Gingerbread Man: A Marlow and Sage Mystery (A Nursery Rhyme Suspense Book 1)

by Lee Strauss

  “Watch where you’re going, Henry,” he said as he kept walking.

  “How’s Gina?” I called after him. He twisted and gave me a sour look. “She’s fine.”

  How could a guy who had a girlfriend like Gina Upton and a full course load have time to kidnap a girl? Sure, he was an ass, but that didn’t make him a killer. I slowed as I pondered it all. Maybe I’d jumped to conclusions. Maybe I’d accused the wrong guy. Maybe I was about to lead Sage on a wild goose hunt.

  Sage didn’t answer her dorm door when I rapped on it. I tested the knob. It was locked. With no other options that I could think of, I settled down on the couch in the lounge to wait. The seconds ticked by slow and painfully. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and jiggled my legs, releasing nervous tension. The room smelled of old coffee, but at that point I’d settle for old over none. I helped myself to a mug, loading it with two sugar cubes and a couple creamers, then returned to my spot on the couch. The caffeine didn’t help with my nervous tension, and my anxiety felt like an itchy wool blanket under my skin.

  My eyes trained on the door and when I saw her, I jumped to my feet, almost spilling the dregs at the bottom of my near-empty mug.

  Sage stilled when she saw me. “Marlow?” Then she ran to me and bear-hugged me. I wrapped my arms around her with uncertainty. So many moments in my life over the last couple days have registered high on the surreal scale, and this embrace was among them. I couldn’t stop myself from taking a whiff of her shampoo.

  Sage grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hall to her dorm. “You just disappeared!” she said with a failed effort at keeping her voice down. She unlocked her door and practically pushed me in. “Into thin air! I almost had a heart attack. Can you imagine?”

  “I…”

  “What the hell happened to you?” She narrowed her dark eyes at me in further scrutiny. “You look like crap and…” She wrinkled her nose. “You smell funky.”

  “Okay, calm down. I’ll tell you everything.”

  “Sorry, it was just such a mind-bender.” She pressed a pillow against the wall on her bed and sat against it. I took Teagan’s chair.

  “Any news?” I asked.

  Sage frowned and shook her head. “There’s a media blitz going on, but nothing. It’s like she disappeared into thin air too. Do you think…?”

  “No.” I cut her off. “What’s happening to me is happening to me alone. Teagan is still in real danger, I’m afraid.”

  “What’s happening to you?”

  I proceeded to tell her the whole story. The further I got into it, especially the parts that were about an alternate her, the more her expression grew perplexed and stunned.

  “World War Three?” she said. “That’s what I smell?”

  “And I’ve been wearing these clothes for a couple days.”

  “Where are Ryan’s?”

  “Radiation poison. I think they’re still in the wash. You told me that the radiated items had to be washed several times.”

  “I told you?”

  “Well, the other you.”

  She rubbed imaginary lines on her forehead. “It’s so weird that there’s a whole other set of us in other realms.”

  Then I told her about Blaine Tucker’s nursery rhyme story.

  “No way!” Sage blurted out.

  “It could just be a coincidence, but it’s the only lead we have right now. He told me about a cabin near here that his family used to go to when they wanted a break from the city.”

  “You think Teagan might be there?”

  I shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know. It wouldn’t hurt to check it out.”

  “I don’t have a car, but I can borrow my brother’s.” Sage pulled out her phone. “Hey, Ben? Can I borrow your car?… I know, but transit is so slow and I have a doctor’s appointment over an hour away… I don’t know if I’m dying. That’s why I need to borrow your car… No, I don’t really think it’s serious, just please, can I borrow it?”

  She hung up and grinned. “Brothers can be such a pain.”

  I grinned back, hiding the sadness I had for the other Sage whose brother had died young. I didn’t tell this Sage about that.

