The Butterfly Sister (22 page)

“So that's why you pretended to be Meryl?” Beth clarified. “To persuade me to come forward?”

“I couldn't tell you who I really was, could I? You wouldn't have believed me. I had to be Meryl. She had an obvious incentive and unquestionable knowledge. And I knew you were the one who could rally the others. Because you had a power they didn't. You didn't love him, Beth. You never loved him. I knew that the day you broke it off. I heard it in the distant, steady tone of your voice. He had no hold on you, and that's why you were the one, the one who could bring him down, the one to lead the others. But then you found out you were pregnant. And you not only wanted to quit the fight, but you also wanted to do something I knew would hurt you more than Mark ever could.”

Beth stared at her. “Did you know I was pregnant, even before I told you?”

The professor nodded. “I followed you that day to the clinic. And I was hopeful when you didn't go through with it, thinking you'd changed your mind. But you hadn't, and I took you, thinking if I couldn't change your mind, I would keep you until it was too late, past the point of no return. And I decided to get the rest of you to come forward, one at a time if I had to. I started with Julie Farris. It was pathetic, how Mark tried to replace Beth with a look-alike. As if she were a
dog
and he could just go to a pound and pick out another one just like her. When he dumped her too, I called Julie, pretending to be Meryl, and she agreed to file charges. But her conversation with President Monroe didn't go as expected. Monroe wanted to sweep it under the carpet. She was too worried about disgrace and losing financial support for the school's coeducation plans. So we decided Julie should fake her suicide on the eve of Reunion weekend. Talk about disgrace. It not only put Monroe in her place, but also added to the mounting evidence against Mark. Because now two girls had tried to take their life over him.”

It made sense then, I thought, why Julie was so put together during my visit to the psych ward. Because she hadn't tried to kill herself over Mark. She wasn't depressed. She was vengeful.

“What about Tina and Madeline? Did you approach them too?” I asked.

“I wanted you to do that.”

“But you gave me a list with their names on it,” Beth argued. “How did you know they'd had relationships with Mark?”

“I didn't, not for certain. I only knew Ruby dropped out of school because of Mark. But I cross-referenced the list of students who had dropped out of Tarble with his class rosters, looking for overlap. Tina and Madeline fit the bill, and I figured there was a good chance one of them had been involved with him.”

“What about those sexual misconduct charges Heidi found in his HR file?” I asked.

“They were fake. I put them there.”

“You thought they would convince me to come forward?”

Her eyes shot to mine. “Didn't they? We were so close, Ruby. We had him right where we wanted him. But then that woman on the plane . . . I had to act fast. I couldn't expect another lucky break, not like that whole serial killer thing. So I had to take you too.”

“And now, you can let us go,” Beth begged. “If what you said is true, that you took me to keep me from having an abortion, you can let me go now. Mission accomplished. Because I love my baby. I'm going to keep it.” She looked to me. “And you can let Ruby go too. We won't press charges. We won't tell the police anything. We just want to go home.”

Professor Barnard seemed to consider her plea. “I understand you want to go home. And I will let you go. I want nothing more than for you both to live happy, productive lives. But I can't let you leave until I know for certain Mark can never hurt you or anyone else again. And there is only one way we can guarantee that.”

I read the gravity of her expression. “Guarantee?”

“Oh my god,” Beth cried. “You want to kill him?”

The professor shook her head. “The only way to stop him is to take away the thing that gives him power, the thing that makes him Mark Suter.”

Beth and I exchanged glances. We didn't know what she was talking about.

“If he had raped my sister, no one would question his punishment,” she went on. “But in a way, he did rape her. Just not physically. He used her and abused her, stole her goodness and love, and in the end, took her life.” She smirked. “And you know what the punishment for rape used to be, don't you?”

She didn't have to say it.

Chapter 18

B
eth started to dry heave then. Over and over again, her stomach wrenched, as if she had a virus or food poisoning. As she vomited nothing but saliva, I watched her face contort at the sour taste of stomach acid.

“You're upsetting her,” I said.

“Her stomach's just empty,” the professor countered. “She needs to eat. Beth, dear, you need to eat. You always get nauseated if you go more than two hours without putting something in your stomach.”

Professor Barnard guided Beth by the hand to the table then, and Beth, worn out from the ordeal, let her.

“Come on, Ruby. You too.” She pulled out a chair. “We can discuss this over dinner.”

I crossed my arms and said nothing. I didn't want to participate in the professor's fantasy, the three of us sharing meals at the cabin table like the sisters in
Little Women
.

Besides, my curiosity had been sated, now that the professor had explained who she really was and why she took us. There was nothing keeping me there, nothing forcing me to listen to her crazy notions any longer. Earlier, Beth had mentioned Professor Barnard's gun, but I had yet to see one. So when the professor rushed to the kitchen, presumably to get Beth something to eat, I followed, hoping to take her off guard somehow. But she was one step ahead of me. Turning the kitchen corner, I walked right into the end of the revolver she aimed at my chest. Looped around her other hand was a piece of rope.

