Better Late Than Never

by Jenn McKinlay

  Herb never lost his cool. Never. What had happened in here that he had Tim, the head of human resources, dangling in the air as if Herb was the school bully trying to shake lunch money out of the weaker kid?

  Herb snapped his head in her direction. Veins throbbed in his neck and his eyes were full of rage. For a moment Lindsey wondered if he was going to come after her next.

  “Herb! Drop him!” she said. She used her misbehaving-patron voice, which was more of a sharp bark but it usually got the point across.

  Herb let go of Tim’s shirt and stepped back. Tim fell to the ground and began to choke and cough. He put a hand at his throat and glared at Herb.

  “He tried to kill me,” Tim accused. He pointed one stubby finger at Herb and turned to Lindsey. “You’re my witness.”

  Lindsey crossed her arms over her chest and studied Tim. She didn’t like him. She had never liked him. He was a sawed-off little spark plug of a man, who derived a sense of power from his position by denying people’s requests instead of facilitating them. She had gone more than a few rounds with him over vacations, extended leaves and overtime for her staff. He had been particularly vicious about her newest hire, Paula Turner, when she didn’t come with the required three references. Lindsey had to go over his head to the mayor to argue for Paula.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said. “The next time you boys want to act out whatever big play was on SportsCenter last night could you kindly not do it before a staff meeting? It’s incredibly unprofessional.”

  Herb opened his mouth to say something. Lindsey knew he was going to be honest about what had happened and Tim would use it to get him fired and then Tim would go for the job he’d always wanted: Herb’s. The thought of having to work more closely and under the direct supervision of Tim struck terror into her heart. Not an exaggeration.

  “That’s not—” Tim sputtered, but she didn’t listen.

  “Herb, I need you,” Lindsey said.

  She grabbed Herb by the arm and yanked him out of the meeting room before he could cause irreparable damage to his career. Thankfully, no one else had arrived yet and she could get this situation under control before the whole thing got out of hand, so to speak.

  She pulled Herb down the hall, noting that his face color receded from crazy mad red to a slightly overheated pink as they went.

  They passed Jason Meeger, the head of sanitation, on his way down the hall. He gave them a curious look—everyone knew that Herb never missed a meeting, nor was he ever late for a meeting, and it was now three minutes after the hour and he was headed in the wrong direction.

  “I just need to borrow him for a sec,” Lindsey said. “Library stuff, we’ll be back in five.”

  Jason looked as if he’d been handed a reprieve and Lindsey knew he’d been dreading the meeting as much as she had, which was ironic given that Jason mostly slept through them. She would have thought he’d miss the nap time.

  She shoved Herb into his office and shut the door behind them. She said nothing while he paced back and forth, obviously trying to get ahold of himself. Finally, he stopped and turned to face her. He looked distraught.

  “What happened back there?” she asked.

  “I lost my temper,” he said. “I haven’t done that since . . . Well, in a very long time. Thank you for trying to make it less than it was.”

  “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” Lindsey said. “I’m assuming you two were being knuckleheads and that’s that.”

  “I have to go talk to the mayor,” he said.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Maybe you should just take a minute, go apologize to Tim and see if he’ll accept that.”

  “He won’t,” Herb said. He gave her a rueful look. “It’s not in his nature, especially since his career advancement depends upon me losing my job, which is probably why he slandered . . . Well, it doesn’t matter.”

  “He said something about Benji, didn’t he?”

  It was a guess, but Lindsey had a feeling Tim knew Herb’s weak spot and had been only too happy to show up to the meeting early so he could pick at it. That was his nature as well.

  “It doesn’t matter what he said. I crossed a line and I have to report it,” Herb said. He tugged on the cuffs of his jacket and straightened his tie. “Can I ask a favor?”

  “Sure.”

  “Tell everyone the meeting has been canceled,” Herb said. “I’ll be in touch with a new date and time, assuming I’m still employed here.”

  “You really don’t have to do this,” Lindsey said. “It’s his word against yours.”

