Guarded Secrets

by Leann Harris

  What he’d seen in Lilly’s eyes as she comforted her daughter had reached into his heart and touched him. He couldn’t figure out if it was her strength in comforting her daughter or if it was the pain in her eyes when she’d met his gaze. There was an understanding there, a shared sorrow. Pain. He didn’t know what to do with this understanding, but he found himself thinking of Lilly at odd times. Something had sparked between them, making him jumpy. He knew the Lord could use him to comfort others, but heaven knew that he didn’t want another relationship. He would be the forever bachelor.

  Pulling up to Lilly Burkstrom’s house, he saw her sitting on a bench by the front walk. He parked behind the patrol car and got out.

  She stood, brushing off her pants. “The patrolman just got here. He’s looking through the house.”

  Stepping to her side, he asked, “So you don’t know how someone got into the house?”

  “No. The front door was locked when I got home.”

  He nodded. “I’ll go inside and see what’s going on.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jon moved into the house and surveyed the living room. It wasn’t in as much disarray as Peter Burkstrom’s apartment had been in, but the drawers of the coffee table were open and the cushions on the couch were out of alignment. He moved through the dining area and into the kitchen. Drawers hung open and cabinet doors stood ajar.

  He heard someone behind him. He turned and saw the uniformed officer, Miguel Aguilar. “What are you doing here, Littledeer? I haven’t seen any bodies.”

  “The lady’s ex-husband was murdered last week. She called me before she dialed 911. Earlier, the ex’s apartment was broken into and trashed. This place is in better shape, but…How’s the rest of the house?”

  “It’s been tossed.”

  “Any indication where the perpetrator got in?”

  “The sliding glass door in the master bedroom was jimmied. It has one of those cheap locks.”

  “You call for the evidence team?”

  “Yeah. They’re on the way.”

  He moved through the rest of the house. Whoever had broken in had been more careful than they’d been at Peter’s apartment. It sure seemed as if someone was after something—which led him to believe Lilly’s assertion that maybe her ex-husband’s death wasn’t the random event they thought it might be.

  As he turned to leave the master bedroom, he noticed the framed picture on the dresser. It had been knocked on its side. He picked up the frame. Penny, who was maybe twelve or thirteen months old at the time, sat on her mother’s lap. They were both smiling. It was the kind of picture that any husband or grandparent would view with joy and pride.

  He remembered the picture of Roberta, Wendy and Rose on his mantel at home. It had been taken right before they knew the killing truth. Wendy had been two and a half; Rose two months. It was a picture he hadn’t been able to look at since he’d buried Roberta.

  He carefully replaced the picture and walked back outside. Lilly and an unknown woman quietly talked. When Lilly saw him, she ushered the woman toward him.

  “This is my neighbor, Sandra Tillman. She thought she saw someone in the house,” Lilly explained.

  “What did you see?” Jon asked.

  The woman rubbed her arms. “When I went out to bring in Lucky, my dog, I saw a light flash inside Lilly’s house. I stopped and watched. The light never appeared again, so I shrugged it off as my imagination, but seeing the patrol car, I thought I’d tell Lilly what I saw.”

  “Did you see a car near the house? Or anyone leave?” he asked.

  The woman shook her head. “Sorry.” The slump of her shoulders gave away her disappointment at not being able to provide more information.

  “Thank you for your help. I wish more people would step up to the plate. What you’ve told me is that the man, assuming it is a man and he worked alone, might have parked his car on the next street over. I’ll be sure to question the neighbors on that street.”

  The woman’s spine straightened. “I’ll keep my eyes open.” She turned and walked back to her house.

  “That was nice of you,” Lilly whispered to him.

  “No, it wasn’t. It was the truth. I know where to look for the suspect.”

  She turned, her brow raised.

  “You doubt me? You think I wasn’t sincere?”

  “I guess I hadn’t thought—”

  “Littledeer, I’m done,” one of the evidence guys interrupted. “I’ll be sure to check for what you asked.” He moved down the sidewalk to his car.

  “What did you ask him to do?” Lilly asked Jon.

  “To compare the prints he lifted here and at your ex-husband’s apartment. And remember, we’ll need your and Penny’s prints.”

  “You think it was the same person?” Fear tinged her voice.

  He didn’t want to panic her, but she needed to know. “I don’t know, but I don’t want to overlook anything.” She didn’t need to dwell on the fear. “C’mon. Let’s go inside and fix your sliding glass door.”

  “You don’t need—”

  “That’s what cops do, help make the public safe. Now, if you know how to secure that door, I’ll leave it for you.”

  “You win. I have to beg my friend to come over and fix things.” Shaking her head, she confided, “Zoe is one handy lady. She’s working at the local home improvement store while she puts herself through college.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  They walked through the living room and into her bedroom. The lock on the sliding glass door was a simple lever, which opened when turned to the right.

  “It’s not broken,” Lilly said.

  “True, but it’s easily opened. A slim blade here—” he pointed above the lock and motioned downward “—and the intruder’s inside.” He looked around the room, then walked out, thinking he could find what he needed in the kitchen. In the pantry, he found a broom. He brought it back into the bedroom. Holding it up, he asked, “You willing to sacrifice this for your safety?”

