Life is But a Dream: A Marlow and Sage Mystery (A Nursery Rhyme Suspense Book 2)

by Lee Strauss

  I came home in a huff of agitation and rejection while leaving her alone with someone who is on my list of suspects for murder.

  I rubbed the throbbing in my temples. I was an idiot! How could I have left her alone with a suspect? She could be in danger.

  I picked up my phone and sent her a text: Are you okay?

  She didn’t answer and with each minute that passed, I grew more and more anxious. The usual MO was to draw the victim to the canal like the pied piper; the victim moving along like he or she was in a hypnotic trance. That didn’t mean the suspect wouldn’t switch things up if circumstances changed. Already he’d gone from single females to a double-male homicide.

  He could easily kill Sage or drug her this afternoon and find a way to dump her body in the canal after dark.

  My pulse shot through the roof. The more I considered that Sage might be in trouble, the more I believed it.

  I dialed her number this time, getting her voicemail.

  “Sage, please call me back. I just need to know you’re okay. I can’t believe I left you alone with Tristan. You might not believe he’s a suspect, but I do. If I don’t hear back from you within the hour, I’m calling the police.”

  Zed snored softly from across the room, but I was too restless to stay in bed. I jumped to my feet, shoving my phone in my pocket, and skipped to the common room to make coffee. I needed to do something with my hands.

  I dumped the pitch-black liquid into the sink and rinsed the pot before filling it with water.

  I put a new filter in the basket and filled it with grounds, then poured the water from the pot into the hole in the back. After replacing the pot, I pushed the button on. The coffee maker immediately began hissing.

  Mission accomplished, I rubbed my hands and went to the window to look outside. Gray clouds had rolled in, cheating us of the promised continuation of warm spring weather. Damn. I tapped my foot, wrung my hands and checked my phone. Nothing.

  The gurgle of the coffee pot signalled it was ready. I poured a large mug and added two creamers and two sugars. I stirred it with a little brown stick, blew along the surface of the creamy brew and took a sip.

  Ow! Hot! I cursed at myself and my burnt tongue. I hated when I did that.

  I pulled out my phone again and muttered another cuss word. Still nothing from Sage. Then, just as I was about to push the phone back into my pocket, the ringtone went off—“Robots” by Chrome Sparks.

  “Sage?”

  “Yeah, psycho, it’s me. Seriously, Tristan is my boyfriend. He’s not going to hurt me.”

  Famous last words.

  I blew on my coffee. “I don’t have the same confidence in his character.”

  “Fine, well, I’m calling and I’m all right. Are you good now?”

  “I guess.”

  “Oh, Tristan did tell me something interesting.”

  I settled into one of the plastic chairs by an empty table. “Like what?”

  “Mike from my support group is the towel guy for the rowing team. He dries out the boats before turning them upside down and carries all the used towels to the pool laundry room.”

  “That is interesting. Are you up to giving Mike a visit?”

  “I sure am. In fact, I’m heading to Java Junkie for a coffee right now. I need a caffeine fix. Wanna meet me there?”

  “I’ll be there in ten.”

  I poured my coffee down the drain, quickly washed my mug, put it away and rushed out the door.

  Java Junkie was a five-minute jog, or in my case a ten-minute half jog. I didn’t pretend to be an athlete.

  I slowed a block away so I could catch my breath. I didn’t want to meet up with Sage looking like a red-faced asthmatic.

  I ran my hands through my hair, let out a couple quick breaths, shook out my arms. When I finally had myself together, I went inside. Sage sat by a window with a coffee mug in her hands and a smirk on her face, like she was trying to hold in a belly laugh. That was when I figured out that she saw my get-myself-together performance, and I flushed anew with humiliation.

  “Was that a mating dance, or something?” Sage said through full lips that tugged up into an amused grin.

  “I ran here,” I said as I took the chair opposite. “I was just catching my breath.”

  “Oh. I half expected a dozen girls to spring forth out of the bushes.”

  “Funny.”

  She laughed. “It is, kind of.”

  “Okay, fine. I’m glad to have brought a smile to your face.” I smiled back and decided to just take it like a man. Maybe I did look like an ape out there. Whatever.

  “You always make me smile, Mars,” Sage said. “I like hanging around with you.”

  Right. When she wasn’t with her super-size boyfriend.

  “I like hanging around with you too.” It was the truth. Now if only she’d ditch the huge boyfriend. “So tell me more about Mike Rabino?”

  Sage recited what she heard from Tristan, the same thing she already told me. That Mike from her support group was the rowing teams towel guy.

  “It gives him insight and opportunity,” I said. “Not sure what his motive would be.”

  “Have we established a motive? Other than whoever is doing this is a murderous creep. Probably a psychopath. Absolutely unstable.”

  “Let’s go talk to this Mike guy,” I said. “Maybe we can break him.”

  I was out the door at least two minutes before Sage, and I wondered briefly if she was refusing to come. Then she arrived, casually tossing her empty coffee cup into the trash.

  “I don’t know where he is,” she said. “I actually don’t know anything about him.”

  “What does he look like?”

