Mystery: Suspense: The Lazarus Phenomenon: : A Private Investigator Mystery Crime Thriller: (horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, police, murder, ... (Marie Avalon Mystery Crime Series Book 1) (5 page)

“Look, I’m sorry about your many misfortunes in your previous life and this one. I had no idea that Army was married or I wouldn’t have fooled around with him. What you’ve just said sounds like a lovely idea, but frankly it’s straight up bull. That’s the lie they’ve told you to get you to do what they want.” Marilyn stepped forward and grabbed the boys by each of their shoulders.

“You’re not touching either one of them ever again.”

“You can’t say that. Alex is mine.” 

“Yeah, no, not anymore. In the eyes of Colorado, Alex is hers.” Marilyn pushed the boys behind Renee. 

Mrs. Prescott laughed in their faces. 

“That may be. Take him then. Good luck getting out of these woods.” 

Marilyn looked around. The forest was ablaze and the pace of the fire was only accelerating. Before they could think, they would be swallowed in it. Gone forever. 

“If we can’t have them, then nobody will. How do you cover your tracks? How do you wipe away blood stains in a world without enough tears to wet the mop? The answer is clean it all away with fire.” Mrs. Prescott balled her hands in fists. Alex stared at his mother in horror. She was utterly changed by death, burial, and resurrection. However they had done it he didn’t know. Whatever medical innovation they had attained that had brought her back had been a stroke of genius but totally unethical. By reviving her, they had altered her. Of all the sins that could be counted against them, this was the worst one.

Nick grabbed Alex suddenly and turned him to look in his eyes. 

“I’m about to do something crazy. It’s stupid and I could die again. But I don’t care. My life is already over anyway, but yours has just begun. I want you to know that you’re worth it.” He clapped a hand on the side of Alex’s face. His eyes were blazing. Alex shook his head in protest. Nicky Avalon couldn’t be held down. Even the best efforts of Fate had failed to do this. 

He ran forward and grappled Mrs. Prescott around the waist. He hauled her kicking and screaming to the roof of the Camaro. 

“Army Prescott!” Nicky was shouting at the top of his lungs. It echoed off the trees. Everyone within a mile radius could hear his words. 

“I’m calling you out, dude! I’ve got your wife. Now you’ve got to make a choice. I don’t know what you’re doing this for or why. You’re going to end this, all of it, or else!  If you don’t come out and face me like a man, then I’ll take steps. I will go to the press, the authorities, anybody! I’m taking her with me. You wanted the Frankensteins walking the Earth. I’ll give you Frankenstein and then some. Swallow that pill, if your gullet’s big enough. I am Lazarus and I will take Durango by storm! Get ready, because here I go!” 

With that he strong-armed Mrs. Prescott into the Camaro and took off into the blaze.

This madness was thrust upon him and the ruins of his soul. Alex watched as his brother sped off to certain death. He was losing him all over again and there was nothing he could do about it. He was going to God-knew-what for his sake. It had been his choice. 

Alex Prescott hadn’t had much choice in his life. He’d always been the victim of circumstance. Yet today, as he watched his whole life going up in smoke around him, it woke up a fire within himself. He turned to face the women.

“It’s too late. We can’t get back in the car.” He nodded, indicatively. Marilyn’s jaw dropped. The Mach 1 was ablaze. 

“We don’t have much time. You guys had better listen to me carefully.” Alex swallowed, knowing what kind of reaction this was going to trigger.

“What? No, listen, Alex. You’re- I’m legally responsible for you!” Renee jabbed a finger at him. 

“I’m a professional!” Marilyn began. Alex held up a hand. 

“Save it, both of you. This isn’t your battle and you can obviously see it. They want me. I’m the hot potato in this Game and you know it. I’m pretty good at playing keep-away. I’ve been bounced around the world my entire life. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. It’s my responsibility. That’s my mom and brother out there, got it? I don’t really care what happens to me-“

“Alex, listen, buddy, nobody else is going to die…” Renee’s voice was quivering. She could barely contain the tears. 

“Heck no! It’s definitely not going to be him. I swear to God, I will never bury my brother again. You’ll have to break my legs to stop me. This is my choice. My responsibility. The rest is up to you guys. I’ll play this Game for as long as I can. But there’s only so far you can run when you’re running in circles. It’s all teamwork from here on out. You’ve got to pull this off. Get to the bottom of their motives. Bust this up before Durango goes down in flames.” Alex nodded. It was done. He might die, but, at least, he’d die having made a choice of his own for once. He shook his head. 

