Butterfly

by Sharon Sala

  “When can you come in?”

  “Today, tomorrow, you name it.”

  “It’s just after one. Let me make a few calls and I’ll get right back to you,” he said. “Oh… I suppose I should tell you, you might want your lawyer present.”

  “No. I just want this over.”

  A distinct click sounded in Ben’s ear. Frowning, he hung up and headed for the captain’s office. He knocked once, then opened the door.

  Aaron Floyd was on the phone. He waved for Ben to come in and then quickly hung up.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Ben said. “It could be a ploy, but I think she sounded sincere.”

  “Who sounded sincere?” Floyd asked.

  “Connie Marx. She wants to take a lie detector test—today, if it can be set up. What do you think?”

  “Go for it,” Floyd said. “Call her back. Tell her three o’clock, and tell her where to go. I’ll set it up.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ben said, and backed out of the office.

  Five minutes later, the call had been made. Ben left a note on his partner’s desk, then made a quick call home. This might make him late, and he wanted to be sure Dave Lambert would be there until he arrived.

  His mother answered the phone.

  “Hey, Mom, how’s everything going?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  The hair rose on the back of Ben’s neck. He didn’t like the sound of her voice.

  “Has there been a problem? Is China okay?”

  Mattie snorted. “Oh, she’s fine. I can’t say the same for Patsy Reynolds, and Dave hasn’t spoken to either of us since noon, but other than that, we’re just great.”

  He frowned. “What happened to Dave, and how does Patsy Reynolds come into the scenario?”

  “She would be my Avon lady, remember? Dave nearly shot her today. I don’t think she’ll ever be back, and I do like that hand cream they sell.”

  Ben almost dropped the phone. “Shot her? Why the hell would Dave want to shoot the Avon lady?”

  Mattie sighed. “Looking back, it was sort of funny, but at the time, no one but China saw the humor in the situation. Anyway, China came out of her room like a scalded cat, said some woman was running toward the house. Dave pulled his gun just as the door flew open. It was Patsy. But she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, she was just in a hurry to use the bathroom. Oh… it was all such a mix-up, and then—”

  “China! Is she all right? It didn’t frighten her, did it?”

  “Frighten her? Oh, hell, no. She laughed herself silly, that’s what she did. And the longer it went on, the harder she laughed. Dave is embarrassed and mad, but he’s been mad ever since he got here. China has spent the afternoon reading. Every time I go check on her, she grins. It’s just been hell. Tomorrow is bound to be better.”

  Throughout the story his mother was telling, only one thing stuck in his mind. China had laughed. He would have given a lot to have heard the sound. Then he remembered why he’d called.

  “I may be a little late. Tell Dave not to leave until I get there.”

  “Oh, fine,” Mattie said. “This should finish off the day just right.”

  Ben grinned. “Tell him I’ll honk twice when I drive up so he won’t shoot me by mistake.”

  “We’re not talking,” Mattie said.

  Ben’s grin faded. He’d expected something like this.

  “Somebody better be talking when I get there,” he said.

  “We don’t always get what we want, my dear son. Just get yourself home before you completely ruin what is left of my world.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. She hung up in his ear.

  Ben sighed as he hung up. That was the second time a woman had hung up on him within the last half hour. He hoped it was not a portent of things to come.

  ***

  Connie Marx came out of the interrogation room with a defiant stride, her head held high, her shoulders back and soldier straight. Ben was waiting for her at the end of the hall.

  “You passed,” he said.

  “That’s because I’m innocent,” she said shortly. “Now call off your dogs, or I will get myself a coyote-mean lawyer who’ll take you and everyone connected with the Dallas P.D. to the cleaners. Do I make myself clear?”

  “There are no dogs on your trail, Miss Marx.”

  Connie looked startled. “What do you mean?”

  “Didn’t you see the sketch in today’s paper?”

  “I haven’t read a paper in days,” she muttered.

