Page 81 of A Mile of Ocean

Scott grinned. “Tell them I suggested it. Trust me. They won’t think you’ve lost your mind.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The meeting with Kinsey Wyatt was enlightening in many ways that Trent and Tate hadn’t expected. They sat transfixed as new details emerged from the lawyer.

“I had noticed tension between your grandparents, especially over the last two years. For one, your grandmother vehemently opposed establishing the Painted Heart Foundation.”

“That’s what set this off, isn’t it?” Tate declared. “She didn’t want Granddad funding any of it.”

“Initially. But then she began to get upset over other things. It became a contest of sorts between them. Barrett couldn’t do anything right. And apparently neither could I.”

“Similar to how she reacted to his choice of burial site,” Trent said. “Should Tate and I have stayed out of that?”

“Once again, I believe his choice reflected how tense the situation had become. At the time, I asked him why he chose Turtle Ridge instead of the family cemetery where Travis and Linley were buried. I’m not completely clueless; I knew the family burial plot existed. However, his response was quite revealing. He said, and I quote: ‘Because it would piss off Duchess.’ And he was correct. I anticipated her objection and figured it was inevitable. Additionally, I found it strange that she didn’t attend the reading of the will when she was just upstairs refusing to leave her bedroom.”

Trent nodded. “Yeah. Same here.”

“But I didn’t feel like dealing with the will either,” Tate noted. “I thought it was too soon. It never occurred to me that she was in her room the entire time, talking to Cooper Richmond about creating a family tree. I still don’t understand why she did that if her family had such a dark past.”

“I think I know why,” Kinsey offered. “To explain it, I need to go back about a year earlier when your grandparents were in here about another matter. Duchess didn’t seem to know much about Barrett’s background, which bothered her.”

“How can that be when they were married for almost sixty years?” Trent asked, astonished at the revelation.

“Good question. All I know is what happened at that meeting. Duchess kept drilling him for details about where he grew up, where he kept his birth certificate, and what his family was like. She grew impatient when he couldn’t tell her much about his family. Thanks to Cooper, we know that Barrett wasn’t lying. He didn’t know many details to share about his parents because he was raised in an orphanage. So, my theory is that she hired Cooper to dig up some dirt on the Callums in case she needed it later.”

Trent leaned back in his chair. “Ah, in case we brought a lawsuit against her once we discovered she’d taken all the money.”

Kinsey removed a set of papers from a file folder. “As you’ll see, I kept a copy of everything related to my dealings with your grandparents. Her goal, I believe, was to get rid of Barrett first, then make sure the Rio Verde Ranch failed financially. She wanted to move back to Green River and devote all her attention to her prized baby, the Triple C.”

“So why didn’t she simply move back? Why did she have to kill Granddad to do that?”

“No idea. But I do have a theory. She didn’t want to share her financial empire with anyone—certainly not Barrett or you. And she definitely didn’t want anyone to learn how she had finagled the Triple C out of Noble Colter’s hands—which is still a bit of a mystery.”

“We’ve decided to give the Triple C back to the Bohannon family,” Trent announced.

Kinsey looked surprised. “It’s a multi-million-dollar operation. Are you sure you want to do that? We could probably—”

“No. We want it gone,” Tate said. “We’re washing our hands of the whole nasty mess. Send a letter informing the family’s attorney of our decision.However, Trent and I would like to know what happens to her will and anything pertaining to Rio Verde now that she’s dead. You were her lawyer, right?”

“Originally, I was. But about six months ago, she informed me that she’d retained counsel in Green River, that she’d made a new will, and that I could forget about the one I’d drawn up. I told her I needed that in writing. Several days later, she dropped off a letter. That’s when I believe she began planning her move back to Wyoming.”

“Six months ago,” Trent said, shaking his head. “Who was her new beneficiary?”

“Chester de Haviland, the man Brent has in custody.”

Trent rubbed his chin. “Interesting. Is the cousin still talking to law enforcement?”

“Absolutely. The guy is cooperating because he wants to cut a deal. He insists he didn’t murder anyone. However, even if he’s convicted of the lesser accessory to murder by helping to conceal the murder weapon, I guarantee he won’t see a dime of her millions. It might even revert to the original will, depending on how a Wyoming judge rules. I have the original will dated twoyears earlier, naming you two as her beneficiaries. I have no idea what changed with Duchess during those two years.”

“But something did,” Tate surmised. “It must’ve been major for her to commit murder.”

“Remember that Chester de Haviland is still on the hook for making the pipe bombs,” Kinsey informed them. “The ATF will probably get involved. Then there’s the whole situation in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Brent is communicating with the local authorities about what Chester knows regarding Colter Bohannon’s apparent suicide. This will likely become complicated.”

“Murder always complicates things,” Tate muttered.

“If Duchess had lived to face prosecution and had been found guilty, she couldn’t have profited from Barrett’s estate. Barrett’s will would have reverted to both of you. I admit his estate right now is messy, waiting for the probate judge to sift through all the documentation. But the law is clear that her estate cannot benefit from murdering your grandfather in any way.”

“But she was never convicted,” Trent said.

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