Jennifer paused so long before answering that Dean thought she'd not heard his question. "Because it wouldn't be right. Ouray was Paul's dream. He never did make it back to Colorado in all those years-not even for a visit. In spite of being born here, I never visited either. But we talked about it. Often. Ouray was going to be our place together. Paul wanted me, not them, to have the land. Let the boys fight over the few stocks and bonds Paul left, but I want to keep his fantasy." She looked at him. "Don't try to make sense out of it. Nothing Paul and I did made sense to anyone but us. But that doesn't mean we didn't love each other or have a super twelve years together."
Dean started fishing. "You said you were born here. Do you still have family around?"
"My mother left when I was nine days old. She married and settled in California. That's where I've lived my entire life."
"Jennifer Radisson, not Dawkins."
She looked at him. "Yes. I kept my maiden name because of my business-it's less confusing."
"Was Radisson your natural father?" As soon as Dean said it, he knew he'd made a mistake.
"What in God's name would make you ask a personal question like that?" She seemed more genuinely shocked than irate.
"I'm sorry. It was uncalled for."
"So why did you do ask it?"
"The bones-there's a chance they belonged to a man who may have gotten a high school girl pregnant."
"And you think he's my father? And my mother killed him? Why? Because I married an older man, you think my mother had sex with some other one?"
"I don't think anything. I'm just trying to find some answers for a little girl, and," he added, "making a shitty mess of it."
"Well, you'll be making your shitty mess alone, because I'm not going to dignify your question with an answer!"
Dean thought he'd lost her completely but she remained sitting, clapping with the other spectators-a bit too strenuously-as the puppy parade continued. Finally, he asked, "What are you going to do with the land if you win the case?"
"Nothing. Maybe turn it over to some public trust so it remains unspoiled. Just keep it beautiful so others can see it as Paul did. Maybe that's why I want it to stay out of their hands. I don't know if the land has any financial potential, but I do know that if there was money involved, neither of the boys would give a flip about desecrating the beauty."
"Did Paul ever talk about working a mine up there?"