The Butterfly Conspiracy (28 page)

Paulie looked over to see Moon standing next to the table.
 
Moon looked like he was about to fly into a rage.

“What the hell is this?” Moon yelled.
 
His face was bright red.
 
“You’re supposed to be laying low in the room, remember?
 
Didn’t you see those two cops walk through here half an hour ago?”

“Shut up.” Paulie said as he jumped to his feet.
 
He got up so quickly his chair flew over and hit the floor with a bang.
 
Moon and Paulie stood glaring at each other.
 
The whole place became quiet as everyone turned to watch.

Paulie turned to the girls, “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
 

Moon stood there. “What? Are you crazy?
 
Where’re you taking them?”

“To your little love nest, Moon Pie.
 
I think it’s about time you have a little fun, buddy.
 
Looks like you’re about to explode.”

Moon picked up the fallen chair, slid it back under the table and followed Paulie and the girls out to their car.
 
Paulie and Moon climbed in the back seat.
 

During the short drive back to his place, Moon quietly told Paulie about his call to Jeanette and how they were all set up to meet Stephen at a place called Devil’s Kitchen Cave.
 

When they got back to Moon’s place, they had a few beers.
 
The girls earned their gas money, checked out of the campground and headed over the
Mackinac
Bridge
back to
Lower Michigan
.
 

Chapter 36

Stephen looked at the stunned expression on Jeanette’s face and knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Jeanette, I didn’t do this.”

“I know that, but how on earth did your knife get here?”

“I don’t know. It’s always been in my bedroom, in the top drawer of the bureau.”

“Stephen, we won’t be the only ones asking these questions.”

“I guess we need to find an answer.
 
Since this is evidence, I’m going to put it back where we found it.
 
We have to get the authorities.
 
Jeanette, I hate to say this, but finding that knife makes me feel the person who did this is a lot closer to the house than some stranger from the outside, like one of those demonstrators.”

Jeanette did not respond.
  
When they returned to the back of the hidden bookcase in the library, Stephen worked the mechanism and the bookcase quietly slid open. Jeanette felt relieved to be in the familiar and safe setting of the library again.

“Stephen, let’s go to my place and try and make some sense out of all this.”

“Good idea.”

As they passed his room, Stephen said, “My door is never locked. Anyone could come in and rummage around whenever they wanted to.”

Stephen sat down on the end of the couch in Jeanette’s room.
 
Jeanette said, “Relax for a moment.
 
I’ll go to the kitchen and get us both a glass of wine.”

While she was gone, Stephen stood up and looked at Jeanette’s book collection.
 

Jeanette returned with the drinks.
 
She put the glasses on the coffee table in front of the couch and sat down next to Stephen.
 
He reached over and hugged her.
 
Their lips met.
 
All the tension and doubt from the past few days disappeared as they held each other.
 

“It’s hard to feel happy about meeting you in the middle of this dreadful time,” Jeanette whispered.

“I know. You’ve said exactly what I’ve been thinking, but I didn’t know quite how to say it.” Stephen replied.
 
“You know how bad this is looking for me, don’t you?
 
I’m new to the area, Britt was coming on to me and she was causing problems for Uncle Phillip.”

Jeanette shook her head.
 
“Stephen, the more I think about it, I think it has to be one of those picketers.”

Stephen continued, “Don’t forget, Britt’s house was locked when she was killed and now we find my knife in a secret passageway that only one or two people probably know about.
 
This all adds up to me looking very guilty!”

Stephen buried his head into his hands.
 
After a minute he looked up and said, “I have to go to the police with this, because if I don’t, it will look even worse for me.”
  

Jeanette held him close.
 
“I know it looks bad, but we both know there has to be another answer.
 
We have to work together and see what we can figure out. I’m going to get more wine, this could be a long night.”

On the way back from the kitchen, Jeanette ducked into her office and grabbed a pad of paper and a pen so she and Stephen could write down some ideas.
 
 

Jeanette noticed her answering machine light was blinking.
 
She bent down and hit the play button.
 
She heard a vaguely familiar voice say, “I have information you may want to know.”

Jeanette listened to the complete message, hit the play again button and listened to it a second time.
 

She ran back to her room.
 

“Stephen, we can’t go to the police yet.
 
I just got a message on my answering machine from someone who is claiming to know who killed Britt.
 
He tried to disguise his voice, but I think I know who it is.”
 

Stephen jumped up.
 
“Who is it?

“It sounded like a guy named Moon, Moon Murchie!”

Chapter 37

As Moon was making coffee he kept thinking about what had happened the night before.
 
This was really turning out to be a pretty good deal.
 
Last night’s party, with its side benefits, hadn’t cost him a dime and after the call to Jeanette, he should be getting the big payoff he had always dreamed of.
 
Not bad, he thought.
 
Not so bad at all.

Moon poured a cup of coffee, walked over to Paulie and gently shook him.
 
“Hey, get up.”

Paulie groaned and tried to roll over.
 
He was in the middle of an erotic dream, both girls from the night before
 
were rolling around in his bed.
 
Moon was not in the picture.

The aroma of hot coffee helped Paulie come out of it.
 
He struggled to sit up.
 
His legs were tangled up in an old bed sheet.
 

“Damn it, Moon.
 
You’d screw up a wet dream.”

“We got some planning to do. You want this to be over with, don’t you?
 
We need to make sure this comes off smooth.”
 
 

Paulie took a sip of coffee and stretched.
 
“Okay, genius, tell me what we have to do.”

Moon pulled out a map. It was a detailed forest service map showing all the trails, logging roads and elevations located in the area of Devil’s
Kitch
en
Cave
.

“I got it all figured out.
 
We leave here at seven. Old lady Fitzpatrick lives on the third floor and she never locks her car.
 
We grab her car and head over to Forest Highway 13.
 
See, it’s here on the map. It’s an old logging road that runs almost to the cave.”
 

Moon smoothed out the map and pointed.
 
“We drive to this point and walk from here.

We leave early enough so we can climb up to the cave.
 
We’ll be high enough to see anything going on around us.
 
If anything looks funny, we take this trail here back to the car and get the hell out of there.
 
If it’s only Jeanette and the kid, like I think it will be, we grab the kid and head back to the car.
 
You drop me off on Highway 77 where I have my bicycle stashed and head back to
New York
with the kid.
 
I peddle home with a grand in my pocket.”

Paulie looked up from the map.
 
“A grand?
 
I told you six hundred.”

“That was then, my friend.
 
When you think about it, I’m the guy that did all the planning.
 
It took a lot of work to figure this thing out.
 
Who do you think called Jeanette and set up the meeting and everything?
 
Without me, you’d still be hiding in the bushes somewhere with your thumb up your ass.”

Paulie jumped to his feet.
 
“Nobody talks to me like that.”