Page 17 of Burke (The Haven #2)

S hirley had wasted precious time getting more stuff out of the apartment than she probably needed, but she had this feeling that she needed to grab it now or it wouldn’t be there later.

Whether her sister would steal it to sell or something else, Shirley didn’t know.

It made perfect sense to come back later to clean the apartment.

Yet she just wasn’t looking forward to it, at least not alone.

She might get somebody to come with her and stand watch while she cleaned.

That way she would get her deposit back, but, if she ended up losing it, so be it.

She drove through town and headed straight out, watching the rearview mirror, looking for anything and everything. When her phone rang, she reached for it and almost clicked on Talk before she realized it was Silvia again.

Her sister left another voice mail message, and Shirley played it while she drove, listening to her sister’s furious voice, demanding that Shirley pick up the phone, asking what the hell she was doing and why did she change their account.

Shirley froze for a moment at that comment.

It was her account, and Silvia had no rights to it, but that said an awful lot about where her sister’s head was at right now, clearly feeling a sense of entitlement.

It was a scary thought, and something Shirley was even more worried about than before. However, she now was also worried about her own safety. Unfortunately, in her sister’s case, things had gone too far, and Shirley feared nobody would stop Silvia.

It was horrifying to think that Silvia was so far gone.

That account was where Shirley’s paychecks went, and she should have taken steps to protect herself a long time ago.

It just never occurred to her that Silvia would ever treat Shirley like this.

But here it was, her job was gone and her bank account would have been too, if she hadn’t moved it.

When the ranting on the phone stopped abruptly, suddenly the voice changed, and the boyfriend spoke.

“Where are you?” he asked in a very calm, almost chilling voice.

“Not sure what happened between you and your sister, but it needs to be fixed. Call her,” he urged. “You don’t want us to come after you.”

He left it at that, but to hear him say it, and say it the way he did, made the hackles on the back of Shirley’s neck rise, and she realized just how terrified she was of him. Silvia didn’t seem to have any problem with him, but, for Shirley, he was someone to be avoided.

She had followed Timber’s directions as best she could, but she was rattled and worried she might not find where she was going.

She kept on driving, going blindly now. Just when she thought she might be coming up to the target road sign, she slowed down, and there in front of her was a vehicle parked.

Her heart skipped a beat for a moment, until she realized it was Burke.

She slowed down and pulled onto the side of the road, right up beside him.

He rolled down his window and smiled at her. “Any problems?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, not really.” At that, his eyebrows popped up, as if he didn’t believe her, and she shrugged. “Silvia left me a message, and honestly, it scared me because she seems to have convinced herself that it was her bank account.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was giving me shit for having taken the money out of the bank account, closing our account as she called it,” she explained.

“But it’s your account?”

“Yes,… it’s my account. Mine and mine alone. It’s my name on it, and my paychecks went into it. She never ever contributed.”

“Did you ever say that it was her money too?”

“No,… never. And it wasn’t as if I gave her my cards either.

She took them and then wouldn’t give them back.

I didn’t really care about it back then,” she added, “but now is a very different story. At the time those credit cards were more of an emergency fund for me. However, now I know more about her, and she’s more likely to take advantage of my savings account now,” she explained.

“That’s crazy, and now you’ve lost your job because of her.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t fun.”

“I’m sorry. That’s not what anybody wants to have happen.”

“No, and I still can’t believe it. Silvia is a whole different story. And her boyfriend left me a chilling message too.”

“Play it for me and Timber when we get there. For now, just follow me.”

“I’m so glad you are here. I was afraid I was lost,” she shared. “Honestly, I spent the whole time looking behind me, and now I’m still feeling… tense and stressed.”

“Both of those reactions are totally understandable,” he agreed, with a nod. “Let’s get you up to Timber’s place and out of the public eye.”

“Right.” She frowned. “That’s a really good point.” She followed Burke down the road a bit, when he pulled into an open yard where multiple vehicles were parked. Something about seeing that many vehicles around made her feel so much safer. She parked beside one, pulling up right next to Burke.

He got out and asked her, “Is there any reason to think they might be tracking you?”

