The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison

Author:Kate Ellison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781606842683
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Published: 2012-02-14T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

I dig furiously around until I locate the phone. My cell never rings. I stare at the screen: I don’t recognize the number.

“Hel-lo?”

A car horn blares in the background. A confetti-throw of static. “Queen Penelope?” the voice at the other end says. “Can it be she?”

I bite hard into my bottom lip, flooded with relief. “Flynt! You finally got a cell phone?”

“Never! Pay phone, baby. Miraculously, they still exist… .”

“But … how did you get this number?”

“You gave it to me, L! First day we met!” I hear his breath through the line, soft and steady. He’s right—I did. An image from my stupid prom fantasy pops into my head. His mouth. His big straight teeth. I put my tongue to the roof of my mouth nine times and then swallow another three; it’s not real. It’ll never be real.

“So, did you hear about Vinnie?”

“Vinnie?” I ask, confused.

“The bouncer at Tens. He was arrested for killing Sapphire today. It’s the talk of the town over here in Neverland. So, it’s all over. We’re free, Queen Penelope!”

I quickly remove a pile of stuff from my computer, cradling the phone with my shoulder. New search: Cleveland Neverland Crime. B. Hornet’s Neverland Crime Blog pops up: a new headline in bold red: “An Arrest for the Shooting of Area Girl: Sapphire, 19.”

Click. The article loads; I hold my breath.

4:10 P.M.: CST, April 8th By: Mark Stanton, the Plain Dealer CLEVELAND—Police arrested a man this afternoon for the murder of an area girl, Sapphire (last name unknown). The victim was a dancer at Tens, a Neverland club in the 2100 block of East 119th Street, where the suspect, Vincent Navarro, 43, worked as a bouncer.

Officers apprehended Navarro around 3:00 P.M. at work after uncovering conclusive DNA evidence at the victim’s home—the scene of the crime.

Navarro served two of a five-year prison sentence that began in 1998, for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He was released on parole in 2000 and has been employed at Tens ever since.

So, it was him—the bouncer—and now he’s gone. In prison, where he belongs. And I have nothing left to worry about. I should feel light. I should feel free.

Except, why don’t I? Why can’t I shake the feeling that something’s still not right? When I saw him, a block away from my house, he was talking to someone on the phone. Who, at that moment, would he have needed to speak to?

“Hello, Lo? You still there? Shit, did my change run out? Hello?”

“I’m here, I’m here. I’m just … I can’t believe it. I—”

“Come meet me in, like, two hours. By the birdbath?”

I hesitate, listening to the minor static on the other end of the phone, a rush of traffic. The prospect of the bus ride into Neverland, alone, as it’s starting to get dark, doesn’t exactly seem appealing and it’s beginning to annoy me that I’ve always got to go to him.

“Come here. To Lakewood now,” I finally tell him.

“No,” he says abruptly. “I told you.

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