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“There goes the new sofa.”
“So, it’s fine, right?”
Auggie nodded again. A part of him knew Theo was right. A part of him knew that, in the grand scheme of things, losing his laptop—stolen, a voice inside his head corrected; it had been stolen—wasn’t the end of the world. But it had been the disorientation of not being able to find it, and then the frustration, and then, as doubt grew, the flicker of fear growing alongside it. This was their home. Someone had been inside their home. And Theo. He would have to tell Theo, and that had been fuel for his fear.
“Why don’t I start in the office—” Theo began.
But a knock at the door stopped him, and a hint of color came into his cheeks.
Auggie blinked. “Did you—”
“Well, you said we’d been robbed.”
“Right.”
“Was that the wrong thing to do?”
“No, no. I guess—I don’t know.” Auggie broke the circle of Theo’s arms and started toward the front door. “No, that was—I should have thought of that.”
When he got to the front door, John-Henry was there: blond hair a little less mussed than on the weekends, a professional smile in place, dressed in his uniform in total disregard for the simmering August heat. Behind him, two uniformed officers were getting out of a patrol car—a Black woman, Nickels, and a white kid, Yarmark.
“Hi, Auggie,” John-Henry said. “Mind if I come in?”
Auggie stepped back.
“They’re going to take a look around the perimeter of the property,” John-Henry said with a nod for Yarmark and Nickels. “If that’s ok with you.”
“Yeah, of course, but—” Auggie couldn’t finish the question, but what he wanted to say was,Isn’t that a lot?“Yeah,” he said again. “Of course.”
He led John-Henry back to the combined living room and kitchen at the back of the house. Afternoon sunlight brightened the space, and in the quiet, the babble of the creek made its way through the balcony doors. Theo had loosened his tie and stored his laptop bag, and now he sat on a stool at the counter, his bad leg kicked out the way he did when it was bothering him.
“Do you want to sit down?” Auggie asked. “Do you want a beer? You can’t have a beer because you’re working. Do you want a soda?”
“No, thanks.”
Auggie dropped onto the stool next to Theo. John-Henry stayed standing, and Auggie had a moment of memory that was like vertigo: he was twentyish, still in school, and facing down an angry John-Henry Somerset, one who was a detective, and a good one, and one who wasn’t Auggie and Theo’s friend. Maybe Theo felt it too, because his hand came to rest on Auggie’s thigh.
“First of all,” John-Henry said, “I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s important that you know that you didn’t do anything wrong. Having your home violated can bring up a lot of feelings, so don’t be surprised if right now you’re having a hard time managing your emotions. If you need to take a break, or if you find yourself getting overwhelmed, just say something, and we’ll take a step back.”
He waited until Theo nodded.
Auggie said, “Does the chief of police do this for every burglary?”
Theo tsked and squeezed Auggie’s thigh.
But John-Henry gave a small smile. “The chief of police does this for his friends. Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Theo looked at Auggie.
“Nothing happened,” Auggie said. Both men were still looking at him, so he laughed. It was like too-tight strings on a violin. “I mean, I couldn’t find my laptop. And—I don’t know, I still can’t find it.” He laughed again.
John-Henry didn’t laugh, though. He nodded. “Have you looked everywhere?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Another of those small smiles. Friendly. Warm, even. “I have to ask,” he said wryly. “Sometimes people surprise you. They surprise themselves, I should say. One guy, he found a book of stamps behind a line of VHS cassettes; he’d put it there for safekeeping and forgot all about it.”
This was why he was so good, Auggie was starting to realize—the thought buzzing at the edge of his awareness. He’d known, already, that John-Henry was smart, funny, even kind. But this, right here, was one of the things that made him an excellent chief, as well as a great detective.
