especially because I've got to wonder if she didn't orchestrate the way inheriting the ranch went."

I reminded them of what Brenda said about when Chester died.

"A fire in July," Mike mused.

"Intriguing, isn't it?" I asked.

Jennifer sat up. "You think there was a will?"

"I don't suppose we'll ever know for sure unless Wendy Barlow decides to tell and why would she? It would just make her guilty of more. It might have been a risk — what if her brothers didn't turn the ranch over to her? Although the Barlow attitude made that a good gamble. But if there was a will that didn't leave her the ranch or divided it among her, Keefer, and Brenda, then what did she have to lose?

"Plus, if she didn't know or suspect Keefe was Chester's son, why would she care if he had a DNA test? She had to know. Otherwise the DNA test would have represented only Keefe's fantasy of being descended from Oscar and Pearl, as it did to everyone else As for a will, it didn't absolutely have to exist. Chester might have told her Keefe was his son—"

"He might have told her, true, but burning a will explains a fire in July," Mike said, "Also why she kept the other two — Keefe and Brenda — away from him at the end, according to Brenda."

"Chester telling her then that Keefe was his son also explains why she suddenly stopped being sweet on him, as Brenda said," Diana said. "He was her cousin, as well as her rival for the ranch."

"I can guess which bothered her more." Jennifer's insight to the woman was impressive, especially since she'd never met Wendy in person. "Oh. What if Chester left everything to Keefe? That whole give-it-all-to-the-guy nonsense. That would explain everything she did, too. Even her being kind of bitter. Can't really blame her, either.

"Except for the part where she shot Keefe three times."