  We drove through neighborhoods that were familiar to me but different. In this realm, the homes remained occupied, lawns mowed, kids bikes propped against walls. In my time, the blue realm, it was a ghost town overrun by weeds, the homes overwhelmed by weather and time. Broken glass and crumbling bricks. The only signs of life are wild. Maybe one house per street was claimed by squatters high on drugs. Which, ironically, was a step up from the bombed and burned-out version in the orange world.

  My gaze was continually pulled to Sage’s profile. Her dark hair hung in smooth chocolatey waves from under a white wool cap. She wore glasses with pink plastic frames and had a matching silk scarf wrapped around her neck. She looked pretty and vulnerable. So different from the GI Joe version of her from that morning.

  Even though I’d only known this Sage for a short while, I was going to miss her when I left. I had to get back to my own time eventually. I’d arranged it with Tucker before I stepped into the chamber. He promised to give me twenty-four hours. I wanted to hang around here for a least a day to follow this lead. Then, well, I’d missed my midterms. I’d have to come up with a good excuse to explain my absence. Besides, even if I wanted to stay, and let’s face it, this realm was tempting—better economy, cleaner environment, and, my eyes drifted back to Sage, her—there was already a Marlow Henry in this realm.

  We’d left the city limits and were deep in a forested area of Michigan. The trees were thickly planted with multicolored leaves saturating the landscape. The road snaked around the rolling hills into a sparsely inhabited area. We hadn’t passed a car coming from the other direction for some time.

  Dark clouds had rolled in and drops began to splat on the windshield. Sage flicked on the wipers. Scritch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

  “Are you sure this is the way?” Sage asked.

  I double checked her GPS. “This is the address Blaine gave me. It’s possible the cabin doesn’t exist in this realm, though.”

  Sage slowed and squinted out the window. “There should be a driveway around here.”

  I leaned forward too, and helped her search. The rain rivulets made it difficult to see. Everything was covered in leaves. Trees and more trees. Then suddenly a break. I pointed. “There.”

  Sage slowed to almost a stop and turned onto a very narrow dirt road. “With the leaves and the rain it’s hard to tell if it’s been driven on lately.”

  The driveway opened up into a small field. A cabin sat in the middle. No lights. No sign of life.

  “It’s here and it must belong to the Tucker family,” Sage said.

  “Yeah.” My chest grew heavy with disappointment. “I’m afraid the most we’re going to accomplish here is to violate trespassing laws.”

  Sage twisted to look out the back window and began to reverse. “Stop,” I said. “We’re here. We might as well have a look around.”

  The rain picked up, forcing us to make a dash to the covered porch. The windows in front of us were ground level, but covered with drapes. I checked the door. Locked.

  “There’s nobody here,” Sage said.

  I was about to agree when I thought I heard something. Sage used her auto-starter to turn on the car.

  “Shh,” I said. “Turn that off.”

  She killed the engine. “What?”

  “I think I heard something.”

  I knocked on the glass. There it was again. A faint call that sounded like “help.”

  Sage’s eyes widened. “It’s Teagan!”

  59

  

  Marlow

  You know how, when you watch TV, and the cops kick in a locked door like it’s a piece of cake? Yeah, not like that in real life. Fire spit up my shins as my foot connected with the door and I thought I put my hip out. I hobbled around like an insane person.

  “Are you okay?”
Sage asked, but she didn’t waste any time seeing to my injuries. She skipped down the wooden steps and returned with a big rock. In two seconds flat, she had one of the living-room windows pounded out. Silence followed the sound of shattering glass. Thankfully, the pane was low and not too difficult to hop through without cutting a vein in the effort.

  “Teagan!” Sage called.

  “Sage? Sage!” We ran down a short dark hall toward her voice. I briefly took in the surroundings. The living room might have been cozy once upon a time, with a wood stove in the corner and an oversized couch and chair facing it. The floor was made of knotted pine, scuffed and worn. A throw rug lay under a marked-up coffee table riddled with empty pop bottles and an ashtray filled with butts.

