The Butterfly Forest

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Detective Lewis met me at Elizabeth’s house. He brought three CSI people, two men and one woman. He nodded. “Looks like a lot has happened since we met in that Walmart lot.”

“I don’t think it’s over,” I said, letting them in the front door. “Someone either broke into Elizabeth’s home and tampered with the sleeping pills, or they got to them in the front seat of her car. I have keys to her car. The pills she took are on the bathroom counter.”

The CSI people nodded and went to work. “At this point, who’d want to kill Elizabeth Monroe?” Detective Lewis asked.

“Probably the same people who killed her daughter and boyfriend.”

“Why?”

“I believe the perps think Molly and Mark knew the location of a large marijuana farm hidden somewhere deep in the Ocala National Forest. Molly had innocently snapped a lot of pictures trying to document the locations of rare plants for her butterfly release. I think she snapped a shot, and the perps believe she may have captured them in the picture.”

“Did she?”

“One picture captures Frank Soto before he tried to abduct Molly and Elizabeth. The guy next to him could be the man in this composite. Do you recognize him?”

“No. Looks like he might have some Hispanic in him.”

“Maybe. The witness said he had darker skin.”

“Who’s the witness?”

“Luke Palmer.”

Lewis chuckled. “The suspect Sheriff Clayton has jailed?”

“That’s the one. He sketched this.”

“He’s a damn good artist, I’m wondering if he’s a damn good a liar.”

“I believe he’s telling the truth. I met with him, listened to his story. The guy’s been wandering the forest looking from some lost treasure, but by default, he’s become a witness to two murders and finds the body of a murdered teenage girl in a grave.”

One of the CSI members, the woman, came around the corner. She said, “It looks like the sliding glass door lock was compromised. Scratches at the base of the lock. I’ll dust for prints. The door leads into the kitchen.”

I said, “You’ll find my prints in the kitchen. I was here after the funeral. I doubt you’ll find prints near the lock. This guy’s a pro.”

She nodded and continued her work. Detective Lewis said, “Why haven’t I seen this composite before now?”

“Sheriff Clayton hasn’t released it to the news media.”

“Why?”

“He calls it jailhouse art and says Palmer is trying to shine the spotlight off him. The real reason, I think, is because of the intense media coverage of the deaths in the forest. The sheriff thinks he has enough forensics to make the charges stick. Look, Detective, Elizabeth was on death’s door. This is much bigger than Frank Soto. Can your office release the composite?”

Lewis inhaled like he hadn’t breathed all day. He looked at the image and slowly released the pent-up air in his lungs. “This is Marion County’s deal. The guy they’ve got locked up was captured there. The killings happened there. I’d be out of line. But you can run it by Sheriff Olsen, see if he disagrees.”

I said nothing.

“We’ll let you know if we find anything.”

One of the investigators entered. He held out a sealed plastic bag with the bottle of pills inside. He said, “We’ll get these to the lab today. Arsenic is easy to find.” He joined the others in the kitchen. Detective Lewis waited for me to leave.

I started to turn and walk away. Then I thought of Elizabeth and how arsenic poisoning shuts down organ after organ. I said, “Whoever investigated this house last night, when Elizabeth barely managed to call 911, assumed she tried to OD on sleeping pills. She didn’t, Detective. And she almost died because of it. Had the hospital known or suspected poison, they could have given her a different treatment. If we assume this composite is a figment from Luke Palmer’s imagination, we make the same mistake.”

He looked at the picture, and I saw his eyes dilate a notch. He made a dry swallow and touched the tip of his nose, his thoughts distracted.

It was at that moment, I knew Detective Lewis was the investigator on the scene when Elizabeth was taken by ambulance in what was later determined a suicide attempt. I said, “Now’s the time to place a guard outside Elizabeth’s hospital room.”