Strings

by Emma Lea

  “Oh God, Mandy,” she breathed, “You’re alright. Thank God. Quick get me out of these before he comes back.”

  Mandy looked at her curiously. “My name’s not Mandy,” she said. “Yours is.”

  Nadine stopped struggling and looked at her friend. “Huh?”

  “I’m Nadine,” she said patiently, like she was speaking to a confused child. “Your name is Mandy.”

  Nadine tried to shake her head, but Mandy placed a hand on either side of her cheeks to stop her.

  “Don’t move too much, you might have a concussion.”

  Nadine’s eyes widened as a piece of this very confusing puzzle fell into place. Mandy had drugged her when she was in the car. She remembered the prick on her neck and the woozy feeling that came after it.

  “You,” Nadine said. “You did this to me. You drugged me—”

  Mandy’s face looked worried and her brow furrowed in concern. “No,” she said, “you fell. I came by to see you. Gabe and I had a fight, you see. So I was upset and I came here to see you and I found you unconscious on the floor. You must have tripped and hit your head.”

  “No,” Nadine said.

  Mandy pouted. “I think you need some more sleep, it might help. When you wake up it will all be clear.”

  “No,” Nadine said, panicked now. “Please don’t. I don’t need sleep. It’s bad for people with a concussion to sleep—”

  But the words were barely out of her mouth before Mandy produced hypodermic needle and stabbed her in the neck with it. Nadine succumbed to the darkness.

  Gabe paced the living room as he waited for the phone to connect. Detective Ramirez had given him his direct number to call if he found out anything about Jeanie and now he had something to tell him.

  “Detective Ramirez.”

  “Detective, this is Gabe Rousso.”

  “Dr. Rousso, what can I do for you?”

  “I have some information about Jeanie.”

  “Go on,” the detective said.

  “I think she might have kidnapped my girlfriend.”

  Gabe tried to ignore the gasps he heard from the other people sitting in the room. He couldn’t worry about that now, he had to convey the urgency to the detective so that they could do something before Nadine got hurt.

  “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m at my girlfriend’s house,” he said, giving Ramirez the address.

  “Okay, stay put. I’ll be right there.”

  Gabe disconnected the phone and took a breath before turning to face the worried gazes of Nadine’s family.

  “Explain,” Jace said, his face tight with emotion.

  Gabe walked over to his seat and sat down. “I’m a psychologist,” he said, not looking at the group. “I was assigned to Nadine after she came out of rehab.”

  “So you’re not dating?” Stevie asked.

  “No, we are,” he said. “It’s complicated.”

  “Well, you need to uncomplicated it real quick,” Jace said.

  “I was assigned to Nadine for six weeks after she came out of rehab. That’s how we met. I… developed feelings for her. Feelings she returned.”

  “You bastard!” Jace said jumping to his feet.

  Gabe jumped up as well and held his hands out in surrender. “Nothing happened while she was my patient,” he said. “Nothing happened until I came to see her first gig back at Dirty Moe’s.”

  “So, if you’re not her psychologist any more, why did Derek want you to come on tour with us?” Stevie asked.

  “Derek didn’t know Nadine and I were seeing each other. He was concerned about her going on tour and he asked me if I would tag along to give her someone to talk to. It was Nadine’s idea to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “Except that you really are boyfriend and girlfriend,” Vanessa said.

  “Yes.”

  “Why not just tell us the truth?”

  “Nadine didn’t want you to know who I really was. She was afraid you would react badly.”

  He didn’t need to say that Jace had reacted exactly how Nadine had thought he would.

  “And so who is Jeanie and why do you think she kidnapped Nadine?”

  Gabe sat down again and waited for Jace to do the same.

  “Jeanie was a patient of mine,” he began.

  “So you’ve done this with other patients then?” Jace asked with snark.

  “No. I have never gotten involved with a patient, ever.”

  “Except for Nadine.”

  “Shut up Jace,” Vanessa said. “He already told us that nothing happened until after she stopped being his patient.”

  Gabe waited for quiet before continuing. “She became obsessed with me. I tried to move her on to another psychologist and she started stalking me. It escalated to the point that she tried to kidnap me, but she overdosed me instead and I nearly died. She was charged and sentenced and sent to prison.”

  “But she’s out now?”

  Gabe nodded. “She was released a few months ago on parole. She is a master manipulator and convinced the parole board that she was a model prisoner and that she had been reformed. Then she skipped out on her parole officer and they haven’t been able to find her.”

  “She came for you,” Jace said accusingly.

  “She came for me,” Gabe agreed, nodding. “And by that time I was involved with Nadine.”

  “So she took Nadine,” Vanessa said softly. “Jeanie is Mandy.”

  “Yes,” Gabe said, “I think so.”

  “But what does she want with Nadine?” Stevie asked. “Why not just try and take you again?”

  Gabe dropped his head into his hands. He was asking himself the same question. He didn’t want to think about what plans Jeanie had for Nadine.

  “She changed her appearance,” Stevie said, distractedly like she was trying to work it all out in her head. She looked up at him. “Didn’t she?”

  Gabe nodded. “Yes. When I knew Jeanie she had dark blonde hair and brown eyes.”

