Chapter 96
APRIL
Yes, time was of the essence, but I was still shocked at how quickly my plan had come together.
I spent Tuesday afternoon running through ways I could eliminate Lucy—while not getting caught myself—but nothing seemed feasible. I’d almost given up by eight that night.
That’s when I googled Lucy Sykes and found her address in Culver City. It turned out that she and Eddie had lived a half mile from my best friend, Margie Hoya.
I brought up their house on Google Earth. They lived on a cul-de-sac with neighbors, but there was not a house directly across from them, and the two houses to their left and right didn’t have a direct view of the front of the house.
I looked at a few other images from different days and noticed that there was never a car sitting in the driveway. I kept checking out different days, and still, no car in the driveway.
So Lucy always parked in the garage. Got it.
And through that simple discovery, my plan started to take shape.
Early on Wednesday morning, I drove twenty-five miles away to a Bass Pro Shop. I’d searched online and found out that they carried stun guns.
I reminded myself that when this was all over, it was time to get rid of my laptop. My search history itself would be enough to convict me.
Once I arrived at the Bass Pro Shop, I pulled my hat down tight, paid in cash, and left with the stun gun with the highest voltage.
On my way home, I stopped into a well-known adult store and asked if they sold handcuffs. To my surprise, they did. I feared I’d have to find some specialty shop, but that proved unnecessary.
Even though Lucy’s neighbors didn’t have a clear glimpse of her garage, I would still implement my plan at night. That was a given.
I called Margie at five p.m.
“Hey, April. Are you calling about our Caribbean trip?”
“How about leaving in a week?”
“Tell me you’re serious.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
“Wow. I don’t know what to say. Thanks so much.”
“I have one small favor to ask in return.”
“Anything.”
“And you can’t ask any questions.”
“Mum’s the word.”
“I’m going to leave my car outside your house tonight for a few hours.”
There were two reasons for this. One, it would give me an excuse as to where I’d been. Two, it was within walking distance of Lucy’s house. It’s not like I could take an Uber there, nor did I want my car seen in the vicinity. I wanted nothing to put me near Lucy’s house.
“Okay. Isn’t that kind of weird, April?”
“That’s a question.”
“Sorry.”
“I don’t think they will, but if the police somehow call you in the next few days, just make sure to tell them that I was at your house on Wednesday night. Okay?”
She didn’t answer right away.
“We’re going to have such a blast in the Caribbean,” I said.
“Fine, I’ll tell the cops you were with me.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they won’t come calling. I’m just going to fuck with this guy who screwed me over. It’s nothing major.”
“Okay, April,” she said, but I could tell she had her doubts.
“I’ll be parking the car there in a few hours. You don’t have to come out and say hi.”
“If you say so.”
“Thanks, Margie. I’ll call you tomorrow with details on the trip.”
“Great.”
At 6:55, I parked my car at Margie’s house. I’d have bet five hundred bucks she was somewhere inside, peering out at me.
I left my phone in my car for obvious reasons. I didn’t want it pinging near Lucy Sykes’s house tonight.
Phones ping in a general area, and the police wouldn’t know if my phone was in the car or Margie’s house; they’d just have a general idea of where it was. So I kept my phone in the car. When I returned to my car late this evening, I didn’t want to have to go inside and retrieve it.
I grabbed a little tote bag I’d brought. It contained my laptop, duct tape, handcuffs, and the Taser.
It was dark out. We were still several weeks from daylight saving time. If this had been April, seven o’clock would not have cut it.
I walked the half mile to Lucy’s house. I was wearing black sweatpants, a dark gray hoodie, and navy blue shoes. I knew to wear dark clothes, but if I were dressed in all black, that would have been a huge red flag.
I had my hoodie covering my face whenever possible.
I arrived on Lucy’s cul-de-sac fifteen minutes later. I saw her house near the end on the right. There were no lights on inside the house. That was a good sign. My goal was to ambush her when she parked in the garage, and the fact that she didn’t appear to be home was a blessing.
The later she arrived, the better. If she didn’t come home at all, I’d have to push this back a day.
If she had been home, I had alternative plans, like making some noise out front in the hope she’d investigate, and then zap her with the Taser. But that was only if she’d been at home, and she wasn’t.
I’d spent a lot of time on Google Earth and had been able to find the best place to hide. There was a wooden fence next to the garage, so I opened it and hid behind it.
And waited.
There were a few false alarms where I saw headlights coming, but they turned out to be neighbors.
By 8:30, I was starting to worry that maybe she wasn’t coming home tonight. But then, at a little before 8:45, I saw headlights again, and these turned into the driveway.
I heard the garage door begin to rise. I put the hoodie over my head and grabbed the Taser out of my tote bag.
I couldn’t come out from behind the fence too early, or Lucy would either run me over or reverse out of the driveway.
I had to wait until the car first entered the garage, which happened a few seconds later.
I pushed open the gate, quickly got down to the ground, and crawled into the garage. The garage door was three-quarters of the way down, and I made it under in the nick of time.
Lucy had just opened her door, and as she stood up, I was on her in a split second, deploying the Taser from several feet away.
She fell to the ground and started twitching.
I stood over her and smiled.
“Hello, Lucy. Told you I’d see you around.”