Page 50 of Out to Get Her
When Zach walked up behind her a few seconds later, he put his chin on her shoulder. “Want me to look around for you?”
She shook her head. “I think I know where they are.”
“I don’t see a desk. Nightstand?”
“No.” She took a deep breath and stepped into the room, heading for the far wall by the window where he kept a little reading nook in the corner. “Bookshelf.”
Zach followed behind until they both stood facing two tall bookshelves crammed with books. “He kept stamps in here?”
“He kepteverythingin here.”
She scanned the shelves. All the books were alphabetized by author for fiction and title for nonfiction. And yes, they were mixed on the shelves.
Stamps.
On the bottom half of the second set of shelves, she found the S’s. Erin grabbed the worn paperback copy ofDoctor De Sotoand pointed at the spine. “Steig. For stamps.”
When she opened it, they found the middle pages carved out where sheets upon sheets of forever stamps were stuffed inside the thin book.
“Holy crap,” Zach whispered. “Did he think we’d still need postage post-apocalypse?”
“I don’t know what that man thought,” she admitted. “But he always did this. It was back here in his room, so I didn’t see him get stuff often. I sort of forgot until just now.”
Zach stared at the books in amazement. “What the hell else is in these?”
“I have no idea.”
Cash, for sure. Under C. She was pretty sure which book. But what else?
A deep pit opened up in her stomach.
“Zach, what if Paul was looking for something? Something in one of these books?”
They both stared at the wall of books.
“Maybe,” he said. “Sounds like as good a theory as any. Especially since we don’t have any other theories yet.”
She felt nauseous as the pit widened and a sour taste filled her mouth. “What if someone killed him for something in one of these books?”
“Sounds crazy, but so does keeping five thousand stamps in a cut-out book.” He turned his head to look at her. “Want a hand going through them, or you want to do this alone?”
Her eyes remained fixed on the books. “I could definitely use a hand with this.”
ChapterSixteen
Samantha stabbed at her salad,ignoring the four pairs of eyes homed in on her. All waiting for her answer. All Keller eyes.
All except for her brother-in-law. But even he’d spent so much time with their family over the last ten years that he’d morphed into a Keller through osmosis.
“Well?”
Samantha set her fork down and looked at her mother at the head of the table. “I don’t have a plan yet. And frankly, I don’t know if I want one.”
Her mother threw her hands up in exasperation. In the next chair over, her brother snort-chuckled, while her sister took a long sip of wine across from Samantha, and her brother-in-law tried to remain invisible. Par for the course for a family dinner.
“Can you believe this? Melanie, talk some sense into your sister, please.”
Melanie set down her wine. “Okay, here’s what we do next.” Then she rattled off a list of plans like a drill sergeant.