  “So she changed herself to look like Nadine. She wanted to be like Nadine because she thought it would make you want her.”

  He didn’t want to agree, but it was the same conclusion that he had come to.

  A knock at the door had them all turning to look towards the foyer.

  “I’ll go,” Jace said. He got up and left the living room. Gabe’s phone rang in his hand and he looked at the screen hoping against hope that it was Nadine and this was all some sort of misunderstanding. It was Amaya.

  “Amaya,” Gabe said, glad that his sister was calling.

  “Gabe,” she said, “Is everything alright?”

  “No, not really,” he said, happy for once that the twin thing was working.

  “I just saw your girlfriend,” she said.

  “What? Where?”

  “Coming out of your building. I called out to her, but she didn’t stop. What is it with her?”

  “It was Jeanie,” Gabe said, knowing that what he said was the truth. “You didn’t see Nadine, you saw Jeanie.”

  “What?”

  “Jeanie has kidnapped Nadine.”

  “What the hell are you on about? Where are you?’

  “I’m at Nadine’s place,” he said giving her the address.

  “I’m coming over,” she said. “Call that detective—“

  “He’s already here,” Gabe said as Detective Ramirez walked into the room.

  “I’m ten minutes away,” Amaya said.

  “Come on Mandy, you need to drink this. It will make you feel better.”

  Nadine opened her eyes and looked at Mandy leaning over her with a bottle of water. There was no loss of memory this time. Nadine knew exactly where she was and who had her. She sipped from the bottle obediently, not wanting to anger the crazy woman.

  “Good girl,” Mandy said.

  “Thank you,” Nadine replied softly. “Do you think you can untie me now?”

  “Only if you promise not to try and leave.
You’re not well enough to go traipsing around the neighborhood.”

  “I promise,” Nadine said.

  Mandy produced a small key and unlocked her wrists. Nadine rubbed them gratefully and waited for her legs to be unlocked too, but Mandy pocketed the key, leaving her restrained.

  “Why do you have all those photos of Gabe on your wall?’ Nadine asked after taking another sip of the water that Mandy handed her.

  “He’s dreamy, isn’t he,” she sighed, her eyes glazing over as she looked at the pictures. “But they’re not my pictures and that’s not my wall. This is your apartment silly.”

  “And I’m Mandy?” Nadine asked, trying to clarify what was going on.

  “Oh dear,” Mandy said. “That bump must have been worse than I thought. Don’t you remember who you are?”

  Nadine shook her head. “I don’t know why I would have pictures of Gabe on my wall.”

  Mandy sighed. “You’ve been unwell, Mandy,” she said. “Gabe is my boyfriend but you got jealous and started stalking him.”

  “I did?”

  She nodded solemnly. “You tried to take him away from me by pretending to be me. You got me drunk and made me miss important appointments with him until he got so angry that he broke up with me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Nadine said.

  Mandy was freaking her out. Way the fuck out. How did she not know that her friend was a crazy person?

  “It’s really Jeanie’s fault,” Mandy went on.

  “W-who’s Jeanie?”

  Mandy sighed. “Gabe was Jeanie’s boyfriend first,” she explained. “But Gabe’s sister didn’t like her and had her committed to a psych ward. She was the one to convince you to steal him back.”

  This wasn’t making any sense to Nadine but she figured as long as Mandy was talking she would be safe.

  “Why would Jeanie want me to steal him back if she wanted him for herself?”

  “Oh, you were just the bait. You were meant to lure him away from me and then Jeanie would take him for herself.”

  “What about what Gabe wanted?’ Nadine asked.

  Mandy laughed. “Men don’t know what they want. Gabe was silly enough to get swayed by what his sister said, so he clearly doesn’t know his own mind.”

  “So what is going to happen now?” Nadine asked. “Are you going to let Jeanie have Gabe?”

  Mandy looked horrified. “Of course not! Gabe’s mine. That’s why I had to stop you. I had to stop you from giving him to Jeanie.”

  “What are you going to do with me?” Nadine asked, not quite knowing if she was prepared for the answer.

  “I don’t know,” Mandy replied thoughtfully. She held her hand out in front of her admiring the twinkling diamond on her ring finger. “I know he loves me.”

  “He gave you a ring?” Nadine asked. “I thought you said that you broke up.”

  “Well, yeah, we did, but he didn’t mean it. He was just upset with me. But when I found this ring in his sock drawer I knew that we would get back together. He was going to ask me to marry him.”

  Nadine closed her eyes and willed the tears not to fall. Gabe had bought that ring for her. Gabe was going to propose to her. Why hadn’t she trusted him enough to tell him what was going on? Everything started to fall into place. The missing memories and the contradictions. Mandy had been drugging her and then lying to her about what had happened. She had been sabotaging her, gas-lighting her. Trying to make her think she was going insane and all the while she was trying to steal her identity. And Nadine had let her do it. She had been so convinced that she had the same mental illness as her mother that she hadn’t really questioned what was going on. She had just accepted it as part of the downward spiral into insanity. But it had all been a lie. It had all been manufactured by Mandy. She had been manipulated to the point of not even being able to trust her own mind. And now it was too late. Whatever Mandy was, Nadine knew one thing and that was that the woman was off her rocker.

