“Go ahead. Open it.” Kaplan rattled the locker door.
Sheffield sighed, leaned back against the bank of lockers, and puffed on his cigarette. “We won’t have to wait long.”
Sure enough, loud voices rose in the hallway and the door banged open. Agent Hayes led Heinrich Bauer by the elbow, and a dozen men followed, jeering, shouting, arguing with each other.
Frank Fiske strode behind the mob. “Back off, boys. Leave him alone. Let the FBI do their work.”
Mary eased away from the crowd and set her pen in motion. In secretarial school she never imagined using her skills like this.
Bauer’s blue eyes stretched wide, his forehead creased. “What is wrong? I have done nothing.”
Fiske stepped right in front of Agent Sheffield. “What’s going on here? You drag my man away from his job and start a disruption. How can I get any work done? We have a timetable to meet.”
The agent leaned around Fiske and addressed Mr. Bauer. “May I look inside your locker?”
“My...” He looked at his locker, at Kaplan, at Sheffield, his face pale. “I have a coat, a lunch. That is all.”
“Good.” Sheffield gestured at the locker.
Bauer moistened his lips. “This is America. I thought it was different here. Do you not need a—what is it named?”
“A search warrant. If you don’t agree to the search, I’ll get a warrant. But if you have nothing to hide, why not open it now and shut these fellows up for good?”
“Yeah, Bauer.” Al Klingman pointed at the locker. “What are you hiding?”
More shouting, more accusations.
Mary shifted to the side to get a better view through the pulsating crowd.
Agent Sheffield shrugged. “With or without your cooperation, I’m getting inside your locker.”
When Bauer nodded, Agent Hayes dropped the man’s elbow. Bauer wiped his upper lip, slid a key from his pocket, and opened the lock. For a second he stood still, his head bowed, then he slipped off the lock and opened the door.
Dozens of pamphlets fluttered to the ground, stark red and black and white.
Bauer gasped and stepped back.“Was ist—”
“See! Proof!” Kaplan snatched up a pamphlet and waved it before the men. “Nazi propaganda, courtesy of the German-American Bund. I knew it. I knew he was a Nazi.”
“I am not a Nazi.” Bauer’s voice came out high-pitched. “These are not mine.”
Mary could scarcely take her eyes off the drama long enough to take notes. But she had an official job, and she’d do it.
Kaplan flicked a pamphlet in Bauer’s face. “The evidence says otherwise.”
“Yeah.” Morton Anders raised a fist toward the German. “Lying Nazi saboteur.”
Bauer backed against the lockers, his eyes wild. “I am not. I—”
“Remember?” Kaplan faced the men and held the pamphlets high. “Remember when those Bund thugs beat me up a few weeks ago? They threw trash like this on top of me.”
Bauer lunged at Kaplan and grabbed his collar. “You! You did this to me!”
Heart racing, Mary gasped and stepped back.
“Get off me!” Kaplan shoved him away.
As shouts rose, Bauer socked Kaplan in the gut. Pamphlets and fists flew through the air.