  He handed her a copy.

  She unfolded it, scanned the headline, then the face below. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

  “She doesn’t look like me,” she said.

  “No, ma’am, she doesn’t.”

  She took a deep breath. “You mean you don’t consider me a suspect anymore?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you let me rave on about that test, then let me take it, knowing it wasn’t necessary?”

  “I wasn’t aware you hadn’t seen the paper, Miss Marx. Look at it this way. You’ve cleared yourself in the eyes of the world by volunteering to take the test. Passing it was a plus.”

  Her voice began to shake. “Has anyone called my place of employment to let them know I am no longer a suspect?”

  “No, ma’am. It’s not something we normally do.”

  Connie lifted her chin. There was another wall she had yet to climb.

  “I have a favor to ask.”

  Ben hesitated. “You can ask. I can’t guarantee anything.”

  “When all this breaks, I want an exclusive.”

  Ben had to admire her. “I’ll do what I can,” he said.

  “That’s enough,” Connie said, and then began to walk away.

  “Miss Marx?”

  She stopped and turned.

  “Where can you be reached in case I need to make that call?”

  “At home. I’m not going back to Channel 7 with my tail between my legs. I will go back with the scoop of the year and a raise in salary, or flip burgers for the rest of my life.”

  Ben gave her a quick salute. She smiled grimly and then headed for home. More than halfway down the hall, she saw the elevator begin to open. When Larry Dee Jackson emerged, a huge smile on his face and his arms open wide, beckoning for her to come in, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “Connie, sweetheart! I saw the paper. Now everyone will know you couldn’t be the killer. I’ve been looking for you all over. Your lawyer told me where you’d gone. It’s over, isn’t it, baby? It’s all over.”

  She stared at him, trying to figure out what she’d ever seen in the man. Other than a pretty face, he was as shallow as they came. He’d given up her name to the police, then abandoned her when she became a suspect. Now he was back with that take-me-to-bed smirk on his face? She didn’t think so.

  “Oh, it’s over, all right.”

  She slapped him hard, taking pleasure in the pain against her own palm, then stepped inside the elevator and rode it down alone.

  Ben saw it all from a distance and even winced when she slapped Jackson’s face, yet he couldn’t help thinking the man deserved it. That was one incident when Jackson hadn’t been able to pay out to make everything right.

  Then Ben thought of China, and of his mother and Dave and the mess waiting for him there. It was time to go home.

  ***

  Around six in the evening, the scent of something wonderful cooking and guilt that she hadn’t offered to help prepare it drew China from her room. As she walked down the hall, she could hear the murmur of voices coming from the kitchen and hesitated, but they didn’t sound angry, so she kept on going. Just as she reached the doorway, she heard Mattie laugh. It was a quiet, intimate chuckle between old friends, and she smiled. It would seem that the ruffled feathers had been soothed, at least for the time being.

  “Am I too late to help?” she asked.

  Both Dave and Mattie looked u
p. Mattie waved her in.

  “Figured we’d scared you out of ever coming out,” she said.

  China figured she’d laughed enough for one day and just smiled.

  “I wasn’t scared. I just thought it prudent to stay out of the line of fire.”

  Dave grinned. “Told you she was a smart one.”

  Mattie waved a spoon toward the table. “Sit down, honey. There will be time enough for you to work later, when you’ve recovered some more. This was your first full day home from the hospital. You’re bound to be a little bit weak.”

  “I’ve rested,” China said. “And since you’re all about honesty here, I have to tell you that I feel very guilty about invading your lives like this. I know if it wasn’t for Ben’s insistence, you would not have been forced into this situation.”

  “No one forces me to do anything,” Mattie said. “So sit.”

  Dave got up and pulled out a chair for her. “You may as well do as she says,” he said. “She won’t hush until she has her way.”

  China sat.

  Mattie muttered something beneath her breath as she turned back to her cooking but managed to keep her thoughts to herself.

