The Crazy One Read online

  There was a long pause. Lucy had both hands covering her mouth, lest she lose control and laugh out loud.

  "Have my assistant, um, what'-her-name, the new one, overnight them. I'm not walking around in polyester granny panties, Jim."

  There was a loud thump and all was quiet. Then Sydney let out a short but furious scream. The house was quiet again. Joel was obviously not there. Lucy could barely hear her muttering to herself. She considered trying to scare Sydney in that moment. She could bang on the walls and send her running out the door. Or maybe she would even hurt her. Anything to scare her away again.

  Lucy descended the attic stairs as noiselessly as possible. She checked the hole in the door to make sure the coast was clear. Before she emerged, however, Sydney walked out the front door, slamming it behind her.

  She pushed the attic door open so forcefully it banged on the wall with an echoing crash. If she couldn’t get to Sydney, she would reach out to Joel. This had to be putting a strain on Sydney and Joel’s relationship, or whatever it was. Clearly it was time for Lucy to step in. There would be no better time.

  The bed in the master bedroom was unmade. She sat on Joel’s side and began composing a text message to him.

  You don’t know me, although you do know me. Deep inside we are connected. A cosmic energy has bound us together, has reached through the screen and brought my heart to yours. Why? Perhaps we were lovers in a past life. Perhaps we were once atoms in the same bright star that died and sent us out into the universe. Now here we are living in the same world. When I saw you I felt that particle of life inside of me awaken from a decades-long slumber. It told me to find you and to piece back together what once made up that great celestial body. If we can talk face to face I know I can make you understand.

  When she finished typing, she hit send and smiled. It was done. It was real. Joel was reading her text right now and realizing that someone loved him more than Sydney ever could.

  She hugged the phone to her chest and waited in the silence of the yellow house. Minutes went by. She checked the phone. He hadn’t answered. She touched the text message icon. Nothing new. Why wasn’t he answering? He should be asking who was texting him, at least. He should want to know.

  "Damn it, Joel." She rose from the bed and went to the door. "Damn it," she yelled into the hallway.

  A row of framed pictures hung in the hallway between the bedroom doors. She took one down, stepped toward the banister, and threw it down the stairs. It crashed at the bottom, glass flying. She gazed down at what she had done, picturing him finding the mess and wondering what had happened. How could a picture have fallen off that wall and landed in that spot? Maybe it was Sydney’s ghosts again. She laughed out loud. Then she retreated back to her hideaway in the attic.

  CHAPTER FIFTY NINE

  Life in Spring Fork was quiet and mostly calm. It was a slower life than we had in New York. Joel wanted to be in the little town any time he wasn't working. I wasn't as enthusiastic, but I stuck it out for him.

  One afternoon I was cleaning the kitchen after lunch while Joel took a shower upstairs. His phone sat on the corner of the table. When it chimed and the screen lit up, I glanced over. I didn't mean to snoop, but I couldn't help myself. He'd gotten a text and the name caught my eye: Sydney Panting. We'd run into her the last time we were in Hollywood. I'd felt then like she was flirting with Joel, which was ridiculous because she had to have known we were dating then. She was clearly the Hollywood type who had no fear of being called a home wrecker.

  I picked up Joel's phone. Even though the screen was locked I could still see his most recent alerts. I could read the text Sydney had sent. Call me when you're in LA. Found a hot new club for drinks.

  My heart seemed to shrink inside my chest. I became sick to my stomach. Joel and I were just getting started. We'd gotten married. We'd bought this house. And now it seemed it was all crumbling to pieces. Was my new husband already having an affair? How long had it been going on? Suddenly I couldn't breathe.

  When Joel came down the stairs I was sitting on a stool trying to catch my breath. He saw his phone in my hand and immediately looked concerned.

  "What's wrong, Lucy? What happened?"

  I stared at him for a moment. This could be our final moment together. Had we come to the inevitable crossroad where he would be ripped away from me? He could, in the next second, tell me he was seeing Sydney Panting and we were over. A tear escaped to my cheek and I held the phone out to him.

