Page 117 of Butterfly

Pichard shifted, pulling Ollie away from the bar. Ollie let go at the scratch in his neck, the warning that if he didn’t cooperate, Pichard would pump him full of something sinister.

“We go way back. We were friends. We were more than friends. Then we weren’t.”

Ollie closed his eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“Did you know when he was recovering from his operation, he couldn’t even walk?”

Ollie opened his eyes. “Ididknow that, actually.”

“Oh, he told you, did he? Paralysis down his right side. He had to be wheeled about. Guess who did the wheeling?”

Ollie widened his eyes. “You were at the hospital with him?”

“It was one of my placements when I was training. Hardly anyone bothered with him. He dribbled, and he growled, and he fell out of bed all the time.” Pichard chuckled. “But I bothered with him. I took the time to bother with him even though he wasn’t my responsibility. I got to know him. Even when he was well enough to go home, we kept seeing each other. We got to know each other very well.”

“You’re the boyfriend,” Ollie murmured.

“He told you about me?”

“He said jealousy ruined your relationship.”

Pichard chuckled. “Jealousy? It was Teddy remaining friends with Gary that killed our relationship. And Gary was so smug about it, so persistent.”

“That’s why you started the fire? To warn Gary off?”

“He deserved it. The others…they were unfortunate casualties. They weren’t supposed to die.”

“It was you. You made Teddy take the blame.”

“I didn’t make Teddy do anything. But it was his fault I got so angry. It was his fault I reacted. I was three years into my training. I was going to be someone. A doctor. I am a good doctor. What future did Teddy have? He had no education. He couldn’t talk or write. He couldn’t do anything. The fact was, my life was worth more than his.”

“That’s not true,” Ollie snapped.

“He took the blame because he knew it was his fault. He should’ve chosen me over his friendship with Gary. He took the blame because he knew my life had more value than his, and if I’d had been locked up behind bars, I never would’ve been able to help people—save them. My actions took the lives of four people, but I’ve saved countless, Ollie. That’s what you don’t understand. Teddy knows that. Teddy understands. He went to prison. I moved on with my life. I completed my training and became the doctor I was always meant to be—”

“Then why…” Ollie spat. “Why would you work at Hollybrook of all places?”

“I didn’t at first,” Pichard admitted softly. “But I met Callum. He’s the love of my life, and I’ll do anything to keep him. I couldn’t wait around for the day Teddy decided he wanted out of prison life. I had to make sure he stayed put, so I took the job at Hollybrook.”

“To keep an eye on him, to keep him under control?”

“Every time an inmate got too close to him, every time I thought they might awaken a desire in him to get out of there, to be more than an animal in a cage, I got rid of them.”

Ollie sucked in a breath.

“Oh please.” Pichard chuckled. “There are other ways to get rid of inmates. I’m a doctor, and being on the hospital wing, I hearrumours. Rumours like Teddy pressurising his cellmates for sex, rumours like them being scared and intimidated by him but too afraid to say anything in case he reacts. And being a doctor, it’s my responsibility to tell the governor of these rumours so he can intervene before something happens and an inmate ends up being sent to me.”

“You made it up. You got them moved wings?”

“Wings, sometimes even prisons.” Pichard blew out a breath at the back of Ollie’s neck. “I didn’t let him get close to anyone.”

“What about Ryan?”

Pichard hummed. “He was difficult. He told the governor the rumours were bullshit and the inmates in the hospital wing were having a laugh at my expense for being so gullible. He told the governor him and Teddy were friends, and the governor…he believed Ryan over me. He let him stay in Hollybrook, on that wing, in that cell. Ryan humiliated me. So I had to get rid of him another way. There was a virus going around the wing. Some inmates were too sick to even leave their cells, so I had to go to them. Ryan complained of a migraine, so I gave him something for the pain. Teddy was in the gym at the time. He had no idea I’d gone in to see Ryan on my way back from visiting one of the sicker inmates.”

“It was morphine?”

“Yes, I’d been carrying it around a while, waiting for a chance. It was too strong a dose for Ryan’s body to handle. He died in his sleep. Teddy got dragged to the segregation unit and beat himself up over Ryan’s death. He knew it was me. I told him it was his fault. He wasn’t allowed to get close to his cellmates. Every time he did, I’d find a way of getting rid of them, and if he ever tried to tell…no one would believe him. Grunting, growling,crazyTeddy Saul.” Pichard snorted. “He understood I was in control, and it was fine. For a year, I didn’t have to worry, and then you arrived.”

---