Johnny Longrunner here to add light to my friend's words.

I’m here to defend myself.  Jon mentioned me in one of his posts.  I could tell he was in love, even me a geek. Hey, I’m an Indian.  I read signs, for Pete sakes.  What did he expect?  The man cracked a smile—a smile for the first time in years.  You had to be blind not to see the difference in his attitude.  There was a purpose in his walk and a smile on his face.

Of course, when he brought me those invoices, the look in his eyes was priceless.  It reminded me of those old pictures of Geronimo or Cochise or my grandfather when he fought with my grandmother and there was murder in his eyes. Jon was on a mission.  I didn’t envy the person on the other end of Jon’s anger.

More thoughts.

Jon here.  Sorry I haven’t posted but Dave and I have been tied up in a case. 

I’ve thought about what to write.  The thing that kept coming back to me is how Lilly touched my heart.  When Dave and I told Lilly and Penny about the murder of her ex-husband, she didn’t say anything.  But their reaction pierced the wall I built around my heart.  When Lilly called me to tell me that her husband’s apartment had been searched, then later that night her house being tossed, I realized she might be right.  Peter’s death might have been planned.

As Lilly and I worked together, I kept tripping over my heart.  Do you know how inconvenient that is for a detective?  And apparently everyone in the department could tell I was a goner.  For Pete’s sake, even Johnny Longrunner, the department’s computer geek (and least sensitve male in all of New Mexico), could  read my love-sick face.  I’m surprised I wasn’t taken off the case.  Of course if I’d been , I would’ve continued working on it.  I got bitten hard, but that’s okay.  I have the family and I thank the good Lord for them everyday.

First one

I’m Diego Ibarra.  Now, I work for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.  When I was 14, I wouldn’t have bet that I would’ve lived to adulthood.  I was the toughest of the tough would be gang member that is until I walked by vegetable garden on the side of San Mateo Community Church. 

I saw Lilly out there working in the soil and it caught my interest.  What was she doing?  She told me to come back and see the tomatoes on the vines.  I knew zip about growing things, but I wanted to see.  Those little green things were going to turn into red tomatoes?  To my amazement, I watched those tomatoes grow.   There was also corn and other crops.

It changed my life.  I loved working in the garden. Watching things grow instead of tearing things down. Then I wanted to know about plants, crops, what could be grown in New Mexico.  I got a scholarship to the University of New Mexico and the rest is history.

It was Lilly who held out a hand to a young punk.  It blew me away.  And through a lot of my mother’s prayers, and I’m sure Lilly and the pastor prayed, my life is beyond my wildest dreams. 

Who knew tomatoes could do that?  God did.

It’s my turn again...

Penny, here.  I want to tell you the most exciting part of the book.  Everyone else is not telling you the real important stuff.

Okay, okay, this was the way it happened.  If was after we harvested the garden.  I had to show Carrie and Caren how to pull carrots.  They didn’t believe carrots came out of the ground.  Can you believe that?  And Jon didn’t know anything either.  But after we took the vegetables to the neighbors, we all went out to dinner.  Jon, Mom, Carrie, Caren and me.

Well, we were celebrating, and Caren asked if I could spend the night at their house.  Mom let me.  We had a blast and talked and talked.  The next morning, I was kinda tired.  I didn’t want to admit to mom how much we talked.  Anyway, when she picked me up, I fell asleep in the car.  I woke long enough that when we got to the church, I went to mom’s office and fell asleep on the couch there.  When I woke up, I was in a car with this strange man.

I asked him who he was and what I was doing in his car.  He told me a big lie.  It was a whopper.  He said we were playing a joke on mom.  It was a secret, and she was playing hide and seek.  Pleeze.  Mom doesn’t do hide-and-seek.  I told him to stop lying.  Looking back, I think I made a mistake.  His face got real mad.  He drove to a drive-in and bought me a hamburger.  I wasn’t goin’ to eat, but my stomach growled.  If I was going to escape, I needed to eat.

When I asked where we were goin’, he said not to worried.  Ha.  I knew he was a bad man and he needed Jesus, so I told him.  You wouldn’t believe the strange expression on his face.  His eyes got real big, and his mouth got hard.

I prayed real hard.  When we got to the trailer, he put me in a chair and gave me a teddy bear.  He gave me a coke and then I went to sleep.  When I woke up the next day, mom was there.

 More happened, but I’ll tell you later.  Bye.

So I lost the bet.

My name is David Sandoval.  I’m Jon’s partner at Albuquerque PD.  We’re Homicide detectives and have been through a lot together.  He’s known at my house as “Uncle Jon” and has been the center of a lot of prayers. 

As a cop, Jon’s got instincts that are the best in the business.  Together, he and I have solved a lot of murders.  It’s as if we feed off of each other.  He’s the one who originally believed Lilly’s story about her husband’s death being more than a random robbery.  I had my doubts.  As we chased our tails, we were able to feed off of each other, thinking through the killer’s motivation.

Of course, it is quite something to see Jon with my daughters.  This big fierce looking Indian cop being directed by two little girls. They don’t take no for an answer.  They’d make my drill sergeant proud.  I promise you the day that Caren convinced Jon to come to their tea party, I thought I was going to bust my sides laughing.  Little did I know that I stuck my foot into it, and Carrie, with encouragement from Uncle Jon, got me involve in the tea party, too.  I won’t mention what was on our heads.  I get sweaty palms just thinkin’ about it. That’s a secret no one at Albuquerque PD will know about.

Jon’s a rock and a good friend.  And I thank the good Lord above Jon now has a new family.

I give in

In order to keep peace in my house and my partner’s house—Caren and Carrie, I’m doing what I promised—I guess it’s my turn.