  “Nothing remarkable. Wiry thin. On the short side. Thick glasses.”

  “Is he a science geek? What study track is he on?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know. We haven’t actually had a conversation.”

  “You think he’s a loser?”

  “No.”

  “Does he think you think he’s a loser?”

  She zipped up her pale pink spring jacket. “I don’t know. Why?”

  “It could be why he’s targeting you. If it’s him, that is. People who are bullied or who feel invisible may lash out in violent ways in order to be noticed and gain notoriety.”

  “He is kind of creepy, now that you mention it.”

  “Do you happen to know his last name?” I asked.

  “Rabino, I think. I heard Jamil call him that once.”

  I stopped to key Mike Rabino into the campus directory app on my phone. “He’s in building D, same as Jamil. Interesting.”

  “Why is that interesting?”

  “Well, they’re dorm mates, go to the same support group and Mike works for the rowing team that Jamil is part of. Lots of overlap. It could be possible that this isn’t a one-man show.”

  “You think they might be working together?”

  “Anything is possible.”

  We hopped the bus to building D. Sage waited at the bottom of the steps as I knocked on the door. “Is Mike Rabino here?”

  The redheaded guy who answered shook his head. “He’s never here. Check the library. I think he might live there.”

  “The main one, or is there another near here?”

  “The one around the corner, man.”

  “Thanks.”

  Sage and I walked side by side without speaking. I said nothing because I couldn’t trust myself not to rage against Tristan. I didn’t know why Sage was so silent.

  We eventually got to the small library around the corner. I held the door open for Sage, then followed her in.

  We trod quietly checking out all the tables and cubicles and for a moment I thought we’d been sent on a wild goose chase, but then Sage caught my eye and pointed to her right. She mouthed, he’s here.

  I scurried around the tables until I reached Sage. From this position I could see Mike bent studiously over a large textbook. Sage and I walked softly un
til we were each on one side of him.

  I leaned over and whispered, “Hi Mike.”

  He jumped, knocking the glasses from his face. His hand raked the top of his desk and the book until he found them and pressed them back. “What the hell?” he said. “Why did you sneak up on me like that?”

  I pulled an empty chair closer and sat down. Sage did the same. “Sorry to startle you,” I said keeping my voice low. We were in a library and I didn’t want to get kicked out. “Sage and I just want to ask you a few questions.”

  “About what?”

  “About the drownings.”

  His gaze dropped to the table. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  “You’re the towel boy for the rowing team, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. What of it? It keeps me eating.”

  “So it’s a good job? You like it?”

  “I like it well enough.”

  “What about the people you clean up after, what do you think of them?”

  Mike stared up at me, his eyes overly large through thick lenses. “I don’t think of them. They’re imbeciles for the most part, at DU on scholarships because they have biceps, not because they have brains.”

  I pulled up a chair and sat. “What did you think of Joe and Rajib?”

  “The double suicide?” Mike asked. “I’m shocked. Of all the jocks on this campus, they were among the few decent ones.”

  “So you liked them?” I pressed.

  “What is this? Why are you interrogating me? I don’t even know you.”

  Sage sat in a chair on the other side of him. “You know me.”

  He considered her. “Yeah, barely. I still don’t understand what you want from me.”

  “Marlow and I just want to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the drownings, Mike.” Mike’s big eyes darted from Sage to me and back to Sage. She patted his arm in a friendly matter. “Don’t you?”

  He’d broken out into a sweat and his heavy glasses slid down his nose. He pushed them back up. “Sure. I guess.”

  “Did Joe and Rajib ever talk to you?” I asked.

  “Sure. They were the only ones who asked me to go out for a drink, like I was a fellow student and not a lower-class servant.”

  “I know you go to Sage’s support group, Mike. Have you ever thought of suicide yourself? It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Mike rested his head in his hands. “At times. Who hasn’t? But I’m not suicidal now, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “Do you take prescription drugs?”

  Mike’s shoulders slumped. He sighed like he was just enduring another bully, and if he just played along, it would soon be over. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, but yeah. Again, who doesn’t? Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do here. ”

  “Sure, fine,” I said. “Just one last question: Is there anyone on the rowing team that you wouldn’t trust with your life?”

  He huffed. “Tristan Coy. What an ass.”

  My eyes shot to Sage’s startled look.

  “Thanks for your help, Mike,” I said.

  Sage and I left the library and this time I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. “Of all the people Mike could’ve chosen as the last guy he would trust with his life, it’s Tristan.”

  “So? Tristan’s not a people pleaser. He goes after what he wants. That doesn’t make him a murderer.”

  “But you can’t rule him out, Sage. Not at this stage of the game. I don’t think you should hang out with him anymore.”

  Sage sped up, and I picked up my pace to match hers. “He’s my boyfriend,” she said sharply. “And if I want to keep it that way, and I do, I have to keep seeing him.”

  I let out a frustrated breath. “Even if it means your life could be in danger?”

  “It’s not, Mars. I’ve known Tristan since long before these deaths started. No one died the whole time we were together in the fall.”

