Page 31 of Out to Get Her
Trey thought for a moment, then nodded. “Stumbling was definitely a Paul kind of thing.”
The server placed their sandwiches in front of them and asked if they needed anything else. When they thanked her, Trey dove into his tuna melt while Erin crunched on a ruffled chip and continued to ponder this potential theory.
“The pharmacy also gives Nathan access to whatever might have killed Paul.”
Trey chewed his massive bite and swallowed. “You think Nathan would kill someone?”
“I don’t really know the guy.” She waved her half-eaten chip in the air. “But we can’t dismiss him. Because with his connection to the police, they might.”
Trey grunted. “I doubt Sergeant Ardoin would let him get away with jaywalking if she could bust him with it. That marriage did not end pleasantly.”
Erin popped the chip in her mouth to keep from asking questions that had nothing to do with the murder.
Trey eyed her curiously, then a playful smile formed.
She decided to play ignorant as a deflection tactic and pretend she hadn’t already had this conversation with Zach. “I just assumed she was still married with the last name and all.”
“People know her by that name, so I guess it made sense to keep it. Especially now with the election and all. Although hanging on to that of all names can’t be fun.”
“No, I guess not.” Erin tried to imagine walking around with a name that was not only not yours, but one that had so much baggage attached to it.
They both ate in silence, with Trey nearly finished his lunch already. Erin’s was tasty, but she wasn’t very hungry anymore.
“Aside from Nathan, anyone else around here ring alarm bells?”
“Everyone was low-key annoyed by Paul,” Trey said. “But no one I can think of would go out of their way to kill the guy.”
“What about anyone who seems shady? Anyone with legal trouble? Even small stuff they got away with?”
“Besides you and me?”
Erin narrowed her eyes at him, but couldn’t stop herself from smiling back once she saw the teasing grin on Trey’s face.
He thought for a second while he finished off the last of his sandwich.
“The only person I can really think of like that doesn’t have much of an actual record. In trouble a lot, but somehow slides out of it.”
“How’s that?”
“Last name is Keller.”
Sam’s maiden name.
Erin remembered Samantha having a sister, Melanie, and a clean-as-a-whistle goody-two-shoes brother, but neither of them would dare step out of line for fear of inviting the wrath of their mother. The extended family, however, was an amorphous blob of political yuck.
“A cousin?”
“Yeah, younger,” Trey said. “Probably graduated after you, but before I got here.”
Samantha was going to have her hands full between her dirtbag ex and her own family mess.
“Got a name? What does he do around here besides get into trouble?”
“Randy,” Trey said. “He works in the kitchen at Addie’s on and off. Does roofing jobs sometimes.”
“Gotcha.” Erin etched the name into her memory. “Anyone else? Anyone Paul might have had beef with? Even petty?”
“One person.” Trey shook his head in disbelief. “But we’ll have to talk about that later.”
