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Not about Esther Ramalarga or Pearl Virtanen.
Something tickling at the back of my brain. Something I was missing.
And I could swear, somehow, I could hear my own voice saying...
But that was to Robin. While what Mrs. P said—
Oh.
I had it.
And it shifted everything.
But was I making too much of it?
Making too much of something Mrs. P said?
No way.
Mrs. P said it and she meant it. And that meant... I’d been looking at this all wrong. We all had.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The first rack visible in the tack room held only one saddle. Wendy disappeared for a second, then brought another to the rack and rested it there. Considering its stirrup hung by a ribbon of leather, I guessed she was gathering the saddles that needed fixing.
“Wendy, we need to talk.”
“I’m busy.” She didn’t stop her methodical movements, back and forth, back and forth. A third saddle. A fourth.
“It was the DNA test, wasn’t it, Wendy?” I kept my voice calm and reasonable, careful not to lead with an accusation. “Keefe was getting the test results back and you couldn’t have that. Did you intercept results once already? But how many times could that work? How many sets could you destroy?”
Wendy went for another saddle — and reappeared immediately with a shotgun pointed at us. It must have been behind the door.
I heard Diana’s quick intake of breath beside me.
I’d rushed it. Too far, too fast.
She’d been close to the edge, pushed there by her own knowledge and Randall’s fake note.
“Get your hands out of your pockets,” Wendy ordered.
I’d unlocked my phone, but didn’t persist.
She gestured for us to back up slightly. Afraid we’d rush her? Or not wanting blood and... evidence... all over herself?
The Kenyons and McCrackens were silent behind us. They had to know the shotgun could reach them, too. Though she couldn’t get everybody before somebody could rush her.
Small comfort with Diana and me in the front row.
“Should have used this on him instead of that peashooter. But even Brenda would have woken up. She’s always trying to make out I’m the deaf one, but she’s worse.”
I thought I heard footsteps. Right or wrong, the best thing I could do now was stall.
“Did you see the DNA results?”
“The DNA results, the DNA results. I am so tired about hearing about those damned things. If the results were just about those stupid outlaws he was always going on about, everything would have been fine,” she snapped. “My uncle said — but I thought maybe he was wrong or Ulla lied to him. But those results said it was true. Showed him right there with the other Barlows.”
“You destroyed the first set of results. Like you burned your uncle’s will. Did he leave the ranch to all three of you or just you and Keefe?”
