Page 12 of Burke (The Haven #2)

B urke gave Shirley a hug and hopped into his truck, then waited until she was in her car and had pulled away. She drove a small older car. She had always made decent money, and he had meant to talk to her about that, but then they got completely sidetracked. He pulled out his phone and called her.

“That didn’t take long.” She chuckled.

“We forgot to set up a game plan for tomorrow. What are you doing about your bank accounts and all that?”

“I’ve already figured out what I need to do,” she replied, with a sigh. “Not a whole lot I can do but show up at the bank tomorrow on my lunch hour.”

“Do you think that’s soon enough?”

“I hope so.” She hesitated, then asked, “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”

“Yes, because, with my credit cards blocked, and their not having anything else set up yet, if they find out that you had anything to do with it, you’ll become target number one. I know you don’t want to do it, but I would phone tonight and at least get your credit cards canceled.”

“Ouch.”

“And if you have any recurring charges, confirm you let them know that.”

“I will,” she said, “thanks for that.”

“I’m sorry.” And he found himself repeating the apology before hanging up.

He drove slowly back home, worried about her and about the whole scenario. When he pulled in to the Haven, Timber was sitting out on the deck, a pad of paper in his hands. Burke walked up slowly and greeted him. “Hey.”

Timber held up a hand, which in their world always meant freeze .

Burke froze, and, as he watched, an armadillo on the back deck was a few steps away from where Timber sat, then looked back at Timber before moving along the deck to the grassy area. “Good God,” Burke murmured. “Are all animals welcome?”

“All animals are welcome,” Timber declared.

“What was wrong with him?”

“He had some plastic tied around his neck.”

“Tied on purpose?”

“No, more like garbage that had gotten tangled around his neck, and he wanted it taken off,” he clarified, with a smile. “Job accomplished.”

“Wow,” he muttered.

“How are you doing?” Timber asked.

“I’m okay. I just talked to the cops, then ended up having dinner with Shirley.”

“How did that go?”

Burke frowned. “In a way it was very emotional for both of us because we have known each other for a while, and this involves her family, so it’s not an easy thing for either one of us to handle right now.”

“That’s got to be tough,” Timber replied.

“Absolutely, yet it’s what it is, so what can I do?”

Timber smiled. “You do what you’re doing, and, with that, you just keep on going because what else can you do?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Burke agreed, with half a laugh. “It’s just frustrating to see good people getting hit all the time.”

“And that’s exactly what’s happening to you. It’s frustrating for us to watch this too because we don’t know how to help either.”

“I’m hoping, after talking to the lawyer today, that maybe we can find an easy solution to this. The credit card companies have frozen everything, and, according to Shirley, Silvia’s quite pissed because she’s already aware that the cards can no longer be used.”

“Of course, since, as soon as you freeze those credit cards, she’s suddenly out of funds.”

“Shirley did say that Silvia has three cards in my name. I’m hoping that all of them are now canceled, but I don’t know for sure. So I’ll have to talk to Gregory about that.”

“Who is Gregory?”

“Tommy’s friend, the digital PI.”

“That would be a good thing to do now.”

“She’ll also freeze her cards tonight too.”

“Shirley will?” he asked.

“Yeah, and maybe that’s overkill, but…”

“But what?”

“I just have a really ugly feeling that, if Silvia can’t access the credit cards in my name—and doesn’t have access to somebody else’s cards set up yet to steal from—Silvia likely already knows about her sister’s credit cards. So, if she finds out Shirley turned them in—”

“Her sister becomes free game,” Timber added, “and you’re right. From what I’ve heard about your ex-girlfriend, Silvia would do that.”

“That’s the thing. Shirley also has some money in the bank that she saved from when she did project management work, and, since her sister has been at her place, Silvia could very well have information on all those accounts.”

“Oh, crap.”

“Yeah, and, of course, the banks are now closed.”

“She needs to go there first thing in the morning.”

“I think so too.”

“She needs to change accounts and change debit cards. Everything.”

“Do you think she needs to change banks as well?”

Timber grimaced. “I would change banks, just in case. You don’t know if she’s got somebody helping her. These con artists are able to access things they shouldn’t be able to all the time, so somebody has to be helping them.”

