A small boy from the neighborhood, Bert plays a longstanding game with Joe, attempting to “lock up” criminals in a jail pretends is in the Keller family’s basement. But comes out to yell at Bert, telling him that there is no prison in the house, and that Joe has “nothing to hide” there. This instance of foreshadowing indicates that, in fact, Joe does have something to hide—his involvement in the manufacturing fiasco that killed 21 pilots.