“These Germans worry me,” he told Henry.
“Me too,” Henry said.
“You’re a veteran?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Pacific theater?”
“No, sir,” Henry said. Then he drew in a breath and straightened his spine. “Europe.”
“Thank you for your service, son. Must be troubling to have them walking around the streets of this country.”
“It truly is, sir.”
“Extra cautious from now on, all of you,” Johnson announced, sliding his notebook back into his pocket. “Keep allthe doors locked. And if you hear anything, you call us right away.”
“Thank you, sir,” Henry said grimly. We all walked back along the hall to the front door in silence. My heart was thumping wildly against my chest. I had to fix this—I just didn’t have a clue how.
When the officer pushed my front door open, I panicked and blurted, “Are you going to arrest him?”
Detective Johnson turned back to offer me a gentle look.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Mrs. Miller, but it would be very difficult for us to do that when none of you saw him clearly. I’ll make some inquiries and we’ll keep an extra close eye on your house with a night patrol for a few nights in case there’s any more trouble.”
Henry glanced down at the numbers on his hand and added helpfully,
“He’s at 1401 Beetle Avenue, sir. In case you decide to interview him.”
As the officer scrawled the address down, I looked at my brother in shock.
“How do you know that?”
“His address is in the public phone book, sis. Just looked it up to save this busy officer from hunting it down, that’s all.”
I looked from Henry to the detective, sucked in a breath, and tried one last time. “Sir, Cal and I really didn’t hearanything—”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Mrs. Miller,” Detective Johnson interrupted me kindly. “You’re lucky your brother here is a soldier. He’ll keep an eye on you.”
He tipped his hat and walked along my porch, then down to his car waiting in the drive.
“Henry,” I whispered uneasily, “why would Rhodes come to his boss’s housein the middle of the night to cause trouble? It makes no sense. He wasn’t here last night. No one was.”
“You were asleep,” Henry said gently. “Just lock the house while I’m gone, okay? And if you’re home alone, don’t answer the door unless you’re sure who it is.”
My gaze dropped to that number on the back of Henry’s hand and I blurted, “Just promise me you won’t go to Rhodes’ house.”
Henry sighed impatiently.
“I’m not about to go looking for trouble. I was just trying to help, that’s all.”
With that, Henry pulled his cap on and left for work. I stood on the porch and watched my brother disappear down the street, sick with concern, but as soon as he was out of sight, I forced myself to go inside and call Calvin.
“Henry called the police, and a detective came by this morning,” I blurted, as soon as Calvin picked up my call on his office line.
“Hewhat?”
“Maybe therewassomeone here?” I said hesitantly. “Henry seems so sure about it.”