Page 92 of Cherry Tree Ranch

“No. You?”

“Nada,” she says, checking through a stack of papers in a cardboard box.

After searching through the cabinets of the hutch and coming up empty, I sit on the floor with Kaylee and look through the boxes with her for over an hour.

“Are we going about this the right way?” she asks.

“I don’t know, but my eyes are beginning to ache.”

“Mine too. I’d ask Daddy if he knows anything, but he’s at the sale barn.” She pushes up and opens the mini fridge in the corner. “Want a soda?”

“Sure.” I stretch my legs out and bump the leg of the desk.

I point towards the desk drawer. “How about in there? From my experience, that’s where they kept everything.”

“Try it.” She taps a long fingernail on top of her soda and pulls the tab. It lets out a satisfying hiss and she sips the foam.

The drawer’s locked – no surprise there.

Kaylee hands me my soda. “I know where she kept the key. I haven’t opened it since…” Her shoulders sag and the most confident girl I’ve ever known looks like a deflated balloon. “Since last year.”

I give her a sympathetic smile. It hasn’t been opened since her mom died. “Maybe I should go…”

“No. I need to go through her things at some point, and this is important. We need to find out what happened. My mom clearly knew something … something dark she didn’t want to tell me about.”

I turn round and pull out my phone while she punches a code into the safe bolted to the floor. Cash texts, wondering where I am. He rode to the ranch to harvest honey.

I’m at Kaylee’s.

You’re at Kaylee’s? Why?

There’s lots to tell you. I’ll be back in a bit.

Inside the safe are rifles and shotguns and another small safe with a handle. Kaylee pulls at it and the weight makes her arms drop as it slides from the shelf. Envy tugs at my mind at the thought of the amount of money they might keep in there. When she opens it, it’s filled with personal belongings.

“These were my mom’s treasures. Nothing expensive, just valuable to her.”

She takes out a little wooden box with mother-of-pearl inlay on the lid. The key to the desk and keys to other things lie inside. Her breathing slows as she stares down at her mom’s things.

I rest a hand on her shoulder. “We don’t have to do this right now.”

“Yes, we do. I’m not going to make you wait any longer to find out.” She closes the box and puts it in the small safe. She sighs and says, “I promised I’d make it up to you, and I hope this can be a small start. If we don’t find anything in here, we’ll look in the house next.”

“Kaylee, were you ever going to tell me?”

“Dahlia, I promise I didn’t know. All I knew was there was a secret in my family’s past, but whose family doesn’t have something like that?”

“I’m talking about the orchard.”

“Oh.” She pushes the small safe into the big one. “Yes. I think I would have. I was working up the courage to…” She’s so sad, tortured by her mistake. It almost makes me want to give her a hug, almost. “But I was afraid you’d think I did it on purpose and not believe me. Dahlia, I can’t go to jail.”

“I don’t want you to be charged. I only wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know that the orchard burning down isn’t one more thing proving my ranch is cursed.”

She touches my arm. “It’s not cursed.”

When she turns to close the safe door, I put out my hand to stop it. “Wait.” A stack of manila envelopes catches my eye. “What’s in those?”

“Daddy keeps the equipment titles, land lease agreements, that kind of thing in those.” She rubs the key between her fingers. “We could look. Won’t hurt.”