"Someone... someone broke into my daycare last night."
"What?! Why? Who would break into a daycare?"
"Whoever it is, they left some sort of message."
"A message? Saying what?"
"I don't know... but I'm about to find out. I'll call you later and let you know what happened."
Twenty minutes later, I arrived at my daycare with a strange and uncomfortable mix of emotions sloshing around inside me. I was worried, more than anything, but I there was also a twinge of fear bubbling through my veins. Two patrol cars with blue lights flashing through the darkness were positioned at the entrance to the parking lot.
I pulled up to the main gate and used my remote to open it then proceeded into the parking area. The cops had apparently climbed over the wall to get in. As soon as I parked, I got out and made my way to the playground where three cops were standing amongst the playground equipment. One was making notes in a notebook, and another was taking photographs of the place. The one writing in his notepad saw me and walked over to me.
"You must be Miss Andrews," he said.
"That's right; I'm Vivienne Andrews, owner of this daycare."
"I'm Lieutenant Todd. We spoke on the phone."
I shook hands with him. "Thank you for informing me of the situation, Lieutenant."
"No problem. Now, before I show you the damage and where the guy got in, I do need to ask you a few questions," he said, positioning his notebook to jot down my responses.
"Sure thing, fire away."
"How long have you owned this place?"
"Well, I've been at this daycare for two years, since I moved to Irvine."
"Alright, two years," he said, writing in his notebook.
"No, Lieutenant, I didn't say I've owned this place for two years. Sorry for the confusion."
"I see. So how long have you owned it then?"
"I bought it from the former owner around a year ago."
"So you were first an employee, and then you bought it and took over ownership?"
"That's correct, yes."
"And would you mind providing me with the name of the former owner?"
"That was Mrs. Dianne Satterstrom. She was retiring from the daycare business, and she knew I really loved this place and working with kids."
"Uh-huh. Is the former owner still alive?"
"Yes, Dianne definitely is. She and I meet up for coffee every few weeks. In fact, we just got together about a week ago."
"I see. Alright, and are the parents who bring their kids here generally happy? I mean, do you get along well with all of them? Any recent incidents?"
"Yes, they're all very happy with my daycare, as far as I know. I have a very good relationship with all of them. We haven't had any complaints."
"And there's nobody who has had, maybe, financial problems here? Someone who was behind on payments? Or maybe someone who, I don't know, you kicked their kid out of the daycare because of behavior problems, something like that?"
I shook my head. "No, nothing at all like that. I mean, sure, kids act up all the time – that's what they do, they're kids. I've had to call in parents a few times about their kids' behavior on occasion, but it hasn't happened too many times over the past two years. And in all the cases, the parents involved were sympathetic and non-confrontational, and we solved the issues in a rational way."
"So, nobody was left with hurt feelings, a grudge perhaps?"