Page 6 of Burke (The Haven #2)

W hen the phone call came in later that night, Burke was surprised, as he’d just come out of the shower, was tired, and had stretched out on his bed.

He almost didn’t answer the call, but remembering what Tommy had said earlier, Burke picked up the call and wasn’t surprised that it was Gregory, Tommy’s friend.

Burke talked with him for a few minutes and explained the situation.

Gregory went quiet for quite a while, while the sound of a keyboard clacking away filled the cell phone. Finally Gregory shared, “I’m already going through some of the stuff online about you. Have you checked your credit cards?”

“I shut them down a few weeks ago,” he replied, with a yawn.

“I’m not sure about that because we’ve still got active credit cards showing in your name.”

Burke sat up, shocked. “What? What are you talking about?” And it didn’t take long for Burke to realize that credit cards in his name were being used, even using his last known address. He swore at that and asked, “How do I shut them down?”

“Not only that but you’ll have to do something to stop people from getting new ones,” Gregory muttered. “We’ll have some work to do here. Look. I’ll call you tomorrow. I know it’s late right now.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll send you a list of the credit cards I found so far and what companies issued them.

Then I’ll do some more research tonight on this.

Meanwhile, in the morning, you call these credit card companies first and tell them of the fraud.

Thereafter, contact the three credit reporting bureaus and put a freeze on any new debt in your name.

So we’ll get this canned from that end. I do this professionally, and some of the groups I can deal with on my own,” he muttered, “but you will have to make the calls on some of these. Anyway, I’ll get back to you in the morning. ” And, with that, he disconnected.

The call left Burke with a bad taste in his mouth as he realized that somebody else had credit cards in his name and that this could be a way bigger problem than he could imagine.

As soon as he closed his eyes, everything just piled in on top of him, and it was hard to sleep.

He finally got up, walked downstairs, and headed outside to sit on the deck in the cooler night air, as he considered it all.

Big Toby joined him a little bit later. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just talked to Gregory.”

“Who’s that?”

“Tommy’s friend, the digital PI. Apparently multiple credit cards have been issued in my name that somebody else is using.”

“That sucks,” Toby replied, as he stared at him in shock.

“I agree. So Gregory will do an extended search tonight and will get back in touch with me in the morning and share any more findings,” Burke explained, “but it does make me more than a little concerned.”

Just then his phone rang again. He checked the ID on his phone screen and frowned. “Shirley is calling me?”

Big Toby pointed at Burke’s cell. “I don’t know who that is, but, judging by the look on your face, you better answer it, given everything else going on in your world.”

So Burke did, and it was a familiar voice, but one he hadn’t heard from in a while.

“Burke, is that you?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. Is that really you, Shirley?”

“It is, indeed,” she confirmed, with a half laugh. “I wasn’t sure if you would pick up.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure either, as some weird shit’s been happening.”

“What do you mean by weird shit?” she asked cautiously.

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re calling?” When she hesitated, he asked, “Has this got something to do with my ex?”

She snorted. “Meaning my sister?… Yes. I just happened to see something that she had. I’m not sure how she got it, or what she’s doing, but…”

Something clicked in Burke’s mind. “Does she have a credit card in my name?” he asked bluntly. “Because I just found out that somebody has opened several credit card accounts in my name.”

She gasped. “So, you didn’t give it to her?”

He froze and then barked, “Of course I didn’t give it to her. What are you talking about?”

“She told me that you gave it to her to help her out.”

“No, no way,” he cried out. “When did she do this?”

“Just recently, but she told me that you gave it to her. She was speaking really fast though, so I was scared she was lying.”

“Of course she was lying,” he snapped. “Good Christ. If she’s racked up a ton of money…”

“I’m afraid she probably has. You know what she’s like.”

“I do know what she’s like. Remember one of the reasons we broke up?”

“I know. I know, but, when I saw the credit card, I just didn’t know what to do.”

“I do appreciate your letting me know that it’s her because it’s literally happening right now.”

“Oh, crap. So you’ve already gotten alerts?”

“I’ve been getting phone calls from some angry older guy because apparently I had bought some stuff from him and the payment bounced back as invalid, but the stuff’s already been picked up. It was some handmade furniture or something.”