She frowned at him. “Tracking me? Oh, good God,” she muttered. “I have no idea, but Frankie is…”

“Frankie is what?”

She stopped. “Scary.”

He nodded and looked over to where Timber sat on the front porch. He got up, went inside, and then came back out again with some tool in his hand. He quickly scanned Shirley’s vehicle and announced, “The vehicle is clear.”

“Thank heavens for that,” she muttered, relieved. “You just opened up a fear I hadn’t even considered.”

He nodded and smiled at her. “I’m Timber.”

“Glad to finally put a face to the name and to the voice,” she replied. “I’m Shirley, sister of the con artist, apparently.”

Burke clarified, “Actually that would be daughter of the con artist, sister of the fraud machine.”

She winced and nodded. “Yeah, and apparently now she’s upset that I took away our money.”

“Explain,” Timber ordered, his voice hard.

And Shirley did. “My sister has deluded herself into believing that the bank account was somehow suddenly ours . She was furious that I had moved our money.”

“And was it?”

“No,” she declared. “It’s all mine. She took my bank cards a while back, and I told her there was no point in using them because no money was there,” she added.

“Did she ever make withdrawals?”

“When she took the cards, I had just started my job and didn’t have any money in that account for a while.

The real money that I have is invested, and I didn’t think she knew about that or could access those funds, all saved from my earlier job, where I made some good money.

However, recently I’ve been working as a receptionist for a while and living pretty frugally, until she now cost me that job.

Yet it didn’t even occur to me that she would try to cash out my investment money, not until this all blew up.

So I moved it all, right before I saw her show up at that bank, trying to get some cash. ”

“Of course she did. If Burke’s credit card scams weren’t working, they needed another mark,” Timber noted, frowning at her, “and this time it was you.”

She nodded. “I canceled my cards yesterday,” she shared, “and I’ve got new ones coming, but, of course, that will be through the mail.” Then she frowned.

“You need to contact them and find out if they’ve already been sent out,” Burke suggested.

“Where were they going?” Timber asked.

“To my home address,” she replied, frowning as she thought about it. “That’s probably not where I want them to land, is it?”

“No, because she can check your mail, I presume?”

“Yes, and she will. She also told me that she had keys made to my apartment.”

“She told you all this?” Burke asked.

“Yeah, she thought it was a big lark,” Shirley explained. “Now, of course, I’m seeing it in a very different light, and it’s not a big lark at all, and I’ll be at the receiving end of her cons.”

“Particularly if she causes any damage to the apartment,” Timber pointed out, standing at her side.

“Did you contact the landlord?” Burke asked.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t have a chance to clean it or anything. I just grabbed my stuff and ran.”

“But if she has keys, is she likely to go in there and find out that you’ve skipped out on her?” Burke asked, sharing a look with Timber.

“Yes,” she confirmed, scrubbing her face.

“Do you have your landlord’s number?” Timber asked. She gave it to Timber, who nodded and asked, “Would you mind if I spoke to him?”

“Not at all. I don’t even know what to do with the whole situation.”

“No need to worry. I’ll call him and see if he can intercept those bank cards at the very least.” With that, he headed inside.

She looked over at Burke. “He really is helpful, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he’s the best,” Burke confirmed, with a smile. “I came here, and I just needed a place to land for a couple of days, and Timber gave it to me. And here I am, even a several weeks later.”

She turned and looked around. “Is everybody here for the same reason?”

He laughed. “No. Some are here because they are friends of friends. Some are recovering from God-only-knows-what. Many of them are people who work with Kat and Badger, who are military friends to all of us,” he shared. “Kat was the designer who I told you about.”

“Right.” Shirley nodded. “The woman who does all the prosthetics.”

“Yes,” he replied, with a smile. “She and Badger have an awful big crew of mostly veterans, who they support in any number of ways. They’ve been building houses for other veterans, or just renovating them to accommodate their injuries.

So, from Kat and Badger’s perspective, Timber’s place is just another house, just another friend who needs a hand. ”

“But it’s a huge hand,” Shirley noted, as she stared at all the buildings. “My God, he’s got… so much space here.”