Guarded Secrets

by Leann Harris

  “Caren,” Marta, Dave’s wife, gasped. Her daughter peeked at her mother.

  “That’s okay,” Lilly assured Marta.

  Marta glared at her daughter. “It isn’t any business of yours.”

  Caren put down her piece of pizza. “I just wanted to make sure she’s not married. I don’t want Uncle Jon to get hurt anymore.”

  Both women stared at her.

  Caren went on. “He’s been so sad. His girls died, you know. They were sick. And his wife died of a broken heart. Uncle Jon used to drink and come to the house and fall asleep on the couch. I don’t want to see him sad anymore.”

  Marta’s cheeks heated. “I’m glad you love your uncle Jon, but I don’t think your uncle wants you telling people about that time.”

  Caren thought a moment, then nodded. “He’s been better since he began going to church with us.” She leaned close to Lilly. “Mom and Dad told us that sometimes he’s real sad, like on our birthday. That’s why he didn’t come join us earlier. But I’m glad you made him come.”

  Marta and Lilly sat at the table, stunned into silence.

  “Do you have a husband?” Connie asked. She sat on the other side of her mother.

  The other twin’s question snapped Lilly out of her shock. “Not anymore.”

  The girls traded looks.

  “I do have a daughter,” Lilly quickly added to ward off another uncomfortable question. “I think you’d like her. She sometimes works with me at our church’s community garden. You should visit.”

  Jon and Dave walked back to the table and sat down.

  “What are you ladies talking about?” Jon asked.

  Silence greeted his question.

  “So you work in the community garden at your church?” Marta asked, ignoring Jon’s question.

  Grateful to change the subject, Lilly answered, “I do. I direct the whole gardening operation. It’s turned out to be a wonderful blessing to the neighbors. It’s fun to observe the kids from the area plant vegetables and then watch as they grow. The kids are so surprised when we pull a carrot out of the ground. Or when they see a tomato appear on a vine. They thought carrots and tomatoes came from the supermarket.”

  “Don’t they?” Connie asked.

  All four adults paused.

  “They grow in the ground or on a vine first, then are harvested and sent to grocery stores,” Lilly explained.

  “Is that true?” Caren asked her father.

  Trying to hide his smile, Dave said, “Yes.”

  Lilly leaned close to Caren. “The kids even love eating those carrots.”

  Doubt colored Caren’s eyes. “You sure?”

  Lilly nodded. “I am. Come down anytime and see the garden. You can even come to the garden and help pull the carrots or harvest the tomatoes yourself. I know my daughter loves to come to the garden and harvest vegetables. It’s work, but it’s fun and you’ll enjoy it.”

  The twins glanced at each other. “Okay,” they said in unison.

  Lilly smiled at Jon. From his expression, she could tell that he wasn’t satisfied with her answer to what they were talking about. She didn’t want him to know they’d been talking about his wife and daughters.

  Jon studied each girl. Caren calmly ate her pizza, the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. Connie giggled as she ate.

  “It’s a girl thing,” Lilly whispered. “You don’t want to know what we were talking about.”

  Jon cocked his head.

  “The pizza’s good. Try some,” Lilly said.

  After a few moments, Jon shrugged and started eating pizza.

  As the evening progressed, the twins retreated to the restaurant’s video game arcade. They pulled Jon from one machine to the next. He was happy to help bowl on a screen or drive a digital car.

  “Mom, Mom, c’mon,” Caren called.

  Marta joined her daughters.

  Dave studied Lilly, who was still sitting at the table. “I’m sure the girls asked you a million questions about your personal life. I hope the girls haven’t offended you.”

  She shrugged. “They’re just curious.”

  “Speaking of girls, your daughter wasn’t with you at your house, was she?”

  “No, I let her stay with my cousin after what happened at Pete’s place.”

  He nodded and looked at his partner.

  “I didn’t ask Jon to bring me here tonight,” she added, trying to reassure Dave.

  His gaze returned to her. Sighing, he glanced down at the table. “I believe you.”

  “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.

  Ann’s mom stood behind her daughter. “Since they worked so hard today, I thought an afternoon in the pool was what they needed.”

  “Can I, Mom?” Penny turned on her acting ability and played a poor, deserving soul.

  Lilly nodded. “Okay, but—”

  The girls’ shrieks filled the air.

  “You don’t have your bathing suit,” Lilly said.

  Penny’s expression fell.

  “Ann has several suits,” Ann’s mom said. “Penny can use one of them.”

  Her father’s death had knocked Penny for a loop. This was the first time since Peter’s death that Lilly had seen her daughter excited. “Okay.”

