Straw Man

by Patrick Logan

  But Norm had different ideas. He reached down to pick up the paper and when Lisa tried to stop him, this time he shook her off.

  “Norm, don’t listen to her.”

  Norm ignored his wife and slowly unfolded the paper, with Hanna watching his reaction closely. Her heart sunk when she failed to see any flicker of recognition on the man’s face.

  “I’ve never seen him before,” he said calmly. “Lisa? Do you know who this is?”

  Lisa couldn’t help herself. She didn’t want to look, clearly, but the compulsion was too great. And the second her eyes fell on that that sheet of paper, she inhaled so sharply that she actually whistled.

  “Lisa?” Norm asked. “Do you know who this is?”

  Lisa Fairchild swallowed hard.

  “Lisa?”

  It took three more swallows—Hanna counted—for the woman to find her voice.

  “It’s Donnie,” she said softly.

  “Who’s Donnie?” Both Hanna and Norm asked at the same time.

  A fourth swallow, this one labored as if a bolus of food had lodged itself in Lisa’s throat.

  “It’s Donnie,” the woman repeated, raising her eyes to meet Hanna’s. “It’s my brother.”

  Chapter 76

  “Your—your brother?” It was Norm who asked the question, but it was the same one that was on the tip of Hanna’s tongue.

  Lisa scowled.

  “Yes, I have a brother, Norm. I mean, I did, but I thought you deleted every trace of him and my past. You said you did. You said you got rid of all of that.”

  “Well—well, I mean, my computer guy did. Or-or-or so I thought.” He raised his eyes to look at Hanna. “How did you—never mind. I don’t—I don’t understand what’s happening.”

  Truthfully, Hanna didn’t, either.

  “I have a brother, but I don’t talk to him,” Lisa continued. “I mean, I didn’t talk to that degenerate until about a month ago.”

  “You sure it’s him? In the picture? Look again.” Hanna’s mind was working furiously, trying to incorporate this new information with what she already knew.

  “Yeah, it’s him.” She shook the page a little but didn’t look at it. “Why do you have this? What did that shit do now?”

  Hanna ignored Lisa questions and asked her own.

  “Where is he? Where is your brother now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “If you’re lying—”

  “I don’t know. He just showed up here, all pathetic just like he was back then. A pitiful loser desperate for a place to stay.”

  “What?” Norm was in disbelief. “You let him stay here? When?”

  Lisa frowned.

  “It was just for a week, when we were in St. Lucia, don’t get your panties in a twist. He promised that would be it, that I wouldn’t have to see him ever again. Little prick didn’t even leave a thank you note. Forgot his car, though. Then the sneaky bastard came back and got that, too.”

  Hanna chewed the inside of her cheek as she mulled this over.

  Why would Lisa, who commissioned her husband to eliminate all trace of her past, let her brother stay here?

  “Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

  Lisa rolled her eyes.

  “For fuck’s sake, Norm. What is there to talk about? He was a loser, ran our family business into the ground.”

  “The taxidermy business,” Hanna remarked.

  “Yeah, that one.”

  And then it clicked. The reason why Lisa let her brother stay at her house was to further shame the man. To show him that she’d made something of herself, that she had all these fancy things while he had nothing.

  You think you can just strut around here, parade yourself, make money that way? Well, what if I made you ugly… what if I made it so that you couldn’t do this, either? Couldn’t sell yourself? Maybe then mom would love me the way she loves you.

  Hanna started to shake as she recalled the man’s words from the alley all those years ago.

  Donnie Duggar… the Straw man was Donnie Duggar.

  “Why did he come here, Lisa?” Hanna asked, trying hard to keep her voice even. “Why did Donnie show up here out of the blue? After all these years?”

  It looked as if Lisa was going to refuse to answer, forcing Hanna to flash the gun again, but she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “His wife left him. Hell, I didn’t even know Donnie was married. Fucking loser like that… who would marry him?”

