Black Butterfly

by Marja McGraw

  When we entered the house, the ladies sat down on the couch and in chairs, still remaining quiet. This told me that they really wanted in on things.

  Chris called me into the kitchen where he helped me pour glasses of iced tea and he filled a plate with cookies. “Might as well make everyone comfortable.”

  I nodded, picking up the sugar shaker and some spoons.

  We returned to the living room where we found Mikey telling a story about something that had happened at school. “…and tomorrow I’ll find out more when I go back to school.”

  He saw us and clammed up.

  Chris held the cookie plate out to our son. “About that, Ace, I think you’ll be staying with Grandma Judy for a while. She’ll take you to school and pick you up.”

  “Does that mean you don’t want me to help after all?”

  “No, son,” I said, “that means you’ll be helping us, but not from home. You and Grandma can bounce ideas off of each other.”

  “Ideas about what?”

  Chris handed May the cookie plate while glancing over his shoulder at Mikey. “You’ll have to wait for Grandma. I’m not telling this story twice.”

  We didn’t have to wait long. When Chris’s parents pulled up to the curb, I noticed that Judith was driving instead of Chris, Sr. She fairly leaped out of the car and rushed up the walkway. Her husband followed behind at a slower pace, smiling that tight, thin-lipped little smile of his.

  Judith’s blonde hair was cut in a relatively short style, partly straight and partly curly, and it suited her heart-shaped face. Now her always perfect hair was mussed, which was unusual. Her flawless complexion had a pink tinge to it, and her light brown eyes looked intense. At sixty, she was only very lightly wrinkled, and I hoped I’d age like her. Or Mary. Or both of them.

  “Okay, let’s get down to business,” she said, without preamble. The pink tinge in her cheeks deepened. She was excited.

  “Settle down, dear,” her husband said. “Sit down and take a deep breath.”

  Chris guided his mother to a chair.

  “Son, you have no idea what your call stirred up in your mother. She’s ready for bear, no matter what’s going on.” My father-in-law is a tall man, maybe six foot two, compared to Judith’s five foot one. He has a thick, graying hair which he wears longish and combed straight back. Now he ran his fingers through his hair and turned his hazel eyes on his son.

  “What is going on?” he asked.

  Chris cleared his throat. “Possibly, only possibly, the mob is on the trail of our elderly neighbor.”

  Judith rubbed her hands together and the Church Ladies seemed to have mixed emotions, running from a gasp from Lila to a huge smile from Addie.

  Addie always carried her Bible with her, and she picked it up from her lap and held it to her chest, still grinning.

  Chris suddenly had that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. I thought he might be wondering what he’d gotten himself into.

  He cleared his throat again and, involuntarily, so did I.

  “Ladies, I’m not asking you to actually get involved, but I need your input. You’ve all been through, well, stuff, and I think you might be able to relate to Mary, the neighbor I mentioned.” He straightened his shoulders. “Here’s the dirt. Mary…”

  He went on to tell them what little we knew.

  They listened raptly.

  “I’ve seen this kind of thing in old movies,” Mikey said.

  “How was the poor, dear man murdered?” Jasmine asked.

  “I don’t know,” Chris replied.

  “How old was Mary, or Meredith, when all of this happened?” Lila asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What became of Gabriel?” May wanted answers, too.

  “I don’t know.” Chris didn’t have any answers.

  “Was it a murder-for-hire thing?” Addie asked.

  “I don’t know.” Chris was starting to fidget.

  “Now, ladies, let’s let Chris and Pamela take a break and we’ll make a list of questions that need to be answered.” Judith was taking over. Why didn’t that surprise me?

  Chris, Sr. stood and pointed toward the kitchen. “I think I’ll take a break with you.”

  “Wait a minute,” Mikey said. “Where are the dogs?”

  Chris looked surprised. “In all the excitement, we left them with Mary. I’ll go get them.”

