“Now?”
“Unfortunately, yes, so tell me what window you want me to bust.”
“What?”
He’s behind my azalea bushes at the back of my house, tapping at my windows.
“I really am breaking and entering. Damnit!” He jumps and yells, stumbling back from the bushes. “Do you know you have a garter snake back here?”
“Snakes live in bushes, Henry.”
“Oh... hey! You must be Miss Edith! No, it’s okay, I’ve got Lizzie on the line.” He flips the phone around. “See?”
In the grainy FaceTime image, I see Miss Edith standing at the picket fence between our yards, arms crossed over her floral housedress as she glares.
“It’s okay, Miss Edith. Henry’s a friend!” I say loudly after Henry puts me on speaker. She nods, glaring at him one last time before walking back into her home.
“Strange male friend breaking into my house while I’m out of the country—you’re making a spectacle out of me, ruining my reputation and all that.”
He laughs, out of breath as he peels a stubborn patch of ivy back from the window. “Now you sound like you really are in one of those novels you love. Wait, does Miss Edith have a key?”
“Ha. I love her, but I wouldn’t in a million years give her a key to my house. She’d read my diary, drink all my Chardonnay, and go through my drawers.”
“I guess I’m going to have to get in the old-fashioned way. You know, I’ve always wanted to do this. Which window?”
“I suppose that one,” I say, pointing to the pane closest to him. “Heathcliff already cracked it with a baseball this spring.”
“Yes, ma’am. Here we go! And you’ll take the call from your security system when it goes off, right?”
“Right.”
He puts in earplugs, wraps a towel around his hand, and punches through the pane. The alarms starts screeching. He hoists himself through the window. As I wait for the security system to call me, I can’t stop laughing. This is like a crazy reality television show. The security company calls; I give them the password, and the alarm goes quiet.
“Whew. That would wake the dead! I have to say, though, this was one of the most exciting afternoons I’ve had in a while. So where’s that safe?”
“Bolted in my bedroom closet.”
I direct Henry to my room.
He comments on the dangerous number of LEGOs all over the floors. “No need for a security system with these all over. Jeez... It’s likeHome Alonein here.” He sets the phone down and disappears for a minute. When he comes back, I give him the safe code. Once he’s in, there’s a rustling of paper and then I hear, “Jackpot!”
“You found them?”
“Yep. A whole bundle. Philip told me he came across these when moving something down from Mirabel’s attic a couple months ago. It’s where I bet he found the photo. I think it was the letters that kicked off his interest in the trust and Mirabel’s relationship with the Duboses.”
“So the letters are between them?”
“That’s what it seems like. I’ve got some reading to do tonight.”
I hear more paper rustling as he walks back to the broken window. “I’ll be in touch. And don’t worry, Lizzie. I’ve already paid someone to come out to fix this as soon as I’m done.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Anytime.” He pulls ivy back to cover the broken pane.
His phone dings suddenly as a text arrives. He goes very quiet.
“Henry?”