  Tell me you love me.

  And that was it: the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.

  Donnie started killing after his father died and he was abandoned by his mother and sister. Then he stopped because he met someone. Inexplicably, the man fell in love, filling the void left by his family. And then she left him, and he’d relapsed. Sniveling in front of his sister, begging, maybe even crying, was the final straw. Lisa had probably laughed in her brother’s face and only let him stay here because she knew how small it would make him feel.

  Small and pathetic.

  “You just abandoned him, didn’t you?” Hanna said. “You and your mother abandoned Donnie.”

  Lisa laid the sketch down on the table and stared at it as she answered.

  “He ruined our lives. It wasn’t my decision, anyway. I was just a teenager, and he was basically an adult—not my fault he was half-retarded. Still, it was up to my mom.” Lisa shrugged. “She couldn’t support both of us.”

  You think you can just strut around here, parade yourself, make money that way?

  The comment made Hanna consider who was doing the supporting, the mother or daughter.

  Eyes blazing, Lisa continued, “Anyways, I didn’t fuck up the business, he did—Donnie did. You know, for all those hours that little creep spent watching my dad with the animals, always pulling his pecker, you’d think he’d be able to stuff them himself. Fuck, it can’t really be that hard, can it? I mean, the things are already dead. But no, Donnie couldn’t even figure out which parts of what animals went together. Always mixing them up. The results were all fucked up, just like him.”

  Hanna closed her eyes for a brief second and was teleported back in time.

  She was in the cage with her friend beside her. Donnie was there, too, naked except for his apron, muttering to himself, asking them if they loved him as he’d likely done with his mother and sister before being abandoned.

  Hanna felt a twinge of something close to sympathy, but this vanished when she recalled the hideous fox-racoon combination the Straw Man had created.

  “Where is he now, Lisa? Where’s your bother?”

  “I told you, I don’t know. Probably living in a fucking sewer somewhere.”

  Hanna ground her teeth and she visualized the dirt basement where she’d been held captive.

  “Do you guys still own a shop? Somewhere where you store all your old taxidermy gear?”

  “We had a shop but were forced to sell it.” Lisa’s anger toward her brother was so great that she seemed to have forgotten about the fact that she was being held at gunpoint. “We had to sell everything just to eat.”

  What else did you sell, Lisa?

  Could what Donnie have done been that bad, or was she just angry at herself for having to sell her body to pay the bills?

  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Norm asked. “You said both your parents were dead.”

  “They are dead,” Lisa confirmed without a hint of compassion. “My dad died of a heart attack and my mom committed suicide.”

  “I know, but—”

  “No, not a shop,” Hanna corrected herself. “More like a-a-a cabin or something. One that has a basement.”

  Lisa looked at Norm then at Hanna.

  “I think I’m done now. I think—”

  Hanna raised the gun.

  “Just tell her,” Norm said. “Please, Lisa.” He seemed more betrayed than scared now.

  Lisa worked her jaw.

  “It was in a field or something—straw, th
ere was straw near it.”

  “Monty’s hunting cabin,” Lisa said in an airy voice.

  “What?”

  “My dad had a hunting cabin. I only went once, but he took Donnie there several times. I don’t even think we owned it, to be honest, otherwise—”

  “That’s it,” Hanna snapped. “Where is it? Where’s the cabin?”

  “Outside the city. I think—ah, I don’t remember. It was so long ago.”

  Hanna lowered the gun and reached across the table. She grabbed Lisa by the collar and pulled her close.

  “Think… where is the hunting cabin?”

  The pressure on the woman’s throat jogged her memory.

  “Near Edgewood Preserve. About an hour from here. Suffolk County, I think. That’s all I know. I went one time.”

  Hanna let go of Lisa and she fell back into the couch. An address would have been better, but she felt as if she’d gotten all she could out of Lisa. There couldn’t be too many straw farms out in Suffolk and when she got close enough, Hanna was certain that her own memory of the place would return. She slipped the gun back into her bag and hurried out of the room without another word. As soon as Hanna was out of sight, Lisa’s balls dropped again.