  Penny hugged her mother’s waist. “You’re the best, Mom.”

  “I’ll be at Ann’s house at six,” Lilly said.

  “Okay,” Penny agreed. The girls bounced around.

  “You can have my new suit,” Ann told Penny as they walked away.

  Ann’s mom walked behind the girls, shaking her head.

  With her daughter occupied this afternoon, Lilly could go to Peter’s apartment and continue packing his things up.

  After letting the pastor know where she was going, she left the church. The drive to Peter’s place took less than ten minutes.

  She’d talked with Pastor Kent about what to do with Peter’s things. He’d found several needy families in the parish that could use clothes, dishes and a television. All she needed to do was go through Peter’s things and see what she might want to save for Penny.

  She pulled into the parking lot of the apartment complex and found a spot near Peter’s apartment. Pulling boxes out of the backseat, she wrestled them up the stairs. She fumbled with Penny’s key and dropped it. Picking it up, she unlocked the door and dragged the boxes into the living room. As she turned around, she spotted a man hiding behind the door.

  Before she could yell, his fist shot out, hitting her on the chin, and darkness descended.

  FOUR

  S omething gnawed at his gut. Jon flexed his hands on the steering wheel of their police-issue sedan, trying to sort through the tension. He’d learned a long time ago not to ignore his instincts.

  “What is it?” Dave asked.

  Jon threw his partner a glance. “What?”

  “You’ve got that look.”

  He could try to deny it, but Dave and Jon had been partners long enough to read each other’s body language. “Something’s wrong.”

  “Well, that clears things up.”

  “You’ve followed hunches, and I’ve not complained,” Jon retorted.

  “Yeah.”

  “Before we pay Sunbelt a surprise visit, let’s run back to Peter’s apartment. Maybe we need to talk to the manager about that incident the neighbor mentioned. See if he has a tape of the incident.”

  Dave didn’t hesitate or complain. “Let’s go.”

  Jon turned the car around and headed toward Peter’s place. It was only a couple of streets away from their current position.

  When they arrived at the apartment complex, Jon spotted Lilly’s car parked in the lot. Suddenly a man ran out of Peter’s second-story apartment and raced toward the stairs.

  Jon slammed the car into Park, jerked the keys out of the ignition, and both men ran toward the stairs. The man spotted them, turned on the stairs and ran back up them. On the second floor, he darted in the opposite direction from Peter’s place.

  “I’ve got him,” Dave yelled, reaching the second-floor landing.

  Jon raced up the steps and to the open door of Peter’s apartment. “Lilly,” he yelled.

  Inside the door, he saw Lilly sprawled on the floor. He knelt by her side and swept a glance over her body. She di
dn’t have any obvious wounds, and there was no blood. It was a good sign, but he’d encountered more than one murder victim who had died of internal injuries. Carefully, he ran his hands over her torso and limbs, searching for any hidden wounds. Finding nothing to cause him alarm, he ran his hands over her head. She wasn’t bleeding, but he noticed the red welt on her chin.

  “Lilly, wake up.” He gently ran his hands through her hair.

  She moaned. Jon welcomed the sound.

  “C’mon, Lilly. Open your eyes.” He brushed away the hair from her face.

  Her eyes fluttered open.

  He let out the breath that he’d been holding. Thank You, Lord, he thought.

  “Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  She tried to focus on his face. He saw her struggle to make sense of things. Finally, things snapped into place. “My jaw feels like an elephant sat on it.” She tried to smile, but winced instead.

  She struggled to sit up. Jon helped her.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I came to finish packing up Pete’s clothes and things. When I opened the door and stepped into the living room, a man appeared behind me and punched. That’s the last thing I remember.” She tried to get up.

  Jon caught her arm, helping her to stand. He directed her to a kitchen chair. “Take a moment to gather yourself.”

  “How is she?” Dave asked from the doorway. Jon glanced at his partner. Dave shook his head, letting Jon know that the suspect had got away. He motioned to Lilly. “Is she okay?”

  “I’m fine. I just got punched in the face,” Lilly answered. She moved her jaw and winced.

  Jon went to the refrigerator and removed several ice cubes from the ice bin. He took a kitchen towel, wrapped the ice cubes in it and brought it over to Lilly. “Here. Put that on your chin.”

  She took the towel and followed his suggestion. “What does the guy who did this to me want?” she asked after a minute.

  That was the burning question that Jon was mulling. “Obviously, whoever he is, he’s looking for something he hasn’t yet found, and he came back to look for it again.”