Who is Raphael Garza? Pt. 05

The entrance to the main floor was through two sliding doors on the uphill side of the barn. Above the main floor was the hayloft. Two large doors opened upward to allow for loading haybales into the hayloft. Access to the hayloft was by a narrow staircase near the back wall. For its time as a dairy, the barn was pretty modern. It had an electric hoist system for loading hay bales and other bulky or heavy items into the loft. I have updated the hoist system since I took ownership.

The drive down to the farm was only five miles and took us just over fifteen minutes. We were on Cranberry Road, about a mile before we reached the turnoff to the dirt lane that leads into the farm when a black Mustang raced up behind me, but instead of passing, it slowed to keep pace. The Mustang was so close I could hear the distinctive rumble of its exhaust. The Mustang was close enough that I worried he might run into me as I turned into the into the farm. As I made the turn, I heard the Mustang accelerate pastd us. I drove two hundred yards up the dirt road and stopped in front of the large barn. After I got the large double doors unlocked and slid them open, I drove the car inside the barn.

We got the kayak off my roof rack and set in on the floor, and Kathy asked if I was going to leave it there.

"No, I am going to use the hoist to put it up in the loft," I said.

I used the hoist controls to lower the hook down and secured the kayak to the hook. Once I had the kayak raised into the hayloft, I moved it laterally along the hoist's track, away from the loading doors, and lowered it to the floor.

When I returned the hoist control to its cradle on the wall, I noticed that I had left several tools on my workbench the last time I had been there. There was an assortment of screwdrivers, a hammer, a box cutter, a vise grip and some other small tools and a can of wasp spray I always kept on hand. Wasps seem to love the old barn.

I started putting the tools away when Kathy said, "It sounds like someone's coming up the drive." I heard the sound of an approaching car, also. A moment later, I saw the front of the car come into view. It was a black Mustang like the one tailgating us just before we turned into the farm. I couldn't imagine who it could be or why they would be coming there. Kathy and I stood frozen, watching the Mustang as it pulled up and stopped behind my car. There was no movement from the car for a minute, which made me uneasy. I had an ominous feeling about this visitor, and I started looking at the tools scattered on the workbench, searching for anything I might be able to use as a weapon, if needed.

The driver stepped out of the car and stood looking at us for a moment. He was about six feet tall, with short blond hair and a thin blond mustache and van dyke style beard. He was wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans and a pair of black gloves. He removed his sunglasses, and I could see his blue eyes.

Even with the changes to his appearance, I still recognized him. He walked into the barn and stopped in front of my car and leaned against the grill. He was a good ten feet away from me and had a gun in his right hand, making the tools on my workbench useless as weapons.

"Hello, Kathy, how have you been," he said.

Kathy had a confused expression on her face, and I could tell that she didn't recognize him.

"Kathy, let me introduce you to Carlos, or should I say Frank Lewis, or maybe Franklyn Hawthorn or maybe Alex Gomez, but then again, it could be Fredrick March, but you would know him better as Raphael Garza," I said.

Kathy looked at me, confused, and said, "Raphael?"

"Yes, he is all of those people, but I guess he is someone else now."

"Smart boy. Since you're so smart, you must know why I am here?" Garza said.

I didn't respond. I guessed that Garza thought that I had the money, but I wasn't going to volunteer that information. I knew that it didn't matter whether I had the money, or not because he would kill us anyway. I needed to keep him talking while I tried to find a way out of this mess.

"What was this all about?" I said.

"Money, of course," Garza said. "And, I want mine."

I looked over at Kathy; she looked terrified, and I couldn't blame her. I looked back at Garza and said, "What was the seduction all about? Marge Robinson thought you were going to blackmail Kathy, but you streamed the video to me." I hoped that Howard Simmons was right about Garza being a braggart. "If your plan was to steal money from the cartel and disappear, why did you have to fuck up our lives?"

"I didn't need to, but Monty was scared shitless that Kathy was going to find out about our operation and call the police. Marge told me that wouldn't be a problem because she could make sure they knew if and when Kathy planned to visit the bank. That wasn't enough for that wimp. So I checked you out," Garza said as he looked at Kathy. "As soon as I saw you, I knew that I had to fuck you, so that became the plan to make Monty happy and give myself a reward."