There was silence on the other end, then Shirley sighed. “Oh my God, that’s Benji. Silvia told me that he made it for her.”

“I’m sure he did.”

“She also told me that she paid for it.”

“Yeah, with my fake credit card, and the charge didn’t go through or something.”

“Yeah, and he knows her, so he let her take the furniture, probably after she told him that you would pay for it. And now she probably isn’t responding to Benji’s calls, and he’s got your number instead.”

“Yeah, you’re not kidding,” Burke muttered, hanging his head. “Benji calls all the time about me screwing over people and not paying for things that I bought.”

“I’m so sorry,” she wailed.

“What the hell, Shirley?”

“I didn’t know how bad this was. Plus she’s got a new boyfriend, which is how I really knew that you weren’t paying for it.”

“Ya think?” He sat here, stunned. “I don’t even know what to say right now.”

“I’m so sorry. If she finds out I told you all this, she’ll really blow up.”

“What does she expect you to do?” he snapped.

“Look. I don’t think she knows where you are, even what state you’re in.” Then she asked, “Where are you anyway?” When he hesitated, she added, “No, of course, you don’t want to tell me. Why would you. I’m so sorry, Burke.”

“Look. I’m not against telling you where I am, but it won’t help you in this scenario.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, “but I do need to tell you that the boyfriend is pretty ugly though.”

“Pretty ugly?”

“I don’t mean physically ugly,” she clarified, tripping over her words.

“What are you saying?”

“I think he’s dangerous,” she clarified, the words rushing out of her mouth. “He’s not a good influence on her at all.”

“Ya think?” he repeated, with a dry laugh. “She was somebody who definitely couldn’t be trusted around money and credit cards, but she didn’t use to be somebody who stole identities.”

“Oh my gosh,” she cried out. “I didn’t even think of it in that way, but that’s what it is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, there’s a name for it,” he stated. “Credit card fraud. This is jailtime stuff.” When she gasped, he added, “Silvia’s not even using her head here. Did she think I wouldn’t find out? Is she thinking at all?”

“No, she isn’t, and, if she finds out that I told you about this card, she’ll blame me.”

“And is that a problem?”

“Well…”

Burke asked. “Shirley, will your sister hurt you?”

“My sister won’t, but her boyfriend? I’m not so sure. His name is Jacob or something like that, but he goes by Jay. He’s just, I don’t know, he’s kind of…”

“Okay, he’s what? Just say it.”

“He’s dangerous, and he’s scary. I don’t want to be around him at all, especially when I realized what she was doing and who she was doing it to, I got really angry, and she just laughed it off. She told me that you deserved it for leaving her the way you did.”

“I deserve it for leaving her? She’d racked up my credit cards more times than I could count. I had to close all those accounts and cut them all up because of her. Plus, there were a few other major things that broke us up, like she had an affair,” he spat.

“I know. I know, but my sister has changed.”

“I don’t think Silvia has changed at all, at least not for the better,” he noted. “I think she’s exactly who she always was, but she just did a better job of keeping all that hidden back then.”

“But she’s in trouble now,” Shirley muttered.

“Please don’t tell me that you’re calling to ask me to help your sister.”

She hesitated. “I guess that would be really pushing things, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, it definitely would, particularly right now,” he declared, with a snort. “You do realize I’ll have to call the cops in on this?”

After a moment of silence, she muttered, “That’s probably the best thing… honestly.”

“But it doesn’t sound as if you’re very happy about it.”

“It’s my sister,” Shirley stated, her tone bitter. “Of course I’m not happy about it, but she’s messing with your life now too.”

“No, it’s well beyond messing with my life ,” he stated. “I’ve got a PI literally doing an investigation, trying to figure out what’s going on. He found the maxed-out credit card accounts in my name, and who knows what else he might find. It’s not a pretty sight, Shirley. It’s identity theft.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “Look.… I’m in New Mexico, and I have been for the last, I don’t know, six months or so. I’m in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. I don’t know quite where you are, but, if I can do anything to help, just say it.”

“The police will need to talk to you.”

