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About the author Helen Denkha was born in She has lived in
The White Butterfly is the fourth book featuring Ryan Gregorian and the psychic, Cassandra. Helen is currently working on her fifth book From Paris with Love. Also by Helen Denkha Private Purgatory Author’s Note Throughout the long months
of writing and rewriting this novel I had intended to call it Christmas in July. It was God’s will that 11th
of January 2011 should be the last day on earth for my dear departed cousin While reason and logic tell
me that this was not an unusual occurrence and butterflies do fly around during
hot summer months, a part of me wants to believe that the white butterfly
appearing so regularly during those days and for sometime thereafter may have
been the spirit of I have therefore named this
book The White Butterfly in order to keep the illusion alive. Helen Denkha 11th January 2012 READ A SAMPLE...... Saturday July 3rd 2010
v
“Don’t be
distracted by the name, it may all be just a game.” Rosemary kept repeating the
words to make sure she passed the correct message on to Ryan. It was supposedly
another one of those famous lines in classical books that he and Cassandra used
to debate on. Cassandra told her it was very important that she repeats the
words to Ryan as soon as she got home. Rosemary was not
particularly concerned about repeating the words verbatim. It was just a silly
game between Cassandra and Ryan but it was her way of distracting herself. She
tried to tell herself that it was a good thing that her twenty-month-old son did
not seem concerned when she left. She tried not to worry that he seemed
particularly pleased to be in Cassandra’s company. At least she knew he was in
good hands. Cassandra adored the child. She seemed to have an uncanny knack of
knowing exactly when he was hurting, hungry or sleepy. In some ways Cassandra
sensed his moods better than Rosemary did. She would not think about it anymore.
There was no need to be jealous. Alexander may like Cassandra but he couldn’t
possibly love her more than his own mother. Rosemary thought she should be
grateful that in Cassandra she had such a willing babysitter. No. She definitely would not
think about it anymore. Better to think about other issues, like the party she
and Ryan were going to tonight. Now what was that silly message she had to give
Ryan?
“Don’t be distracted by the name, it may all be
just a game.”
v There aren’t many people who
will freely admit that their bank manager is a good person. The reaction of most
listeners is raised eyebrows followed by an incredulous, “Really.” The listener
will then discreetly study the person who made that incredible admission to
determine if they are on any type of medication. Chief Inspector Ryan
Gregorian was among the minority. He’d met Andrew Dutton twenty years ago when
the latter was a mere clerk. It was the first time Ryan had visited a bank
unaccompanied. The older lady at the enquiries counter had asked him the nature
of his enquiry. Once she had established that Ryan merely wanted to open a bank
account, she passed him to a junior. She moved on to help an elderly man who
stated his intention of departing with some of his hard earned cash. He was
planning on investing his money with the bank. Understandably this gentleman was
worthier of her attention. The junior was Andrew Dutton
who was as nervous as Ryan. It was Andrew’s third week on the job and the first
time he was allowed behind the counter. Until then he had been working in the
blissful sanctuary of the back office. Between the two of them they
managed to prolong a twenty-minute transaction to one hour. Andrew tore up three
forms until he managed to complete the last one correctly. Eventually the
account was opened. Ryan had to go to the bank once a week from then on and
would normally be served by Andrew. Eventually a friendship was formed between
the two young men and they remained friends as they both progressed through
their respective careers. Ryan had received a call
from Andrew an hour earlier. The latter sounded upset and asked Ryan if he could
spare him thirty minutes at home. Ryan told him that’s about all he could do as
he and Rosemary were on their way to a party. Rosemary had left a few minutes
earlier to take Alexander to Cassandra. The latter had once again kindly offered
to baby-sit. Ryan hoped Rosita would not
find out about this. Ever since the child was born, there was a constant battle
between Cassandra and Rosita over baby-sitting duties. Rosita had grandchildren
of her own and felt she was more qualified to look after Alexander. Ryan had
been surprised at Cassandra’s attitude. He had never taken her for the maternal
type but she adored his little son. It was obvious that the child felt the same.