"You screwed up when you told Kathy you were a VP at the Four Seasons when you worked there as a bellman? That's how I found you."

Garza smiled and said, "That was intentional. After I sent you the video of me fucking your lovely wife, I expected one of you to involve the police and tell them about it. I figured it would take the police a few days to follow the Four Seasons Hotel lead and then find this struggling actor. You surprised when you showed up the next day, but it didn't change my plan. I told you the same story I was planning to tell the police."

"So, you intended to steer any investigation toward Montgomery and Farrell, and the bank?"

"I still thought that you would turn this over to the police, and they would eventually figure out who Monty and Steve were. I had everything timed perfectly. I delayed the last delivery until July 4th so that Monty would not be able to lock it in the bank vault until July 7th.

On the forth, we made the exchange with Monty, and he took the bag home with him. You can imagine my surprise when I went to Monty's house later that night, and the duffle bag wasn't there. Monty and Stephen swore that they had no idea what happened to it before they went swimming in the river. The pry bar left on the trunk of Monty's car was a nice touch. I knew whoever took the duffle bag was making a statement to Monty. It smelled like revenge to me, and I remembered how angry you were the first time we met and the threats you made.

"So you faked your death. The FBI believed it. They said they had DNA evidence to indicate that you had been killed in your apartment."

Garza just laughed. "That wasn't my DNA. It belonged to a gay prostitute I invited to spend a few nights with me. He conveniently brought his hairbrush and toothbrush with him. He is gone now, and no one will ever find him."

An idea came to me while Garza continued telling us how smart he was.

"I found it interesting that the police didn't show up at the bank until the tenth," Garza said. "I knew then that someone must have witnessed the exchange at the park and followed Monty to his house and took the duffle bag. When I heard that the FBI received an anonymous tip with a video of the exchange after the duffle bag had already gone missing from Monty's car, I thought of you again. You never gave up trying to find a way to get revenge on those two, did you?"

I didn't answer him.

"So, I've been watching you because I couldn't figure out how you pulled it off. I must have missed running into you at the house by minutes. I watched the house for over an hour waiting for Monty and Farrell to head into the bedroom, and I didn't see another car come for at least a half-hour before I went in. Then, today I see you with that kayak on top of your car, and I knew. You came and left Monty's house on the river."

Suddenly Kathy stepped toward Garza yelling at him. "You son of bitch, you used and humiliated me and ruined my marriage for your amusement?"

With Kathy yelling and moving toward him, Garza turned his attention and his gun toward her. As soon as he looked away, I grabbed the only viable weapon I available to me. I pushed the button down as I pointed the can toward Garza. The thing about wasp spray is that it can shoot a steady stream of the insecticide up to fifteen feet, and since Garza was no more than ten feet from me, he was in range.

As I brought the can up, the stream hit Garza's left hand, causing him to turn back toward me. Before he could react to what I was doing, I had adjusted my aim, and the stream hit Garza in the face, splashing into his eyes, nose, and mouth.

He turned his head away and tried to block the spray with his left hand, but it didn't help. I kept the stream aimed at his head, and I charged at him, hitting him in the chest with my left shoulder as hard as I could. I knocked him back onto the hood of the car, and then we both fell to the floor. When we hit the floor I dropped the wasp spray and grabbed at the gun with my left hand. While I tried to pull it free of his grip, Garza was swinging wildly at my head with his left hand, and I was trying to block his blows with my right arm. When he wasn't able to hit me in the head, Garza grabbed me by the throat and choked me. I was trying to fight him off with my right hand, but because of the pain in my shoulder, I had no strength in that arm, and I was having trouble breathing when Kathy stepped in. She kicked Garza in the ribs, and when that didn't stop him, she stared kicking his in the crotch.

The third kick must have been a winner because Garza's whole body flinched, and he let go of my throat and tried to pull his knees up to protect himself from another kick. Kathy kicked him again, this time in the head, allowing me to wrench the gun from Garza's hand. This time there was no hesitation and no second thoughts. I turned the gun on Garza and shot him twice in the head. Even after I shot him, Kathy kicked him again and was about to deliver another kick when I got up and wrapped my arms around her and pulled her away from Garza's body.

