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“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.”
EPILOGUE
Before Shelton could make the arrest, Wendy Barlow was gone.
It was not a happy time at the Cottonwood County Sheriff’s Department.
Think the deepest, darkest cloud blotting out the spring sun. In the case of Shelton, whose cloud was deeper and darker than all the rest, a cloud quite close to the ground, too.
Think multiple bears, each with a huge thorn in its paw, taking it out on humanity. Especially the portion of humanity known as the local media. Despite several representatives of said media being the reason the sheriff’s department even knew there was an arrest they wanted to make.
I wondered how Diana was faring with Russ. When I raised one eyebrow in a sympathetic How’s it going? query, she shook her head in a clear, Don’t ask.
The Cottonwood County Sheriff’s Department received the official report from the HelixKin test.
It was nice to have the official confirmation.
Keefe was Wendy’s uncle’s son.