“I didn't want to do it this way, Ruby,” she said, pushing me back into the main room. “But now you've given me no choice.”

“You wouldn't shoot me,” I said, as she lowered me to the chair across from Beth.

She didn't respond and instead, using the rope, she tied my left wrist to the base of the wooden dining table, all the while watching Beth for any sudden movement. I thought about reaching for the gun, which she'd set down at the far end of the table so she could tie my hand, but before I could put thought into action, she was done.

“Do I need to tie you up too?” she asked Beth.

Beth shook her head no.

The professor left the room only briefly—not long enough for Beth and I to whisper or gesture anything coherent to each other—and she returned with a steaming platter, what looked to be a whole roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas, and my stomach ached with hunger. I had eaten nothing but a doughnut hole that morning.

I watched Beth push chunks of chicken and forkfuls of mashed potatoes into her mouth with vigor. I couldn't blame her for indulging. She was, after all, eating for two. The professor also made me a plate, which she set before me. She then sat down and began eating. I eyed the food. The chicken was not the least pink, the peas a vibrant green, the potatoes a creamy white. Could poison look so nutritious?

Professor Barnard seemed to read my mind. “Why would I poison you?”

It was a rhetorical question, and I didn't answer. Instead, I stuffed a tablespoon of peas into my mouth. They were delicious—fresh and definitely not canned.

We ate in silence, less the ting of cutlery and chewing, until I looked around the room and asked, “How did you get access to this cabin?”

“I'm renting it, from the woman Mark sold it to,” the professor explained as she started to clear our dishes. “In fact, she's the person I pretended to be when I called. I told Mark I wanted to sell the cabin back to him. And I knew he'd be interested. He only sold it to make himself more alluring to you, Beth, so you would marry him. And now, distraught over losing you, he needs the comfort of something familiar.”

“You called Mark?” I asked.

“I had to, if I wanted him to come here.”

“He's coming
here
?” Beth said. “When?”

The professor checked her watch, and her eyes widened. “In less than an hour, so we better discuss the plan.” She spoke coolly, as if planning an annual fund-raiser.

“Why do you want to do this?” Beth pleaded. “Why can't we just get him fired, like you wanted to do in the first place?”

“Because I realize now, that's not enough. He'll just keep hurting girls. Over and over and over again.”

The professor's voice was tight, stretched like a rubber band ready to break, and her eyes were desperate, dark, and vulnerable. And I knew we'd never leave that cabin, never escape, unless we indulged her. Unless we pretended to go along with her plan.

“If we do this,” I said. “If we . . . you know . . . then you'll let us go?”

“You have my word,” she said.

Beth and I locked eyes then, and an unspoken understanding passed between us.

“Okay,” Beth said. “We'll do it.”

T
he cabin grew chilly once the sun went down, and Professor Barnard started a fire. The flames, primitive and ritualistic, cast an eerie orange glow on everything—the floor, our faces—and set the tone for what Professor Barnard wanted us to do that night. The plan was simple. Get Mark to admit what he'd done and apologize for his cavalier behavior and dishonesty, then punish him in the worst way imaginable to a man.

Beth and I were in position beside the fire when we heard a car on the gravel road. The hum of the engine struck me. There was a whirring, a slight whistle, and I knew it was Mark's Jeep. Beth seemed to know it too. Soon, we heard a knock—one long and two short, like a code—and waited until the professor answered the door before speaking.

“How are we going to do this?” Beth whispered. “Without really doing it? She cares more about hurting him than she does us. I'm afraid she'll shoot us if we diverge from her plan.”

I heard the front door squeak open and gulped down the knot forming in my throat. “When we see a chance to disarm her, we'll take it,” I said.

We heard Mark's immediate surprise when he saw his colleague, Virginia Barnard, answer the cabin door. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I live here,” she said.

“Really?” He let out a huff. “Small world.”

“Good thing,” we heard her say. “Or our paths would not have crossed again.”

“I'm afraid you've lost me,” he said.

“A long time ago, Mark. But I found you.”

“I'm sorry?”

“You will be,” she said.

We heard the cock of a gun then. I held my breath, and I heard Beth do the same.

“What the fuck?” Mark blurted.

Professor Barnard pushed him through the doorway then, digging the gun into his back. “Didn't your mother ever tell you?” she said. “Not to use that kind of language in front of a lady?”

Mark's face seemed to crumble at the sight of us. It lost all structure of cheekbone and turned to a wobble of surprise.

“Beth!” he called before darting for her. But Professor Barnard held him back by the arm and dug the gun farther into his back. His body was contained, but his voice carried the distance. “Beth, you're alive!”

Mark's eyes watered. I could see the dampness shimmer in the firelight.

“I'll kill you,” he spat at Professor Barnard's face. She kicked him in the leg then, hard enough to make him wince, and pushed him into the chair we'd set up for him. And that's when he finally noticed me.

