Joe sat next to her and told her what he’d learned over the past two hours. He ended it with “So you were right. The album belonged to Bert Kizer. Somehow, he found out people were coming here for it and he ditched it at your library.”
“But why, we’ll maybe never know,” Marybeth said. “I just can’t help but wonder what it is in this album that would make somebody do what they did. Do you think it’s a couple of crazy Nazi war memorabilia collectors?”
Joe shook his head. “Not according to the Sheftics. They say there’s a real market for this kind of stuff, but that it’s limited. I have to say I believe them. I just can’t see how it would be worth killing over.”
He told her about the swastika plates that Thirster claimed he had used at the Kizer residence.
Marybeth took it all in.
She said, “This is pure speculation, but I want to try to tie together what we know so far.”
“Go.”
“Bert’s father, Dick Kizer, along with Alton More from Casper, were two of the first American GIs to enter Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. Along with the rest of the Band of Brothers, they looted the place and brought back what they could get away with. Alton More hit the motherlode: Hitler’s personal photo albums. Dick got honorable mention with this Julius Streicher album, but it was still something he was very proud of. And he brought it back. Maybe some Nazi dishware as well.”
“That he must have gotten rid of at some point,” Joe said. “I would have seen it at Bert’s place. Or Norwood would have said something when he searched it.”
She said, “Bert worshipped his father, or at least he had a lot of respect for his service, so he kept Dick’s wartime souvenirs in that footlocker under his bed for decades. He could have donated all that to the local museum or to an archive, but he kept it all close.”
Joe nodded for her to continue. Thus far, it all fit.
“For whatever reason, Bert decides after all this time that he wants to find out what the album itself might be worth to someone. Maybe he was on hard times or he just realized he was getting older and he wanted to see if he could get a reward for it. I don’t blame him. Or it could be that Bert wanted to find out the value of the album so he could borrow against it.”
Joe liked that. He said, “Maybe Bert wanted to use the loan to buy a new drift boat. The one at his house looked pretty beaten up.”
“Maybe,” she said before plunging on. “Bert knows next to nothing how to go about either trying to sell it or find out its value. Who would? But then he meets John and Connie Sheftic, who have a background in collectibles. The Sheftics, unlike Bert, know what channels to use and who out there might be interested in the album—and what they might pay for it. Maybe the Sheftics post to World War Two sites, or military forums. Or creepy neo-Nazi sites. Who knows?”
Joe said, “They didn’t get into the details at the bar, but they did something like that.”
Marybeth said, “Artifacts like this album are worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them, I do know that from the library world. That’s how rare books get exchanged. So by the Sheftics getting the word out on this thing, it was kind of gambling. They had no idea what they were getting into, and neither did Bert for that matter.”
Joe said, “I need to ask them more questions, like did anyone express interest? Did anyone out there offer a price? I should have asked.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Marybeth said. “We can fill that in later. But for the sake of my theory, let’s say that the existence of the album reaches the right—or wrong—people. They contact the Sheftics or more likely Bert himself. After all, I was able to connect Bert’s dad to the album using public information from the internet about the Band of Brothers. Anyone in the world could do the same thing. My guess is that they contacted Bert directly and bypassed the Sheftics.”
“That sounds right,” Joe said.
“For whatever reason, Bert got cold feet after being contacted by the potential buyers. Maybe they didn’t offer enough, or Bert didn’t trust them. He would have felt a lot of pressure if the reason he went public in the first place was to ascertain the value of the album, not to sell it outright. So he didn’t go through with the transaction.”
“But they still wanted it,” Joe said.
“They did. Maybe they were very aggressive. And Bert got the feeling that they’d come and get it no matter what. After all, they knew his name and address. So to get it off his plate he drops it off at the library and makes it my problem.”