  China glanced at the clock, and Dave saw her.

  “Ben called earlier. Said he would be late,” he said.

  China blushed. “I wasn’t… I mean I didn’t…”

  He chuckled. “You know what they say about protesting too much.”

  “Now I know why Mattie feels the need to tear a strip off you from time to time,” she muttered.

  His chuckle deepened.

  “David Wayne, leave her alone,” Mattie snapped.

  Dave hushed, but his eyes were still twinkling as he leaned back in his chair.

  An awkward silence rose between them, and China was thinking she should have waited to come out after all when the sound of an approaching car altered the mood. Two short blasts from the car horn followed.

  “That’s probably Ben,” Dave said. “I’ll go see.”

  China’s heart skipped a beat. Suddenly the thought of his deep, booming voice and the tenderness of his touch was more than she could bear. She started to bolt when Mattie turned, aiming a spoon at her to punctuate her order.

  “You can set the table now,” she said. “Silverware is in the top drawer on the left of the sink.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” China said and got up.

  Mattie sighed, laid her spoon on the cabinet and then walked over to where China was standing and gave her a hug.

  “Honey, I’m sorry I’ve been so hateful today. It had nothing to do with you. There’s old business between Dave and me, and you just got caught up in the middle.”

  The warmth of Mattie’s hug and the sincerity in her voice were enough to make China want to cry. Instead, she swallowed the lump in her throat and managed a smile.

  “I figured as much,” she said. “And you didn’t hurt my feelings.”

  Mattie grinned and playfully tweaked the end of China’s nose. “Good. Then the next time you call me ‘ma’am,’ I’m going to stuff a sock in your mouth.”

  China laughed aloud.

  And that was the first sound Ben heard as he walked into the house. It stopped him in his tracks, leaving him weak and wanting, and in that moment he had to accept the fact that he was in love with China Brown.

  “About time you showed up,” Dave said.

  Ben blinked. He hadn’t even seen Dave standing there.

  “Shut the door, boy,” Dave said. “You’re letting in a whole lot of cold air.”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry,” Ben muttered, and came the rest of the way inside, shedding his coat and gloves as he moved toward the hall closet. “How did everything go today?” he asked.

  Dave snorted. “Oh, I’d say pretty good, except for the fact that I almost shot the Avon lady.”

  Ben grinned. “I heard.”

  Dave frowned. “Then why the hell did you ask? Just to see if I’d tell you the truth?”

  Ben chuckled and then slapped his old friend on the back.

  “Confession is good for the soul. You taught me that, remember?”

  Dave grinned wryly. “Yeah, but that was because I caught you smoking a cigar behind your daddy’s barn. There’s a big difference between sneaking a smoke and plugging your neighbor.”

  “Heard she was in a hurry to use the bathroom,” Ben said.

  Dave’s grin widened. “After I pulled my gun on her, I doubt she made it in time.”

  “Wish I’d been here,” Ben said. “That would have been something to see.”

  “Wish you’d been here, too,” Dave said. “A houseful of women makes me nervous. Now come on, boy, let’s go see your mama before she comes looking for us.”

  “Is China okay?” Ben asked.

  The smile slid off Dave Lambert’s face. “You’re pretty gone on her, aren’t you?”

  “There you are,” Mattie said, as she came into the room. She gave her son a welcoming hug. “Supper is ready. We’ll have it on the table in five minutes.”

  “Smells good,” Ben said. “But I want to say hello to China before I change.”

  “Oh, she’s—” Mattie started to say, but Ben walked off before she could finish.

  “He’s in love with her,” Dave said.

  Mattie frowned.

  “What?” Dave asked. “I thought you liked her?”

  Mattie shrugged. “I like what I know about her well enough, but she’s only been here a day. I’ve wanted Ben to settle down for years now. After all, he’s in his thirties. But I don’t know what I think about a woman like her.”

  “She seems decent enough,” Dave said.