“Is that Ruby?” He stood from his chair in another wave of anger.

There was no time for truth. It wasn't in the script, and it would have to come out later. Once Professor Barnard held the gun to his temple, we worked quickly, tying his hands behind his back and his feet together, and both to the chair. I tried making the knots loose, but the professor noticed.

“Tighter, ladies,” she scolded. “Tighter.”

Once Mark was secured to the chair, she let him have it.

“You're a disgusting excuse for a man,” she said, before elbowing him in the face.

Despite the force, he took the blow well, as if trying to prove he was a man who could take a hit from a woman. His face contorted as the beginning of a bruise crossed his cheek.

“Apologize to these girls,” she said.

“Me? Apologize? You're the crazy bitch who took them.”

This outburst earned Mark another elbow to the jaw. When he grunted through the pain, I felt Beth flinch beside me. I watched Professor Barnard for any sign of weakness, but her hold on the gun was still tight. We'd have to forge ahead.

“Then apologize to me,” Professor Barnard said.

“You?” He threw her an incredulous look. “What for? I hardly know you.”

“You have no idea who I am?”

“A deranged lunatic?”

The professor butted the gun against his cheek like a slap to the face. “Does the name Jenny Barnard ring a bell? Have you forgotten what you did to her? What you did to my sister?”

He stared at her, at first hard and cold and unsympathetically. It had been more than twenty years since Mark had dated that girl at Tulane. But suddenly, his expression turned somber. It was the same sadness I'd seen cross his face on the Tulane campus, before he lied and said Jenny had gone into the Peace Corps.

“She trusted you, Mark,” the professor hissed. “With her heart. With her body. And you stole from her, stole her love, stole her virginity, stole her innocence. You threw her away like a piece of trash, like a worthless banana peel.”

Mark closed his eyes and shook his head. “I was young,” he said. “And stupid. I . . . I never thought she would . . . hurt herself.”

“She didn't hurt herself.
You
hurt her.
You
killed her baby.
You
killed her.”

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I'm so sorry. Just let Beth go. Please, let Beth go.”

For a moment, I saw a look of satisfaction cross Professor Barnard's face, but it was soon replaced with malice. “Sorry isn't good enough,” she spat.

“Then why the fuck did you make me say it?”

She whipped Mark with the butt of the gun again, causing his nose to spurt blood. It dripped down his chin onto his chest.

“You used my sister, and you used Ruby. And Tina. And Madeline. And Julie.”

He whimpered. “Tina? Who's Tina?”

“Say it,” she screamed. “Say you used those innocent girls.”

“Okay, I used them. There, I said it. You have me. Now let Beth go.”

Beth,
I thought. It was Beth he saw the moment he came into the cabin, not me. It was Beth's freedom he was willing to trade his life for, not mine.
He never loved me,
I thought. Not like he loved her, not like he still loves her now. And for a moment, I pitied him. Because I knew Beth didn't love him in return, and she never would. She hurt him just like he hurt me. And still he loved her. He'd do anything—even give his life—for her. At that point, my anger toward Mark eclipsed everything else.

“You stole my work,” I blurted.

Professor Barnard looked at me then like she had earlier that day, when I decided to come forward about my relationship with Mark. She was surprised I spoke, but proud.

“My thesis,” I went on. “You gave me a D, then published it under your name, didn't you?”

He didn't answer at first, and the professor pressed the gun to his temple. “Answer her,” she charged.

“Yes,” he said.

“You stole Madeline's work too. And Julie's.”

“Yes,” he repeated.

“And you wrote about me. You used what happened to me as material for publication.”

He shook his head. Another drop of blood fell from his chin. “I never wrote about you.”

“But I saw it on your computer, Mark,” I argued. “What you wrote after I tried to kill myself.
Her fractured mind.
You called me
delusional,
and said I
saw things that weren't there
. You wrote that about me.”

He paused. “I wrote that about my mother.”

“Your mother?”

“She was . . . schizophrenic.”

“You never told me that,” Beth said.

“It's not something I wanted to tell. She was everything that word connotes. She heard voices. Saw people lurking in shadows. She was paranoid. And she tried to kill herself a couple of times when I was kid.” His eyes circled the room. “In this cabin.”

Looking at Mark, with blood staining his face and shirt, I saw him not as a manipulative womanizer but as a young, innocent, and vulnerable boy wrestling with his mother's insanity, struggling for her affection, wondering why he wasn't enough reason for his mother to want to live. Professor Barnard must have sensed my sudden sympathy for Mark, because she pulled a utility knife from her pocket then and handed it to me.

“That's enough talking,” she ordered. “Let's get this over with.”

I looked down at the knife; its blade gleamed in the flicker of firelight. My heartbeat thumped in my head. “But I thought we were going to tie—”

“That's for his pants,” the professor spat. “You'll have to cut them off.”