"It's over," I said.

Kathy was sobbing so hard that her whole body was shaking. "He was going to kill us, wasn't he?"

"He was going to try," I said.

"He was going to kill us, and it's my fault."

"Kathy, it was all him."

Kathy pulled away from me and kicked Garza's body again.

I had to hold Kathy for several minutes as she cried. For some reason that I didn't understand, I felt calm. Maybe I was in shock. I knew Garza's following us to the barn wasn't Kathy's fault. I caused this when I took the money from Monty's car. I would have to explain it all to Kathy later.

"I guess we should call the police now," Kathy said when she was finally able to speak.

"No. No police," I said. "Garza was already dead before he got here today, anyway. As far as the police are concerned, Frank Lewis, aka Raphael Garza, died on July 3rd, in Lewis' apartment in Philadelphia." I said. "And I don't want to have to explain any of this to the FBI."

"Why did he come after us?"

"It's a long story, and I will tell you all about it when we return home."

"When I met Raphael, he had brown eyes and dark brown hair and a thick mustache.

I didn't recognize him, how did you know it was him," Kathy said.

"I saw a picture of him looking pretty much like this. The blue eyes are contact lenses."

"What are we going to do? I mean about..." Kathy said as she pointed at Garza's body.

"I have to figure out how we can get rid of the body."

I expected that Kathy would argue in favor of calling the police, but she didn't. "Could we bury him somewhere here on the farm?"

"The FBI may still be looking for his body in the Delaware River, so, I don't want to take the chances. I think the option is to take him out and dump him in the middle of the millpond."

"But what if he floats up to the surface?"

"I'd have to weigh down his body so that it will stay on the bottom. The deepest part of the pond is seven to ten feet deep. If I can find some cinder blocks or scrap metal to weigh him down, he will sink to the bottom and stay there," I said.

I had a hard time believing that Kathy and I were calmly discussing how to get rid of the body of a man I just killed until I looked at Kathy. She was still shaking, and I had never seen her look so pale. Her eyes were red, and her mascara was running down her cheeks. "Are you all right?" I said.

"No. I'm a mess, I can't stop shaking, my nose is running and I think I peed my pants. I can't believe we killed him. The whole idea of dumping his body in the pond is making me sick, but we have to do this, don't we?" Kathy said. "But how will you get him out to the middle of the pond? Could you carry him on your kayak?"

"That wouldn't work. I need to find another way to get him out to the middle of the pond. I can't do anything until it gets dark tonight so that no one will see me on the pond. In the meantime, we need to move his body.

Kathy watched me as I walked over to the end of the workbench and uncovered the old chest freezer that my Grandfather used for storing venison from deer he shot during hunting season. I had used it the previous summer, so I knew that it still worked. I pulled the freezer away from the wall and moved it next to Garza's body. I used an extension cord to plug the freezer into an outlet, then I turned the temperature control to its lowest setting.

We tried to lift Garza into the freezer, but he was a 170-pound dead weight. We couldn't get him up, and when I grabbed the back of his head, his blond hair came off in my hand. It startled me until I realized that it was a wig. I took a closer look at him, and then I peeled off his fake beard and mustache.

"If we can't even lift him into the freezer, how will we get him down to the pond?" Kathy said.

I pointed up at the pulley system again. "We'll use the hoist to put Garza's body in the freezer, but first, I think we should strip him naked."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes." The idea in my head was that I might have to use my chain saw to cut up the body to make it easier to handle, and his clothes could get in the way, but I wasn't about to tell Kathy that.

Kathy and I struggled to get Garza's jacket, shirt, and undershirt off, and then I used the pulley system to bring the kayak back down to the main floor. I strapped Garza's body to the hook and hoisted him off the floor. Before I moved him over to the freezer, I removed his shoes, socks, pants, and briefs. With his naked body hanging from the hoist, Kathy avoiding looking at Garza's genitals and seeing the damage she had done when she kicked him. Using the hoist, we lifted the body into the freezer and laid him in on his back. We had to bend his knees and force his legs inside before we could and close the lid.

"Do you think he'll freeze by tonight?"

"I don't know; it'll take a while for the freezer to get cold, but the body should be cold enough to slow decomposition a little."

