An Evening At Evelyn's

Pierce Saxon smiles as the lock clicks open. Perfect. He pushes the door open and steps inside. His heart is pounding in his chest. The silence in the house does nothing but fuel his excitement. He closes the door behind him and steps into the foyer. Oh, to live in a place like this! He would have whistled, but he didn’t want to wake the old woman upstairs.

Her name is Evelyn Covington and, in her day, she was quite the actress. Her beauty rivaled that of Marilyn Monroe. Time, however, had not been so kind to Miss Evelyn. At the age of ninety-three, the now wrinkled and arthritic actress spends most of her time indoors with her Birman cat Sissy. She has a live-in butler, Andrew, a nice fellow, very fond of his bourbon and a decent card player. Pierce met him in the bar last night. They played a few hands of poker and Andrew ended up winning a twenty-year-old bottle of Jim Beam. Pierce looked in on Andrew after Evelyn had gone to sleep and was not surprised to find the butler halfway through the bottle and sleeping on his desk. It’s safe to say Andrew has a problem.

Pierce crosses the living room, ignoring paintings and sculptures that are worth less than they appear. Honestly, Evelyn. You have more faux art than the Louvre gift shop. He clucks his tongue and shakes his head in disapproval. Art was never really your interest, though, was it dear? You’re the type of woman who likes to glitter. Boy, did she ever. Every night with her evening cocktail she adorns her best jewels and watches her old movies. When she’s ready for bed, Andrew takes the jewels and puts them away in the safe in the downstairs office, exactly where Pierce is headed.

The office is bland, but business isn’t Evelyn’s thing. According to Andrew, her son Gavin is her lawyer and he tries to spend as little time with his mother as possible. Perhaps that’s why she hides her jewels there, a reason to be close to her son. Who knows, maybe taking all of those sparkling stones on strings will bring the two of them closer together? Her son will have to return home to file the insurance claims. Honestly, Pierce doesn’t care. All he cares about are the jewels. Evelyn’s favorite necklace is worth $100,000 by itself. She has rubies and sapphires set into rings and earrings, bracelets and brooches, all behind the portrait of herself that hangs above the desk.

Pierce feels his pulse skyrocket with excitement as he removes the portrait and places it gently on the desk. The safe before him is old school, a combination lock, no keypad. He chuckles to himself. This is almost too easy. The security system was a cakewalk. He hacked into it from his laptop in a car down the block and shut it off. And now a combination lock safe? Where was this kind of mark when he was starting out?

He could have tried listening for that certain, special click, but that would be a waste of time. Anyone who knew anything about Evelyn Covington knew that her crowning moment was on April 23, 1964 when she won Best Actress for her lead role in Starlet Scarlet. With gloved fingers, he spins the dial and stops it on 04, 23, and 64.

Pierce frowns. Where was that satisfying open click? What the hell? What else would it be? He did not watch his house for three months to get tripped up now. Her career ended in 1967 after the film Jilly Bean bombed at the box office. Her husband slash agent left her for another actress and she disappeared off the scene. That wouldn’t be something she’d want to remember…

Pierce wants to smack himself. Her son. Of course! He’d done the research. When was Gavin born…? February 12th, 1968. Pierce turns the dial once more and puts in the date. He grins when the lock clicks and the safe falls open. A gleeful chuckle escapes his lips before he can stop himself as he gazes upon the jewels. Evelyn’s prized necklace is clipped and resting on a beautiful display neck. The diamonds glitter even in the dark. He gingerly takes the necklace and slips it inside his loot bag. That was the big money. The rest of the jewelry in this safe equaled the necklace. He puts the rest of the jewels in the bag, closes the safe, and hangs the portrait back up.

In the living room, underneath the bar is a case filled with crystal glasses. Pierce takes two champagne flukes, two wine glasses, and four scotch glasses. He leaves two of each glass; one for Andrew and one for lonely Evelyn. He is helping himself to a few bottles of six hundred dollar wine when the sound of a door opening nearly stops him in his tracks.

“Andrew? Is everything alright?”

Pierce’s heart stops as the old trembling voice calls out into the darkness from the top of the stairs. She is afraid. He relaxes a bit.

“Yes, Miss Evelyn. Go back to sleep, madam,” Pierce calls back, masking his voice as best he could. For a moment she says nothing and it makes the hair on the back of Pierce’s neck stand on end, but he doesn’t stop selecting his favorites from her wine collection.

“Do remember to turn on the security system before you go to bed. Goodnight, Andrew.”

Though his heart is pounding, he relaxes a bit.

“Of course. Goodnight, madam.”

He hears her shuffle back into her bedroom and close the door. It takes everything in him to keep from crying out with glee. He finishes up behind the bar and decides not to press his luck any further. Before he leaves the living room, he places a paper rose on the antique coffee table.

Pierce glances up the stairs at the closed door of the ancient beauty and smiles. He walks to the door and punches in the security code. He listens for the beeping and walks out the door, closing and locking it behind him.

Goodnight, Miss Evelyn. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.