  “You can’t do this, you know! You’re not even a cop. This is kidnapping!”

  Hanna ignored her and ran to her VW. And then she started to drive, heading back to the place where, fifteen years ago, she’d been locked in a cage. She was going to see those cages again, too, only this time not from inside. And if Donnie Duggar just happened to be there, he was going to be the one begging for Hanna’s love and not the other way around.

  The bad news for him was that Hanna wasn’t in a loving mood.

  Chapter 77

  By the time Drake turned onto Lisa and Norm Fairchild’s street, he heard the first police siren fill the afternoon air. But instead of slowing him down, this only made him drive faster.

  And the entire time he cursed himself for not remembering earlier.

  He’d seen the unsub’s car right here, right in the Fairchilds’ driveway.

  Drake parked in front of the wrought-iron fence, which hung ajar, and jumped out of his car, leaving it running.

  Hanna’s VW was nowhere in sight.

  Why did I fucking listen to Screech? I should have never let her go!

  “Took you long enough!” Lisa Fairchild yelled from the doorway. Norm was standing behind her. “She went—oh, it’s you. No, you can’t come in here. No way!”

  Norm stepped in front of his wife.

  “We called the police. They’re on their way. You need to stay right there.”

  Drake did nothing of the sort. He pushed through the gate and started up the walkway.

  “Where’s Hanna?” he demanded.

  “She’s going to prison, you know,” Lisa shouted over her husband’s shoulder. “She pointed a gun at me. Can you fucking believe that? She’s going away for a long time.”

  Drake cringed. This was what he was dreading.

  “I need to know where she’s headed.”

  “You need to wait here until the cops arrive, that’s what you need to do.”

  Drake cursed.

  He had no idea why he thought this would be easy, that Lisa would talk to him.

  “Tell me where she went!”

  Norm was the one who answered this time.

  “She went to find Lisa’s brother.”

  “Norm! Don’t say anything. You know better than that.”

  “Her brother?” Drake couldn’t believe his ears.

  Norm nodded.

  “The sketch… it’s Lisa’s brother.”

  Now Drake’s eyes bulged. All of his sensory organs were going haywire.

  “What?” he shook his head, trying not to let this information distract him. The only reason he was here was to find Hanna. That was it. That was all that mattered. All the rest of this Straw Man bullshit could be dealt with later. After Hanna was safe. “Where?”

  “Norm, don’t you say another fucking word.”

  Norm stepped forward.

  “Suffolk County,” he answered. Lisa physically tried to pull her husband back, to cover his mouth with her hand, but for once the man was making a stand. “About an hour from here. By the Edgewood Preserve. Their family has a hunting cabin there.”

  Drake offered a subtle nod of appreciation and then ran back to his car.

  “She’s going to jail!“ Lisa screamed after him. “That cunt is going to jail and so are you!”

  Chapter 78

  Hanna’s GPS said that it would take an hour and fifteen minutes to reach Edgewood Oak Brush Preserve.

  It took her just under forty-five.

  For the last fifteen, Hanna slowed, carefully observing every farmhouse, townhouse, and park she passed, hoping that one of them would trigger her memory.

  They didn’t.

  Neither did the preserve itself; Hanna was fairly confident that she’d never seen it before.

  “Where are you?” she muttered. “Where the fuck are you?”

  Hanna decided to drive around the preserve, heading north. After about three miles, the subdivisions to her west vanished and were replaced by large empty fields. Another half mile and she saw the first of what turned out to be dozens of square straw bales.

  “Here… you’re here somewhere.”

  Hanna finally felt a sense of familiarity, which was accompanied by an uncomfortable tingling in her extremities. This intensified when she spotted a dark shape tucked beneath a tree, almost completely covered by loose hay. She pulled up next to it and got out of the car.