"How are we going to move him down to the pond tonight?" Kathy asked.

"When we come back, I'll bring the tractor and wagon around and use that to carry him down to the pond," I said. "And somewhere in here, there's a big inner tube that I used on the pond when I was a kid. If the inner tube still holds air, I could put Garza on it and tow it behind the kayak.

I found the deflated inner tube hanging to the wall. I turned the air compressor on, and I pumped up the inner tube and checked it for leaks; it seemed to hold air.

"Kathy, back my car out so that I can pull Garza's car into the barn. Then, we'll go home and wait until tonight. I'll come back then and take care of things."

"I'm coming with you tonight," Kathy said.

"That's not necessary; I can handle things from here on."

"I'm coming with you. We are in this together now, and if I hadn't been so stupid, we wouldn't have any of this mess weighing on us. What are we going to do with these clothes?" Kathy asked.

"We'll take them with us and dispose of them later," I said. I picked up the clothes and went through the pockets. I got Garza's car keys, his cell phone, and his wallet.

While Kathy moved my car, I pushed the freezer out of the way to put Garza's car in the barn.

Midnight on Grover's Mill Pond

At 11:00 PM, we pulled up in front of the barn, ready to finish our business with Raphael Garza. The rain had started just before ten o'clock and was predicted to continue most of the night. Kathy thought that we should wait for better weather.

"This weather is nasty, and it will be uncomfortable, but it is perfect for what we have to do," I said. "With the overcast and rain, it will be extra dark on the pond, making it highly unlikely that anyone will see me on the lake."

I checked the inner tube to made sure it hadn't leaked, and then I began searching for the things I would need to sink Garza's body to the bottom of the pond and keep it there. I found a 50-foot spool of nylon paracord, four cinder blocks, the head from an old ten-pound sledgehammer, and the cast iron door from an old coal furnace. I put those items on the floor near the doors. Next, I walked around the barn to the cow barn. I unlocked the doors and went inside. I was relieved when, after five minutes of trying, the tractor started. I hooked the hay wagon to the tractor and then pulled it around to the main floor.

After backing Garza's car out of the barn, I backed the hay wagon in. I loaded the cinder blocks, the sledgehammer and the furnace door onto the hay wagon, along with the paracord, the inner tube and my kayak.

When I opened the freezer, I could see that Garza's flesh had started to freeze, but the body wasn't frozen all the way through, but it was in full rigor mortis. When I hoisted him out of the freezer, it looked like it was in a sitting position. I tried to straighten out the body after dropping it on the wagon, but I couldn't do it.

It was just about midnight and raining harder when we got down to the pond. With the temperature in the low forties, it was very uncomfortable. I turned the tractor around and backed the hay wagon partway into the water, then I climbed down and got on the hay wagon. The small rear-facing light on the tractor didn't provide much light, so Kathy helped by using the flashlight feature on her cell phone.

Using a Stanley knife I picked up from the workbench, I cut off about 15 feet of the paracord and tied one end to the back of the kayak and then slid the kayak into the water. I tied the other end of the paracord to the inner tube. I put the inner tube in the water and had Kathy hold it in place. Because of the steep angle of the hay wagon to the water, I was able to drag Garza off the wagon and place him butt first onto the inner tube. It was almost comical how the body was sitting on the inner tube as if he was ready to go for a float around the pond.

I was up to my knees in very cold water as I tied one of the cinder blocks to each of Garza's thighs. Next, I strapped the furnace door to his chest and tied the last two cinder blocks on top of the furnace door. My fingers were getting numb as I strapped Garza's arms against the sides of the cinderblocks on his chest. The last thing I did was tie the sledgehammer head to the end of the spool of paracord. I was soaked to the waist and chilled to the bone when I got on board the kayak. Kathy handed me the paddle, and I pushed myself out into the pond, towing the inner tube with its eerily seated figure behind.

"See that light on the other side of the pond," I said, and waited for Kathy to acknowledge it. "I am going to head that way. It'll probably take me fifteen to twenty minutes to get out to the middle. When I am ready to start back, I will flash the light from my phone toward you. When you see it, flash me back. Then give me a short flash about once a minute so I can find my way back," I said. "Wish me luck."