  "You have a text from Sydney Panting." My voice was shaking. The words I spoke now made me feel more angry than sad. I expected him to react defensively, but he didn't. He looked confused and took his phone.

  "What does she want?" His tone was casual and unapologetic. He read the text and then looked at me again.

  "She wants you to come back to L.A., apparently. How long have you been seeing her, Joel?"

  "I'm not seeing her."

  "Then why is she texting you like you are?"

  "She said she found a new club. That doesn't mean I've ever been anywhere with her."

  "Why would she invite you out if she knows you're married?"

  "I don't know."

  "Maybe because you gave her the impression it was okay?" I was shouting now. The windows were open and I was aware my voice would carry outside. It didn't matter anyway. There were no neighbors close enough to hear the noisy end of our marriage. "Maybe you've discussed it before? Maybe you're already sleeping with her behind my back, Joel."

  "Lucy, calm down." He sounded annoyed which only made my blood boil hotter. He had no right to talk down to me in that moment. "I didn't do anything with her. I barely even know her. She's an actress and actresses like to stir up drama. That's exactly what she's doing. She's seeking attention."

  "Then text her back and tell her to go screw herself."

  Joel shook his head and rolled his eyes. The phone clicked as he typed in his reply. Then he handed me the phone so I could read it. My wife and I will keep that in mind.

  I tried to scroll up but there were no previous messages before hers. Either it was the first text she'd ever sent him or he'd deleted them all. Then a thought crossed my mind.

  "Why does she have your number if you barely know her?"

  "I don't know. Maybe her agent got it for her. Maybe she got it from a friend. You have no reason not to trust me. I bought this house to get away from drama like this."

  I was still holding the phone when it chimed. Sydney had replied, You should leave the wifey at home. Then a winky face.

  What Joel was saying made sense. So far I'd had no reason not to trust him. He was wanted by women everywhere and he chose to stay in this quiet mountain town with me. But I'd had enough of this tramp. I thrust the phone at Joel's chest and went up the stairs to our bedroom. I needed time to cool down.

  CHAPTER SIXTY

  Joel and Sydney returned to the yellow house late that night. Lucy had been lounging comfortably in Joel's bed, replaying Sydney's angry conversation in her head. She wasn't sure if she should be angry that Sydney again wasn't giving her credit for what she had done. Either way, it had ruined Sydney's day, and Lucy was definitely glad about that.

  When the front door creaked open, she scurried back up to her attic hiding spot. She listened as the couple stumbled up the stairs and to the bedroom. They must have both been drunk. Fortunately for her, they were too intoxicated to want to do anything other than sleep. Within a half hour the house was dead quiet once again.

  When she believed them both to be out cold, she crept down the stairs and into the bedroom with her flashlight. She tripped over some discarded clothes on the floor but caught herself before she got to the bed where the two were sleeping. She hovered over them, staring with her flashlight aimed at their passed-out faces. She could probably do anything to them without waking them up. To test her theory, she pulled back the comforter and ran her hand over Joel's bare chest. A chill went through her whole body and lingered between her thi
ghs. It was hard to believe she was actually touching him like this. Would she dare lean over and kiss him? Before she could he rolled onto his side and flung his arm over his girlfriend. Lucy scowled. He had ruined the moment. He had ruined it for that drunk bitch.

  Lucy's face was red hot. She swung her arm back in anger, hitting the nightstand and knocking Joel's cell phone onto the floor. She picked it up and opened the camera while mumbling to herself that he should start locking his phone. Then she snapped a picture of the sleeping couple and texted it to Sydney. Across the bed on the other table, Sydney's phone flashed and then reduced to a blinking blue light. It lit up the ceiling with intermittent color.

