Angelina's Oak

by Jesse Reiss

Chapter 5

  Paula got home around the same time she expected Angelina and parked her Lexus in the driveway. Her day had been normal, with the exception of a call from Immaculate Heart in the afternoon that a detective called the school looking to talk to Angelina. Paula was relieved she had sent her to be with Sam and told them to refer the man to her next time he called.

  She picked up the mail from the mailbox and entered the house, flipping through junk mail as she walked over to the kitchen. She tossed the envelopes on the counter and looked up.

  She couldn’t believe her eyes. Drawers were open and their contents spilled about, furniture moved around, sofa cushions lifted up and picture frames left askew. The place was a mess.

  She froze in one spot and listened. Was someone — a burglar, a murderer — in the house with her right now? She hesitated a second and ran for the door in a panic.

  She jumped the porch steps and ran down the driveway to her car, her heart racing. She looked back. There was no indication anyone was following or watching her. She continued to stare at the house as she opened the car door and got ready to bolt into it and drive off if she needed to. She opened up her cell phone and dialed the first person she thought could help her immediately — her neighbor.

  Mac Weston answered the phone. He was many years since retired, but still physically active. He had become a friend when they first moved in and even more so since Jeremy’s death. He was in his early 70s, but still spry and strong. At six foot four and two hundred and fifty pounds and a close-cropped grey beard, he was a sight to be reckoned with.

  “Mac, you have to help me! Someone has intruded into and torn up my house!”

  “What!? Have you called the cops?”

  Logical question. “I called you because I don’t know if there is someone in there right now!”

  Mac appeared in his house window looking out at her standing beside her car in the driveway. She saw him and waved an arm frantically. “I’m hanging up and coming out. Call the cops right now.”

  “Okay.”

  A moment later Mac stepped out his front door with a rifle balanced in his hands, ready to lift and fire. Paula liked him as a neighbor as he offered protection. Growing up as a lumberjack in the Northwest, he had thick forearms and large rough hands to show for it. He lived alone, spending his time reading or taking walks with rarely a friend over. At first he appeared as the ornery ex-marine type, but when you got to know him, he was a kind and soft man.

  He strode slowly across the lawn towards her. Paula was talking to the emergency operator, explaining frantically that someone had completely destroyed her house. She had to clarify that yes, the house was still standing, but everything in it was a mess.

  Mac listened to her for a minute, staring at the house. Nothing was moving and the door was wide open. “I’m going to go in and check it out.”

  “Mac be careful!” she hissed.

  “I will,” he said and walked up to the front door. He stepped in and flipped on the light switch. He shouted “hello!” and got no answer. She was right — the place was a mess. He had spent many an afternoon in their home, lounging over a cup of tea and talking or on Thanksgiving, eating Paula’s great cooking and watching football. The two girls were freaks for cleanliness and order. Since knowing them he estimated he had doubled the cleaning and organizing he had done in his own home, only to save embarrassment when they visited him. He liked the influence — it felt good to him.

  He stepped through the kitchen and the living room and surveyed the damage. It didn’t appear things were broken or damaged, more misplaced or strewn about. No noticeable appliances were missing. Keeping his gun raised, he poked his head into the rooms off the hallway and swept his eyes around. No one.

  He climbed the stairs to the bedrooms and went through each. A silent mess. The house was empty.

  When he exited, Paula and Angelina were now standing together, arm in arm waiting for him to come out.

  “No one in the house. It’s empty.”

  Paula had settled down considerable now that her daughter had come home and was comforting her. “Cops said they’ll be here shortly — whatever that means.”

  “You should go in, Angelina, and try to see what’s missing without touching anything. I’ll stay here with your Mom until the cops arrive.”

  Angelina stepped into the house and began to look around. It felt strange walking through a place so familiar to her that had now become sown with mystery. Who would do this and why?

