Lace & Lassos

by Cheyenne McCray

  “I’ll see if I can find the keys.” She put her hands on her hips. “They’ve got to be around somewhere.”

  He tugged her ponytail. “I’m going to take another look around.”

  “And I’ll get back to my search,” she said.

  He left the room and she smiled as she went around to the opposite side of the desk.

  The old leather chair creaked as she settled into it. She placed her hands flat on the monthly calendar that still showed the month her father died. To his last days he had used this office, even when he no longer ran the ranch.

  What about the sale that had been in the works with the neighboring rancher? Would Harold follow through with that sale and reap the benefits from it if she was kicked out?

  The thought made her feel let down somehow. She’d planned to use the money to restore the ranch back into a profitable business. What would happen now?

  Nope. She took a deep breath. Not going to think that way.

  She opened the center drawer. Pens, pencils, paperclips, and a roll of stamps. Her father never had gotten into communicating via a computer—email had been alien to him. He’d kept all of his financials written out by hand in a ledger. He had notebook after notebook that he’d kept over the years.

  In his other drawers she found odds and ends, like a stapler, hole punch, and a set of three keys. There they are, she thought with triumph. One key had a tag with cedar chest, another with the tag, gun cabinet. The third key was weird-shaped and didn’t have a tag. She figured it must be for some kind of trunk, too

  The cedar chest had been her mother’s and was kept in the sewing room as a table and the gun cabinet in her father’s closet. As far as she knew all of his old hunting rifles had been sold. But who knew if he had stored anything in the cabinet.

  She didn’t find any paperwork until she got to the main file drawer. She pushed aside the chair and knelt beside the drawer and started pulling out file folders. Soon she was cross-legged with papers spread around her.

  “Finished looking everywhere I can think of,” Wayne said as he poked his head into the study. “Find the keys?”

  “Yep.” She raised the set of three.

  He held out his hand and she tossed the keys to him. He caught them in the air. “Be right back.”

  Kaitlyn sighed as she turned her attention back to the papers. She went through a few more file folders then paused when she came across a group of yellowed papers with a business card attached to them.

  When she drew them out her heart beat a little faster. It was her grandfather’s last will and testament. She flipped through the pages and saw where the property had been given to both her father and Uncle John. The will stated that the furniture and other effects in the house were to be divided equally between brothers. Cash and other investments had been given to her two aunts.

  She bit her lower lip. Obviously Uncle John and her aunts had been satisfied with what was split as it was here in her father’s home. Since it was in her possession, according to the attorney, it now all belonged to her. Maybe when this was over with she would part with some things and split them between the cousins, but she wasn’t going to let Harold start going through everything and picking and choosing what he wanted.

  Further into the stack of papers, she found the ruling of the probate court, which affirmed the will that left the property to both her father and her uncle.

  But this didn’t prove anything other than what her grandfather had left his sons.

  She came across the tax bill for the property, which included her uncle’s and her father’s names on it. The bill had come to her fathers address. She had noticed on the public record for her uncle’s property, the address was in his name only.

  “Why would Daddy never have changed the name on the tax record sent to him for his own property?” She knew he was a good rancher, but never one for details. There was always something left undone. “Knowing him, he just never got to it and figured it didn’t matter. Who knows now? But, there’s no way he intended for his brother to get this property. It makes no sense.”

  The only thing she found that was even close to being useful was the name and information for her father’s old attorney. Mr. Charles S. Tucker. She kept out a yellowed business card that had been paper clipped to her grandfather’s will and the probate court ruling. She remembered the attorney’s name having been mentioned in the past, now that she was looking at it.

  After she put everything back in the drawer but the will and the ruling, Wayne returned with the keys and handed them to her. “The gun cabinet is empty and as far as I can tell there’s no false bottom or panel. The cedar chest is filled with things from when you were a baby.” He grinned. “Cute little booties and pink blankies.”

  She smiled back at him. “Mama loved to keep mementos.”

  He gestured to the keys she was now holding. “Any idea what the third key is for?”

  “No clue.” She shook her head then tossed the keys into the top drawer of the desk and shut the drawer. “I did find these papers, not that they probably matter.” She handed him what she had found and he looked them over.

  “Keep them out and we’ll give them to the attorney,” Wayne said. “It’s possible that he can use them in court.”

  “So nothing else in the study or anywhere else in the house,” she said slowly. “No safes or other places to hide documents.” Her heart started to sink. “I really thought we were going to find something. I just knew it.” She raised her hands then let them fall again. “And now…” She looked around her and the tears wanted to come. “Nothing.”

  “We’ll just look again,” Wayne said. “I’ll take the study, you search the rest of the house. Maybe one of us will find something the other missed.”

  She looked at the floor then met his gaze again. “I think we were both probably really thorough, but it’s worth a shot.”

  “That’s my girl.” He swatted her on the butt.

  “I’m going to put a casserole in the oven.” She gestured in the direction of the kitchen. “It’s getting close to dinner.”