“I’ll haunt you for the rest of Eternity if you don’t.” He laughed, with a tiny shrug. 

Renee nodded, unable to keep herself from crying.

“Okay. I promise, Alex. It’s…It’s going to be okay.” 

He nodded. 

“See ya around…”

“Wait!” Renee gasped and stepped forward. 

“You’ll need this more than I will, I think. Your mom seemed kind of off her roller coaster when she said all that she did.” She pressed the gun into Alex’s hand. 

He smiled one last calm smile. 

“Take care of my New Mom, Marilyn.” It was a command. Marilyn felt her stomach burn like she’d swallowed a fistful of batteries. 

“You got it, man.” 

He took two steps off into the blaze, jaw squared. 

“Yo! Morons! You want a test gerbil? Come and get me!” He aimed the gun at the air and nothing and fired off a round to draw their attention. Other voices shouted from the shadows of the blaze. Dogs howled. Suddenly terrified, seeing something they couldn’t, Alex bolted into the collapsing forest. 

In the confusion and anguish, Marilyn had almost forgotten her blazing car. 

“Get down!” She leaped and knocked Renee onto her face. There was a moment of silence as if maybe her fears were unfounded. Then it happened and the sound was so loud they felt it more than they heard it. Dust, frost capped mosses, tree roots and stones covered them. They lay in the dark of the debris. Their ears were ringing and that was the only intelligible sound they heard as they faded away into unconsciousness.

Waking up in a blazing forest is not for the faint of heart. 

Marilyn got up on her elbows. She looked down to notice that Renee was lying beside her, choking on the cinders of half-burned leaves. 

“Come on. I know what to do. Believe it or not, I’ve done this before.”

Marilyn reached and took a few fistfuls of ashes. She rubbed it in their hair and on their faces. Then she tore out of her coat and ran it through the ashes. She swept it over both their heads and made a run for it. 

The forest was black with smoke. Something else was obviously on fire in it. Not just the Mustang. Marilyn’s beloved Mach 1 had given up the ghost around 45 minutes ago, which was probably the same time they’d tapped out. 

They charged through the forest afraid of the worst. The silver Camaro was abandoned in a ravine, turned over on its head. 

“No!” Renee stumbled to her knees and fell just as a series of mostly flame-consumed tree branches floated through the air where she’d been standing. 

“It’s been flipped on purpose. It was hardly even damaged before it started burning, see? There’re blazing boots and a jacket stuffed with a barbecued pair of hands. Looks like Nicky’s decided to get really inventive to shake these clowns.” Marilyn ran to the Camaro. There would have to be an explanation for where her son had gotten the fake limbs to produce such a make-shift prop in the middle of his mad-dash escape.

The trunk was pushed down but not locked. Inside was a disturbing assortment of freezer bags that contained-

“Ah God!” Marilyn gasped. She recognized them at once. 

“Human remains! See the numbers on the sides of the bags. These are specific labels. These jokers ripped off a local mortuary to get this stuff. The wife was transporting it. Which should tell you something.”

Renee’s eyes were bugging and she was green around the mouth.

“Ehem, okay. Should it be telling me that these people are sadistic freaks that need to burn in hell?” She cringed and clenched her fist. 

“Well, that too. I was going to say that clearly the adrenal extra must have been so effective they want to move on to a wider variety of testing. Remember how Prescott’s wife was saying something about how they cured her corpse of decomposition before they tried to resuscitate her? These pieces of people…” Marilyn didn’t feel like the rest needed to be explained. 

 “That’s wrong on a number of levels.” Renee covered her mouth, fighting the urge to vomit. 

“Yes. This is also how Nick got a convincing set of hands and feet and a few femurs to fill his fake-death dummy with. See, the only part of the car that’s burning are the tires. The body’s in the interior which thanks to all this dirt is flame free for now. So why is it burned? It could only mean that the victim he filled his jacket and boots with must have died by burning and so he just improvised. See, the car isn’t damaged, aside from the paint job damage where it flipped on its head.” Marilyn leaned through the ajar driver’s side window to confirm her suspicion. 

