When The Butterflies Come by Rosemary Ness Bitner

Author:Rosemary Ness Bitner [Bitner, Rosemary Ness]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ROSEMARY LIGHTFOOT NESS BITNER
Published: 2017-03-03T04:30:00+00:00

THE KEY AND THE BLADE

Sparrow waited until the Friday before a three-day Labor Day weekend. Everyone left the office for the last summertime break. Aspens were turning golden and beginning to shimmer in the late summer’s breezes. The big game animals, the bighorns, the elk, the Dall sheep, and the deer were all sizing others of their kind for the upcoming rut. Many of the office staff planned to make a weekend pilgrimage to the mountains for the animals and fall colors. David was making a big game jaunt to a Texas game farm to harvest a prime ibex, all the staff women planned to be away, and the office boys left earlier that morning to do whatever it was they did.

Sparrow assured Mrs. Rodriguez she’d lock up before she went home, but wanted to read some new regulatory releases before she surrendered to a mini vacation. There was nothing suspicious about Barb’s declaration; she was the notorious office workaholic. As employees filed out the door, she kept count until she was satisfied everyone was gone. Then, to be doubly sure, she went through every office in case she’d missed someone. Finally she was satisfied she was alone in the office with all the keys necessary to read the secret files in Debbie’s file room.

She went to the woman’s desk where she’d seen the brass key. It was there, right where she’d seen it that day weeks before. Barbara took the key and the copy key she had made from the wax imprint of David’s. Together she inserted the two keys into the file cabinet and turned the odd, specially made lock. One key turned clockwise, the other counterclockwise. The cabinet opened, exposing a set of files that contained the secrets of the firm. Barbara’s eyes widened as she read. Then she made copies.

One of the files contained the most peculiar invoices. They were for insect supplies. David routinely purchased tarantulas; emperor scorpions in shades of black, blue, and green; cockroaches; palmetto bugs; worms; beetles; grasshoppers; silverfish; ants; fleas; lice; and centipedes. After she’d copied all David’s files, Barbara called Chief. The situation was ideal. David was away, his wife was away to Europe with her girlfriend, and there was no one at his house.

Chief sent Guido ‘The Blade’ Checini to help his daughter the next night, Saturday. There was no time to waste. Blade and Sparrow walked to the perimeter of David’s property at dusk and waited in some shrubs until dark. Blade observed for a good hour to see if any shadows passed between the closed drapes and the inside lights. There were no signs of life except barnyard geese and possibly an inside dog.

Blade had been a cat burglar in his previous line of work, and his skills came in handy. He brought along three pounds of raw sirloin for any dog, complete with a sleeping pill powder rubbed into the meat. The two made their way to the house, staying low to the ground while approaching from the side opposite the ponds where the geese nested for the night.

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