  “I’d just feel better if you backed off until this mystery is solved. At least don’t spend time alone with him. Stay in public places. Invite a friend to go with you when you go out.”

  “Really? A friend? Would you like to be our third wheel?”

  I scoffed. “Not really.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  This was going nowhere, and Sage was stirring up exhausting emotions I didn’t have energy to deal with. “You know what, Sage? I gotta run.” I turned around, kept walking, and never looked back. It killed me to know she was with Tristan, and I hated how she defended him. The world was unfair. I saved her life, but that asshat got the girl.

  27

  

  Sage

  My skin prickled and my stomach tensed as the conversation with Marlow about Tristan replayed in my mind. I knew Marlow’s feelings about Tristan were biased, but was Tristan really that unlikable?

  If so, what was wrong with me? Because I liked him. A lot.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of our conversation with Mike Rabino, either. He came off as super easygoing when it came to how he felt about the rowing team, something I found hard to believe. The athletes looked like Greek gods, and I was fairly certain they were not the type to pay a mousy guy like Mike a lick of notice.

  Yet, Mike went on about how nice Joe and Rajib, the latest drowning victims, were. Like they had been friends. Mike casting them in a glowing light might just be his way of deflecting suspicion. Why would he kill the only two guys that treated him as an equal?

  Calculus homework was calling my name, so I headed back to my dorm. My studies would have to wait though, since my brother Ben was waiting for me in the lounge.

  “Hey,” I said on seeing him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to see you. Why else would I be sitting here?”

  “Okay, follow me,” I said. I hoped Nora wasn’t in. Even though Jake was her latest squeeze, my brother made good eye candy, and Nora had a way of making both Ben and me feel uncomfortable when we were all together in a small room. I knocked before entering, just in case Jake was here again. I didn’t want to walk into an embarrassing situation.

  “You’re knocking on your own door?”

  “Nora might be naked or something,” I said.

  I knocked a second time and satisfied that there wasn’t any talking or rushed movement on the other side, I opened the door and let my brother in.

  I plastered on a smile and propped my hands on my hips. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?”

  Ben held my gaze while lowering into my desk chair. “I saw the video.”

  My hands dropped to my sides. “What video?” As if I didn’t know.

  “The security-cam feed by the dock on the canal. Can you imagine how freaked out I was when I realized it was you that Marlow guy had tugged out?”

  I pulled my gaze away and sat on the edge of my bed, hoping Ben couldn’t see my shaky legs. How could he tell it was me? The image was less than clear. And he figured out the tall, lanky guy was Marlow. I didn’t even know Ben knew about Marlow.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That wasn’t me.” The lie tasted putrid in my mouth.

  “Sage,” Ben said softly. “You’re my sister. I know you. I’d recognize you anywhere. So please, stop lying and tell me what’s going on.”

  I pulled my legs onto my bed and lay down. I clutched a red, ruffled pillow and hid behind it the best I could. I didn’t want to see Ben’s face. “You can’t tell Mom and Dad.”

  Ben didn’t say anything. I knew he was processing the consequences of agreeing to that, but he also knew I could be stubborn and wouldn’t confide in him unless he agreed.

  “Okay.”

  “I walked into the canal, but I didn’t know I was doing it. I was under some kind of outside influence. If Marlow hadn’t found me, I would’ve been one of those drowning victims.”

  Ben’s expression grew dark. “Oh, Sage. Please tell me you called the police.”

  “And tell them wha
t? That I hadn’t actually tried to commit suicide and I was being used as a puppet by an invisible force? I need something more concrete before I can go to them.”

  “And this Marlow guy is helping you?”

  “He’s trying to. It’s not exactly easy.”

  Ben leaned forward resting his elbows on his thighs and wrung his hands. “If this is true, and someone did try to kill you, what’s to keep them from trying again?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe the fact that we’re kind of onto him? Hopefully he thinks we know more than we really do.”

  “How would he know that?”

  “Marlow and I have been asking questions. There’s a connection between the rowing team, the support group you recommended and me.”

  “The support group? How so?”

  “Two of the drowning victims were attendees. Two of the other members are associated with the rowing team.”

  Ben lowered his face into his hands. “I’m sorry I made you go to that.”

  “There’s no way you could’ve known.”

  “So you’ve never had any thoughts of hurting yourself or taking your own life?”

  I lowered the red pillow and looked seriously at my brother. “No, Ben. Never.”

  Ben locked eyes with me. “I don’t want you going to the group anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “No you’re not, Sagey. You’re a target now. You need to play it smart. Especially if you’re not going to bring the police into it.”

  “I am playing it smart. And I will go to the police when I have something solid to take to them.”

  “Let Marlow do it. You stay low and out of sight.”

  My poor brother. Concern for me was etched deeply on his face. I didn’t want him to worry needlessly. “Okay, I will.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  “Good.” He stretched out and raised an eyebrow. “I hear you’re back with Tristan Coy?”

  News traveled fast on campus. “Yes. It’s a recent development. I would’ve told you eventually.”

  “Are you sure he’s good for you? After the way he left you when Teagan died?”