  “Yes.”

  He snapped the broom handle over his knee and placed the piece without the bristles in the door’s track. “That will do until you decide what other locking mechanism you want for the door. Zoe will know what other safety measures are out there. Oh, one of the officers secured the sliding glass doors in the living room, but you’ll need to buy new locks for those doors, too.”

  “Thank you.” Turning, she glanced around the room. “At least it’s not as bad as Pete’s.” After a moment, she dashed out of the room.

  He followed her into Penny’s room. It had been ransacked, too.

  “Who did this? And why?” She picked up a stuffed doll and buried her face in the doll’s chest. She’d held it together through the mess at her ex-husband’s apartment and the mess here.

  He moved to her side. “Lilly.”

  She turned into his arms and the dam broke. She wrapped one arm around his waist and the other clutched the doll between them. His arms closed around her shoulders. The emotions tumbling around his chest he didn’t want to name, but he knew that feelings he’d thought long dead had come back to life.

  Slowly, the storm of tears and fears faded. She felt safe being held in this man’s strong arms. When he looked at her, she thought she saw something responding to her in those deep brown eyes.

  She wiped away the tear hanging off her chin. She looked and noticed the wet spot on the shirt covering Jon Littledeer’s chest.

  “Oh,” she said, jerking backward. “I’m so sorry.”

  He released her and looked down into her face. “It’s understandable. You’ve been through a lot.”

  “I meant messing up your shirt.”

  His gaze moved to his shirt, then back to her face. His lips turned up into the slightest smile. “It’s wash and wear.”

  She couldn’t look at him. “That’s good.” Looking at the doll, she added, “He is, too.” Her gaze roamed the room. “I’ll have to clean this up before Penny gets b
ack. It’s too much for her to handle.”

  She started to put the doll in the toy box. Amazingly, Jon picked up another doll.

  “Detective, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Call me Jon.”

  “But—”

  He glanced down at his shirt. The wet spot seemed to glow in the light. “I don’t allow just anyone to leave wet spots on my shirt.” His smile encouraged her to relax.

  She returned his smile. “Okay.”

  As they worked to put things right in Penny’s room, Jon said, “What do you think your ex-husband meant when he told you his death wouldn’t be an accident?”

  “I don’t know. After our divorce Pete dropped by occasionally. I don’t think anyone knew where he spent most of his time.”

  “You think he was into illegal things?”

  “I don’t know. He never said what he’d been doing or where he’d been.”

  “Do you think he told anyone in his family?”

  “His parents are dead, and I don’t know anyone else in his family.” She closed the final drawer of her daughter’s dresser.

  “You know nothing of his family?”

  “No. When we were in high school, his parents were killed in a car accident. Afterward, he lived with his neighbors until he graduated from high school.” With a sigh, she walked out of Penny’s room. “One down and four more rooms to go.”

  “Let’s tackle that living room. I have more questions to ask.”

  Straightening up wasn’t that bad. It had been a long day and she couldn’t face that mess by herself. The help was a godsend.

  They got to work in the living room, putting the furniture back in place.

  “Tell me about you and Peter,” Jon said after a while.

  “As I told you, I knew Pete in high school. It was during my sophomore year at the University of New Mexico that I ran into him again. He’d transferred from New Mexico Highlands University to UNM. We started dating and fell in love. We married over the Christmas holidays. Around Easter I discovered I was pregnant. When we came home from the university that summer, he told me he didn’t want to be a father and wanted a divorce. He disappeared, never went back to school. Suddenly, marriage was a prison and he couldn’t breathe. I stayed with my parents and went to the community college.”

  She pushed in the last cushion on the couch and sat. “I didn’t understand why he didn’t want our baby. After our divorce I saw him infrequently. Where he’d been or what he’d been doing, I don’t know.” She didn’t want to face those memories. Pushing off the couch, she walked into the kitchen.

  Jon followed her. “What do you know about Peter after he got his life in order?”

  “He started working for a construction company, building roads and bridges here in the state. I think he helped with some bridges in Colorado and Arizona. Sometimes he’d be gone for months at a time, but he’d faithfully call Penny on Mondays and Wednesdays. He’d come home every other week and spend time with her.”

  Jon helped put the scattered cans back into the pantry as she put the kitchen drawers in order. “What was he doing around the time he died?”

  “He’d gone back to school. He’d also started going to church again.” She remembered the happiness that had filled her heart when he’d come to know Jesus. She’d wanted to shout for joy. By then she and Peter had come to love each other as brother and sister.

  “What are you not telling me?” Jon asked, sitting on a stool under the high counter.

  “Are you married, Jon?”

  He looked as if she’d slapped him. “Not any—No.”

  There was so much in that no. For an instant she saw pain and grief.

  “It’s odd, but I thought of Pete as a brother. It took me a while to get over the hurt, but God turned Pete and me around and healed our relationship. Both of us wanted what was best for Penny.”

  Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on the counter. “Did he mention problems at work with coworkers and his boss?”

