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I heard Calvin breathing over the line, and I could easily imagine his pensive expression. “He was fighting thin air, sweetheart. You saw that as much as I did.”
“I told them we didn’t hear anything. I told the officer at least three times,” I said heavily.
“Is there going to be any trouble from this, Lizzie? Should I warn Jürgen? Should I call the station and try to straighten it out?”
“I asked the officer if they’d arrest Rhodes and he said they couldn’t because none of us had seen him clearly. He just said they’d keep an eye on the house, maybe make some inquiries.”
“Lizzie,” Cal said quietly. “Will you talk to Henry? Please? As a matter of urgency, sweetheart. He needs to speak to a doctor. This is serious now.”
I agreed to speak to Henry that night, then spent the day wondering how I was supposed to do it without embarrassing him or setting him off.
Henry beat Cal home from work that day. He tousled my hair as he came past me in the kitchen, and I nudged him away impatiently with my shoulder because my hands were covered in ground beef.
“Is that meat loaf?” he said, peering hopefully at the bowl I was working on.
“Sure is,” I said brightly. It was his favorite, and I was trying to butter him up. “How was your day?”
“Great,” he said. “You? No trouble today?”
“Not a peep,” I said lightly. I smoothed the last of the meat into the pan and washed my hands, then slipped the pan into the oven. Henry helped himself to a beer from the fridge and was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. “Henry, listen. I was thinking you might want to see a doctor.”
He looked up at me blankly.
“A doctor? I’m not sick.”
“Well, you said you don’t sleep well now,” I said carefully. “Maybe some sleeping pills—”
“I’ve tried them,” Henry said abruptly. This was news to me.
“You have?”
Henry closed the newspaper and stood, taking the beer with him as he stepped away from the table.
“Those pills aren’t for me, sis. Besides, it’sgoodthat I don’t sleep well at the moment.”
“How is that good?”
“I can keep you safe, Lizzie. I’ll keep an eye on the house while you sleep.”
He was walking away, beer in hand, already at the kitchen door—his swollen body straining the largest uniform the lumberyard had to offer, his shoulders slumped. My heart ached for Henry.
“No one was here last night, Henry,” I said hesitantly.
“Sis,” he said, glancing back at me to force a tight smile. “I know what I saw.”
When Cal got home that evening, Henry was in the living room, chuckling at something on TV. Cal motioned for me to follow him into his study, then closed the door.
“Have you spoken to Henry about a doctor?”
“I tried,” I said.
Calvin gave me a searching look. The compassion and sympathy in his eyes was so intense, it moved me to tears. Calvin Miller truly was the best man I knew.
“Can we just give Henry a few more days, Cal?” I whispered. “Please? Let’s just let him settle in more before we make a big deal out of what was probably just a vivid nightmare.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” Cal said carefully, even though I could see he was unconvinced. “We can give him a bit more time to settle back in—but if there’s any more trouble like last night, we’ll have to force the issue.”
“Thank you.”
“I don’t want to embarrass him—I truly don’t. But it might just be that Henry’s problems are finally bad enough that he needsto accept some help.”
