She Killed Them All to Save Her Sister

4: 4

4

Seeing me lose control, Captain Chavez frowned slightly.

"Ms. Henson, we're only doing this for your own good. Please don't do anything rash."

I stepped straight up to him and slapped him hard across the face.

"It wasn't your husband who died, so of course it means nothing to you!"

I raised my hand to hit him again.

Silvia rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me. "Captain, you go on ahead. I've got this. There won't be any trouble."

Chavez looked at me for a long moment.

His eyes were complicated.

There was scrutiny in them, and doubt, and a trace of pity mixed with helplessness.

After he left, Silvia stayed with me and walked me back to my room.

We talked all night.

I told her a great deal about Fred and me, from how we met, to falling in love, to getting married.

She listened closely, sometimes pressing me with questions, unwilling to let a single detail slip past.

And I spoke of it earnestly, so earnestly.

A few days later, Chavez came back with news, ruling out that lover of Fred's as a suspect.

His eyes were still studying me. "Blanche, your husband was having an affair. Did you know that?"

The emotion broke loose all at once, and the tears spilled over.

"Of course I knew. But what was I supposed to do?"

"Both my first two husbands died. This was already my third."

"Do you know what the neighbors and the people in the village said about me?"

"They said I was a jinx, a woman cursed to bring death to her husbands, an unlucky woman!"

"I didn't want to admit it. I didn't want a divorce! I didn't want a divorce!"

I was nearly falling apart.

After I screamed those words, all the strength drained out of me and I slid down to the floor.

Chavez held out his hand to me. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

I looked at his outstretched hand and ignored it.

I turned my face away. "I don't want to see you."

He sighed and had no choice but to leave in silence.

For a while after that, Chavez still came often, trading day and night shifts with Silvia.

The way he looked at me slowly shifted from doubt and scrutiny into something like pity, and I could even feel something in his eyes I couldn't quite name.

Little by little, I stopped hating him so much.

Half a month later.

Not the slightest progress.

I cooked a meal and invited Chavez and Silvia to eat.

After the meal, Chavez and the others pulled back and no longer kept watch on my home.

A few more days passed.

Someone rang the doorbell.

It was Chavez, two potted plants in his arms. "I saw the flowers on your balcony had withered, so I bought you two new ones."

"Thank you. Come in."

I stepped aside.

Chavez carried the plants over and set them on the balcony.

He asked, puzzled, "Hm? Where are those two pots you had before?"

I said calmly, "They all died, so of course I threw them out."

His eyes went suddenly hard. The look he gave me no longer carried its old pity; it turned colder by the second.

Fixed on me like a hawk on its prey, he asked in a grave voice, "Threw them out where?"

Seeing him so serious, I smiled. "Does it matter where I threw them?"

He kept muttering to himself, his eyes full of regret. "I get it. I finally get it!"

I looked at him and smiled. "Get what?"

Chavez took a frightened step back, his gaze sweeping me from head to toe. "You're the killer!"

I looked at him, baffled. "Captain, what nonsense are you spouting now?"

Fear in his eyes, he said, trembling, "I've only just worked it out—how you managed to kill all three of your husbands from a thousand miles away!"

"You really are a devil. A devil!"