Better Late Than Never
Page 1
Berkley Prime Crime titles by Jenn McKinlay
Cupcake Bakery Mysteries
SPRINKLE WITH MURDER
BUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF
DEATH BY THE DOZEN
RED VELVET REVENGE
GOING, GOING, GANACHE
SUGAR AND ICED
DARK CHOCOLATE DEMISE
VANILLA BEANED
Library Lover’s Mysteries
BOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING
DUE OR DIE
BOOK, LINE, AND SINKER
READ IT AND WEEP
ON BORROWED TIME
A LIKELY STORY
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Hat Shop Mysteries
CLOCHE AND DAGGER
DEATH OF A MAD HATTER
AT THE DROP OF A HAT
COPY CAP MURDER
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Copyright © 2016 by Jennifer McKinlay Orf
Excerpt from Assault and Beret by Jenn McKinlay copyright © 2016 by
Jennifer McKinlay Orf
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diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McKinlay, Jenn, author.
Title: Better late than never / Jenn McKinlay.
Description: First edition. | New York : Berkley Prime Crime, [2016] |
Series: A library lover’s mystery ; 7
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019630 (print) | LCCN 2016024007 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780399583735 (hardback) | ISBN 9780399583742 (ebook)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. |
GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3612.A948 B48 2016 (print) | LCC PS3612.A948 (ebook) |
DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019630
First Edition: November 2016
Ebook ISBN: 9780399583742
Cover art by Julia Green
Cover design by Rita Frangie
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product
of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly
as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs
that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
Version_1
Contents
Also by Jenn Mckinlay
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
The Briar Creek Guide to Crafternoons
Recipes
Excerpt from ASSAULT AND BERET
My library career has been full and rich, allowing me to work in a wide variety of libraries over the years with so many truly amazing and brilliant people. So, this is my shout-out to all of those libraries and the remarkable people who work in them: East Lyme Public Library, Cromwell Belden Public Library, Andalucia School Library, Phoenix Public Library, Maricopa County Public Library, Desert Botanical Garden Research Library and Scottsdale Healthcare Medical Library. I believe all the way to my soul that libraries are the heart of their communities, the backbone of our society and the place where every man, woman and child can discover the elemental truth that is—if you can dream it, you can be it.
Acknowledgments
As always, I have such a wonderful team of people getting me to the finish line with my stories there will never be enough champagne or chocolate to thank them for all that they do. So here are my humble thanks to my wonderful agent, Christina Hogrebe; my fabulous editor, Kate Seaver, and assistant editor Katherine Pelz; the amazing artist who does my covers, Julia Green; and the entire team at Berkley Prime Crime who have been so supportive of me for all of my series. I consider myself very lucky to have you all in my corner.
“Let the wild rumpus start!” Beth Stanley cried as the cart of books she had stacked to bursting abruptly regurgitated its contents all over the Briar Creek Public Library’s main floor with a loud rushing noise followed by slaps and thumps as the books landed on the ground.
“Shhh!” Ms. Cole hissed. She was an old-school librarian—nicknamed “the lemon” because of her frequently puckered disposition—who was in charge of the circulation of materials for the library located on the Connecticut shore.
“Sorry, I tried to stop it but I couldn’t hold it in,” Beth said. She was wearing a crown and carrying a sparkling scepter, which was really a bejeweled cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper with a tissue-paper flower sticking out of the end.
Lindsey noted the tail pinned to the back of her yoga pants and the pointy ears poking out beneath her crown. With her short, dark hair styled in wild disarray, Beth bore a remarkable resemblance to Max, the character she was representing.
“Where the Wild Things Are for story time?” Lindsey guessed.
“Best story time book ever,” Beth said.
“Brilliant! I love Maurice Sendak,” Paula Turner said.
“No one asked you,” Ms. Cole said. Her glance was frosty as she took in her part-time clerk with undisguised suspicion.
Paula was the library’s newly hired clerk, and with her sleeve of colorful arm tattoos and long hair dyed a deep purple, she had been a challenge for the conservative Ms. Cole to supervise from day one.
“That’ll do, people,” Lindsey Norris said. She was the director of the small library and tried to maintain some semblance of order. “We have three more loaded book trucks coming in. We need to make room behind the desk.”
“There is no more room,” Ms. Cole said. Her tone was as dry as butterless toast, and if she were anyone else Lindsey might have thought she was teasing. Ms. Cole was not.