  He flipped on the study lights. Sunlight was waning. “Buckling in for the long haul,” he said.

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Looks like that’s what it will be.”

  She left the study door open and headed to the kitchen. She picked out an easy enchilada casserole, tossed all of the ingredients into a baking dish and put it into the oven that she had preheated.

  After she grabbed a couple of cans of Pepsi, she headed to the study and handed one to Wayne. “Maybe the sugar and caffeine will give us a boost,” she said with a smile. “And dinner is in the oven.”

  He raised his can. “Here’s to luck in finding whatever it is we need to find.”

  She toasted him and their cans made a metallic sound when they came together. As she left the study she thought about what a difference eight years had made. Back then they would have been toasting with bottles of Corona. A lot of good had happened while she’d been gone.

  When she reached the master bedroom, what had been her father’s bedroom, she stopped for a moment, wondering where to begin. She’d planned to redo the entire room in royal blue, taupe, and cream, with a new bedroom set, to make it hers. And now she might never get a chance—it just might end up being her cousin’s home.

  The thought caused her stomach to twist and her throat to ache.

  No. She couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t let him have her home.

  She gritted her teeth with determination. Whatever it took, she was going to find the documents that proved this house belonged to her.

  She started searching—looking in corners, going through drawers, and even peeking behind pictures in case her father had some crazy idea that he should hide a wall safe behind one.

  Warm smells floated from the kitchen as she and Wayne worked and her stomach growled. Searching for the documents was becoming increasingly frustrating and being hungry wasn’t helping.

 
“Honey,” Wayne called to her from the study. “I found something.”

  Tired, hungry, and not too optimistic, she went to the study. When she walked in he turned his attention to a folded piece of paper on the desk.

  She went to him and looked at the paper. It looked like a letter—and an odd key was taped to the bottom of the letter. “What is this?”

  Wayne had her sit down. “Read it.”

  To my little Kaity,

  The key is to a safe deposit box at the National Bank of Sierra Vista. Your mama’s wedding ring is in the box along with a few other things that I want you to have.

  Love,

  Your daddy

  Tears bit at the backs of Kaitlyn’s eyes and she covered her mouth with her hand. Her father hadn’t called her his little Kaity in years. Reading the words reminded her of how much she missed him, how much she’d loved him.

  “Maybe this is where he put the papers,” Wayne said as he rubbed her shoulders. “I’ll bet it is.”

  She’d been so overwhelmed by her father’s note that the thought hadn’t occurred to her. She smiled up at Wayne. “That would be so great.”

  “Does it say anywhere on the note what the box number is?” he asked.

  “Doesn’t look like it.” She started to remove the key by pulling away the tape. The tape seemed older, as if it had been around for years. “Where did you find this?”

  “It was at the bottom of the file drawer,” he said, “Beneath the hanging file folders.”

  “I can’t believe I missed it.” The paper tore a little as she removed the rest of the tape from over the key. When she picked up the key she squinted at the paper. “A number is on the paper.”

  “Must be the box number.” Wayne leaned over her shoulder. “We can go to Sierra Vista in the morning and check it out.

  “That’s great.” She scooted the chair back and picked up the key and letter as she stood. “I’ll put this in my purse. How about dinner now?”

  “The smell is about to kill me,” he said. “I’m starving.”

  “I’ll get everything ready,” she said.

  He nodded. “While you do that, I’ll put these other papers away and be there in a few minutes.”

  Feeling immeasurably lighter, she went to the living room and stuffed the letter and key into her purse.

  She returned to the kitchen and checked the casserole that was just starting to turn brown on the top. She grabbed a pair of hot pads and drew it out of the oven then set it on a trivet on the counter.

  After she set the hot pads beside the casserole dish, she took out a packaged salad and put it into a bowl and chose a couple of bottles of salad dressing from out of the fridge. That would have to do for greens with dinner. Once she was finished putting plates on the table and silverware, along with the salad and casserole, she headed to the study.

  “Dinner is ready.” She pushed hair from her face that had escaped from her ponytail and looked at Wayne. “Come and get it.”

  “Smells incredible.” He put his hand at her waist as they walked from the study toward the kitchen. She smiled and rested her head on his upper arm.

  When they were seated at the table, Wayne served each a helping of casserole and salad. Kaitlyn realized she’d forgotten something to drink, so she got up and took two more cans of Pepsi out of the fridge.

  “These are our fancy glasses for tonight,” she said and they popped the tabs on the cans.

  “Great casserole,” he said in between bites. He seemed solely focused on eating rather than talking for the moment.

  “That was amazing,” he said after wolfing down three plates of casserole and salad, along with another can of Pepsi.

  She’d managed to eat part of her first and only helping. The knot of anxiety that had been inside of her for days hadn’t helped her appetite.

  “Are you okay?” He gestured to her plate. “You’ve hardly eaten anything.” He gave her a critical look. “You look a little like you don’t get enough to eat.”

