Who is Raphael Garza? Pt. 03

I walked north along the riverbank, noting that it wasn't a difficult walk until I got to an area full of large rocks. The rocks wouldn't be difficult to walk over during daylight but would be dangerous to attempt at night. I continued walking until I thought I had reached Monty's house. I climbed the riverbank and found plenty of trees and bushes to provide cover for me. When I got to the top of the riverbank, I was about fifty yards short of the Montgomery residence. I moved north through the trees until I was directly behind the house. The rear garage door was at the left end of the house. There was a small window about thirty feet to the right of the garage door, probably a kitchen window. There was a set of French Doors that opened onto a deck, ten feet further to the right. To the right of the deck was a large picture window with the drapes closed. A smaller picture window with the drapes opened was at the far right end of the house. That appeared to be a bedroom. I noted everything I had seen and then climbed back down the bank to the river's edge in as straight a line as I could. There I found a good place where I could pull my kayak out of the water and hide it behind some bushes. Before I headed back to my car, I piled some rocks on the river's edge so that I would be able to find that spot later.

After my sightseeing tour of the homes of famous (or should I say infamous) soon to be history Brodricksburg bankers, I returned to the bank and waited in a parking lot a block away from the rear of the bank. Using the zoom feature of my video camera, I was able to watch the rear door to see if either of my targets left the bank. A little after six o'clock, Monty came out the rear door and walked to his car, a silver Mercedes When he drove out of the parking lot, I followed him all the way to his house.

Monty's garage door was already opening as he turned into his driveway, so I was able to see inside the garage as I slowly drove past the house. The garage was empty. No other car in the garage could mean that Monty lived alone or it could just mean that his wife wasn't home yet. It would be a lot easier for me if he lived alone. I also saw the back door that led out of the garage to the back yard. That door would be my way in if I approached the house from the river. Once the garage door closed, I started the 45-minute drive home.

By the time I reached New Hope, I was beginning to feel shaky and was breaking into a cold sweat. I had skipped lunch so I could get to Brodricksburg quickly, and I was feeling the effects of low blood sugar. When I crossed the river into Lambertville, I stopped at a roadside diner to get something to eat.

I was finishing off a bowl of chicken soup when I spotted a pay phone in the back of the dining room, and an idea came to me. I pulled out the notes I had been writing about my two targets and found Monty's home phone number. I paid my check, went to the phone and called Monty. When he answered the phone, I asked for Mrs. Montgomery.

"You got the wrong number. There's no Mrs. Montgomery here," Monty said.

"Is there a Miss Montgomery?"

"No,"

"Well then, can I speak to whoever is the woman of the house?"

"There is no woman of the house; I live alone. Now stop bothering me," Monty said, then hung up the phone.

I thought, "Lives alone huh? Wow, that was easy."

I arrived home shortly after eight o'clock, poured three ounces of Jack Daniels over six ice cubes in a cut crystal glass, sat in my lounge chair and thought about my plan to kill Monty. With Farrell living with his mother, I would have to find a way to get to him away from his house. I didn't have a plan for that yet, so I decided that I would wait until after I dealt with Monty to go after Farrell.

The basics of my plan were that I would break down my twelve-gauge shotgun into two pieces and carry it in a backpack with five shotgun shells. I would load my kayak onto the rooftop rack on my car, drive it over to Brodricksburg and put it in the Delaware down river from Monty's house. I had already found a good place to get down to the river about a half mile from the Asshole's house. From there, I would portage the kayak along the riverbank as far as I could to shorten the distance I would have to paddle upstream. I would wait until it was dark and then paddle upriver until I was just below Percy Montgomery's house. From there I would climb the riverbank to his backyard and hide among the trees while I reassembled and loaded the shotgun. From there, I would break into the garage through the rear door and then into the house where I would dispatch one Percy Montgomery to Hell. As soon as I completed the deed, I would leave the same way I had arrived, out the back and down the riverbank to the kayak. The mile going downstream in the kayak would be easy. If nothing went wrong, I would have the kayak loaded on the car and be miles away before the police even arrived at the crime scene.

At least, that is the way I hoped it would go. Obviously, this was just the bare bones of the plan there were many more facets that I haven't mentioned. I felt as though I was ready to go and I decided to take Monty out on the coming Saturday, July 4. I hoped that the noise of the fireworks at Fort Brodrick would help cover the sound of the shotgun blasts.

FRIDAY EVENING JULY 3RD

Friday after I got home from work, I decided that I should do a dry run through of my plan. I had to make certain that I would be able to paddle upstream in the dark for nearly a half mile and find the pile of stones I left at the place I wanted to land my kayak. I also needed to know how difficult it would be to climb the riverbank and back down in the dark.