  She went straight up the stairs to her mother’s room and saw her jewelry cabinet was still locked. She opened the cabinet with the second key she kept on her and flipped on the halogen lights that illuminated the oversized fancy armoire and neighboring mirrors. Diamond rings, pearl necklaces, gem-crusted bangles, and many other human adornments sparkled like a pirate’s treasure chest. It looked untouched. She and her mother had spent many an hour inventorying and sorting and trying on various jewel assortments to complete outfits for her mother and Angelina knew the cabinet inside out. Paula liked to wear loud jewelry — big looping earrings that invited something to catch onto them, five gold necklaces at once with various amulets and carvings attached and several bangles that clattered and clinked when she shuffled papers at her desk. Angelina was the opposite. She liked subtle jewelry that accented her features only a little and didn’t draw attention to her. Her mother would tell her that it was because Angelina was so beautiful she didn’t have to wear jewelry and that the older Paula got and the more wrinkles, the more jewelry and makeup she had to wear to distract people from her imperfections. Angelina didn’t think she was any prettier than her mother and would playfully argue with her. Each time this debate started, it never was settled.

  She did a quick look for the most expensive jewelry that she knew cost many thousands and they were there. She couldn’t see anything missing and so locked the cabinet and looked around the rest of the room. She then went to her room.

  It was in worse shape. Her clothes drawers had been dumped on the floor and her closet was a mess. Her jewelry chest had been dumped out as well, but she noticed nothing as missing. Seeing the total disregard for her personal belongings, it felt like she herself had been abused. Where she liked to keep her room and things in perfect order, they were now a complete mess. And to think another human did it with no care in the world... she began to cry. Anger raged up inside and her hands began to shake as she wiped the tears from her face.

  Angelina came out of the house and wrapped her arms around her mother, who was holding herself together. Mac offered to take them into his place and give them something to eat until the cops arrived and a more thorough search could be done.

  Half an hour later, as they were finishing a bowl of soup, a lone police car pulled up outside with no lights on and a cop got out, looking around.

  They exited Mac’s house and waved over to him. “Over here,” Mac said and the police officer walked up the driveway to meet them.

  As the cop approached them Paula got a closer look at him. He was African American, appearing in his forties, broad shouldered and trim. She noticed that his uniform had been tailored to fit him and his shoes were shined. He extended a hand and with a faint smile, introduced himself. “Evening ma’am, I’m Officer Stanley. Lee Stanley, that is. Really sorry couldn’t come sooner.” His hand was warm and Paula felt tension leave just with his presence. He was introduced to Mac and Angelina and shown into the house as Paula explained the sequence of events to her coming home and finding the place had been broken into.

  “You say you don’t see anything missing?” he asked.

  “Not evidently. Nothing major. All the appliances are still here.”

  After walking through the kitchen and living room they went up the stairs and entered Paula’s bedroom. She opened the jewelry cabinet and Lee whistled when he saw the precious metals and gems, lit up by the track of halogen bulbs. “And this criminal went through all your drawers and fur
niture, but didn’t bother to break into this cabinet? And from what you can see, nothing appears to be missing?” he asked again with surprise.

  “Right,” Paula said with her head down.

  “If he had half a brain he could right now be putting Kay Jewelers out of business,” he said with a smile to lighten the mood, but got no reaction. “It appears the crime here was breaking and entering but unless there is something stolen, I’m going to have a hard time convincing someone at the office to investigate further for things like fingerprints, you know.”

  “Right,” Paula replied cynically. Typical cover-your-ass brush-off response she was expecting she would get. She considered giving this cop some harassment to get him to take more responsibility, but thought the better of it. He seemed genuine in wanting to help them and was right—nothing taken meant nothing to investigate for.

  “Do you have any idea what — whoever did this — might have been looking for ma’am?” he asked politely.

  “Please call me Paula,” she said, her eyes fixed on the floor.

  “Sorry. Any idea what they were looking for…Paula?” he asked again, obviously uncomfortable calling her by her first name.

  Paula looked over at Mac and at her daughter. Officer Stanley was looking at her intently with his deep brown eyes, like he could see right through her, seeing the very thing she was hesitant to reveal to him. She shifted her feet and bit her lower lip. Angelina took her hand and spoke quietly “Mom?”

  Paula looked over at Mac again, standing back by the door, feeling out of place walking into a woman’s dressing room with a cop. He knew there wasn’t much else he could do. He spoke, “Maybe I better go back to my place and let you and the officer talk things over. Paula, if you need help, call or knock on my door at any time. I’ll be up.” She nodded with a feeble thanks and he helped himself out of the house.