He parked it on the tip of this hill rise here and threw it into neutral…” Marilyn was more of a rescue worker than she was a detective. She knew how to look for signs of a person’s presence, even if they’d been missing for decades. On a roll now, she climbed the hill again. 

“See, his bare footprint. He removed the necessary clothes, used the elements to damage them for stage effect and dressed up the dummy. Then he pushed the car and had Mrs. Prescott help him. That’s a woman’s shoe. See the way it’s shaped? These are fresh too. They couldn’t be older than an hour. Which means it happened shortly after he pulled his debonair escape. He must have assumed that the flames would eventually further damage the car. Which would lead Dr. Swift and Prescott to assume he’d been consumed in the blazes.” Marilyn’s eyes twinkled. Her son was scary clever.

“With what the wife said about cleaning up with fire, they must not know how to heal a cadaver of fire damage yet. Which would explain why the body parts were all from burning victims. That’s what they need to research.” Renee laughed. This strategy was actually amazing. 

“With Nick and Mrs. Prescott assumed dead all the focus will now train to Alex. Which is what Nicky wants. The closer Alex is to danger, the more they assume that Nick is no longer in the picture, the better he can protect him because they won’t see him coming to the rescue!” Marilyn was dancing in place with excitement now. 

“Alex is the master of keep away. Whatever Nicky’s going to do to one-up these guys, he can take all the time he needs!” Renee looked back at the crash, beaming. 

“I have drawn a startling inspiration from these remains, Ms. Vierra.” Marilyn eyed the contents of the trunk again as some nasty little plan was forming in the back of her mind. 

 ‘You’ve lost me?” Renee’s eyebrows curled in unison.

“Sometimes to do a good deed, you’ve got to pretend to be the villain. I’ve got an old spark with Army Prescott that could use some fanning into flame. Don’t try and understand. Consider me the Queen of Diamonds in this neck-breaking run for the money. You can be the Queen of Hearts and do your home mother thing, girl. The boys are going to need you doing what you do best.”

Marilyn pulled out her phone. She had Army’s number. Not his old one, but his new one. She’d gotten it from his sister. It had been a few months ago, but in a weak moment she’d thought about giving him a ring. 

Now she knew exactly what to do. She smiled to herself. This was cold.

Not as cold as turning your child into Frankenstein. A woman scorned is one thing to beware. But a mother scorned is a holy terror even the Devil would be reluctant to bait.

Alex was walking past the new favorite bar in Durango, a hood pulled over his face. The light from the TVs shone in his emerald eyes. He ducked his head and shoved his hands into his pockets. He needed to press into the chatter. To make certain for himself that Nicky and his mother had made it out of the forest. 

He’d barely gotten away with his life. What he had seen was enough to send him to an early grave. It was too much. These were actions that the Heavens could never forgive. 

People were pushing to be closer to the TVs in the bar. One could watch them from the sidewalk, which is what most of the gathered had resorted to doing as the bar was now swamped. 

The screens were playing back scene after scene of Nick’s bizarre recovery in Lake Nighthorse. The screen flashed from the playback footage to Chief Riggs who was being interviewed. Apparently to his great irritation. 

“Yes, we were made aware that Nicolas Avalon had up and stepped out of the box. However, as trained professionals and protectors of this amiable City we had elected as an official body not to alert the public to avoid exactly what is happening now. Sheer panic. The fact that the boy has appeared on his own and has allegedly resurrected for the second time is still a mystery to the police force. We have had some anonymous tipsters come forward blaming the whole thing on a local Dr. Death that is inexplicably MIA at the moment.” Chief Riggs’ speech was stilted and rehearsed. Alex smiled to himself. He knew this meant that Marilyn and Renee had come up with a plan and had tipped the Chief off to it. 

“Yes, it’s working out beautifully, don’t you think?” A familiar voice spoke beside him. 

Alex turned to face the woman that had just elbowed her way to the window. It was Renee, her identity mostly concealed by a brown Stetson.

“You made it!” Alex could have hugged her. 

“You too, buddy. Impressive.” She winked and coughed into her fist. 

“Hey, that’s my friend in there. She has a son about your age. If you live here for a long time, maybe the two of you could hang out.” Renee started talking in a sort of double-speak to tip Alex off without alerting anyone else. He followed her eyes to where Marilyn sat on a bar stool, holding a cocktail and drilling her high-heeled shoe into the linoleum floor.