  Herb put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. It was a rare gesture of affection from him.

  “Yes, I do,” he said. “I’m not built any other way.”

  “Good luck,” Lindsey said. She patted his hand and followed him out of the office.

  He went one way and she went the other. Several times she thought about tackling him to the ground and stopping him from committing career suicide, but Herb was a by-the-book sort of guy and she knew he was right. He wouldn’t be able to live with anything less than full disclosure.

  When she got to the meeting room, the rest of the department heads were there but Tim was conspicuously absent. She had a feeling as soon as she’d gotten Herb to his office, Tim had scurried to the mayor’s office like the little cockroach that he was to tattle on Herb without mentioning how he provoked him. Damn it.

  “Meeting is canceled,” she said. “Something suddenly came up.”

  The group, which had all looked bleary-eyed and pasty a second before, now looked bright-eyed and ready to face their days. They also bolted for the door like kids released for recess who were afraid the teacher might change her mind. Lindsey dove to the side to keep from being trampled.

  Jason Meeger was the last one to leave. He paused beside Lindsey and asked, “What happened? In all of the years I’ve been here, Herb has never canceled a meeting.”

  “Emergency convo with the mayor,” she said.

  Jason tipped his head to the side. “Something I should know about?”

  She shrugged. “I really don’t—”

  “Because Tim McIntyre left just as I got here and he looked like someone had just handed him the winning Powerball ticket.”

  Lindsey stared at Jason. She didn’t know him well, except that he was a Creeker, meaning he had been born and raised in Briar Creek. He had been the star of the football team back in his day but his muscle had gone to paunch as he trudged toward middle age.

  Now he coached flag football in his free time because he loved the sport. But he was far from a big, dumb jock; Lindsey had helped him the day he’d brought his ten-year-old daughter into the library to check out knitting books. When Lindsey had found a local class, he had taken his daughter to it and had sat there and tried to learn how to knit with her and two of her friends. He was a good guy.

  “Tim and Herb might have had a little dustup before you got here,” she said.

  “I knew it,” Jason said. He punched his fist into his palm. “Tim has wanted Herb’s job forever and now he’ll use this to get it. How bad was it?”

  Lindsey closed her eyes and groaned. “I’ve never seen Herb lose his temper before, so maybe it was just alarming to me because it was so out of character.”

  “That bad, huh?” Jason whistled between his teeth.

  “You don’t seem surprised. Is Herb known for having a temper?” she asked.

  “Not in the past several years, but he did put a guy in the hospital once,” Jason said.

  “Herb? Our Herb?” Lindsey could not have been more shocked if Jason had told her that Herb had a secret passion for women’s lingerie and stiletto heels.

  “Yeah, but it was back when we were young, and his family—” Jason stopped speaking.

  Lindsey waited but
he didn’t finish his sentence. Finally, she asked, “What about his family, Jason?”

  “I can’t,” he said. “It doesn’t feel right to talk about that time.”

  “What time?” Lindsey asked. She curled her fingers into her palms, trying to keep calm. She was a librarian. There was nothing more maddening to her than information being withheld.

  “Herb was a DE on our football team,” Jason said.

  “Huh?” Lindsey looked at him like he was speaking Greek; actually, Greek might have made more sense.

  “DE, or defensive end, is a very aggressive position,” Jason said. “You get a guy who’s big and fast like Herb and he can sack a QB in a blink. QB is a—”

  “Quarterback, I got that,” Lindsey said. “I’m just not following what this has to do with his temper or ‘that time.’”

  “Herb had a pretty vicious temper and when he got out on the field, well, it was a thing of beauty to watch him take down the opposing team.”

  “Still not following.”

  “His temper was not so awesome off the field. Herb didn’t handle it well when Benji’s girlfriend was murdered and people were looking at Benji as the killer. Herb got into a few fistfights defending his brother, and then someone pointed out that with Herb’s temper he could easily have killed Candice Whitley himself.”

  “Oh, no,” Lindsey gasped.