  She settled next to Jon on the other stool. “He just recently changed jobs, but I think that had more to do with wanting to go back to school than anything else.” She stared down at the counter. “I think he wanted to stay here for Penny.”

  “Do you think his job had anything to do with the murder?”

  “I don’t know. He had just started driving an armored car for Sunbelt Securities.”

  “And there were no problems there?”

  “He didn’t mention anything. The only thing that he said was money was heavy. You could talk to his coworkers. They were at the funeral.”

  He nodded. Glancing around the kitchen, he said, “I think you’re good to go.”

  They’d managed to clean up the house in less than forty minutes. Her stomach growled. He grinned.

  “I haven’t eaten. Cleaning up Peter’s place, I didn’t have time.”

  His cell phone rang. “Littledeer here.” He shook his head. “I’m okay, Marta. No, no.” He glanced at Lilly and shook his head again. “Yes, you are right. Okay, I’ll come for cake. You have anything left to eat?” After a moment he added, “Good. Because I haven’t eaten and I’m bringing another hungry person with me.” He listened to the response, then hung up. “You’ve been invited to a birthday dinner. Want to come?”

  She started to refuse, but saw something in Jon’s eyes that she recognized as a well-hidden pain. Besides, she didn’t want to stay here by herself. Not yet.

  “You driving?

  He smiled. “You bet.”

  “Then I’m coming.”

  “Just be prepared to be grilled unmercifully by two of the best,” he warned her as they got into his car.

  “What are you talking about?” She couldn’t keep the hint of panic out of her voice.

  “Twin ten-year-old girls.”

  He said it with such sincerity that she wanted to laugh.

  “I think I can handle that.”

  He snorted.

  “Did you find anything?” the older man demanded. He sat behind the desk like a king or president.

  “Not at the first place. I did a thorough search. It wasn’t there.”

  “What about his ex’s place?”

  Running his hands over his short hair, the younger man said, “She showed up too soon. I wasn’t able to finish looking for what you want.” He walked across the room and looked out the window to the street ten stories below. The streetlights made it easier to see his car parked in the alley below. “If you want another search, it will cost you.”

  The older man darted around his desk and charged across the room. “I pay for results. You got me nothing.”

  The younger man didn’t like being threatened. “I’m not the one whose life will go in the dumper if that information is found.”

  The older man’s eyes narrowed. “No, but you’ll have done the crime without being paid.”

  “I can walk away anytime.” He turned and walked to the door.

  “Okay, okay,” the older man huffed, adjusting his attitude. “Get me the proof and I’ll double your fee to ten thousand.”

  The younger man nodded and left the other man standing in the middle of the room. He wasn’t the one who’d go the jail. Mr. Self-Importance would. He wouldn’t go to jail again for anyone. If Mr. Self-Importance wouldn’t take the fall voluntarily, his death would solve the problem.

  THREE

  W hen they walked into the Pizza Palace, it wasn’t hard to spot the twins. Once the twins got a look at Jon, they raced across the room, dodging tables and people, and threw themselves at him.

  He scooped the girls into his arms and kissed each one. They giggled.

  “Uncle Jon, I’m so glad you came,” Caren declared as she kissed him on the cheek. She glanced over his shoulder. “Who’s the lady?” she asked in a stage whisper.

  “She’s a lady who is hungry. Show me where the pizza is,” he replied.

  “On the table,” said Caren.

  Connie, the other tw
in, looked over his shoulder and smiled at Lilly. “Hi.”

  “Happy birthday,” Lilly said.

  “I’m the older one,” Connie informed her.

  “Yeah, but I’m the smarter one,” Caren countered.

  He heard Lilly laugh.

  As they approached the party table, Dave stood. Jon saw the question in his eyes.

  After the introductions were made, Jon pulled Dave aside and told him what he’d found at Lilly’s house.

  “Gives credence to what she said earlier about his death not being an accident,” David observed. “The search of both her and her ex’s place says someone’s looking for something. But what?”

  “I don’t know, but it gives this case a different angle from what we thought, Dave. I think we’re going to have to look at the victim much more closely.”

  Dave glanced at Lilly. “You think she’s involved in any way with Peter’s murder?”

  Jon remembered her reaction to the break-ins, and her words earlier about Peter going back to church. “I don’t think so.” He had that gut feeling cops got when interviewing witnesses and suspects that told them if someone was telling the truth. “So far there’s no evidence pointing in any way to her.”

  Dave sighed. “There’s no evidence for anything, Jon. These break-ins occurred out of the blue. You know that. We have to go back to square one and look at everything again.”

  “I know.”

  Dave pinned him with a look. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “No.” But there was, his heart yelled.

  Dave held Jon’s gaze.

  “She was hungry. I was hungry.” Jon glanced at the twins, then met Dave’s gaze. He didn’t say anything, but let Dave see his pain. Jon missed his girls and having Lilly here helped.

  Dave clapped him on the back. “Let’s go join the party.”

  “You married?” Caren asked as she took a bite of her pizza. Her big brown eyes held Lilly’s.