Leann Harris - Guarded Secrets

“You do?”

“Yeah. He loves the girls, but—”

She nodded her head.

“They told you about his family, huh?”

“Caren wanted to make sure I wouldn’t hurt her uncle Jon. They love him and are very protective.”

The love Dave had for his daughters shone in his eyes. “My little warriors.” He shook his head. “Jon’s been through a lot. I didn’t think he’d make it. God reached down and sent a little angel, Caren, to get him to church. She might be a missionary when she grows up.”

“What are you doing?” Marta asked, sitting next to her husband.

“Finding out what caring children I have.”

Jon parked his car in front of Lilly’s house. He turned off the engine and got out.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door,” Lilly said, climbing out of the front seat.

“I do, and I’d like to make sure that everything inside is okay.”

She nodded and he thought he saw relief in her eyes. Unlocking the front door, they walked inside. He checked all the windows and the sliding glass door in her bedroom.

“You probably should also get window locks. They are very simple to install and will prevent anyone from opening a window,” he said as they entered the living room. “They rest in the track, then the window can only be opened up to the lock. If someone wants in, they can’t force the window up and the only alternative is to break the glass. Most thieves won’t do that. They need secrecy and breaking glass won’t provide that.”

“I’ll buy those tomorrow.”

He looked around her house one last time. “After thinking about it, has anything else occurred to you as to why someone would break into your place and your ex-husband’s place?”

“No. This was my parents’ place. When Dad and Mom moved to Florida, they let me buy it from them. I work for San Mateo Street Community Church. I’ve been there for almost eight years. There is nothing here in this house that someone would want. My TVs are almost ten years old and my daughter doesn’t have any computer games.”

He nodded. “Call me if you can think of anything.”

As he drove home, he realized that going to the twins’ birthday party had been an enjoyable experience. He wondered what had been different this time.

Jon walked into the squad room. “What do you have?” he asked Dave, who sat behind his desk.

“Well, I’ve run a credit check on our victim. He didn’t spend wildly. He paid his bills and drove a five-year-old pickup. He got paid well for driving the armored car.” Looking up, Dave added, “I think I might be in the wrong business. I know Marta would like a little more take-home pay in my envelope.”

Jon ignored his partner’s comment. Dave wouldn’t trade being a cop for three times the pay. “Did Peter Burkstrom have any saving accounts that we know of?” Jon asked.

“Nothing at any bank here in Albuquerque.”

“It’s time that we started interviewing his old bosses and his last colleagues.”

“Let’s go,” Dave replied.

Their first stop was Sunbelt Securities. Dave’s team and their armored car were on their route. Jon and Dave were told to come back around four in the afternoon.

“They seemed mighty unfriendly,” Dave grumbled as he climbed into the passenger seat of the patrol car.

“I noticed that, too. Be interesting to see if Peter’s colleagues are warned about the pending interview with us.” Jon pulled out into traffic. “Let’s make a little trip to our victim’s apartment. Maybe someone saw something. Or knows something.”

As they drove to the apartment complex on the west side of the city, they passed by San Mateo Street Community Church. The garden took up an entire side of the church and wrapped around the back of the main structure.

Dave nodded toward the garden. “The girls want to see this garden. They talked about it all the way home after the party.”

Jon threw him a startled look. “Really? You’re telling me that Miss Caren, who can’t stand any dirt on her person, who doesn’t want to play outside because she might get dirty, wants to garden?”

“That’s what I’m saying. It made me shake my head in disbelief. Marta questioned her about it, warned her about the dirt, but she wants to visit the garden. Connie wants to see it, too.”

“That’s easier to believe.” Of the two twins, Connie was the more adventurous. She was the one who, at nineteen months old, found a bug in the backyard and ate it. Granted, she was a toddler when it happened, but of the two girls, Connie was the daredevil.

Jon turned into the Mission apartment complex. They knocked on the doors of several of the apartments around Peter Burkstrom’s place. At the third apartment, a young woman answered the door. After they identified themselves, Jon asked, “How well did you know Peter Burkstrom?”

“I moved into my place about seven months ago,” the woman said. “I’d just moved here from Dumas, a little town in the Texas Panhandle, and didn’t know anyone. Pete helped me move in.”

“Were you close?” Dave asked.

She shrugged. “We were friendly, but we didn’t date, if that’s what you’re asking.” She leaned close. “He was a little too old for me.”

Dave threw Jon a grin.

“No, that’s not what we wanted to know,” said Jon. “Did anything unusual happen around here recently, anything involving Mr. Burkstrom? Any falling-out with neighbors, fights? Or was he acting strangely?”

She thought for several minutes and said, “You know, about a month ago, I saw Pete arguing with a man out in the parking lot. I thought they were going to start throwing punches, but then the other guy pointed his finger at Peter, said something, turned around and disappeared around the corner of the apartment building. I saw a dark green car drive out a minute later. It was a very expensive car.”

“Do you remember the license plate?” asked Dave.

She shook her head. “But it was a luxury convertible. Black. It’s my dream car.”

Jon handed her a business card. “If you think of anything else or see anything suspicious, call us.”

She took the card and put it in a front pocket of her jeans. Jon and Dave finished canvassing the area. No one else answered their knock.

Checking his watch, Jon said, “Let’s stop by Sunbelt Securities and see if that armored car is back.”

“A little earlier than planned? You want to catch them off guard?”

The best way to catch people covering up evidence was showing up unexpectedly. They wanted to see if anyone at the armored car company needed to hide something.

“Let’s go,” Jon said.

“Mom, Mom,” Penny yelled, running toward Lilly, who rolled up the garden hose. “Can I go home with Ann? Her mom says we can swim this afternoon and then make snow cones.”

Tuesdays were the days that Ann and her mom helped in the church garden. When Lilly was first hired as the church’s secretary, manager and gardener by the new young pastor, he told her he wanted to reach out to the neighborhood. He’d come up with the idea to use the side yard of the church for a community garden.

The garden’s success had stunned all of them. Young couples from the neighborhood helped with the garden, then started coming to church. Ann and her parents lived close to the church and helped regularly with the garden. At the end of the growing season, they passed out fresh vegetables to the neighbors. It had been a wonderful ministry. And it had brought many people into the church who had heard about Jesus.

“You’re going to desert me?” Lilly asked her daughter. “And I’m not going to get a snow cone?”

Penny laughed. “I bet you could come and have snow cones with us.” She looked over her shoulder at her friend.