I’m Detective Jonathan Littlerdeer with Albuquerque PD.  I joined the department after my time in the Army.  When I came home I had a wife, 18-month-old daughter and a new born.  Within 3 years they were all dead.  There was nothing the enemy could’ve done to me that would’ve been harder to endure than watching my daughters die of a genetic disease.  Grown men don’t cry, but the death of my family brought me to my knees.  I would’ve gladly endured the pain the disease inflicted on my girls if I could have.

Oh, I lashed out at God, lost myself in alcohol, but nothing dulled the pain.  But God in his mercy sent a small child into my life who lead me to Christ.  That crushing burden of grief and emptiness was lifted the instant I trusted Him.  I still missed my family, but I slowly walked through my days. My partner’s girls eased some of my pain, but it was Lilly and Penny who brought the light and life back into my life. 

Who knew a big tough Indian cop would learn how to pick tomatoes and plant corn?  And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I’d be sent to the store for bubble bath.  Mr. Bubble to be exact.

It is the price I pay for having a 8-year-old daughter.  It is a price I’m willing to pay.  There was a moment, when both Lilly and Penny had been kidnapped.  When that happened, I vowed this was a villain I could fight.  And I did.

And come back in the couple of day and read my partner’s thoughts.  (It’s your turn Sandoval.  I lived up to my side of the bet.)

Am I off the hook, Carrie and Caren?

The adults' turn

Hello, you’ve heard from my daughter, Penny, and the Sandoval twins.  I want to give you a view from the adult perspective.

I am awed what God did in my life.  I’ll admit I got married too young.  I knew Peter in high school.  He’d lost both of his parents his senior year in high school in a car accident.  When he came back after a month out, he was a different person—reckless, daring fate.

When I met Pete in college, he swept me off my feet.  He was fun, up, and made everyday an adventure.  We married between semesters our sophomore year in college.  It didn’t take long for him to become disillusioned with married life.   We had bills to pay, jobs to do, in addition to going to class.  It’s wasn’t fun for him.  When I got pregnant, he disappeared.  I quit school and came home. 

I know the Lord let me to San Mateo Community Church where I found a job.  Pastor Kent and I were the only ones on staff at the church.  He and his wife supported me and encouraged me to take classes at the community college.

Sometimes, when we mess up, God sends others into our lives to help us back onto the right path.  And on that right path was Detective Jonathan Litterdeer.

It's my turn.

It’s my turn now.  My name’s Connie Sandoval.  My daddy’s Uncle Jon’s partner.  They are both policemen.  I got to tell you  it’s so much better now that Uncle Jon met Aunt Lilly.

I’m Caren.  Connie’s my twin.  She might be the older on, but I’m the smarter one.

Ha!  You’re just a little sister.

By ten minutes.

Go away, Connie.  Let me tell everyone about what happened.

Okay, but if you get it wrong, I’ll let everyone know.

Where was I?  Oh yes.  Uncle Jon was so sad.  He missed his wife and daughters after they all died.  Mom told us to pray for him ‘cause his heart was hurtin’ real bad.  Well, one morning when I got up for breakfast, I found Uncle Jon sleeping on the couch.  He was a mess.  His shirt and pants were wrinkled, and he had on his shoes.  And his hair was sticking out all over the place.  He looked like our neighbor’s dog after he was wet and shaking off the water.

I waited until he opened his eyes.  He smelled kinda funny.  When he did open his eyes—they were red.  I told him he needed Jesus.

He gave me a funny look, but you know what?  He came with us to church the next Sunday and gave his heart to Jesus.

This is Connie.  Uncle Jon felt so much better after that.  He’d come to the house and play with us, then have dinner.  And he went to church.  The one thing he wouldn’t do was come to our birthday party.  Mom said it  made him sad and he remembered his girls.

That’s why it shocked us so much when Uncle Jon brought Lilly with him to our birthday party at the pizza place.  I asked her if she was married ‘cause I didn’t want to see Uncle Jon hurt again.  She wasn’t.  Well, Lilly helped Uncle Jon.  I’m glad she came.  She taught us all sorts of neat stuff about gardening.  Did ya know carrots come from the ground before they come from the grocery story?  Who knew?

Hey, my name's Penny.

Hey, everyone.  My name’s Penny Burkstrom.  My story and my mom’s is out this month.  Wow, it’s soooo exciting.  To have my story out there for the world to read.  It’s way too cool.  My classmates—I’m 9 now, almost 10, are jealous.  But that’s okay.

Let me say, my story started out real sad.  My daddy was killed.  He was buying a cold drink at the convenience store down the block.  He’d dropped me off after having me for the weekend.  My folks got divorced.  Dad, he was kinda bad, and he didn’t come and see me often when I was little.  Well, he started coming to church with me and mom.  I gave his heart to Jesus and wow the difference.  After that, we had a lot of fun.  Mom and Dad started saying nice things to each other.  There was a really neat time when he took me to the local water-park here in Albuquerque.  He took some neat, neat pictures. 

When he got killed at the store, I cried and cried.  Mom helped and told me that Dad was in heaven.  Still, I missed him.

Well, when mom and I went to clean out his apartment, that’s when things got real weird.  And that’s the beginning of our story.  Stay tuned for more…..

Welcome to my world

For the next few weeks, I’m going to give you a behind the scenes look into my new book, GUARDED SECRETS.  The characters of the book are going to post their thoughts and feelings.  It will give you, the reader, an inside track into what’s happening in their lives.  You’ll get the behind the scenes background as to what really went down, and you’ll get all sorts of tidbits, opinions not included in the book.

The first character to blog is Penny Burkstrom.  She pushed her way to the front of the line.

Strap on your seatbelts, its going to be a wild and fun ride.