She gasped as she looked at the mess in her kitchen.
Someone had been in here, searching for…what?
Grabbing her purse, she looked for Jonathan Littledeer’s business card. She found it and dialed the number.
“Littledeer.”
“Detective, this is Lilly Burkstrom. I just walked into my house. It looks like my ex-husband’s apartment wasn’t the only place ransacked.”
“Your house was broken into?”
“Yes.”
A crash from the bedroom made her gasp.
“Lilly?”
“I heard something crash.”
“Get out. Go next door and call nine-one-one.”
She turned and ran out the garage.
LEANN HARRIS
When Leann Harris was first introduced to her husband in college she knew she would never date the man. He was a graduate student getting a PhD in physics, and Leann had purposely taken a second year of biology in high school to avoid taking physics. So much for first impressions. They have been married thirty-eight years and still approach life from very different angles.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Leann taught math and science to deaf high school students for a couple of years until the birth of her first child. When her youngest child started school, Leann decided to fulfill a lifelong dream and began writing.
Leann presently lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband. She is a founding member and former president of the Dallas Area Romance Writers. Guarded Secrets is her second novel for Steeple Hill Books. Visit her Web site, www.leannharris.com.
Guarded Secrets
Leann Harris
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
— Psalms 46:1
Jennifer, DQ, Daniel and Crystal—
each of you is a blessing.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EPILOGUE
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
ONE
T he door stood ajar, and panic raced through her veins. She’d locked her ex-husband’s apartment door after retrieving his clothes for the funeral.
“Mom, did you forget to lock the door? You know Daddy always made me—” Tears clogged Penny’s throat.
Lilly Burkstrom pulled her daughter into her arms.
“I don’t understand, Mom,” Penny sobbed into her mother’s waist. “Why did Daddy have to die?”
It was a question Lilly asked herself. Peter had been murdered in a convenience store robbery gone bad.
It didn’t make much sense to her, a twenty-nine-year-old woman, so how could she expect her eight-year-old daughter to understand it?
“I don’t know, sweetie. I know you miss him. I do, too.”
Penny hugged her with a desperate intensity. “You won’t leave me, will you?” She looked up, her huge brown eyes glistening with tears.
Lilly’s heart broke. She wiped the wetness from her daughter’s cheeks. “No, I won’t.” Although she and Peter had been divorced almost since Penny’s birth, they had come to terms with their failed marriage and had become friends. Peter’s recent salvation had changed all their lives. “I can take you home and do this by myself.”
Penny wiped away her tears and stepped back. “I want to help.”
Lilly pushed the door all the way open and peered inside. The condition of the apartment shocked her.
Penny gasped. “Mom, what happened?”
Lilly’s gaze swept the living room, dining room and kitchen. It looked as if a tornado had ripped through the place, throwing things everywhere. Chairs and end tables had been tossed on their sides. The sofa had been turned over, and the cushions ripped and thrown around the room. The kitchen cabinets stood open; boxes of cereal and spaghetti spilled out from the shelves. Broken dishes and glasses littered the countertops and floor.
“I don’t know.” Three days ago, when she’d been inside this apartment to get one of Peter’s suits for the funeral, everything had been fine.
“I wonder if Dad’s bedroom is this way.” Penny started down the short hall.
A loud noise came from the bedroom.
Penny froze. When she turned her head, her frightened gaze met Lilly’s.
Lilly motioned for her daughter to come toward her. Penny turned and ran to her mother. Lilly rushed them out of the apartment and down the stairs. They retreated to Lilly’s car, and Lilly whipped out her cell phone.
“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”
“I need to report a burglary.”
Detective Jonathan Littledeer greeted Lilly outside Peter’s apartment door.
“Ms. Burkstrom, can you tell me what happened here?”
She recognized the Albuquerque police detective and his partner, David Sandoval. They’d come and told her about Peter’s death. Had it only been two weeks since that happened? It seemed like it was yesterday when they announced the grim news.
Stepping
