The Break-in (part two)

The Break-in (part two)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Oh yeah – he did!
"Wow," I cooed as I looked toward the main house from the walkway over the courtyard. "Look at those windows. They go all the way down the whole side of the house. They gotta' be at least eight feet tall."
When last we left off, our ever dignified yet reluctant hero, Scott, was standing on the sidewalk outside of the Ennis house wondering whether he should commit the crime of trespassing on private historic landmark property.
He was close.
After all, I was inside the property already, no one was around, and I made it sound awfully intriguing. I looked over the low block wall where I was standing and saw Scott look up at me, at the house, back up at me, back at the house…when I saw him look down both sides the street, I knew I had him. He quickly made his way up the wall and over the side and was standing next to me on the walk way that spanned the main house and garage.
"Oh geeze, Joe," he said, his eyes widening. "Look at that." He was pointing to dog bowls full of clean water.
"Don't worry," I said with wave of my hand. "If there were any dogs here, they would have been running at us and barking by now."
"I know, but…it means it's occupied, doesn't it? I don't think we should be here."
"Hold on," I said, "I think I see Vincent Price," and headed down the steps toward the pool to the main house. After a moments' hesitation, he followed me.
We turned the small corner that led down from the landing and stepped out into the courtyard. It wasn't all that big, probably the size of half a tennis court, and had a short block wall, like the one on the walk way, that ran along one side keeping you from falling the sixty or seventy feet to the road below. We stepped over to it and marveled. As we stood there, the city of Los Angeles lay sprawled before us as far as the eye could see. It went on for miles. It was magnificent, absolutely breathtaking.
"My gosh, would you look at that," I said, rapt in its beauty as Scott snapped a picture.
"Amazing isn't it?" he replied, dropping his camera to his chest as he leaned his hand on the wall and gazed with me.
"You know, this has got to look amazing at night."
"Yeah, I bet it does…all lit up and glistening."
"Hey, why don't we spend the night?" I suggested. "Go get some blankets, make a pallet. Might even build a fire."
"Joe," he said with a deadpan look, "people live here. They may be on their way back right now."
"How do you know? Do you see any cars, any lawn furniture?"
"You saw the dog bowls…you don't put out water for dogs unless you have dogs. Someone has to be living here."
"So where are the dogs?" I asked, a smug look on my face.
"I don't know. Maybe they took'em with them when they left, maybe they're at a kennel, who knows, but I'm telling you, someone lives here."
I looked over to the main house then back at Scott. "Let's find out," I grinned, then made a beeline to the main house.
"No, Joe, wait-I don't-Joe, JOE!"
I was already around the corner and standing at one of the many wall-sized plate glass windows by the time Scott caught up to me.
"What are you doing? Maybe someone is in there," he said as he stood looking at my face pressed against the window.
"I just want to see inside," I said. "No furniture…except a few dining chairs."
"Do you see anyone? A person, maybe…someone pointing a gun at you?"
"No," I said, pulling myself up from the glass and turning to him. "I told you, no one's here, now will you relax?"
"Oh yeah, relax. We'll have plenty of time to relax in the state correction facility," he said as he stepped up to the window and peered in.
I walked on down a ways and found a door made of glass to match the windows. 'Hmmm,' I thought as I looked at the handle. Why not? Scott watched me as I jiggled it and to his obvious relief, it was locked. I looked at him, shrugged, and he let out a long breath.
"Okay, let's go," he said.
"Wait a minute, I just want to…see what's down here." As I walked along, I was looking through the windows into the hallway when lo and be-danged hold what did I see?
"Hey, there's another door down here," I said. Scott raised up and looked in my direction. Again, I tried the handle. This time, it turned. I looked at Scott and smiled as I pushed the door open. He went white.
"Oh, mother of God!" I heard him say as I stepped into the hallway. I waited for Scott to follow.
He did.
"This is insane," he said as he stepped inside. I went left and he went right. He stopped to take more pictures, and I looked down the hall and spotted an archway about fifteen feet away. Through it, I saw a bed, very nicely made, with pillows beautifully arranged. I called back to Scott.
"Hey, there's a bed in here," I said as I turned to him intent on touring the whole place.
"I want to get a couple of shots of the living room," said Scott and headed down the hall.
That's when we heard the alarm.
"Oh geeze, it's the alarm," said Scott. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
He almost knocked me over as he flew by me hurrying to get outside.
I took a last look around, then stepped through the door, closing it behind me.
By the time I cleared the wall and landed on the ground outside, Scott was in his car, screeching the tires, backing up to get me. I walked around to the passenger side and opened the door.
"Hurry up, come on, come on, let's go!" he said, his head flinging all around.
"What are you worried about? It'll take the police at least three minutes to get here," I said as I dropped into the seat. We were probably doing thirty by the time I had my legs in and the door closed.
"Oh geeze, oh geeze, oh geeze," said Scott in quick repetition. "What the hell do we do now? Is anyone flowing us? Do you hear sirens?"
"Calm down, it's no big deal. If they catch us we'll just say we're tourists. I'm from Oklahoma and you were showing me the Ennis house."
"Oh yeah, great! I'm sure that'll get us a reduced sentence," he said, still looking around.
"Don't be silly," I told him. "We don't look like criminals. We're dressed nice, you're in a new car, we didn't take anything. They'll probably just tell us to stay off the property and send us home with a stern warning."
"Oh yeah, right. You're out here visiting from Okolahoma, Joe. I live in La Habra. You they'll send home with a stern warning. Me, they'll send to L.A. County with an orange jump-suit. The Police Department's probably a mile from where I live. With gas prices what they are, they'll probably just walk to my house to arrest me."
"Don't worry, ma' homey, if they do, I'll break you out," I told him. "There's not a jail in the country that can hold us." He didn't smile. "Since we're experienced at breaking and entering, and on the run and all, let's get ourselves nick-names."
"Let's get ourselves psychiatrists."
"Not to take anything away from you, I mean you were right up there with me on this caper, you know. I realize that. I'm not down-playing your part, but let's be honest here, I'm the one that did the actual break-in. He chuckled. "I think I'll call myself Fingers."
"I think I'll call myself a lawyer." Poor Scott. He kept glancing at the rear-view mirror and looking behind him. "I can't believe I let you talk me into that. Do you think the place had cameras? They probably have our pictures in the post office right now."
Now that we were on Sunset, heading home, and apparently out of reach of the law, he was starting to clam down a bit. "That was so stupid of us," he said, shaking his head.
"Kind of exciting thought, wasn't it?" I said, grinning.
"Please – that kind of excitement I can do without," he said, finally smiling a little. "You know, if we – "
He suddenly became silent due to the police car heading in the opposite direction – yes, the direction of the Ennis house – with lights flashing and siren blaring. He looked over at me with a look of indignant irritation.
"There's no way," I said.
"Are you kidding me? Another forty seconds and we'd be in his back seat, hand-cuffed."
I burst out laughing, and after a moment, so did he.
By now, the nerves had settled down and as we drove, we kept making jokes about how there's this big manhunt for two dangerous suspects, on the loose. Me and Scott, the two of us, on the lamb, hiding out.
"You know, one thing makes me feel better," I said.
"What's that?" asked Scott.
"I doubt they'll extradite me from Oklahoma. La Habra…that's in L.A. county, isn't it?"

Keck