  The closet door was standing wide open. Sydney had finally gotten around to hanging up her designer garments. Lucy ran her hand over a dozen pieces, feeling the fabric. She stroked one cotton top and then pulled it from the hanger. It didn't feel any different than her own shirts from Target. There was no doubt Sydney paid ten times more for this one. She threw it on the ground. She proceeded to pull every other top and dress off of their hangers and let them fall to the closet floor. She spent a few more minutes disrupting various objects in the room before retreating again to her attic perch.

  CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

  Spring Fork – Present

  It was 2:30 in the afternoon, which meant Boney Mahoney’s was well past the lunch rush. Elijah was the only guest in the restaurant. He had a sandwich in front of him. His laptop was open.

  On his screen was an old magazine article from right after the incident. It featured, in bold print, a quote from Miss Sydney Panting herself: "I never liked that town. Joel said it was safe and quiet and I’d be able to go outside without getting mobbed. Turns out it wasn’t going outside that was the problem. The danger was inside that house the whole time."

  An email alert popped up in the corner. Elijah opened it. He clapped his hands together one time and silently thanked the universe.

  There was a link in the email to a video he’d waited weeks for. It was Joel Ruskin’s statement to police. If the B-list celebrity wasn’t willing to talk to him, he’d use what he’d said to someone else.

  This video wasn’t the crappy kind they show on TV. It wasn’t from a discreet camera in the corner of a cold room. Joel was sitting in a high-back chair, probably in a hotel somewhere. The video was in color and was of good quality.

  He skipped through the formalities at the beginning. When he pushed play again the officer was talking off-camera.

  "Did you have any suspicion someone had been in there? Was anything out of place?"

  "Well, at first things would go missing. Like, Sydney had a bracelet I’d given her and within a few days she lost it. I thought she didn’t like it and didn’t want to tell me."

  Joel scrunched his brow and stared for a few seconds as if deep in thought.

  "You know what?" he continued. "There was a thing that happened that didn’t make sense. One of the bathrooms flooded, but I never figured out where the water came from. There was at least half an inch of water on the floor and out in the hallway. But I didn’t find any leaks."

  "Miss Panting mentioned some weird messages on her phone."

  "That’s right!" His face lit up with the excitement of remembering. "She was mad at me because of some messages she said I sent her. I didn’t send those texts. She even screen shotted them to me, but I swear they didn’t come from me. I even checked my phone. And there was a picture of me sleeping. I found that in my photos after she told me about it. It was the creepiest thing. That happened twice, actually. Do you think that was this lady? Was she in my room when I was sleeping?" He shuddered.

  "We assume so. We also have the Sherriff’s reports. One says you found a woman on your property."

  "Yes. I’m almost sure it was her. Now looking back, I have no doubt."

  "But you’d never seen her before"

  "I don’t know. I could have. I see a lot of people. All the faces start to blend together, you know?"

  Joel leaned forward and reached his arm down. When he sat back there was a glass in his hand. He took a sip.

  "What was she doing when you found her on your property?"

  "She was standing by my back door."

  "Did she say anything to you?"

  He looked over his shoulder. Then he shifted in his seat as if he was tired of answering questions.

  "No. I think I said something, like asked her what she wanted. But she ran away. She literally ran across my yard and through the trees."

  "Miss Panting had an issue with her bags, correct?"

  "That’s right. She came to Colorado and when she opened her suitcase her clothes were all cut up." Another lightbulb seemed to go off in his head. It appeared he was realizing all of these things could have been Lucy’s doing.

  "So you had a security system installed?"

  "Yes."

  "Were there cameras?"

  "No." He put the glass down, then rubbed his hand through his hair. "Just sensors on the doors and windows. The company I used didn’t have cameras. They only respond to break-ins. I was planning on ordering those cameras you can link to your cell phone. I never got around to it."

  "And the sensors were never tripped?"

  "Not once." He threw his hand in the air. "That’s what I don’t understand. How could she have gotten into the house that night without setting off the alarm?"

  "Joel, we think she was already in the house. We think she never left."