  “Over the past few years I just haven’t been able to eat a lot when I’ve been keyed up or upset, which has been a good deal of the time.” She shrugged. “I think today at lunch was the first time in a long time that I actually finished a meal.”

  “And now?” he asked. “We found the key to a safe deposit box. That’s great news.”

  She nodded. “Terrific news. It’s just the whole thing with Harold, what he said about me not being blood family, and how things have been going…it’s all really been getting to me.”

  “I understand.” He reached across the table and rested his hand on her forearm and squeezed. “Things are going to turn around once we get to that safe deposit box. We know that there has to be some kind of record somewhere about the house and land, and I’ll bet it’s in that bank,” he said. “It just wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Your uncle’s part of the deal was recorded. So why not your dad’s?”

  Kaitlyn gave him a smile. “You’re right. It’s bound to be there.”

  Chapter 10

  Kaitlyn’s stomach flipped as she and Wayne stood looking at the safe deposit box that the banker had left with them.

  “Let’s do it.” Wayne reached for the box.

  She held her breath as he slid the top off and then she slowly let it out when the box was opened.

  A small velvet box that looked to be quite old was inside along with old gold coins, something that looked like a medal, and several pieces of paper.

  She reached for the yellowed white velvet box and opened it. Inside was her mother’s wedding ring nestled in aged white velvet. It was a round solitaire diamond surrounded by tiny stones, kind of like a flower with petals. The diamonds caught the light and sparkled and a lump rose up in her throat. She still remembered her mother wearing the ring and how much she had loved looking at it as a young girl.

  “Look at this.” Wayne handed Kaitlyn a pin. She held out her hand and he dropped it into her palm. “A service medal.”

  “Daddy was in the army in Vietnam before he and Mama adopted me.” She looked it over. “I didn’t know he had been awarded a medal.”

  “Your father was a brave man, honey. This is the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest award you can get in the Army. Only the Congressional Medal of Honor is higher.”

  She nodded. “I had no idea. He never talked about the war or mentioned his medal. Isn’t that the same medal you received?”

  Wayne nodded and examined the coins. “These are solid gold. Probably worth about fifty grand or more with today’s gold prices.”

  The value of the gold had her dropping her jaw. Her daddy had provided her with more assets than she had realized.

  She grasped the papers next and drew them out. The first pages were stock certificates. She set those down and found her birth certificate next. Of course it showed her adoptive parents on it even though they weren’t her biological parents. Something about seeing the certificate made her smile.

  Like any adopted child, Kaitlyn often wondered about her biological parents but she hadn’t yet felt the need to search for them. Maybe one day she would. All she knew was that her biological mother had been a teenager who’d given her up at birth. Kaitlyn knew nothing about her father and the records had been sealed.

  She set the birth certificate down and found another copy of her father’s will, leaving everything to her. Her heart beat faster as she went through every page of the will and reached the last page in the small pile of papers that had been in the file box.

  “It’s not here.” Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper as she saw that the last page was just the list of material possessions that were to go to Kaitlyn.

  She grabbed the pile with the stock certificates and went through everything again even though she knew she hadn’t missed anything. She met Wayne’s gaze as he moved his hand to her shoulder and started rubbing it.

  “I really thought something would be here.” Deflated, Kaitlyn absently stacked the papers so that th
e edges were even.

  Wayne put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her to him.

  She rubbed her forehead. “I have to be out in just a couple of days.”

  “You still have a chance—you have the number to your father’s old attorney.” Wayne hugged her one more time and then they emptied out the safe deposit box. “And Drake might be able to get that injunction.”

  With her heart and soul feeling heavier, she slipped everything into her purse before they closed out the account and headed back to the ranch.

  • • •

  “I could use a drink of tea.” Kaitlyn pushed hair off her forehead. “How about you?”

  “Sounds good.” Wayne walked with her as she headed toward the kitchen. “Have you had a chance to track down your dad’s old attorney?”

  “As soon as we get that drink of tea, I’m on it,” she said.

  They had returned from town close to an hour ago and she hadn’t felt like talking with anyone yet. It was time to get this problem solved and hopefully her father’s old attorney would be able to help.

  After they had their glasses of tea in hand, they sat at the kitchen table and she tried calling the phone number on the business card. The number was disconnected.

  “Let’s try something else.” Kaitlyn went to her bedroom and grabbed her laptop then brought it back to the kitchen table and booted it up. She did a search for Charles S. Tucker in the online phone directory for the valley. “He’s probably retired,” she said when she couldn’t find him in the business directory.

  “Hopefully he’s still around,” Wayne said.

  She straightened in her seat. “Here’s a Charles S. Tucker in Sonoita.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed the number.

  It rang six times before a man’s gruff voice answered, “Tucker here.”

  “Hi, Mr. Tucker.” Kaitlyn took a deep breath. “I’m Kaitlyn Barrett, George Barrett’s daughter. I believe you were his attorney some years ago.”

  “George Barrett.” The man’s voice trailed off. “Yes, yes I do believe he was a client of mine. Been a long time. I’ve been retired for fifteen years. How is your father?”