Guarded Secrets
“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 back. 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 twin, 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.
“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.