  I couldn’t believe we actually forgot the dogs. That’s never happened before. I hoped Mary didn’t mind.

  “I’ll go with you, Chris.”

  We walked out the front door in time to see the black Mercedes go by and slow down in front of Mary’s house, just before turning at the next street.

  “Chris! Did you see that?”

  Jasmine’s voice came from behind me. “I did.”

  The Church Ladies, with Judith bringing up the rear, practically knocked us down while trying to get out the front door.

  They left us standing on the porch while they hurriedly trooped down the street to Mary’s house.

  Mikey started after them, but Chris grabbed his arm. “Back in the house, Ace. You’re not going with them.”

  “But Dad, I – “

  “Now!”

  Mikey pursed his lips, but turned and followed his father’s order.

  As before, the women lined up in front of the house with their arms folded across their chests. Judith joined them in the blink of an eye, standing just behind them on the walkway.

  I saw the women’s lips moving and instinctively knew they were saying a prayer.

  “They scare me,” Chris said. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t scare the thug.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Don’t be a wimp, bucko,” I said. “If I can deal with the ladies, so can you.”

  I heard my son quietly chuckling from near the front door.

  “You’ve got to admit, babe, that these woman are a force of nature. I mean, they don’t put up with anything.”

  I heard my father-in-law join in Mikey’s laughter.

  Chris turned in their direction. “That’s it, you two. You’ll be crying in your beer when they get in your hair.”

  “I get a beer?” Mikey wasn’t laughing anymore.

  “It’s a figure of speech, Ace, and you know it.” Chris stomped down our walkway and headed for Mary’s house without another word.

  I turned toward the front door. “You two stay here, out of the line of fire. I don’t know what Chris is up to, but he’s not happy. Thanks a lot for laughing.” They’d stirred the proverbial pot and my husband was angry, which is unusual for him.

  Chris’s steps slowed when he approached the women. Maybe there wouldn’t be any fireworks after all.

  I power-walked all the way to Mary’s house. By the time I caught up, he was already standing in the street, in front of the women.

  “What was it I said about only wanting your input? I think you all belong in the cackle factory. You saw the Mercedes and you all know that we don’t know what that goon wants. He could be dangerous. How much good do you think standing here with your arms crossed is going to do?”

  “He was outnumbered,” Jasmine said defiantly.

  “Yeah,” May said. “There are more of us and only one of him.” May re-crossed her arms.

  “We probably scared him off,” Lila said hesitantly.

  “We prayed about it,” Addie said, speaking up.

  Chris curled his upper lip under and glared at his mother. “And what do you have to say?”

  She shrugged.

  “He could have had a gun.” Chris looked each woman in the eye. “Did you ever think of that?”

  The women all started to talk at once.

  Chris threw up his arms in frustration and took a step forward, waiting for the women to move out of his way.

  The chatter continued, but Chris acted like it was white noise.

  I stepped in front of him. “Ladies, you need to move out of the way so Chris can go ta
lk to Mary.” I tried to sound stern, but it was difficult with these well-meaning women.

  They stopped talking and each took a step back while my husband walked past them, hurried up the walkway and knocked on Mary’s door.

  The door opened and I heard her say, “What’s going on out there?”

  Chris stepped into the house and the door closed behind him.

  The chatter started up again.

  I watched him until he was out of sight before turning to the women. “Would you please be quiet and give the Bogey Man a break? How’s he supposed to figure out what’s going on with the bunch of you yammering all the time?” Silly me. I thought calling him Bogey Man might get their attention. Instead, it went right over their heads.

  “Pulease,” Judith said. “We’re ladies and we don’t yammer.”

  “You yammer,” I said. “I’ll admit that he asked for your help, but not for your physical help. He’s right. We don’t know what this guy wants, and you just made targets out of yourselves. How about using a little common sense? Pulease!” I mimicked Judith’s use of the word and took a step back.

  She started to laugh, and after a moment the Church Ladies chuckled, too, although they sounded a bit nervous.