  “Ma’am — I mean Paula — what is it?” Officer Stanley asked again with a puzzled look.

  Paula looked up for the first time and her gaze met his. She noticed for a moment that he was handsome with a clean face and perfect white teeth. She wanted to tell him the answer to his question, but did not know where to start. “It’s a long story,” was all she got out before the tears started to flow and her vision went off. This was embarrassing she thought. She felt terrible and could not help herself. She fought back the tears. She did not want to appear weak and helpless.

  Officer Stanley placed his hand on her shoulder and guided her down the stairs to the living room where he took a seat opposite Paula and Angelina around the coffee table. After wiping her own tears away Paula noticed that Angelina was holding her hand and looking at her with a sympathetic, but intent look, trying to be the stable daughter. She was heartened by this and steeled herself to try to sort out what was going on. She opened her purse and pulled out the gold coin. We should start with that, she thought.

  Officer Stanley looked it over carefully and handed it back to her. “This is what you think they were looking for?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yeah. My daughter found it a couple days ago and I had it evaluated yesterday, which caused a stir. Turns out the company that did the evaluation thinks it is real — one of only a dozen that exist and possibly worth several million dollars. They called some private detectives who came over to my jewelry store to investigate and they called Angelina’s school this afternoon.” Angelina’s eyes widened and her head went back in hearing this.

  Paula felt embarrassed appearing so frail and delicate before her daughter and especially in front of this man, when she was usually the opposite. He would think she was a miserable loser. She wondered why she cared about how he viewed her. Maybe it was because he showed a genuine interest in helping her and she needed the help right now.

  “Do you have the names of these private detectives?”

  She thought hard. “One was Anderson and the other Crunder,” I think. She realized she hadn’t taken a business card, address or phone number down for either men and mentally kicked herself. “I would recognize them if I saw them, but didn’t get a number or address for them. They showed me their badges and seemed legit. Probably fakes now that this is happening,” she said with a shrug.

  He asked several more questions about her work, her background and associations. Many questions made sense to Paula in trying to find a motive for someone breaking into her house, but some made her seem he was more interested in her personally.

  After some time he apologized again for being unable to do more than take down a report to the station, as it appeared nothing was stolen and there were no known witnesses to the incident. Paula got the impression he hung around and questioned her to reassure her and make her feel better rather than conduct a serious investigation. They headed down to his car where he could fill out some paperwork, take down Paula’s identification and answer any last questions.

  As he was bent over the car hood writing and everyone was quiet, Angelina saw something move in the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw perched on top of the roof was a large shape. She looked closely and saw it move. It was the same owl she had seen in the tree! It appeared to be looking down at them with its large intelligent eyes. “Mom! That’s the owl! Look!” Angelina exclaimed.

  Paula and Officer Stanley looked up to where Angelina was pointing.

  “A Great Horned Owl,” Officer Stanley said confidently with a smile. “Beautiful bird. They are a rare sight, but they can be found in the park and probably come around these neighborhoods to hunt for rodents. Sometimes you can hear them at night — at least where I live in Los Feliz you can.” He bent back down to continue his writing.

  Paula was looking up at the bird with an inquisitive eye. “Its name is Virginia,” Angelina whispered to her.

  Stanley overheard her. “So it is! I’m surprised you knew that.”

  They looked at him in surprise. “How did you know its name?” Angelina blurted out.

  “Well, that isn’t its full name. The bird’s full technical name is a Virginia Anus, but Virginia is fine I guess,” he responded, trying to appear modest. “My son and I are bird watchers and we like to try to learn the technical names of the birds we find in the park as well as the common names. Just a hobby.”

  From the slack jaws and stares he got in response from both girls he felt a little uncomfortable, like he was saying too much, and returned to his writing. Before he left he handed Paula an LAPD business card with his cell phone number scribbled on the back where she could contact him directly in case something else happened or if some witness or evidence came forth that would help in an investigation. He politely instructed them to replace their locks with better ones and suggested installing some electronic security devices, especially with the jewelry in the home.

  That night, with the house mostly reassembled, Angelina slept with her mother so they could keep each other company.