Alexander was twenty months old now and spoke his own version of English. About
three months ago, much to Rosemary’s despair, the first word he spoke was
‘Cassana’. In order to restore peace in the house Ryan and Alan had spent the
next forty-eight hours teaching Alexander how to say Mummy. He did eventually
learn to say the word with unfortunate results. He started to address Alan as
Mummy. The door bell rang. Ryan
buzzed Andrew in. He opened the front door and stood waiting until Andrew’s head
appeared under the landing. They had at times discussed the similarities of
their lives. They both held top positions in their respective fields, they were
both married for the second time and each had one child. Ryan thought amusedly
that they were now both greying at the temples. “Ryan, I’m so sorry to ruin
your Saturday.” “It’s always nice to see
you, Andrew. Are you planning on ruining my Saturday?” Ryan went into the kitchen
to grab two beers. Andrew headed straight for the bookshelf to find out if there
were any new books there. Andrew took the bottle of
beer and sat down. “I know you’re going out, I won’t keep you long at all.” “I wish I had an excuse not
to go. Can you honestly imagine me at a fancy dress party?” “You’re not serious. What
are you going as?” “I’m not dressing up. I told
Rosemary I’d go to the party but no clown suits.” Andrew placed the bottle of
beer on the coffee table without tasting it. Ryan was wondering what the problem
was to have brought him here today. He was almost sure it was nothing to do with
his wife. Andrew looked nervous and worried but not devastated. “What’s on your mind,
Andrew? Is everything all right at home?” “Everything’s fine at home.
It’s to do with work.” “Okay tell me.” Andrew rose and walked
around the room restlessly. He finally stood leaning against the bookshelf. “I’m probably making a
complete fool of myself but I didn’t know who to go to.” Ryan waited. He thought he
guessed what was coming. Andrew probably suspected one of the employees of
stealing and did not know how to approach them. “One of our regular
customers hasn’t turned up to collect her pension cheque and I’m…” Ryan started to laugh but
stopped as soon as he saw Andrew’s expression. “I’m sorry, Andrew. I expect
there’s more. This doesn’t exactly sound like a tragedy.” “That’s why I said I’m
probably making a fool of myself. If it had been some other customer, I wouldn’t
think twice about it, but this girl’s different.” “Tell me everything from the
beginning. What is her name?” “Rebecca Winters. Look I’ll
start from the beginning. Under normal circumstances I don’t get to see the
regular customers. I only get involved if it is a complaint or something out of
the ordinary.” Ryan nodded. He knew the
layout of the bank and Andrew’s office was located on the third level. He was
not likely to run into anyone who’s simply at the bank to collect their
fortnightly social security cheque. Andrew took a long swig of
his drink and continued; “It would be around six months ago. We were having a
fire drill. I am one of the fire wardens. I was a few seconds away from leaving
the building, when I heard someone banging on the front door. I don’t even know
what made me turn around to look at the front door. With all fire drills we
always go by the back exit.” “Don’t you put some sort of
a notice outside to let your customers know that you’re having an evacuation
test?” asked Ryan. “Of course we do. I found
out later she had tricked the two security guards into thinking she was a bank
employee. She had told them that she needed to go inside to run through the
evacuation procedure. The silly fools fell for it and a bigger fool than both of
them ended up letting her inside the bank. I even attended to the over the
counter withdrawal her of her money.” Ryan stared at Andrew for a
while and shook his head in wonder. “Damn it, Andrew. I don’t
need to hear about your precious meeting. Why don’t you just come right out and
tell me you’re having an affair with this woman and something’s gone…” “Shut the hell up, Ryan. It
is nothing like that, nothing even remotely like it. Just hear me out okay?” “I’m sorry, okay, keep
going.” “Where was I? Oh yeah, I let
her take the money out. She’s got one of those old passbook accounts, doesn’t
have an ATM card. I doubt if she would even know how to use an ATM. Anyway, I
went out, I was a few minutes late for the drill but no one noticed.” Ryan said sarcastically,
“That’s good to know in case of a real fire.” “Yes you’re absolutely
right. When I was thinking about it later, I wondered how long would it take for
anyone to notice their colleagues are missing. Anyway, in that very brief
encounter with Rebecca I realised she is – well not all there.” “Intellectually challenged?”
asked Ryan. Andrew shook his head
decisively, “No, I wouldn’t go that far but something was not right. You know
she kept repeating that she had to buy her groceries and she was running late.
