Page 43 of Butterfly

Jarvis grabbed the bowl on the desk, full of what looked like white mints individually wrapped. “Or if not these, something chewier, fruitier?”

“You don’t happen to have any chocolate, do you?”

“As it happens, I do.”

Jarvis opened up a drawer in his desk and swapped the bowl of mints for a bowl of smarties.

“They’re Ben’s favourites.”

“Who?”

“Captain.” Jarvis smirked.

“How many bowls of sweets do you have in there?” Ollie asked.

“Enough.”

Ollie closed his eyes. “I’ve come to the wrong place.”

“No, you haven’t. Now take a handful.”

Ollie did with a smile. “On the outside, I used to pick out all the orange ones. They’re my favourites.”

Jarvis nodded. “I’ll make a note of it. Orange ones for Oliver.”

“Ollie. I prefer Ollie.”

“And I prefer Jarvis over doctor, or Doctor Jarvis, or indeed my first name.”

“What’s your first name?”

“You don’t find that out until session five.” Jarvis winked. “Now the pleasantries are out of the way, we can get down to business.”

Ollie’s stomach churned.

“Why did you make an appointment with me?”

“Captain said it might help.”

“It might,” Jarvis said with a sympathetic smile.

Ollie hid his hands beneath the desk. “You seem nice.”

Jarvis frowned. “Thank you.”

“And right now, you’re looking at me like…like a nice person too, but it’s not true. Nice people don’t do what I’ve done or feel the way I do.”

“And what is it you’ve done?”

“I murdered my father.”

Jarvis didn’t blink. His kind expression remained the same.

“I stabbed him twenty times with a kitchen knife I’d hidden under my pillow.”

Jarvis gestured with his hand for Ollie to continue.

“He was asleep, completely unaware. I climbed on his bed and stabbed him, and once I started stabbing him, I couldn’t stop. I only stopped when I realised my younger brother, Leo, was watching from the doorway.”

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