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 againsther 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.”
