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“Would you like to wait here on the porch? There are some comfortable places to sit. I can get you a glass of sweet tea as well.” I walked onto the porch and offered him a chair.
    “No. I do not need anything. Just my money and my belongings.” As he walked over to the large rocking chair, he reached into his pocket, and two pieces of paper fell to the floor. When he sat down, the chair swallowed his thin frame.
    I picked up the papers. One was a receipt from a local bar, Sanders Tavern, and the other was for an oriental food market on Whitaker. “You dropped these.”
    He nodded. “Thank you.”
    “I’ll be right back.” I left him on the porch and went in the house, shutting the door behind me.
    When I reached Mr. Phong’s room, I knocked on the door. “Mr. Phong. You have a guest here.”
    Through the door I heard muffled singing.
    Maybe he couldn’t hear me. He must have had his iPod on and headphones in. I knocked again, a little louder this time.
    The door cracked open. Mr. Phong pulled an earbud out.
    I pointed downstairs. The best I could do at sign language. “Someone is here to see you.”
    Mr. Phong tilted his head.
    “Joseph is here.” I motioned down the stairs again. “Waiting for you on the front porch.”
    Mr. Phong shook his head as he raised an eyebrow.
    I handed him Joseph’s business card.
    When he looked down at the card, his eyes widened. Dropping it, he slammed the door. I heard the click of the lock as I bent down to pick up the card and put it in the pocket of my dress.
    Who needed kids when I had tenants? I knocked again. Then I put my ear on the door. I heard Mr. Phong singing. Now what?
    I heard footsteps. Soon Cat was by my side. “Who’s the guy rocking on the porch?”
    Sighing, I said, “Mr. Phong’s cousin.”
    “Your cousin, too, right?”
    I paused. The layers of lies were so deep. “Why, yes. Even further removed, of course.”
    Cat shrugged her shoulders. “So what’s going on?”
    I straightened my posture and fiddled with my pearl necklace. “Apparently Mr. Phong owes Joseph money and stole something from him.”
    Cat pointed down the stairs. “Joseph is the guy outside?”
    “Yes.”
    “This is starting to feel like home.” Cat smirked.
    “How?”
    “Just like my house is with all the chaos and people coming and going all the time.”
    I grinned. “I planned it this way so that you didn’t get homesick.”
    Cat held her palms up. “So what are you going to do?”
    Tapping on the door, I said to Cat, “He won’t come out. I think he understood me when I told him that Joseph was downstairs to see him. Then he banged the door shut.”
    Cat tried the handle to Mr. Phong’s room. “It’s locked. I say we smoke him out.”
    I put my hand up. “Whoa.”
    Cat shook her head. “Not with real smoke. We need to lure him out.”
    “How?”
    “What does he like?”
    “Besides muffins?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Music.”
    “But that’s a problem, because he always has those earphones in. So he can’t hear us.”
    “He did hear me when I knocked really hard on his door.”
    “Then let’s do that again.” Cat pounded on the door.
    From the other side of the door, there was silence.
    Downstairs, the front door creaked open. “Is that dirty rat here or not?” Joseph shouted up the stairs.
    I whispered to Cat, “What do I do now?” Joseph did not seem like an agreeable person at all.
    Cat murmured back, “I’ll handle this. It’s the least I can do for you letting me stay here.”
    My chest tightened as I nodded. I hated when people were angry and wound up, like Joseph seemed to be.
    Cat called down to Joseph, “He’s indisposed at the moment. Can you please come back later?”
    Joseph called up, “You tell him I expect the money and my things. Or else.”
    A moment later, the door thumped shut.
    I peered down the stairs. “He’s gone.”
    “That gave Mr. Phong a little more time. But you have to let him know that he has to deal with Joseph