Hannah called the local police and transferred copies through the proper evidence process.
Jonah was not invited to the interviews, and he hated the waiting more than he had hated the first threat.
He spent the afternoon helping Marta repair a loose shelf in the kitchen.
Marta watched him tighten the same screw three times.
She took the screwdriver from his hand and asked him to sit down.
Jonah said he was afraid that stopping would mean admitting how little control he had.
Marta told him that fear did not disappear when a person stayed busy.
She remembered raising two sons while working double shifts and counting coins for bus fare.
Her oldest son had once asked why she never cried in front of them.
Marta had told him that she did cry, but she preferred to do it where she could finish the dishes afterward.
Jonah laughed despite himself.
Then he admitted that he had begun checking the street outside his apartment every ten minutes.
Marta suggested that Lucy stay with her sister for a few nights while the police investigated.
Jonah did not want Lucy to feel as though she was being hidden.
Marta said that a safe place was not a hiding place when people chose it freely.
That evening Jonah explained the situation to Lucy without describing the threatening photograph.
Lucy asked whether the trouble had started because he bought breakfast for Arthur.
Jonah said that the trouble had existed long before the breakfast.
Lucy considered that answer and asked whether doing a good thing could still make life harder.
Jonah told her that it sometimes could.
She nodded and packed her telescope before she packed her clothes.
Interlude Twenty: The Witness on the Loading Dock
The police located Nolan in a motel outside Harrisburg two days later.
He agreed to an interview after his attorney arrived.
His account surprised everyone.
Nolan admitted that he had followed Arthur to Millbrook, but he denied leaving the photograph on the school bus.
He said Charles had ordered him to monitor Arthur’s movements because the older man was supposedly suffering from confusion.
Nolan had accepted the explanation until he saw Arthur speaking clearly at the diner.
He then began keeping copies of the surveillance instructions.
Elena asked why he had not reported the arrangement immediately.
Nolan said he was ashamed of how easily he had accepted a story that protected his salary.