“That’s a scary thought too. I’ll warn her about that.” He pulled out his phone and quickly texted her to share Timber’s suggestions. When his phone rang, he asked, “Hey, did you make it home okay?”

“I made it home,” she shared. “And I just got off the phone with the credit card companies. I canceled all my cards.”

“That’s good to know.”

“What’s this about changing banks?”

He put it on Speaker and stated, “I’ve got Timber here beside me. It was his suggestion that you should probably change banks, not just accounts, because—depending on how your sister and this guy are operating—they could have help on the inside.”

“Jesus. That means I need to go there first thing in the morning.”

“I would have suggested you do that anyway,” Timber interjected.

“If she’s now running out of money, she’ll find it somewhere, and you know she won’t start looking for a job at this stage of the game.

So, she’ll go for the easiest money. Plus, if she thinks that you owe her in some way, it won’t be much of a stretch to take it from you, especially if she’s getting pressure from the guy in her life. ”

Burke asked, “How far of a stretch is it for her to decide that you owe her, and she could go collect some of it right now?”

“Not much of a stretch at all.”

“And, if she had access to your account, she might just take a little bit out from an ATM machine. However, if she finds out how much is in there, she might decide that the best avenue would be to drain it.”

“From an ATM, she would see the balance, and I don’t know if she could take all of it, but I wouldn’t be happy if she took any of it,” she grumbled. “I have a lot of money locked up in savings or investments.”

“Are they all through the same bank?” Timber asked.

“No,” she replied thoughtfully, “that was closer to my old location.”

“As in an investment account?”

“Yes.”

“Then I suggest you contact them and have them put a fraud alert on your account, so they’re to be extra vigilant.”

“Can I do that?”

“Yes, you can,” he declared.

She muttered, “I guess I’m coming in late in the morning.”

“Will you lose your job over that?”

“I would hope not,” she replied, “but no point in going to work on time to save my job only to allow my sister to clean out my money, especially since this job would never allow me to earn that kind of money back. Jeez, that came out a little convoluted,” she confessed, “but basically…”

“It’s okay,” Burke interrupted. “We got it.”

“Right.… Damn, I want to do something about it right now, but I don’t know what.”

“You could start with emails to the investment company. They may even have a twenty-four-hour phone number for fraud alerts.”

“Oh, good idea, I didn’t think of that.”

“And, whatever time your bank opens in the morning, be there early. Take all your cards and make sure, whatever you decide to do, that you come away with new accounts and clean cards, and add all the extra security that you can.”

“I can try that too,” she muttered, “but, if you expect me to sleep now, that’s not happening.”

“No, of course not.”

She disconnected soon afterward.

As they sat here after the call, Timber asked, “You really care about her, don’t you?”

“I definitely care, though it’s not something I’ve had a chance to think about,” he noted cautiously. “I don’t want you to read anything into it just yet, but obviously she’s done something huge for me.”

“Yes, she has,” he agreed, “and I’m really happy that we are at this stage of it so fast.”

“In that family, Shirley was always the nice one.”

“Good enough.” Timber chuckled. “Yet I highly suspect something is there.”

“Yeah, I think there probably is,” he admitted, with a sly smile. “However, I wasn’t exactly thinking along those lines right now.”

“No, but maybe you should be.”

Burke studied his friend.

Timber nodded and continued. “I did the same thing, you know? I wanted to wait, to see if something else, somebody else, showed any interest, or maybe just wait for a better time,” he shared.

“It was always about time for me. I wanted somebody in my life, but I was thinking that would be good, after I got the refuge set up, after I got a house fixed, after I got all kinds of things done. Then I would look for somebody.” Timber shook his head.

“Suddenly there she was, and, like everything else around here, it took on a life of its own. So I now feel a whole lot better knowing that I’m in a committed relationship, and I’m not even worried about all that now,” he shared. “She’s perfect for my life.”

“And she was supposed to come with the horses today?”

“No, another vet, who couldn’t make it. Tiffany will be here for the receiving. So, it worked out better anyway because Tiffany was crazy busy at her practice over the past few days.”

“That’s good to hear it worked out.” Burke smiled at his buddy. “At least you don’t feel quite so bad, as long as the horses are being cared for where they are.”

“And they are, but they’ll be here tomorrow.”