I loaded the kayak on the carrier on my car and strapped it down. I didn't take the shotgun with me, but I did pack a flashlight, a roll of reflective tape, a lock to secure the kayak and a couple of bottles of water into my backpack. I separated my paddle into two parts and put them in the backpack. I left the house at 7:30 and arrived at my spot on the river at 8:25. I parked the car where it would not be visible from the road and after making sure no one was watching me I unloaded the kayak and carried it to the edge of the river then retrieved my backpack from the car.

I put my backpack on, picked up my 35-pound kayak and started walking along the edge of the river. I guessed that I had walked about 800 yards before it became difficult to carry the kayak over the rocky terrain. I put the kayak down, sat on the ground next to it and checked my watch. It was almost 9:00 and it was nearly dark. I got a bottle of water out of the backpack and sat thinking about everything that had happened since I got that first email from WTF.

At 9:30, it was dark enough to continue. I took the two pieces of my paddle out of the backpack and screwed them back together. I got the flashlight out and put it in the large pocket of my cargo shorts. I put the kayak in the river and climbed in.

I stayed close to the riverbank as I paddled upstream. The current wasn't too strong, so I was able to move upriver with ease. In the dark, it was very difficult to see the shoreline, but I didn't use the flashlight because I did not want to draw any attention to what I was doing. I ended up pulling the kayak out of the water three times before I found my pile of rocks.

I was able to hide the Kayak and the paddle behind some small bushes before I started the climb up the riverbank to Monty's back yard. It took me 15 minutes to climb the bank in the dark. When I got to the top, I was breathing hard and trying not to make any noise that would alert anyone to my presence. I was hiding behind a tree as I looked at the back of the doomed man's house. The only light I could see in the house was a flickering light around the edges of the drapes in the large picture window. I guessed that the fleshy-headed mutant was watching television.

The climb back down to the river was faster but riskier than the assent. I slipped and nearly fell a couple of times on the way down. Before I put the kayak back into the water, I put a small piece of the reflective tape on the rock at the top of the pile I had made on Monday.

The trip back down the river was extremely easy. I stopped and pulled the kayak out of the water at the same place I had put it into the water, dragged it up next to a small pine tree and locked it to the tree. I piled a few dead tree branches over the kayak to hide it. I took my backpack and the paddle and walked back to my car. I checked the time when I got into the car. It was 10:45. It took me about two hours to get to the house and back. A half hour of that time I had been sitting waiting for it to get dark. On Saturday night I would wait until it was already dark before starting up the river.

SATURDAY, JULY 4TH 10:00 AM

I didn't sleep well Friday night, and I was up early Saturday morning drinking coffee and reviewing my plans for that night. I was surprisingly calm considering I was planning to kill a man later that day. I had already gone up into the attic to get my shotgun. The gun was broken down into two pieces so it would fit in the locked trunk where I kept it. The Remington Semiautomatic had belonged to my grandfather and he gave it to me two years ago when he died. I used to hunt with my grandfather when I was in high school and up until I got out of college, and he let me use his shotgun many times. Kathy didn't like guns, so I had never told her that I had it. I had reassembled the gun and was cleaning it when the phone rang at ten o'clock.

When I heard Kathy's voice on the phone, I had a feeling like being stabbed in the heart with an icicle.

"How are you?" she asked.

"How do you think I am? My life has been turned upside down. Because someone has conspired to destroy our marriage, and for some unknown reason my wife betrays me by fucking some God damn third rate actor, thinking she is saving his life. So, of course, I feel just fucking great."

"How many times do I have to say I am sorry? I don't know how I was misled so easily into believing the things Raphael told me, how he was able to convince me that the only way I could help him was to have sex with him," Kathy said.

"First of all his name isn't Raphael, it's Frank, and I think that he seduced you so easily because you wanted an excuse to fuck him."

In a sad voice, Kathy began speaking. "I have been thinking a lot about that, and as much as I hate to admit it, you might be right. It made me feel good to think that he needed me, and when he told me that he felt the only way he could make it through his anniversary was if I would spend the night with him as a substitute for his dead wife, I never took the time to consider any other solutions for his depression. I couldn't understand why I accepted that as the only way I could help him unless you were right. Some part of me must have wanted to do it.

"I hope you will be able to forgive me eventually, but I know that will be difficult because I am having a hard time forgiving myself."

"What did you tell your mother?" I asked.

"I told her the truth. She is very upset, as you can imagine. You know she thinks very highly of you, so she feels pain for both of us," Kathy said. "Have you found out anything about the people who did this to us?"

"No. I hit a dead end," I said. I didn't want Kathy to know anything more than she already knew.