  My mother-in-law turned toward my house. “Come on, ladies, we need to make up that list of questions for Mary. There’s a lot Junior and Pamela need to know and she’s the only one who can give them the answers.”

  I cringed at her use of the nickname Junior, and I was glad Chris had gone inside.

  The front door opened to let Sherlock and Watson out. They ran up to the ladies as though they were sure the women were only outside the house to see them. I grabbed their leashes and held on.

  “Would you please take the dogs home with you?” I asked.

  Judith took one leash from me and Lila took the other, which surprised me. There was a time when Lila was afraid of dogs. Sherlock and Watson had dispelled that fear.

  I shook my head while I watched them walk away from me.

  The front door opened and Chris peeked out. “Are they gone?”

  “Yes. You can come out now.”

  He joined me on the sidewalk. “Let’s blow this place and find somewhere quiet, where we can talk.”

  “I need to grab my purse before we leave.”

  We walked back to our house and Chicken Little waited in the car while I went inside.

  “We’ll be back in a little bit,” I said to the group in the living room. “We’ve gotta run an errand, and we won’t be too long.” I said it as offhandedly as possible, not encouraging questions.

  It didn’t matter. They had a pad of paper and they were engrossed in discussing what information they wanted from Mary.

  Chris pulled out of the driveway and we headed for a local diner for coffee and a piece of chocolate cream pie, at my suggestion. I have a friend who’s a private eye, and we have chocolate in common; we both consider it comfort food.

  After the waitress dropped off my iced tea and Chris’s coffee, we waited quietly for our pie. Actually, my pie.

  Chris didn’t want anything to eat. He impatiently tapped his fingers on the table while we waited.

  The pie was delivered and I dug in while my husband continued to tap his fingers.

  “What?” I asked, taking a second bite.

  “I just don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right. Don’t you get the feeling that Mary still isn’t telling us everything?”

  My chewing slowed down and I thought for a moment. “You know? I think you’re right. She makes me feel like she’s holding something back, but I don’t know how to get it out of her.”

  Chris chuckled, but it didn’t really sound like he was feeling humorous. “The ladies will know how to get more information. I have a feeling we should invite Mary down and introduce her to them. They’ll have her so flustered that she’ll tell them anything.”

  I tipped my head and looked into his eyes. “You just might be right.”

  I forked another bite and slowly chewed on it while I mulled over the idea of the Black Butterfly vs. the Church Ladies. The thought almost made me shiver.

  I shrugged off the thought.

  “If they’re still at the house, why don’t we invite Mary down as soon as we get home?”

  “Murder, the mob, undercover cops… There has to be more to the story.” Chris picked up the spoon he’d used to stir his coffee and scooped up a bite of my pie. “Hey, that’s pretty good.” He reached toward the pie again.

  I pushed his hand away. “Get your own dessert.”

  He grinned. “It’s better when I’m stealing it off of your plate.”

  I finished eating as quickly as I could and we left the diner, heading home with a plan in mind.

  Chris pulled up in front of Mary’s house when we saw that our guests’ cars were still at our house, and we approached the front door feeling confident in what we were doing.

  He knocked on the door. We waited, and he knocked again. The third knock was a charm.

  Mary opened the door, looking a little blurry-eyed and squinting at us. “Oh. I was taking a nap in my favorite chair.” She rubbed her eyes.

  “Sorry to wake you up, duchess, but we have some people we’d like you to meet. Come on and we’ll drive you down to our house.”

  She glanced down at her bare feet. “Give me a minute to put on shoes.”

  She closed the door and after a minute she was back, looking just a tad perkier.

  “Who is it you want me to meet?”

  I smiled at her. “The women who were guarding your house earlier. You’ll like them, trust me.”

  She climbed into the car and rode the rest of the way to our house with us. “Why do you think I need to meet these women?”

  I glanced toward the backseat. “Maybe it’s more that they need to meet you. If they’re standing guard at your house, they might want to know who they’re guarding.”

