The Phyllis Files Ch. 02

"Yes, it was a strange thing." said Mr. Smith, a short, portly man who spoke in a gravelly voice. "Three weeks ago. Someone broke into the patio door to the den. They trashed the place, but didn't take much."

"Where is Mrs. Smith?" asked Phyllis.

"Oh, she's visiting her sister in California." said Mr. Smith, as he led them to the study room, both women noticing his difficulty in walking with any measure of speed. "And we were both in Florida when the break-in occurred. We got back just the next day to find the place a mess."

"How do you know it was the night before?" asked Cindy.

"Because our neighbor, Mr. Jones, had been getting our mail and leaving it inside for us. He said there was no damage when he got the mail the afternoon before we got back, so it must've been later that night."

The women looked around the room, noting that the floor plan was similar to the Jones home, though not exactly alike. Mr. Smith was talking as they looked around. "We've cleaned up now, but at the time, there were papers everywhere, everywhere! Every desk drawer emptied and thrown about, books thrown everywhere, almost as if they were just throwing stuff around for the fun of it! In fact, that's what I first thought, and what the Police thought when they came and looked at it. We thought it was kids vandalizing the place."

"Was anything of value taken? Papers? Jewelry? Silverware?" asked Phyllis.

"Strangest damn thing." said Mr. Smith. "They took the lamp from my desk, they took the wi-fi router to the computer... no, I had the computer with me in Florida. They took a framed sheet of stamps off the wall, and an old map of the Town from fifty years ago. But they didn't take any of the televisions, just trashed this room and the living room. I have a built-in safe upstairs, but they didn't even try to break into that, as near as I can tell."

"So no papers were missing?" Phyllis asked. "From what you're saying, it sounds like they were after documents."

"None missing that I could tell." said Mr. Smith. "Any important stuff is in the safe upstairs. Everything down here is just old receipts, some correspondence from when I was in business, but nothing really valuable."

"I just have one last question before we go." said Phyllis. "I see Mrs. Smith's pictures on your fireplace mantle. Is she in good condition, physically that is?"

"Well, she's more active than I am." said Mr. Smith. "Arthritis has really hit my knees. But she's no spring chicken anymore, either. She gets around, but it's a bit harder for her than it used to be."

"I see. Thank you very much for speaking with us, Mr. Smith." said Phyllis. "If we find out anything new, we'll be sure to contact you."

"Let's speak to the neighbor across the street from the Smiths." said Phyllis. They knocked on the door and a middle-aged woman answered. She invited them in, but Phyllis declined, saying "I only wanted to ask you if you've seen any strange persons hanging around the neighborhood, particularly the Smith and Jones residences."

"Oh no." the woman said. "Like I told the other police officers that asked, there have been no strange people around. Mr. Jones was getting the Smiths mail while the Smiths were out of town, but no strangers were hanging around, no strange cars driving around."

"What about kids?" asked Cindy. "Any groups of kids clustering around, walking or riding bikes on the streets?"

"No," said the woman, "most of the people around here are older, retirees and such. Their kids have grown up." Cindy and Phyllis thanked the woman and returned to their car.

After a quick loop around the full subdivision to get a feel for the lay of the land, they headed to the front gate to leave for Headquarters. At the front gate, Cindy pulled up to where the guardhouse was. She talked to the security man on duty.

"Is there much crime here?" Cindy asked. "Do you have much vandalism?"

"No, Lieutenant." said the security man, who was a police officer currently off-duty, and knew who he was talking to. "We haven't had any problems at all, except for those two burglaries. There have been some vandalism issues in a couple of the gated subdivisions closer to Town, but this place is on the 'edge of civilization', as I like to say. No problems at all." Cindy thanked the man and drove on out.

As they drove back towards Police Headquarters, Phyllis asked Cindy "Well, dear, what did you think of that?"

"Couple of strange crimes." said Cindy. "I'm going to check the logs and ask around Vice, and see if there are any more reports of vandalism or burglary there. From memory I can't remember that neighborhood being a problem area, and the security guard said the same thing. He's a cop, by the way, and moonlighting here. So what do you think, Phyllis?"

"Well, the inventory of stolen objects is very interesting, wouldn't you say?" Phyllis said.

"Practically no value, except maybe the stamps as collectables, the globe for the bronze, the silver plate, and of course the computer stolen from the Jones house." Cindy replied.

"Yes, and the theft of the standard deck is interesting, but certainly won't fetch much on the open market." Phyllis said. "The Smiths weren't home when their house was burglarized, but it was trashed worse, from what I was hearing and from what the police report of that incident said... oh yes, I read it before I came to see you. But both homes had safes, and while the Jones's were home, the Smiths weren't, and in both cases there was no attempt to burgle the safes. What does that tell you, dear?"

"That these aren't professional thieves." said Cindy. "I think the idea of kids vandalizing the houses is getting better and better."

"Oh nooooo." said Phyllis. "No, I believe that a serious crime has taken place here. Very serious, indeed."

Part 2 - Leads

"Don, if you wanted to fence something of value, such as silver plate, how would you go about it?" my mother Phyllis asked. She and Cindy were sitting in front of my desk in my office. My mother had complimented me on the comfort of the chairs.

