Lonnie demanded to know why she hadn’t called us when Dad died. Charlene replied that she had been overwhelmed and believed we wouldn’t come anyway. Troy reminded her that we had visited Dad regularly at the livestock auction. She dismissed him and went inside, locking the door. We drove to Glen’s ranch, where he explained that Dad had given him a spare key several months earlier. He also knew where the blue ledger was hidden.

We searched Dad’s old workshop until Keith discovered a loose floorboard beneath the workbench. Underneath it sat a dusty metal box. Inside were property records, bank statements, and the blue ledger. The pages contained years of handwritten payments, land expenses, and notes about a neighboring ranch. One entry, dated just six months earlier, caught our attention: “Transfer refused. Charlene must not sign anything.”