Page 7 of The Butterfly Killer

“What’d yah say?” Larry had started to away and turned around.

“Nothing,” Marcus replied as he stood. “I’m going there now.”

Larry started talking to his partner who was as old as he was. Marcus glared as the two walked away.

If he had a hit list…

He shoved the thought aside, grabbed his finished paperwork (and Larry’s) and headed to the filing office. He was done for the day. He just needed to turn these in. And then it would be another day over with.

Another day he didn’t get any closer to finding the Butterfly Killer and getting his revenge.

Sally gave him the stink eye as she flipped through Larry’s stack of papers.

“None of these are in date.”

She pulled a couple from the bottom of the stack. They snagged on the old rusty paperclip. She ripped them out with a good couple tugs. The paperclip went flying and landed somewhere behind her.

She gave him another look over her turquoise blue reading glasses. “And these are several months old.”

She scanned the page.

Marcus shuffled on his feet, still holding his paperwork he’d done today and would definitely meet her strict criteria. However, it would mean more work for her.

“Officer Greene asked me to?—”

“File these for you?” She looked at him like it was his fault the paperwork wasn’t filled in correctly. “Next time follow the rules. You know it’s restricted to file someone else’s paperwork for them.”

She tutted as she looked over more of the papers. “Sit down while I try and get this sorted. I hope you don’t have anything planned for tonight.”

Before he could ask her what she meant by that, she walked off to the backroom where the files were kept.

He let out a defeated sigh as he listened to her kitten-heels click on the floor. The sound drifted away and he turned to look at the waiting chairs. The ugly brown pleather made his skin crawl.

He sat in them anyway. He pulled out his phone and started to browse instagram. He was following a few people from highschool though he wasn’t really friends with them. He hadn’t been friends with anyone since middle school, but that was years ago.

He laughed at some dumb posts. They made him forget about work and the dark real world things he had to witness day-in and day-out. He got swept in it so fast it felt strange when he had to look away when Sally came back.

He shot up toward her desk. She handed him newly printed paperwork.

His brows furrowed. “What’s this?”

“The paperwork was late. Now you have to fill out late forms for it.”

He inwardly groaned. Now he knew why Larry wanted him to do this.

He handed over his own paperwork. She held up a hand.

“Oh no,” she said while checking her watch. “I’m off the clock. You’ll have to turn those in tomorrow.”

She grabbed her small purse and started toward the door. “Come on. I’m closing up.”

Marcus was dumfounded that not only did he have more work to do tonight, but he would have to fill out late-forms tomorrow.

Fuck this whole place.

The station was empty except for a couple officers that worked the night-shift. He was back in the sad kitchen, watching the old coffee maker spit out a large cup of black liquid. He wished Patrice was here. Not just so he’d force another cup of his delicious coffee on him, but also so he’d keep Marcus company.

It was nights like these that made it more obvious he was lonely. His sister lived states away with her family and while it made him happy she was living her life to the fullest, it made him sad he hadn’t found that kind of happiness yet.

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