  CHAPTER SIXTY TWO

  Spring Fork - 2016

  Joel and Sydney's verbal exchange the next morning was music to Lucy's ears. Sydney was freaking out and Joel was trying to calm her down.

  "My stuff was moved, Joel," she shouted. "Did you move my diamond studs? I put them on the dresser and I found them behind the door. I didn't do that."

  "We were both pretty hammered last night, Syd. Maybe you took them off and dropped them."

  "I didn't wear them last night. I took them off and put them here so I could put on my gold hoops. I put the gold hoops on the nightstand." There was shuffling as Sydney went to check beside the bed.

  "They're not here," she squealed.

  Lucy stroked the gold hoops between her fingers. They had been a gift to her from Joel, although Joel wasn't aware of it.

  "And what about the clothes? Do clothes fall off of hangers on their own? Was it the wind?"

  "Okay, calm down." Joel sounded tired. Maybe tired of Sydney in general.

  There was silence for a while and the bed squeaked when one of them sat on it. Finally Sydney was recognizing Lucy's handiwork which made her proud. She thought about how much more she could do.

  "Holy shit." Sydney's voice sounded deliciously frightened. "Joel, look at this."

  "Who took this?"

  They had finally found the picture she had taken in the middle of the night. She almost squealed with delight, but caught herself.

  "It's like the one you texted me." Sydney was starting to panic now. Her voice was shaking. "Joel, what's going on? It's this house. There's something in this house."

  "Okay," he said calmly. She could hear Sydney sobbing. Joel promised her he would do something. What could he do? There was no way to get rid of Lucy now. Sydney was the one who had to go.

  ◆◆◆

  Two days later the security company arrived. Lucy huddled in the attic. As the man downstairs affixed sensors to all the outside doors and windows, she felt the bare walls closing in around her. She couldn't leave now. If she did, she couldn't come back. Not that she ever wanted to leave Joel. But she might like to get outside and walk around every now and then. And what if Joel left town again? What if he left for a long time? She'd starve to death.

  When everyone had left the house, Lucy stomped around the attic like an angry toddler. How could Joel let that woman manipulate him into installing a security system? It was to keep her out. She knew it. Sydney was threatened by her. She couldn't handle Joel's attentions on another woman. W
ell, she wouldn't be a pushover. Joel didn't want her gone, that was a sure thing.

  "She's jealous." She spoke to no one. "She thinks she should be the most important thing in his life. That shows how self-centered she is. And Joel deserves better than that. I can give him better than that, and he knows it." The line between reality and her fantasy was blurred now. It was more than blurred, it was nearly non-existent. Had she broken into this old, yellow farmhouse? Or had she been living here with Joel this whole time? Had they been together in his bed, showered together, promised their lives to each other? And how did Sydney get her manicured claws into him? How did she tear him from the woman he'd vowed to love?

  "She won't be rid of me so easily. Joel loves me. She's tricked him. She's a demon." She gasped. Her pacing stopped. That was it. That was the answer. Sydney was a demon. She was a succubus sent to steal Lucy's man away. And how does one get rid of a demon? She knew there was only one way.

  CHAPTER SIXTY THREE

  Several days passed before Lucy got the chance to execute her plan to rid Joel's home of the succubus that had planted herself there. Circumstances needed to be perfect for it to work. Finally, after four days of waiting, she saw her opportunity.

  Sydney had gone to bed in the master suite. She was poised on her satin pillow with her arms straight down over the comforter like a Barbie doll placed carefully into a toy bed. Lucy was able to look in on her while Joel was still downstairs. She could hear him unloading the dishwasher in the kitchen. His girlfriend was fast asleep already, oblivious to such a thing as housework.

  Lucy entered the master bathroom, switched on the light, and closed the door. In the antique medicine cabinet she found a few orange bottles. She took one out. Zoloft prescribed to Joel Ruskin. She opened her phone’s camera and flipped it to the front camera. Then she hit record.