  A small kitchen had a few dirty dishes strewn along a chipped Formica countertop. A bad smell lingered in the air. Food maybe. Musk. Body odor.

  A dead body.

  “Oh my God,” Sage said.

  The bedroom was dim with the growing twilight. Enough light escaped a gauze-covered window to reveal Teagan. Her hair was brown now, and I almost didn’t recognize her. Her wrists were tied to a headboard, and she lay nearly naked under a thin, white sheet. It was splattered with blood. Possibly belonging to the dead man who lay crumpled on the floor beside her. He’d succumbed to a gunshot wound to the chest.

  Was he the rapist? He was fully clothed. And dead. With Teagan tied up, she couldn’t have pulled the trigger.

  Then who did?

  Sage immediately began tugging on the ropes around one of Teagan’s wrists. I rushed to free her other one.

  “We’re here now,” Sage said. “We’ll get you out of here.” I heard the crack in her voice. It was hard to stay emotionally strong in a situation like this.

  Once her arms were free, Teagan curled into a ball and wept on Sages lap. “I can’t believe you found me.”

  Sage stroked her hair. “We did. And you’re going to be okay. Where are your clothes?”

  Teagan pointed to a dresser. “He put them in there.”

  I lifted a hand to show Sage I’d retrieve them.

  “Who put them there, Teag?” Sage asked. “Who did this to you?”

  “I don’t know his name. I ran into him on campus once. He helped me pick up my books.”

  I pulled out what looked like workout clothes from the dresser and handed them to Sage.

  “Do you know who the man on the floor is?” I asked.

  Teagan stared at me like she saw me for the first time. “Averagegeek?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  Then her gaze went to the dead man. “The guy called him dad. Apparently he knows …knew my mother.”

  So that was the connection. Maybe that relationship had saved Teagan’s life.

  “Sage.” I held out my hand. “Give me your phone. I’ll call the police while you help Teagan dress.”

  I went into the hall to dial 911, but I couldn’t get any reception. I had to go outside. I unlocked the front door and twisted open the dead bolt. I swung the door open wide and found myself staring at the end of a pistol pointed at my head.

  “Hi, Blaine,” I said.

  60

  

  Marlow

  “Back up,” Blaine said coolly. His eyes were murky with hate. Or maybe fear. Probably both. He held the pistol with steady arms, his lips tugging slightly to one side. “You surprise me, Henry. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  He didn’t know I wasn’t the Marlow Henry from his world. Maybe that Marlow wouldn’t be trembling as he stepped back into the room. That Marlow might own a gun and actually know how to use it. My mind quickly calculated all of the possible outcomes of the situation. None of them ended well for me or Sage or Teagan.

  “Don’t do anything stupid.” He motioned with his free hand to a kitchen chair. “Sit down.”

  “You should turn yourself in,” I said while complying.

  “Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t go to jail.”

  Should’ve thought of that before you started raping and killing people, moron.

  A full roll of duct tape rested on the counter. He tossed it at me. “Tape your legs to the chair, and make sure you make it tight.”

  I did as he said, taking as long as I possibly could. As far as Blaine knew, I was here alone and Teagan was still tied up in the bedroom. He didn’t know about Sage. I’d spotted a door at the back of the hall. Hopefully it was a second way out.

  “Who’s the dead guy?” I asked. “Teagan’s gone by the way.”

  “My worthless old man. And I assumed so,” he answered smugly. “I doubt she’ll get far, and I’m up for another chase.”

  “So what’d your dad do to you? You know, to make you hate him so much?”

  My face stung with a sudden backhanded blow.

  “Shut up!”

  My feet were tied and I waited for further instruction. I wasn’t going to make his job easy.

  “Put your hands behind your back.”

  When I hesitated, he shouted. “Now!”

  I sighed and did as he said.

  Blaine wrapped my wrists together tightly behind the chair, wrenching my shoulders back. “How’d you find me?” he asked. “No one knows about this place.”

  “You told me.”

  “Ha. I did not.”