A monochromatic dres
ser, Ms. Cole was in all black today, as if she were in mourning. Lindsey figured she probably was, given that they were holding their first annual fine amnesty day, which went against everything in which Ms. Cole believed.
She was a punitive sort who enjoyed using fines and shushing to curb their patrons’ naughty behavior. Lindsey had been trying to get her to roll with the times for a couple of years now. It was a battle.
“Why don’t we get the crafternoon ladies to help?” Beth suggested. She was picking up the books that had fallen off of her cart. Lindsey and Paula helped her. Ms. Cole did not.
“In what way?” Lindsey asked. She stacked the books back on the cart.
“They can fine-sort the book trucks that are already checked in, which will make room for the new ones,” Beth said. “In fact, if we wheel the trucks to the meeting room, we can do that while we discuss our book of the week.”
“They are not cleared to work in the library,” Ms. Cole protested.
“Drastic times,” Lindsey said. She looked at Paula and Beth. “Let’s wheel the checked-in carts to the crafternoon room to make room for the incoming.”
“I really must protest,” Ms. Cole said.
“Of course you must,” Lindsey said. She met Ms. Cole’s upset gaze with her own and tried to channel her inner calm. “Answer me this: Do you have a better idea?”
“You mean aside from never having another fine amnesty day ever again?” the lemon asked. “No.”
“Then to the crafternoon room it is,” Lindsey said.
She, Beth and Paula each took a cart and pushed it to the back room where the crafternoon ladies met every Thursday afternoon to eat, discuss a book and work on a craft.
As they entered the room, they found Nancy Peyton and Violet La Rue already in place on the comfy couches placed in the center of the room. Violet had been in charge of the food today, so it was ham and cheese sliders, potato soup and a veggie platter.
Lindsey felt her stomach rumble. She tried to remember the last time she’d eaten. It must have been last night because when she’d arrived at the library this morning, the book drop had been full to bursting. She’d skipped breakfast to help unload it and hadn’t had a chance to think about eating since.
“What’s this?” Nancy asked as the parade of carts appeared.
Nancy was Lindsey’s landlord as well as one of her crafternoon buddies. A widow, Nancy had inherited her old captain’s house when her husband, Jake, went down with his ship many years ago. Nancy then turned it into a three-family house and rented out the top two floors. Lindsey lived on the third level while Nancy’s nephew Charlie Peyton was the filler in their house sandwich and resided on the second floor.
“How married are you to the idea of doing a craft today?” Lindsey asked.
“Not very. Why?” Violet asked.
She was dressed in her usual jewel-toned caftan, which made her dark complexion glow. A retired Broadway actress, Violet had an innate grace and flair that, despite her gray hair, which she wore scraped into a tight bun at the back of her head, made her seem eternally youthful. Truly, she could command a room like nobody’s business. Right now, her tone was cautious. Smart lady.
“I’m throwing myself on your mercy,” Lindsey said. She bowed with her arms out in obeisance just so they would know she was sincere. “We are so far behind on sorting the books that have been returned we may never catch up. Would you ladies be willing to help us get these trucks in order?”
Nancy and Violet exchanged a glance. The two ladies were longtime best friends and Lindsey knew they communicated without words. It was no surprise to her when they both faced her and answered at the same time.
“Yes, of course,” they said together.
“Is Ms. Cole going to come in here and yell at us for eating near the books?” Violet asked. “Because that would be a problem for me.”
“So long as we don’t eat over the books, I think we’ll be okay,” Lindsey said.
“Food, I need food!” Mary Murphy hustled into the room with Charlene La Rue right behind her.
“Girl, every time I see you, you are either eating or napping,” Nancy said. “Are you feeling all right?”
She moved to stand beside the food table and loaded a plate for Mary before the woman even had her jacket off.
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Mary said. “Just storing up for winter, you know, like a squirrel.”
“It’s May,” Violet said. “You keep packing it in like this and you’ll be able to hibernate for two winters.”
“Heh heh.” Mary laughed uneasily and her gaze darted to Lindsey.
Lindsey smiled at her to let her know her secret was still safe. The truth was Mary was pregnant with her first child. Lindsey had figured it out, but the others were still clueless. Lindsey had promised Mary she wouldn’t say a word to anyone, including Mary’s brother Sully, who Lindsey had an on-and-off-again sort of relationship with, so Mary’s news and the fact that Lindsey knew about it and Sully didn’t made things a teensy bit complicated.