She sighed. “Jay won’t like that.”

“ He won’t?”

“No,… they won’t.”

“They will just have to deal with it,” he snapped. “I want my name cleared, and I want these bills paid, and I, for damn sure, will not be paying them.”

“They don’t have any money,” she exclaimed, then snorted. “Yet they do, but I don’t know where they get it from.”

“I do. They’re probably taking cash advances off the damn credit cards,” he cried out.

After a bit of silence, she added, “I have to go. You’ve got my number.” And, with that, she disconnected, and Burke stared out into the darkness.

Big Toby muttered, “Now that is messed up.”

Burke turned to face him. “Sorry, I forgot you were there.”

“Hey, dude, you can keep forgetting I’m here because that’s just wrong.”

“I know,” he agreed. “So that was Shirley, the sister of my ex-girlfriend, and I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“You know exactly what to do. You call the cops, and that shit will stop. You need to get all those credit cards reported as fraudulently opened, and you need to stay on the lookout for more. That is exactly why you have to involve the police, so you’ll have a police report documenting things.”

“Shit, I don’t want to get Shirley in trouble either.”

“You may not have to, considering that you’ve already got this digital PI guy checking what’s going on with these credit cards, plus the other guy who keeps calling you.”

“Sure, Gregory’s already told me that somebody out there is using my fake cards, and now I know who it is— Silvia .”

“Right.” Toby nodded. “The local police department in town can take the report and can arrange to have anybody picked up who needs to be picked up, even in another state.”

“They’re probably in New Mexico,” Burke muttered. “That’s where they were before, and that’s apparently where Shirley is.”

“Don’t let them come over here,” Big Toby stated. “None of us need anything to do with people like that.”

“I agree,” Burke confirmed. “I came here to get away from Silvia and to forget it all. It got pretty ugly there at the end, but it’s been quite a while.”

“And what about Shirley, the sister?”

“Shirley is great,” he said, with a sad smile. “Honestly, out of the entire family, she’s the only one who’s decent. Even their father is a con artist.”

“Yeah, but there’s a difference between a con artist and a complete fraud,” Big Toby pointed out. “Seems Silvia’s gotten herself into something pretty major now.”

“I agree, and yet I suspect she will try to spin it as being a bit of a joke, something she could get out of because she’s always been given a free pass,” Burke muttered.

Big Toby asked, “Who gave her a free pass?”

“Almost everyone in her life. Even me. When it came down to it, I just didn’t want to cause any fuss,” he explained, “so I just let it go, paid the bills, and got out of there.”

“That’s why she keeps getting away with this shit.”

“I know. I know, and that’s just wrong,” he muttered.

“Get some sleep. I suggest that, first thing in the morning, you file a report with the local authorities, contact the credit card companies, tell them it’s fraud, and dispute the cards and the charges made.”

“Gregory told me that he was already contacting them, but that I would need to contact them too. I don’t even have the details of how many cards are out there and what companies the cards are with, not to mention how much she’s run up.

” Burke groaned. “I don’t know everything that’s been done, but Gregory will send me a full report in the morning. ”

“Good. You jump on all that. You for sure don’t want Silvia to have any advance notice that you are on to her.”

“Shirley also mentioned that Silvia’s boyfriend is dangerous,” he shared. “If they go after Shirley, she doesn’t have anybody in her corner. Her father has always been against her because she wouldn’t go down the same criminal pathway that he and Silvia chose.”

“Who else is in the family?” Toby asked.

“Just the father and the two daughters. The dad is all in, and, if a con works, you take it for all you can, then you run. The last thing I want is for them to run right now.”

“The last thing you want is for them to continuously blow up your credit too, just because they can. I hate to bring this up, but who knows if it’s just limited to credit cards?”

“Shit,” Burke muttered.

“And, if this boyfriend is dangerous, what else has he done?”

“I don’t know, but you can bet I don’t really want to take a closer look.”

“You may not have a choice,” Toby noted.

“The bottom line is, I don’t want anything to happen to Shirley for having told me.”

“I get that,” Toby murmured, “but you also have to take care of yourself.” And, with that, Toby got up and left.