  “Oh, look at the time,” Mandy said, getting to her feet.

  Nadine noticed for the first time that Mandy was wearing her clothes. At first glance she could pass for Nadine. Gabe wouldn’t really fall for it would he?

  “Are you going somewhere?”

  “I have a date,” she said with a triumphant smile. “Oops.” Mandy slid the engagement ring off her finger and slipped it into her pocket. “It wouldn’t do to give the surprise away.”

  “Will you be coming back?” Nadine asked.

  Mandy smiled. “Not if I can help it,” she said and then flounced out of the room, picking up Nadine’s purse on her way. Nadine heard the front door close and she lay back down wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Gabe took the mug of coffee from Stevie and looked at Detective Ramirez. He had just finished explaining what had happened over the last few weeks to him and now he was waiting for his conclusions.

  “So what now?” Gabe asked.

  Amaya sat beside him, close enough that he could feel her presence and he was glad for it. He needed her strength to get through this. She had sat through his explanation without uttering a word, which he was thankful for, but he knew she would have much to say later. For now he was just glad that she was there giving him the support he needed to get through this.

  “I had someone check into Nadine’s background on the way over here. Were you aware that she withdrew a large sum of money from the bank today?”

  “What?” Jace exclaimed.

  “Are you sure she just hasn’t decided to leave town?”

  Gabe and Jace shared a look. Gabe had expected this. He knew that no one truly believed that Jeanie was capable of hurting anyone. She had convinced everyone that she was harmless, but Gabe knew better.

  “Your sister has had her own fair share of problems, isn’t that correct?” the detective directed this question to Jace but it was Vanessa who answered.

  “Nadine had a rough time during the summer,” she said, “But she would never just disappear like this.”

  “So how do you explain the withdrawal?”

  “Maybe Jeanie made her do it,” Stevie said.

  “You can’t deny that the photo of Nadine and her friend ‘Mandy’ is in fact Nadine and Jeanie,” Amaya said, speaking for the first time. “And it’s obvious that the woman is trying to steal Nadine’s identity. What better way than to have her withdraw money from her checking account to make it look like she skipped town?”

  “That’s a mighty big leap,” Detective Ramirez said slowly.

  “I don’t think it is at all,” Amaya said. “I think it’s the only logical explanation. Jeanie has always wanted Gabe. What better way to do it than to impersonate his girlfriend? She is just delusional enough to believe it will work.”

  “You think her plan is to get rid of Nadine so that she can replace her?” Jace asked, the horror clear on his face and in his voice.

  “I do,” Amaya said. “I wouldn’t put anything past her. She has the intelligence and skills to make it happen. She is also arrogant enough that she would believe herself capable of fooling everyone.”

  “That’s just…sick,” Jace spat.

  “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” Detective Ramirez said. “There’s no proof that Jeanie has Nadine. A photo of the two of them together is not proof enough of kidnapping.”

  “But it’s definitely enough to look into it—”

  Amaya was interrupted by Gabe’s phone. He looked down at the screen. It was Nadine.

  He held up his hand for quiet as he tapped the answer button and put it on speaker phone so everyone could hear it.

  “Nadine?”

  “Hi baby,” came the voice over the phone. It didn’t sound anything like Nadine, but Gabe went with it.

  “I was so worried Nadine,” he said and shook his head at Jace when he opened his mouth to speak. “I went to the cafe to find you and you weren’t there.”

  “I was upse
t after our fight,” she said. “I just needed to have a moment to myself.”

  “I’m sorry about this morning. You know I didn’t mean any of the things I said.”

  “I know baby,” she said. “I know how you can make it up to me.”

  “Name it,” he said, forcing the enthusiasm into his voice.

  “Meet me for dinner? At Pico’s?”

  “Give me half an hour,” he said.

  “See you soon.”

  The call disconnected and there was beat of silence before the room exploded as everyone started talking at once.

  “Are you insane!” Jace exclaimed.

  “What do you think you’re doing!” This from Amaya.

  He held up his hands to get everyone to quiet.

  “Look,” he said. “We don’t know where she is holding Nadine. The only way to find that out is to meet with her and try and get her to tell me.”

  “Why would she tell you?” Jace asked.

  “She may not but at the very least we can follow her.”

  “I don’t like this Gabriel,” Amaya said. “You know what happened last time.”

  Gabe turned to his twin and cupped her face. “I love you, sister mine,” he said. “But I also love Nadine and I have to do this. I have to find her.”

  “I’ll have a car tail you and I’ll get a team in the restaurant as well,” Detective Ramirez said, standing. “We’ll find Nadine.” He left them alone and they took a moment to look at each other.

  “I want to go too,” Jace said, standing to his feet.

  “No,” Gabe said. “You will tip her off that we are on to her. She needs to think that I believe that she is Nadine. If she sees any of you she will suspect something.”

  “You can’t expect me to just sit around and do nothing,” Jace said, pacing.

  “We’ll let you know as soon as we find her,” Amaya said.

  “Oh no,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “You’re not coming either.”