Charlene La Rue paused beside her mother, Violet, to kiss her cheek. Charlene had inherited her mother’s slender grace and beauty but instead of going into theater, Charlene was a television reporter in New Haven. With the career and the husband and kids her schedule was packed to bursting, but she kept her crafternoon Thursday commitment because it was one of the few times she got to spend with her mother and talk about something besides the children.
Thankfully, everyone was on board with fine-sorting the books while they discussed their book of the week, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
It took three trips to bring all of the extra carts into the crafternoon room, but once they were in, they all took a cart and began arranging the books for shelving.
“Question,” Charlene asked. “How far do I go following the Dewey number?”
“Meaning?” Beth asked.
“Can I just lump all the 398.2 books together or do I go all the way to the letter that follows?” Charlene asked.
Lindsey glanced at Beth and said, “I still believe in 398.2, how about you?”
Beth laughed. Mary and the others frowned.
“I don’t get it,” Nancy said.
“I do.” Charlene glanced up from her cart. “Judging by these books, 398.2 is the base number for fairy tales. Won’t Sully and Robbie be happy to know that she still believes in happy ever after.”
“Ah, yes, but who will be her Prince Charming?” Violet asked.
“Oh, no,” Lindsey said. “There is no charming anyone for me. Thank you very much.”
She shook her head back and forth to emphasize her point. She’d been keeping her personal life on the down low and had no intention of sharing any information until she knew where it was going. “We are not discussing my love life or lack thereof, not when we have Beth’s new relationship to dissect and discuss.”
“Way to throw me under the gossip train,” Beth said. Then she grinned. “But since you asked, Aidan is wonderful. He’s funny and smart, handsome and kind.” She sighed. “I’ve never been happier.”
The woman positively glowed and Lindsey was pretty sure her crown sparkled for real. The other ladies all sighed with her and Lindsey was relieved to have successfully distracted them.
“Has the ‘L’ word been used yet?” Mary asked through a mouthful of ham and cheese.
“Not yet,” Beth said. She fretted her lower lip between her teeth. “Should it have been? We’ve been dating for three months. Who says it first? Should I say it first? I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
“It should just come naturally,” Nancy said.
“She’s right, but I’d wait and let him say it first,” Charlene said. “I knew I was in love with Martin after the first two months, but I let him take the lead on the ‘L’ word. Men can be pretty skittish about declarat
ions of love.”
“Ian said it first,” Mary said. “Of course, I didn’t really have a chance since he said ‘I love you’ the very first moment he saw me. I think our meeting went something like me saying, ‘Hi, I’m Mary,’ to which he replied, ‘Yes, I’ll marry you. I’ve been madly in love with you since you walked through the door five seconds ago.’”
Lindsey laughed. She could see Ian doing just that. Mary was a lovely woman with thick curls of red-brown hair and sparkling blue eyes, and Ian was, well, not so much of a looker. But he had personality by the bucketful and he adored his wife, which Mary never took for granted.
“Speaking of the ‘L’ word and relationships, here’s my question about the book,” Nancy said. “What does a strong female like Hester see in a spineless sniveler like Dimwit?”
“Dimmesdale,” Violet said.
“Whatever,” Nancy said. “I hated him.”
“I think that was the point. Hawthorne portrays him as weak and Hester as strong even though she’s treated very badly for adultery while he hides behind his position and does nothing to protect her,” Charlene said. “What did you think of him, Mary?”
“Huh?” Mary asked through a mouthful of soup.
“What did you think about Dimmesdale?”
Mary looked chagrinned. “No idea. I didn’t finish the book. Frankly, when I got to Hawthorne’s eighth use of the word ignominy, I quit.”
Beth started to laugh and the others joined in.
“I’m serious. That word does not roll through my head,” Mary said. “Every time it cropped up, I had to stop and sound it out and it never felt right and then I was just irritated, so I quit.”
“Hawthorne loved that word,” Lindsey said. “I read a critique where it said he uses ignominy sixteen times in the book, ignominious seven times, and ignominiously once.”
“Ugh.” Mary looked pained as she spooned more soup into her mouth.
The rest of the crafternooners shared amused looks but no one chastised Mary for quitting on the book. They weren’t very strict about that part of being a crafternooner, or any part of being a crafternooner for that matter.