  “You did. You told me about how you and your parents would come here to escape the pressures of the city.”

  Blaine had circled around in front of me by this point. He had the tape in his hand and I knew he was getting ready to paste a strip over my mouth. I had to keep him talking. “Your dad played chase and tickle games with you.”

  His scruffy jaw dropped and even in the dim lighting of the cabin I could see him grow white. “What did you say?”

  “The gingerbread man. He sang it, and you ran.”

  His knees gave out and he lowered slowly to the floor. We were eye to eye now. “How do you know?”

  “Is it true? Did he catch you?”

  Blaine swallowed and spoke in a low monotone. “I screamed. I pleaded. He was always careful never to leave bruises above the neck. He always stopped shy of breaking my bones.”

  His eyes glistened, and I surprised myself by feeling a good amount of pity. He continued. “My mother was a drunk. She didn’t stop him. I suffered at his hands for years until I got big enough to fight back. I vowed to kill him one day. And I did.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “That this happened to you. Your father was sick. He needed help. And so do you. You don’t have to be like him.”

  Blaine sprung to his feet, ripped off a piece of tape about four inches long and slapped it over my mouth.

  “You don’t know anything, so don’t try to analyze me.”

  Both of our heads shot up at the sound of a car engine. Sage couldn’t have called the cops because I’d taken her phone. Blaine grabbed his gun and ran outside. I heard the screech of wheels spinning in the gravel. I hopped and shuffled my chair across the floor so I could see out of the broken window. I just caught the taillights of Ben’s car disappear. I was relieved that Sage and Teagan had gotten away. Not so crazy about being left behind in the company of a murderous psychopath, though.

  Blaine jumped into the driver’s side of his car. The engine refused to turn over. Only a pathetic click. He hopped out, slammed the door and swore. He lifted the hood and shook his head. I didn’t know what Sage had done to disable his car, but kudos to her for her quick thinking.

  Blaine stormed inside in a rage. His face was red like the devil’s and he shoved me in his frustration. I toppled to the floor, and with no way to break my fall, hit my head with a whack. I wrestled to keep my breath even, with only my nose able to get air. Panic threatened to upend me.

  Blaine rushed to the bedroom and from my vantage point on the floor, I saw him drag his father’s body out the back. I wondered what he planned to do with it. Bury it? Burn it? Leave i
t to scavengers?

  I wrenched at the tape around my wrists, but it was too tight to escape from, barely room for my blood to circulate. I was desperate to find a way out, but my situation seemed hopeless. In no time I heard Blaine’s footsteps.

  So, scavengers then.

  He placed his gun on the table and lifted me back upright in the chair. My temple throbbed and I sensed a notable goose egg growing on the crown of my head. Blaine untied my feet, and I circled my ankles, working the blood back into my toes. It felt like my shoes were filled with red ants devouring my soles.

  “Stand up,” Blaine commanded. And I would have. Except for the cocking of a gun through the broken window.

  “Put your hands up, Blaine Tucker!”

  It wasn’t Detective Kilroy. Sage Farrell stood framed by the window sill, legs parted, arms outstretched with both hands firmly gripping a gun. There was something very sexy about her and I wholeheartedly conceded to being rescued by her.

  Blaine laughed. “I would, except, you see, I have my own gun.” He must have grabbed it off the table just before Sage challenged him. He butted the barrel against my skull.

  “Put yours down, or I’ll blow off his head.”

  Sage hesitated for a moment, and my chest collapsed at seeing her fail so quickly after her attempt to rescue me. Why didn’t she just keep driving to safety with Teagan.”

  Which made me think, where was Teagan?

  In that instant, my question was answered. Blaine dropped his gun and cried out. I spun to see him gripping both sides of his neck. Teagan stood behind him with two dispensed epi pens in hand.

  I had sense enough to kick Blaine’s gun away. Sage swooped hers up off the floor.

  “Blaine Tucker,” she said. “Lay down and put your hands behind your head.”