Page 38 of Submit
Mabel cries in her carrier on my lap, and I distract myself from the thoughts rolling around in my head by opening the travel box and scratching her fluffy head behind her ears.
At least I have one girl who will never lie to me or sneak around.
The streets are bustling with cars and taxis, all carrying people and their packages, getting ready for Christmas that’s coming in three days. The regular Friday rush hour traffic has increased about ten times and the trip from the airport to the house is taking way longer than it should, even for the city. Around Rockefeller Center the pace slows even more, with the area full of visitors and tourists here to get a glimpse of the massive Christmas tree covered in tens of thousands of lights.
It really is spectacular, with the large holiday icon overlooking the ice-skating rinks across the way, where hundreds of people play and skate while drinking hot cocoa and coffee. It picks up my spirits just a little bit, and I find myself losing time as I watch the sights of out the windows while the car sits.
The people thin out, and the cars are less and less as we move out of the city and into the burbs, heading up the hill to my exclusive and well-hidden neighborhood. I love it up on the hill, the peace and quiet, the old architecture, and the feeling of being in a small town while only a short ride to everything New York City has to offer.
The roads become narrower, and the shiny fresh blacktop turns grey from age as we near the house, but the holiday decorations become fancier, to the point where the street lights are barely needed. Every holiday, each house, even mine, are lit up with classic white lights, greenery, and red bows. Flickering candles adorn the windows of most of the homes, a classic New England tradition for the holiday.
The sky is black with night as we pull onto my street, with a fairly heavy cloud cover. The only thing I can see in the sky is the North Star, and I chuckle to myself about the coming holiday and the tale of how the three wise men found the baby Jesus by following the exact same star.
Red and blue flashing lights greet us as we come around the bend, illuminating the block, and shining directly on the front of my house, the only house where the lights are off, and the front door is hanging open. It looks otherwise untouched, but something isn’t right.
“What the fuck?” I say, looking out the windshield past the driver, watching policemen lean against their cars in the cold, apparently waiting for me.
“Adrian?” Mille says, sitting up, putting her hand on my arm and for the first time since I’ve met her, the feeling of her touching me doesn’t bring me pleasure, but instead a detached coldness. “Adrian?”
“Shhh, something is going on and I need to focus.” I tell her, brushing her hand from my bicep. “Stay in the car until I come back for you.”
The car isn’t even fully stopped when I open up the back door and hop out, jogging directly over to the middle-aged man in jeans and a tweed sport coat that seems to be running the show. He’s barking out orders like something is on fire, but I don’t see any smoke coming from inside.
“Excuse me. This is my house.” I call out, waving to the guy, who must be a detective, to get his attention as I make my way up the driveway, being careful not to slip on the snow and ice.
“Mister Lambert I take it?” He says, meeting me at the back bumper of a patrol car, with the lights flashing off his grey hair and grim face that has probably seen way too much in his possible forty years. He holds out his hand and I take it in a clipped shake and short greeting of “Hello”.
“Yeah. I’m just getting back from a trip. What’s going on?” I say as I briskly walk past him and he joins me at my side, heading up to the front walk of the house.
“I’m detective Ross, and It appears you’ve had a break in, Sir. Right now my boys are clearing the house to make sure no one is still in there, but I’m going to need you to take a walk through with me now that you’re here.”
“Okay. Fuck. Let’s go.” I say, stepping up on the front porch and touching the shoulder height fir tree decorated with lights that are not on, even though everything was set on timers before I left to turn on at dusk.
“Let my guys make sure all is safe, and the power company gets you turned back on, okay.”
“What’d they do, break the box?”
“Cut the main line coming in, your house went dark a few hours ago. The neighbors called after they were off for a while, and you weren’t here.”
“Well thank God for nosey neighbors.” I sigh, running my hands through my hair, then down my face, trying to scrub away the tension that’s squeezing me from the inside out.
“Yeah really. I wish mine were like that sometimes, but ya know the richer the neighborhood…” He trails off, looking in the open front door of my home, scrunching up his nose. “There’s a decent amount of damage in there, Sir, just so you’re prepared for what we walk into.”
“Fucking fantastic.”
It seems like an eternity standing on the front porch, waiting to be allowed to go into my own home, and I’m getting angrier with each minute that ticks by. Checking my watch for the third time, I sigh and cross my arms over my chest and roll back on my heels, fidgeting just to keep myself occupied before I just go storming in there.
“Almost.” Ross tells me, watching me closely, as if I’m the criminal that did this, whatever this is. I haven’t even seen the damage yet.
“I can help look through, it is my house, and I know it better than anyone else.”
“It’s policy Sir, no one in until it’s been cleared.”
Another ten agonizingly long minutes we wait on the front stoop, with me getting more pissed off as we stand there. I can see Millie still sitting in the car with the driver, and at least she listened to me. Why wouldn’t she? Something isn’t right though. She seemed worried about my reaction, but not the fact that there were police sitting outside my house.
You’re paranoid Adrian. Ever since her cell rang in the Italian restaurant in Miami, you’ve been imagining things.
“All clear.” A uniformed officer says as a team of them file out of my front door, and I can’t get past them fast enough to get into the house.
