“I could try to talk to Dean and see what he intends. Mom thinks we should search the property for the will.” A long pause ensued, and Blake pulled his phone back from his ear to see if the call was still connected. It was. “Hez, you there?”
“I’m absorbing that crazy news. I should have expected Aunt Jenna would come to that conclusion. Her integrity is admirable, but I can’t say I agree with a move like that. It’s not her responsibility to ensure Allen’s wishes are carried out. Especially with the cloud of suspicion Dean is under.”
“I’ve been torn about it,” Blake admitted. “It’s hard to know what’s the right thing to do, but I’m going to search and whatever happens is God’s will. In the meantime I’ll talk to Dean and let him know we know about his assertions and ask what he intends to do if we find it. I might be able to get a feel for his guilt or innocence in Allen’s death. I have good instincts that tell me when someone is lying.”
Blake saw several guests move toward the safari truck. “I’d better go. It’s time to head to the next safari stop. Thanks for your work on this, Hez. I’m sure we’ll owe you for more than our standard free hours.”
“Not in this lifetime.” Hez’s chuckle was low and relaxed. “I’m not about to trample on people I love when they’re hanging by a thread.”
Blake thanked him and ended the call.Hanging by a thread. That was a good way to put it. What did the future hold if they lost the park? The loss would affect all their employees and volunteers—people he cared about like Clark and Mason, not just his family. It felt like a doomsday event was heading their way, and he couldn’t figure out how to move them all to safety.
Blake parked his truck behind Paradise’s building and shut off the engine. “I thought we’d walk over from here. Mary said Dean usually gets off around eight, so we should head that way.”
Paradise unfastened her seat belt and opened her door. She took his hand and they crossed the street. She hadn’t said much when he told her what Hez had discovered about the probate case. Jenna hadn’t either. There was no point in discussing what might be coming until they got a sense of Dean’s intentions. Paradise’s mind worried the situation like one of her kittens with a catnip mouse.
She still felt blindsided by his rejection of her marriage proposal. Did he not love her enough to make a plan to do something unconventional?
Uncertainty was her usual state of mind with the way she’d had to expect circumstances to change on a day-to-day basis. Even after her stint in foster care, she’d never stayed at a job more than three years for various reasons. Her shoulder gave her a sympathetic twinge, and she rubbed it.
They stood off to one side in the back lot of Chet’s BBQ and waited for Dean to make an appearance. The aroma of smoked meats wafted toward them, mingling with sweet scents from the bakery on the next street over. But she wasn’t hungry, not when the coming confrontation would tell them what to expect.
Blake gave her fingers a comforting squeeze. “This will be over soon.”
The wordoverfelt ominous when she knew what the changes could mean, but she nodded. Learning to trust anyone, even Blake, came hard to her, and after his reaction last night, she was even more uncertain of their future.
The wooden screen door in the back opened and banged shut. Dean carried a take-out bag and wore a smile that vanished when he spotted them. The wind blew his curly brown hair onto his forehead, and he approached with a cautious expression.
“Hey, Dean, you have a minute?” Blake’s tone was friendly and easygoing.
“That’s about all I have. My girlfriend’s waiting at my apartment.”
“We won’t keep you long. Your aunt told me you’d been looking around for a will you think might be stashed at the property. And my camera caught you entering my apartment. Touch DNA showed it was you.”
Dean’s brown eyes darted away and his jaw slackened for a long moment before he took a step back. “Uh, I’m not sure what she’s talking about. I mean, yeah, I contested the probate when Uncle Allen died.”
He doesn’t want to admit he’s trespassed.
Paradise saw the same realization dawn on Blake’s face. She clung to his hand and squeezed his fingers. Dean’s reluctance to admit the truth might be something Blake could use.
“If you do find the will, I wondered if you’d be amenable to your aunt Mary paying you what we paid for the land.”
Paradise watched Dean’s thought process and the accompanying emotions flicker across his face. Fear, disbelief, calculation, and finally hope. “Well, I don’t know. It’s worth a lot more now.”
“Not that much. If you sold it elsewhere, you’d have to figure out what to do with the animals. Some of those came with the property. Some lions and a tiger and other big animals.”
Dean shrugged, and his brown eyes went hard. “I’d just shoot them.”
Blake’s jaw flexed, but his voice was even when he spoke. “And where would you bury them? You can’t just let them rot on the ground.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s right. You’d have to take them.”
“Some of them aren’t ours,” Blake reminded him. “They originally belonged to your aunt and uncle.”
“Whoever buys the land for the rare earth could deal with it.” The second the words were out of his mouth, Dean gritted his teeth and exhaled. He hadn’t meant to say that.
Blake recoiled and glanced at Paradise. “Rare earth?”
“Never mind. I’ll figure it out. But you shouldn’t count on keeping the property.”