"Is there any chance we can get together and talk face to face?"

"I am not ready to see you yet. Every time I think about you, in my head I see the video of you in bed with that worthless piece of shit. I need more time."

"I can understand that. Please call me when you are ready to talk," Kathy said.

"I will. Take care of yourself, Kathy," I said then put the phone down.

After Kathy's call, I kept myself busy with normal weekend chores around the house. I did not eat lunch until almost 2:00 that afternoon. By 3:00, I was so restless I couldn't sit still for more than two minutes at a time. To keep myself from going crazy I started getting things ready for my mission of revenge. I broke the shotgun down and put in the backpack along with a box of shells. I pulled three pairs of latex gloves out of the bathroom cabinet, got my old painting overalls and a hunting hat from the garage and stuffed them into the backpack. The last item I put in the pack was a small pry bar, and then I put my backpack in the car.

Having finished getting my gear ready, I decided to take a shower and then go over to Brodricksburg and hang out at the fort to kill time. I dressed in khaki cargo shorts and a green t-shirt. I wore a pair of lightweight hiking shoes with no socks.

The trip to Brodricksburg took nearly an hour and a half because of traffic going to the festivities at Fort Brodrick. When I finally got to the fort, there were thousands of people there. Normally I don't like big crowds, but I just wanted to get lost in the throngs of people for a little while.

By 6:00, my nerves were starting to upset my stomach. The smell of fried sausage, hot dogs, popcorn and body odors along with the smoke from the barbecue pits wasn't helping. I went back to my car and decided to take a drive by Monty's house.

I was just passing the house when the garage door started to open. I drove another hundred yards down the road and stopped to watch what happened. Monty pulled out of the garage and turned away from me, so I made a quick U-turn and began to follow him. I followed the silver Mercedes through town and over to Farrell's house. Farrell must have been waiting for Monty because as soon as Monty stopped the car, Farrell came out of his house and got in. I continued to follow them as they drove across town to the western outskirts of Brodricksburg where they turned into the entrance of the Brodricksburg Athletics Park. I followed them into the park until they turned right and drove into a parking lot by some tennis courts. I didn't want to chance following them into the parking lot, so I turned left and parked behind a wooded picnic area where they wouldn't be able to see my car.

I grabbed my video camera as I got out of the car, and then I walked into the wooded area and found a place where I could see the tennis courts and the parking lot without them being able to see me.

There was no one playing tennis, probably because there were no nets on the tennis courts. The only car in the parking lot was the silver Mercedes, and Monty and Farrell were just sitting in the car. Using the zoom on the video camera, I was able to get a close-up view of the two scum bags. They were just sitting there. They weren't even talking to each other. They had to be waiting for something or someone. Only a couple of minutes went by when I heard a car coming. I turned in the direction of the sound and saw a black Cadillac Escalade pull into the parking lot and pull up next to the Mercedes.

I thought something interesting might be happening, so I focused the video on the two cars and started recording. Monty and Farrell got out of the car, and three men got out of the Escalade. The five men stood talking for a minute, and then Monty handed one of the men a large envelope. The man opened the envelope, pulled out a sheet of paper and looked at it briefly, then he put the paper back in the envelope, turned and said something to one of the other men. One of the men went to the back of the Escalade, opened the rear hatch and pulled out a large duffle bag, carried it over and set it down behind the Mercedes. Monty opened the trunk, and Farrell lifted the bag into the trunk. The bag must have been heavy because Farrell had to use both hands to lift it. I was waiting for something else to happen, but that was it. I was still trying to make sense of what they were up to when the three men got back into the Escalade and left, followed by Monty and Farrell. At the park exit, the Escalade turned west, away from Brodricksburg, and Monty turned east and headed back toward town. They were gone before I could get back to my car, so I headed back toward town.

I had driven about a mile when I spotted the silver Mercedes parked in front of a local restaurant. I went into the restaurant to make sure they were there. I saw them sitting at a table as soon as I stepped inside and was watching them when the hostess got my attention.

"Would you like a table?" she said.

"No. I will just sit at the bar if that's all right."

"That's fine," she said.

I went to the far side of the bar and sat where I could keep an eye on them without being conspicuous. I sat and watched as the focus of my anger and hate ordered dinner with a bottle of wine. 'Their last meal?' I thought.

I ordered a sandwich to-go, and went back out to my car to wait. I was thinking that I had been following them for a quite a while and I was struck by how unaware they were. Unaware of me behind them and unaware of what I was going to do to them, but I was beginning to worry that if I kept following them, they would eventually spot me. I realized then that I didn't need to follow them; I only needed to know when Monty got home. I decided that instead of waiting for Monty at the restaurant, I would wait for him at his house.

To be Continued