She always buys her groceries between ten and eleven a.m. on the pay week. She
said this about four times. It was all she could think of.” “You’ve obviously seen her
since?” “I have spoken to her one
more time since. I have seen her from my office window every fortnight after
that. To be honest the poor girl’s arrival is treated as a bit of a light relief
by the staff. They don’t dare say anything out loud but I know they all watch
her. I can’t describe it, Ryan. She arrives at the same time, give or take a few
seconds. She wears the same clothes all the time. She goes to the same counter
to write out her withdrawal slip. If there is anyone there, she waits until they
move away, instead of using another counter. She very rarely makes any eye
contact. Everything about this girl is – I don’t know so controlled – you know
like clockwork.” Ryan said, “Well there are
people like that, I am sure there is a medical term for it. Probably some form
of obsessive compulsive personality disorder. They have a routine and if
anything upsets it, they panic. This girl sounds like she has a definite
routine. How old is she by the way?” “She’s twenty three.” “Okay, so she comes in very
regularly. So regularly in fact that if you were a betting man, you would have
cleaned up by now. You know I’m surprised your people haven’t started some sort
of a betting syndicate. You know taking bets on how close to ten o’clock she
will turn up. I guess you would have to guess in seconds, rather than minutes,
wouldn’t you?” Andrew did not look at all
amused by Ryan’s attitude. He was genuinely concerned about this girl. He had
hoped Ryan, as a detective in the police force, could help him in some way.
Andrew was not really sure what he wanted Ryan to do. But he knew the last thing
he had come for was for his worry to be the butt of Ryan’s joke. This attitude
was completely out of character for Ryan anyway. Andrew’s thoughts were
interrupted by the sound of another bottle of beer on the table in front of him.
The first one was still half full. He looked up to find Ryan looking at him
thoughtfully. “I’m sorry about being so
flippant, Andrew. I was just trying to lighten the mood, well your mood anyway.
I can see you’re worried about this girl. She has her set routine and you think
something must be drastically wrong for her to deviate from it. You realise
there could be a number of explanations. She could be ill, she could be on
holidays. She could even have found a job and she is no longer in receipt of
benefits.” “I’ve thought about all the
possibilities, Ryan, and I know you’re right. Except for the last one. Her money
is still being credited into her account. She either hasn’t found a job or she
hasn’t bothered to let the department of social security know about it.” “Fair enough. Tell me what
is it you want me to do?” “To be honest I don’t really
know. I just didn’t know who to go to. The thing is I’ve been so worried that I
racked my brain to come up with some excuse to call her place. In the end I
decided I would pretend I was doing a random customer survey and just play it by
ear. So I rang, three times in the last fortnight.” “And?” “And nothing, the phone just
rings out. Like you said she could be on holidays. She is probably one of the
dozen people in Ryan was silent for a while,
deep in thought. Andrew watched him anxiously; partly hoping Ryan would come up
with some bright idea. Although a part of him regretted his decision to mention
the matter. He felt he was trading in on their friendship and wasting Ryan’s
valuable time. “Leave this with me for a
few days, Andrew. I’ll look around and see what I can dig up.” “I feel really bad about
this, Ryan. Listen, I’m sure you’ve got a million things to do at work, dealing
with real crimes. I don’t want you to waste your time on this.” Ryan smiled, “You’ve spent
the last hour trying to convince me that something is wrong. Now you’re trying
to talk me out of it. Why the sudden change of heart?” Andrew shook his head and
stood abruptly, “I just realised that I could be making a big deal out of
nothing. Besides it really isn’t any of my business.” Ryan also stood, “Well, now
I’m making it my business. If this girl lives alone and she’s had some sort of
accident, she could be in severe trouble. Leave it with me, okay? Go home and
enjoy the rest of your weekend.” “I really appreciate this,
Ryan. I hope you enjoy the fancy dress and give my regards to the lovely
Rosemary.” Andrew promised to fax over
Rebecca’s paperwork that night. He left feeling a little happier that the matter
was now with Ryan.
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