Forbidden Guest House novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: The Handwriting

Leif closed the diary on his thumb.

"He wrote her name down," he said. "He handed us her name and never knew it."

"MOVED, NO FORWARDING," I said. "In capitals."

I could see them without going upstairs.

The round O. The little curl at the bottom of the G.

I had seen those capitals somewhere else. Somewhere recent.

"The sign-up sheet," I said.

Leif looked at me.

Then I watched him get it too.

"She printed her own name across the top," he said slowly.

"If it's the same hand, she signed every one of those envelopes."

He was already standing up.

"It's nine thirty at night, Leif."

"Church basements don't lock. Not in this town."

He was wrong about that.

Our Savior's had a new deadbolt, and the bulletin board inside the glass door was bare.

Somebody had taken the sign-up sheet down.

I stood there with my hands cupped against the glass, looking at four empty thumbtacks.

"She cleans up after herself," Leif said.

"She's had forty-five years of practice."

At eight the next morning the church lady from the night shift opened the door before I knocked.

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