“Good enough. I want to be here too, if I don’t have to go back to town and deal with this other stuff.”

“Yeah, but if you do, you do,” Timber said. “This place isn’t just about the animals, it’s about everybody.” He smiled.

Burke agreed. “I really like the fact that you do include the animals in this.”

“The animals are the reason I’m doing this, and I can see that very quickly we’ll probably end up overwhelmed in numbers, but that’s okay too.”

“It’s absolutely okay,” Burke agreed. “You have a lot of land here to develop.”

“I know, and now that I’ve got all the acreage, I’ll go out with Andy soon and start sorting out the marker lines, property corner markers, and all that, so I can get it fenced. Apparently some of it is fenced, and that’s a good thing, but an awful lot of acreage is here that I need to look after.”

“And is it land that you need to look after?” Burke asked cautiously. “Or is it land that will look after itself?”

“Both,” Timber clarified, “and, because of the problems that we had originally, I won’t assume that it’ll look after itself.

I’ll need to keep an eye on it, and I also want to get to know the land, so that I understand exactly what’s here.

That includes the watering hole that Andy told me is here because that water is everything.

So, if we end up with other kinds of issues, we want to ensure something is available for everybody. ”

“And, of course, we don’t know how good of a watering hole it is yet.”

“No, we don’t,” he stated cheerfully, “but the fact we have a watering hole is a good start, and we’ll take the next step and figure it out.”

As Burke sat beside Timber on the deck, the call of an owl came from somewhere in the bush. Timber lifted his hands and made a call right back again. Burke watched in amazement as a huge horned owl swooped in and landed on the railing beside him.

Timber chuckled. “Hey, Gibraltar. How are you doing tonight?”

A weird chuckling sound came from the back of the bird’s throat, and he leaned forward, his gaze focused on Burke.

“Good God,” Burke muttered in amazement.

“Yeah, this guy came in with a busted wing a while back. I didn’t even have this place yet.

I was just out wandering around, looking at the land, trying to figure out whether I should buy it or not when I found him.

It was one of those moments when you truly realize that this is where you belong.

This guy came right up to me, and I managed to splint his wing and gave him a chunk of leftover steak I had in my sandwich with me at the time, and we’ve been fast friends ever since,” he explained, with a smile.

“It always does my heart good to have him come say hi.”

“The fact that I’m here with you, and he still came up,” Burke noted, “is huge. I would love to touch him, but I don’t know that he would trust me.”

“He’s a good judge of character though,” Timber replied.

As Burke held out his hand for the huge owl to access it, he shared, “I feel as if he’s wondering if my hand is edible.”

“And he might be considering it,” Timber noted, with a laugh. “Never had a problem with it, but that doesn’t mean he won’t decide that would make a tasty meal. And don’t kid yourself. That beak of his could take off a finger in a heartbeat.”

As Burke continued to hold out his hand steadily, the owl walked a little bit closer, not taking his gaze off Burke. “Good God, he’s unbelievably beautiful.” The owl seemed to be taking the measure of Burke.

“Isn’t he? He’s so majestic, and he is so much just himself. I think that’s the joy of animals. It’s… they’re them. They don’t try to be anything else. They are just happy being who they are. I don’t think they even think about changing who they are,” Timber offered, with a smile.

The owl stayed for a long time, and finally he cocked his head to one side and suddenly lifted up, those huge powerful wings beating in the air, as he slowly rose and circled above.

“Now he’ll be hunting,” Timber whispered.

“And for him to live, another animal has to die.”

Timber looked over at Burke and nodded slowly. “It’s the circle of life, and, as much as I understand and accept that, it still hurts sometimes.”

“Of course, because we want everybody to live in peace and harmony, but nobody ever does,” Burke noted, with a wry smile.

“Some of us do, but, in the animal kingdom, not so much.” And he left that thought hanging.

“Anyway, I’m off to bed,” Burke announced, as he got up. “I just wanted to thank you again for letting me stay here.”

Timber turned to him. “Why the hell would you even bring that up?” he asked, his voice rusty. “You know very well that you’re always welcome here.”

“I know, and, for that, I thank you even more because… just knowing that, no matter what, I have a place to call home, a haven for me,… is huge.”

“And that’s the correct use of the word haven ,” Timber pointed out. “Remember that… you’re not alone.”