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“You’re good,” I said.
“No better than you. I think the two of us together might be able to solve this thing.”
“I sure hope so. I’ve got to get my father put away.”
“You will. We will. We’re all in this together now, and we’ve got some serious brainpower among all of us. The four Steels, you, me, and Melanie—we’ll figure this out.”
I let out a sigh. “We will.” I said it more to convince myself than Jade.
“So…there’s another thing.”
“What?”
“The quitclaim deed for the Shane ranch. We all looked it over quickly, and none of us noticed the date.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yeah. It’s several weeks after Brad Steel’s death.”
“Wow. I didn’t actually look at the deed.”
“Yeah, and there’s the fact that the Shanes didn’t actually leave until a couple of years ago.”
“Ryan said he and Anna broke up two years ago.”
“Exactly.”
“So the Steels owned the ranch before the Shanes left?”
“Apparently.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know. The Shanes were paid off somehow, and if Brad was dead, who would have paid them off?”
“Wendy.”
“That’s my guess as well,” Jade agreed.
“But where would Wendy get that kind of money?” My mind was barreling through every possible scenario. “From Brad. Which means…” I shivered.
“Which means,” Jade continued, “it’s possible that Brad’s not dead. It’s all adding up. Wendy identified the body. The death certificate of a guy matching Brad’s description. The quitclaim deed.”
“So Brad could have called Ryan.” My mind churned. “He could have found out that Ryan now knows he’s Wendy’s son, and he wanted to talk to him.”
“Probably.”
“God, Jade. What does this all mean? Why would Brad have faked his own death? What if he’s into all this horrid stuff with my father? What’s that going to do to Ryan and his brothers and sister?” I didn’t even want to go there.
She sighed across the phone line. “I don’t know. But they’ll deal. They’ve dealt with worse.”
“I guess they’ll have to.”
“They’ll want to know these findings. Do you want to come over tonight? We can tell them together.”
“I’m not sure I should be there. The rest of you are all…family.”
“You’re Ryan’s girlfriend, and this involves you as much as it does us.”