  “That makes sense.”

  We reached the house and Chris hurried around the car to help Mary out.

  We walked to the front door and found Lila standing on the porch. “They’re here,” she called, hurrying inside.

  I raised my eyebrows. Why would they be waiting for us?

  Upon entering the house, we found the group of women to be unusually quiet. This made me nervous.

  They each smiled at Mary.

  “Ladies,” I said, “this is Mary, the woman whose house you’ve been watching.”

  I pointed to each woman and gave Mary their names. She nodded at them, appearing to be quite in control. She didn’t look like they might intimidate her.

  “It’s nice to meet all of you, and thank you so much for watching my house. Hopefully you won’t have to do that again.”

  “We’re here whenever you need us,” Jasmine said.

  “We’ve been praying for you,” Addie added.

  I have to admit that Mary looked surprised. “Why, thank you. I don’t think anyone has probably prayed for me in years.”

  May smiled, looking pleased.

  “We’re good prayers,” Lila said.

  Judith stood up. “Let’s get down to business. If we’re going to help Junior get a handle on this, we have a few questions for you.”

  “Junior?” Mary had trouble stifling a smile.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mary’s smile disappeared when Judith’s words sank in. “You’re going to help Chris? I’m not sure I like that idea.”

  “We’re only consultants,” Judith explained. “Junior won’t let us get too involved, but we’ve each been through some situations in the past, and we know what we’re doing.”

  Chris choked and ran to the kitchen.

  “Besides,” Judith continued, “if you’ve been threatened, then the sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better. Right?”

  Mary nodded, but slowly.

  Chris continued to cough and I heard him filling a glass with water. I figured he’d heard his mother’s com
ment.

  “Are you ready?” Jasmine asked.

  “Uh, don’t you think Chris and I should see what you want to ask her first?” I had no idea what lie ahead for any of us.

  “Nonsense, dear,” May said. “We wouldn’t ask anything offensive.”

  “Not us,” Lila said.

  “We’re good people,” Addie added.

  Mary sat down, still looking suspicious.

  I took a seat next to Judith and nudged her. “Gentle is the key word here. Don’t give my neighbor the third degree.”

  “We wouldn’t dream of it, Pamela.”

  I glanced around the room and saw Mikey sitting in the corner, trying to be invisible. “Please go see how your father is doing,” I said.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He ran, as children often do, to the kitchen and returned with Chris in tow.

  My son didn’t want to miss anything.

  Judith cleared her throat. “If the police met with you, thinking you were Mary, why didn’t they recognize you? If seems to us that they would have known what Meredith looked like.”

  “Simple. Mary and I were living together, so they actually talked to her. I hid out while they were there. Mary and I looked quite a bit alike and she found an excuse to show them a photo of us together. That seemed to satisfy them.”

  Jasmine glanced at the questions they’d written down and picked up the conversation. “What led you to believe Gabriel’s story about being an undercover cop?”

  Before Mary could reply, May piped up. “Are you sure his name was really Gabriel Rizzo?”

  Mary’s expression was one of annoyance. “Why wouldn’t I believe him? He saved me, didn’t he? If he’d really been part of the mob, he would have handed me over in a heartbeat, whether he loved me or not.” Her tone of voice left no room for doubt, at least in her mind.

  The women seemed to be taking turns. May handed the list of questions to Lila, the gentlest member of the group.

  “Gabriel said he’d find you, even without a clue about where you were going. I mean, he knew you’d be in Los Angeles, but… Well, anyway, why didn’t he ever show up? I know you probably went through some heartbreak, Meredith… Uh, Mary.”

  “I guess I hid too well. Oh, someone contacted Mary once and she thought it might have been Gabe, but I wasn’t home and she got rid of him. She didn’t know if he was really a copper and she didn’t want to take any chances. She told him I’d moved to New York. We moved again and hid among the throngs of people in Los Angeles.