  “Only months ago she was living with another man and having his baby without being married. When she got shot, she was homeless. Now she’s the only person who’s seen this serial killer and lived to tell about it. That’s not exactly the kind of woman a mother wants her son to marry.”

  Dave looked at Mattie and then shook his head. “How soon you forget,” he said.

  Mattie’s color rose and her chin jutted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Dave took her by the shoulders. His voice was quiet, his grip firm.

  “You stayed married to a man you didn’t love out of a sense of duty. You cheated yourself and me out of a lifetime of happiness. Your husband hadn’t been dead more than a week when we made love, and you’ve never forgiven me for it. Judging that girl is a little beneath you, don’t you think?”

  Mattie’s face fell. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. Truth was a hard thing to face.

  “I’ve got to get supper on the table,” she said. “Go wash your hands.”

  “I think I’ve been here long enough for one day,” he said. “I’m going home.”

  “You walk out that door, don’t bother to come back,” she said quietly and then walked away.

  Dave stared for a moment, then went to wash his hands.

  Fourteen

  Ben entered the kitchen and found China at the cutlery drawer.

  “Mom put you to work?” he asked.

  The deep voice startled and, at the same time, excited her. Reacting normally around this man was becoming a difficult thing to do.

  “I offered,” she said quietly, and moved toward the table, her steps slow and measured.

  Ben watched her through narrowed eyes. She was sore. He could tell by the way she moved.

  “You’ve been up too much today,” he said, and took the cutlery out of her hands and began laying it in place around the table.

  “I’ve been in my room almost—”

  Ben looked up and grinned. “Yeah, I heard you lit out for parts unknown after Dave tried to shoot the Avon lady.”

  She grinned in spite of herself. “I shouldn’t have laughed.”

  “Sounded pretty funny to me,” Ben said.

  “It was all my fault. I panicked. They just reacted to me. It nearly got a woman shot.”

  Ben shook his head. “Da
ve’s too good a cop to shoot an unarmed suspect, even if she was carrying.”

  “But she wasn’t armed,” China said.

  “She had her Avon bag.”

  China giggled. “And I laughed.”

  Ben couldn’t quit staring. Since he’d known her, she’d either been suffering from pain or grief. This playful side was a surprise and a joy.

  China straightened a spoon, then moved to another place and switched the knife and fork to opposite sides of the plate while still trying to explain.

  “I think it was all just a reaction to my relief… you know… realizing that the woman wasn’t here to kill me after all. It was right after she said she needed to pee that I started to fall apart.”

  Ben chuckled.

  China grinned. “I tried to stop laughing, I swear I did. But things kept going from bad to worse, and Dave was so mad, and Mattie was yelling, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, it’s the Avon lady,’ and… well, you just had to be there.” Then she laughed aloud.

  Her laughter stopped him cold.

  “Jesus,” he whispered.

  China froze. Something had changed, and she didn’t know what had caused it. When Ben began to circle the table toward her, she started to get nervous.

  “What?” she asked. “What did I do?”

  He touched her face, tracing the shape of her mouth with his fingers. It was soft, so damned soft.

  “The laughter,” he mumbled. “It changes you.”

  Suddenly embarrassed, she tried to turn away, but he wouldn’t let her.

  “It probably makes me look stupid. My eyes are too big and my mouth is too wide, anyway.”

  Ever careful of her injuries, he took her by the shoulders and turned her back around to face him.

  “Look at me, China.”

  He had given her no choice.

  “Your laughter is beautiful, just like you, and it makes me ache with envy, knowing I wasn’t the one who made you smile. I don’t know how, but one of these days you’ll learn to believe in yourself.”

  He moved away, knowing that if he stayed this close any longer, he would be kissing her.

  China’s heart was pounding—her thoughts going crazy. God, how she wanted to believe him, but she’d looked in the mirror, she’d seen the flaws for more years than she cared to count.