  Beneath the hay was a gray Chevy.

  Hanna almost went down again, like she had when Screech had shown her the picture of the cages used to contain large game.

  It was the same car. Older, rustier, but the same one that she had seen behind her friend when the Straw Man grabbed her in the alley.

  When she’d pointed the fake gun at him.

  Well, I’ve got a real one now, bitch.

  The only thing that kept her on her feet was the realization that she was close.

  So close.

  Hanna ran back to her VW and pulled out her gun. Only then did she feel safe enough to look around again.

  Nothing… nothing… there!

  A tree. Hanna couldn’t be certain, but she thought it was the very same tree that she had collapsed up against after fleeing the Straw Man. Beyond this tree was a narrow path that wound through a field of tall grass before disappearing into a wooded area.

  Hanna licked her lips and tried to regulate her breathing. It was no use. For a decade and a half, she’d run from this place and now she was sprinting toward it.

  Hanna exited her car again, gun in hand this time. After confirming that no one was around, no one was watching her, she started down the path. The tall grass bordering the dirt walk was bent and broken in places, a clear indication that someone had been here recently.

  Maybe more than one someone.

  Maybe Marjorie, or Janice, or Melissa. Or maybe it was the other three as of yet unnamed girls.

  And him.

  Donnie Duggar, the Straw Man, call him whatever you wanted, he had definitely been here.

  Hanna crouched low, trying to make herself as small as possible. She reached a thick oak tree and leaned against it, once again desperately trying to catch her breath. She was on the verge of hyperventilating. It was during one of the short intervals between these breaths that she heard it.

  Her first thought was that it was an animal, a fox, perhaps, or a wounded raccoon.

  Gritting her teeth, Hanna sucked inhaled and held it.

  There it was again.

  Only it wasn’t a raccoon or a fox.

  It was the quiet, desperate cries of a woman.

  Electricity shot through Hanna’s body and she pushed herself off the tree. Eighty to a hundred meters down the path, she reached a clearing.

  And to the side of that clea
ring sat a weathered cabin. Part of the roof was missing and many of the slats that made up the east-facing wall were rotted through. Vegetation ate at the foundation and there were dark, unmoving shapes inside.

  This was the place that Robin and Hanna had been taken. The place that only one of them had made it out of alive.

  Fuck you. Fuck you, you piece of shit.

  Despite the poor condition of the cabin itself, the steps leading to the front door weren’t in terrible shape. Hanna mounted them, listening closely with every step for any sounds from within.

  The front door was unlocked, unlatched, and hung awkwardly by a single hinge. Hanna leaned against the side of the cabin as she pushed it open, grimacing at the loud creak it made. She waited, but when no further sound came, she leaned forward, peered inside, and then pulled back violently.

  What she’d seen had scared the shit out of her.

  A bear.

  A massive black bear standing on its rear legs, paws up in an offensive posture. Its teeth glistened and its black, marble eyes reflected what little light eked in through the door.

  “Help me.”

  The plea was barely audible, but it was all Hanna needed to enter the cabin.

  The bear wasn’t the only creature that lined the rotted walls. There were large foxes, a wolf, a monkey, other animals she didn’t recognize, all stuffed, all eerily still.

  Hanna swung the gun around, waving it in front of her, finger not on the guard, but the trigger. She wanted Donnie to hop out of the darkness but there were only the animals.

  “Help me.”

  The voice was a little louder now, more pained, and goosebumps broke out on Hanna’s entire body.

  She weaved through the stuffed creatures and toward the sound.

  It was coming not from a door like the one she thought she remembered, but from the floor.

  “Please help me.”

  She’s down there! There’s someone down there!

  Hanna dropped to her knees, searching with her empty hand for some sort of entrance into the basement.

  Why don’t I remember this?

  She found it ten feet from her, a trapdoor embedded in the wooden floor. Unlike the walls of the cabin, the floor itself had been redone recently.