THE BLIND BUTTERFLY

 This story comes from the beginning years of the 20th century from a small town in the Great Britain . Mr .Duke Butterfly was a very lonely , unmarried man in his 40s . He lived away from the main town at the mouth of the woods in a huge but very old bungalow with his 100 plus years old grandma , Mrs . Butterfly . She was very old , with no energy , blind , deaf and spent her days on the wheelchair . She only thin gruels which was fed to her by her grandson , Mr . Butterfly . Mr. Butterfly used to be a doctor but had left his profession , few years back and no one knew the reason behind it . There were rumours that the doctor was passing through some mental disorder and no patients went to him enforcing him to leave his profession , though they were just rumours . From the past two years , Mr. Butterfly had isolated himself from the rest of the world . Only two people would visit his house , one was his maid who was given the responsibility to clean Mrs. Butterfly everyday and clean the house once a week . The other one was the cop head of the town Peter , who was the friend of Mr. Butterfly . Peter visited Mr. Butterfly's house as and when he got time to enquire about his grandma .  In the two years , after the doctor had left his job ,  he had only visited five times . Mr. Butterfly was a very quite person from the start and hand not many friends , only one to he precise (the cop) . Though he had a huge house , no one visited there except the two . There was a huge garden in front of his house which was least cared about and looked like it was dug at multiple places . In the backyard of the house was an old , untidy and shabby horse stable where in there were no horses . It was very huge as if there were a lot of horses in the past . The roof of the house was shattered and filled with a dirty mixture of algae and dried leaves and was never cleaned . Though the doctor was careless towards all other things , he never failed to take care of his grandma , especially after leaving his profession. He spent his living in the pre-earned property rents and interests .

One day it was Mrs . Butterfly's 110th birthday and Mr.Butterfly had arranged a party for the same . As Mr.Butterfly had no friends , it was only him and his granny in the party . He had invited his maid , on call , but she had given him a decision that she would no more come to their house to work and she had also advised him to look for another maid . Though Peter , the cop was his only friend, he didn't invite him for the party . Rather he decided to enjoy himself all alone . He had bought a cake , few bottles of wine and ordered for food from a nearby restaurant . He had decorated his house as if there was a grand party where a lot of people were going to come . He himself enjoyed the party , drank , danced , ate and fed Mrs. Butterfly both cake and wine . As she wasn't able to eat the cake , he poured a full bottle of wine in her mouth . It was very strange that Mrs. Butterfly had the full bottle without any signs of refusal . Out of nowhere , Peter , the cop arrived there with a bouquet in his hand and shouted out of excitement , " SURPRISE !" Mr. Butterfly was very shocked to see Peter there but he warmly welcomed him with a glass of wine . " Duke , Where is the birthday girl ?" , asked Peter . "There she is !" , Duke pointed at Mrs . Butterfly . Peter , "This is your present grandma " , keeps the bouquet on the dining table . Peter took a piece of cake and tried to feed Mrs . Butterfly but Mr. Butterfly stopped him from doing so saying , " No Peter , she won't be able to swallow it . Instead give her this wine ". Peter replied , " Soft things are fine right , Mr.Doctor ? " . " No , they're not !" " What about the bun I had brought for her the last month ? She didn't ate ? " , asked Peter . With a little awkwardness , Mr. Butter replied , " I fed those to the cats in the neighborhood " . " But soft things would work for her a few years back right ? And you didn't even tell me this the last time I visited !" . "Is this the time to talk about this ? It's a party man ! Let's enjoy ! " , said Mr . Butterfly . With a deep laughter , Peter took the glass of wine and poured the drink into her mouth . But as soon as he fed her the wine , all of it flowed out . Her body had fallen cold and loose . Peter , being a cop , had sensed something wrong with Mrs. Butterfly . He checked her nerves and to a harsh surprise , she was dead ! 

Peter found it very difficult to covey the news to Mr. Butterfly but he showed courage and told him that she was dead . Peter screamed out of pain and started crying like a three year old . " O grandma , My grandma ! What happened to you ? She was alive just now . She drank a full bottle of wine (cries) " . On this Peter reverted , " No Dear Duke , she looks like she is dead few days ago and not today " . Peter by his rough knowledge , could find that she was dead few days prior the birthday . He also got the smell of something wrong . He told Mr. Butterfly that he doubts her death and would take the case further and present the culprit before him. Mr. Butterfly refused and said , " She was already very old and she is dead now . Nothing fishy but the lord is examining us . First went my job and now my grandma ( cries ) . Don't take it further . Do not put salt on my wound " . Peter replied , " No Duke , I have to stand for you now . I really know this is not a natural death but a murder . How could you not sense this , you're a doctor ! "  Mr. Butterfly could note that Peter doubted him and so he told him to take over this case .

