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“You’ve always resented—”
They both broke off and turned to Diana and me as if we’d just intruded on a private dispute, rather than them airing it in front of us.
Brenda recovered first, which surprised me. And reminded me not to underestimate the woman.
“You want to know why that Kenyon man was here today, you ask her.” Brenda jerked her chin in the direction of Wendy.
Brenda clearly had something she wanted to share. If I had to reach it via a Jeopardy-style pro forma question, no problem.
“Today? Or the day before yesterday? Why did he come to the ranch?” I asked both of them.
“I have no idea,” Wendy said promptly.
“Yes, you do,” Brenda immediately disputed. “Same reason both days.”
I popped out another question in response to her leading statement. “Why was he here the day before Keefe was shot? Did he see Keefer?”
“Keefer? Why would he see him?” Wendy demanded.
“Well, Robin saw Keefe. Though just for a few minutes, after he came in and before Randall stormed off — sort of like today.”
“Why’d he storm off then?”
Before Brenda could use her intake of breath on words, Wendy rolled her eyes and said, “I told you then and I’ll tell you now, I didn’t know he was coming, I didn’t know he was going to try to buy my ranch, and I told him no — N-O.”
“He wants to buy the ranch?” That was not a deliberate Jeopardy-esque question, but surprise coming out.
“Sure as hell does. Said it bold as brass on Monday.”
Before Brenda could say more, Wendy broke in. “And you stopped listening and got all emotional when he said it.”
“It is emotional when someone wants to buy your home out from under you.”
“It’s my home. And he’s trying to buy it from me.”
“See? So you had been talking to him about it. He said he’d been talking to—”
“He hadn’t been talking to me. He’d been nosing around into what’s none of his business. My personal affairs.” She jerked her head around to us. “He came here — uninvited. Made an offer to buy Elk Rock Ranch — uninvited. I told him no. By the time I could get that word in, Robin had gone off with Keefe. Randall Kenyon wasn’t leaving without his daughter, so I left — went into the barn, mucking out stalls. He followed, but only a short way. I wasn’t being real careful with where what I threw out of the stall landed. He got the hint. He got out of my sight. No idea what he did after that.”
“Did he leave without his daughter? Or—”
“I’m telling you, I have no idea.”
“You must have noticed if his vehicle was still here or not?”
“Left about four-thirty,” Brenda said.
“See? There you have it,” Wendy said, as if I’d never want any more information. Foolish woman.
“Could he have come back? Would you have heard the vehicle?”
They exchanged a look. For all the friction between them, there also was a communication, a connection built from the decades of close contact.
“Didn’t hear it,” Wendy said.
In a reversal of roles, Brenda snorted. “You wouldn’t have heard it if it parked under your window and revved the engine.” She turned toward us. “I didn’t hear it and I don’t sleep like the dead like her. But...”
She drew that out.