"I'd ask Sergeant Sharples." I quipped, then said "Seriously, I'm not sure. I'd probably make some contacts in the Tenderloin District, maybe the Southern Ghetto area." The Tenderloin District stretched from the main north/south road westward along the southern part of Town, and was where the strip clubs and nightclubs were, as well as the main places for acquiring recreational drugs, it's proximities giving University Students access as well as persons staying at one of the establishments along 'Hotel Row' in the South part of Town and below it.

The Southern Ghetto area was the blighted area in the Southwest part of Town, where the Government Housing tenements were. It was predominately Black and was rough, especially at night. The Industrial and Warehouse districts had once dipped down into that area, but as it became worse the businesses left the area.

"So you think the plate stolen last night is going to be fenced?" I asked. "We can ask the guys in Vice to keep their ears and eyes open."

"That might be wise," said Phyllis, "but I wouldn't waste too much time on it."

"What do you think we should do?" Cindy asked Phyllis.

"I would suggest that we do a bit of research into the Smiths and the Joneses." replied Phyllis. "See how their finances are doing. I'm also going to pull some logs and see about their crime rates in that neighborhood. Cindy, I might suggest you and I drive around that community after dark. I want to see how the lighting is."

"Y'all go to it." I said. "Let me know if you find anything that needs backup. Remember, you're still on light duty, Cindy."

"How could I possibly forget?" Cindy said witheringly. I did not smile in reply, and Cindy knew she was touching the edges of my patience. She hurriedly excused herself and left, my mother following with a smile on her pretty face.

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The sun had set an hour before as Cindy drove a Police SUV towards the Lakeview subdivision. The guard let them in when Cindy flashed her badge. As he was not the same guard as earlier in the day, Cindy took a moment to ask him about crime rates and vandalism. He replied that except for the two burglaries, there was virtually no problems, and of course the community being gated helped.

"Yes, the streets are well lighted." said Phyllis. Unfortunately, not all of the homes are. Too many empty ones."

"Yes." said Cindy. "Okay, there's the Jones house. Wow, that driveway is lit up very well. I wouldn't want to walk down it to get to the backyard."

"Yes, but it's the only way to the back patio, there was a huge hedge between the Jones house and the one to its left, and the street light is right there lighting it up." Phyllis said. "Now the Smith's home is a bit less well-lighted, and I can see the possibility of someone sneaking around there... but it's still a bit iffy. And with the lake at the backs of the houses... Cindy my dear, would you choose these houses as a target if you were a criminal burglar?"

"Probably not the Jones house, but maybe the Smith house." Cindy replied. "If I knew they weren't at home, and if I could drive up in a car that looked very much like theirs, and if I knew what I wanted to steal, then yes. But with respect to what happened in the actual crimes? Not so much. The neighbors keep good watch, as well."

"I agree." said Phyllis. "And don't you agree that if kids were hanging out and possibly vandalizing places, that they'd be seen even more easily, that attention would be paid to them, especially with the neighbors watching out?"

"Absolutely." said Cindy.

"Let's go that all-night diner that Don likes so much." said Phyllis. "My treat. I'm hungry!"

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As they ate their breakfast foods at the diner, Phyllis asked Cindy "So what did you learn from your computer searches today?"

"Nothing." said Cindy. "No police reports in that area, other than the two burglaries and a couple of car accidents, fender-benders. I talked to the Vice Detectives, and they were really shocked by the whole thing; they said that two burglaries in the same area in such a short time was very unusual for pro thieves. I totally agree with that."

"As do I." said Phyllis. "And fencing the plate?"

"Vice said that there has been very little fencing of things like silver plate. It's all computers and iPhones now. They also called all the pawn shops in the area that might've taken in plate... no joy on that. And Don wasn't kidding... Sharples has several CIs that are aware of any big burglaries and fencing going on... no chatter at all, so he says."

"Yes, I suspect that we're going down the wrong rabbit hole in pursuing that." Phyllis said.

"What did you learn today?" Cindy asked as she drank her coffee.

"The Smiths were one of the first residents of the Lakeview neighborhood." said Phyllis. "He's long since retired, worked at Crawford Mattress for years, she was a school teacher, and they saved and invested wisely. Her health isn't very good, almost as bad as his.

"The Joneses came in a few months later. He worked at the University Library for years, and knows his way around the value of books. His wife, well, she's not really on the grid at all. He has credit cards but she doesn't, the checking account is in his name, but she doesn't have one either in her name or jointly with her husband. I find that remarkable."

"Maybe she had bad credit in the past, so they didn't put her name on anything." Cindy suggested. "She also made herself scarce once Mr. Jones arrived to escort us around their home."

"Yes, that's a very good observation." said Phyllis. "Of course, neither that nor not having credit cards is a crime. But to sum up: the Smiths are not suffering any financial problems, their house is paid for, their lawn is neatly manicured. The Joneses are struggling to make their house payments, their lawn was in poor shape, and his credit cards are maxed out or nearly so."

"I think I see what you're getting at." said Cindy, "but I'm not sure where I've seen a crime committed, other than the break-ins."

"Ah, but that's just it." said Phyllis. "And I think that this case is going to come down to timing."

((Readers, at this point you have all the clues to solve this mini-mystery. The Solution will be revealed in The Phyllis Files Ch. 03.))