The dead body was taken to the forensic lab and this led to the beginning of the case in actual sense . Until the body went under observation , Peter had started enquiring about the death . He knew that Mr. Butterfly had not many visitors at his home except for the maid . He asked Mr. Butterfly about the maid . Mr. Butterfly told Peter that the maid had left the job few days ago and she is no more the maid of the house . Peter asked Mr. Butterfly her address but he refused to give it to him . Mr. Butterfly said , " She is a poor , helpless woman , wife of a drunkard . She's living a miserable life herself . She would not even think of doing such a serious stuff ." Peter replied , " My dear innocent friend , how do you not know that criminals always show their righteousness and decency . Never fall prey to them ." After a small skirmish between Peter and Mr. Butterfly , Peter got the address of the maid . He reached out to the maid's house with a lady constable and was in wonder that she did not appear like a maid instead was well dressed like a perfect middle class woman . He told her about Mrs. Butterfly's murder and started their enquiry. Peter asked , " Why did you leave the job even if you are living miserably , as heard " . The maid replied , " I had my divorce with my earlier drunkard husband . I re-married a gentleman and he told me not to work anymore as a maid as he had a worthy stipend ". " Are you unsure about anyone who must have been involved in this murder ? " , asked Peter . The maid said , " Sire , she was a 100 plus years old woman , who would kill her and for what purpose , neither she had reserves of gold nor she owned any property . " Peter again , " Did you notice anything suspicious in the house or in your sir (Mr. Butterfly) ? ". The maid reverted , " Nothing suspicious in the house as the house was not less than any wrecked apartment , though it was huge . About my sir ... (thinks) ... Nothing as such ! He did not allow me to bathe Mrs . Butterfly in the past two years , he did it himself , not a suspicion and yes the uninhabited horse stable was a thing. He made me clean it two years ago and that was the last time I went there as he had strictly prohibited me from opening it . Also yes ! He once yelled at me when I asked him about the post dug in the garden space . From then I only minded my work once I went there . "

Before the maid could talk anything more , Peter got a phone call from the forensic department . He was called in the laboratory . While leaving  asked the lady constable to keep a watch on the maid .Peter went to the laboratory and to a shock he discovered that Mrs . Butterfly had died around two years ago due to wrong medication. Also the dead body was kept fresh for the two years by giving injections. Peter knew that such injections can only be given by any forensic expert or a doctor . Yes , he had started developing a doubt on Mr. Butterfly . The report also said that Mrs. Butterfly was given a medicine which is normally given to horses who fight in the wars and especially those who get hurt by bullets . The most astonishing thing was that this horse medicine was discovered just 8 months prior to that day .

He soon remembered about the horse stable at Mr. Butterfly's house and thought that there's something fishy . He went to his house and opened the stable though refused by Mr. Butterfly . There he could find a pit exactly at the centre of the stable . He dug the pit more deeper and he could find a horse skeleton . There was a bullet hit on the hind legs of the horse and the bullet still was there . There were many such pits around and also some in the garden area . All the pits were dug and there were around 23 horse skeletons buried with a bullet on their legs. In few pits the cops could find syringes , medicine bottles and many other chemicals . This in all gave a very filthy and mucky smell . Peter's doubt on Mr. Butterfly had now strengthened and he was booked for enquiry .

Frightened Mr. Butterfly confessed that he was the culprit and he had killed his grandma , two years ago . He said , " There was race in the market for finding the nostrum (medicine)  for the bullet shot horses in the wars . The first person to find an effective person was to be awarded with a National Level Prize and also would be nominated for the Nobel Prize because a lot of horses dies during war due to advancement of weapons . Even I was a part of the rat race to find the nostrum . I attempted to create a lot of nostrums but none of them failed . In the coarse I had killed more than twenty horses and I felt guilty for that .I used to shoot the horses and feed them the nostrum for experiment but none of then survived . I also had put in a lot of my savings besides my efforts . But even after trying multiple times , failure was the only thing I could get. One night out of depression I was highly drunk . The same time my grandma asked for her dosage ; and out of my silly puzzlement I offered her a wrong medicine , in fact the medicine which I had experimented on the last killed horse . Due to the wrong medicine and heavy dosage ,  as  it wasn't meant for humans , grandma had an cardiac arrest and she had her last breathe . I being a doctor could find her dead the next morning once I was in my senses but I had lost her . My maid was to come and so I had given an injection to keep the dead body fresh and so as to hide my folly from the others I pretended as if she was alive . Out of guilt and fear , I left going to my clinic or else my maid would have spotted her dead when I wasn't at home . Even when you (Peter) visited us , I used to avoid your meet by some stupid reasons . I didn't do it with any intention but that was an accident (cries)". 

Peter with a mixed feeling of care , anger , sadness and responsibility reverted  , " Though you are my friend , you are a criminal . Your biggest mistake was putting blinds over the accident which made it a murder . You thought the world is brainless and blind ; but you're the real brainless , you're the real blind , Mr. Butterfly !"