  “Yeah, it was bad,” Jason said. “Doug Renner got himself beat to a pulp for that one and if Benji and I hadn’t pulled Herb off of him, he might have killed him. Herb went right into therapy after that. He was damn lucky Doug didn’t press charges or he likely would have done jail time.”

  Lindsey shook her head. “I can’t even picture Herb like that.”

  Except she could. She had seen the rage in his eyes when he’d held Tim McIntyre up against the wall. It had been fearsome and he had frightened her.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what Herb’s relationship had been with Candice Whitley. Had they been close? How close? Had something happened between them that ignited his temper? Could the man she knew as mild-mannered Herb Gunderson be the one to have killed her?

  When Lindsey arrived back at the library earlier than usual, Ms. Cole was already at the circulation desk. She glanced at Lindsey over the top of her reading glasses with surprise.

  “Morning,” Lindsey said. “Staff meeting was canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.”

  “Anything to be worried about?” Ms. Cole asked.

  Lindsey knew this was a blanket question that included surprise firings, budget issues or any other conundrum that was likely to sneak up on a public servant and slam them in the back of the knees.

  “No, nothing to be concerned about,” Lindsey said. Unless, of course, she mentioned the possibility that the mayor’s right-hand man was a murderer, but she wasn’t going there. Not yet, anyway.

  Lindsey scanned the library; all the usual suspects were in attendance. Ann Marie was at the reference desk; Beth was in the children’s area with several moms and little ones; Peter Schwartz, a crotchety older gentleman who enjoyed reading the paper, was in his customary cushy seat by the window; and several patrons were browsing the new-book rack.

  She recognized Gina Rubinski, who was married to Dr. Rubinski, the local veterinarian. Gina was petite with short-cropped brown hair and a ready smile. Since her husband, Tom, was close friends with Sully, Lindsey had spent several evenings with the couple back when she and Sully had first dated, and she had grown very fond of them. She realized that now that she and Sully were being open about their coupleness again, it was likely that they’d get to double-date with the Rubinskis again.

  “Gina, how are you?” she said as she joined her by the display.

  Gina grinned at her and showed her the basket of books on her arm. “Optimistic.”

  “That’s a lot of books to try and read in three weeks.”

  “I imagine I’ll quit on some of them,” Gina said. “I give them fifty pages, but if the author hasn’t hooked me by then I have to break up with them.”

  “That’s a good rule,” Lindsey said.

  Gina studied her closely, then she leaned in close so that Brigit Hardaway on the other side of the bookcase couldn’t hear her. “You look tired. Is everything all right? I heard a rumor about . . . Well, if it’s true . . .”

  “The point, Gina,” Lindsey said gently.

  “You and Sully didn’t break up again, did you? Because I heard you were back together but you don’t look like a girl caught up in the back-together glow. You look like someone who didn’t sleep at all last night, and not in a good way,” she said. Then she looked horrified. “Did I just say too much? I did, didn’t I?”

  “No, you’re fine.” Lindsey shook her head. “Sully and I did not break up. In fact we’re doing great. Really. I just have some stuff on my mind.”

  “Oh, good,” she said. “The four of us should get together for a game night. I don’t think Tom has any impending puppy deliveries.”

  “Make it Scrabble and I’m in,” Lindsey said. “Gina, you grew up in Briar Creek, right?”

  Gina nodded.

  “This is rude of me to ask, so please forgive me, but are you old enough to have had Ms. Whitley as an English teacher?”

  “It’s not rude at all mostly because I’m not old enough,” Gina said. “She was killed when I was still in middle school, but I remember how freaked out everyone was afterward. Because they never found the killer, we lived in a constant state of alert for the next year or so. No girl ever went anywhere alone just in case there was a serial-killer thing happening.”

  “That must have been awful,” Lindsey said.

  “It was,” Gina said. Her cell phone chimed and she glanced at it. “Sorry, it’s Tom calling from the office. I have to take it.”

  “No problem,” Lindsey said. “We’ll talk soon.”

  “I’d like that,” Gina said. She walked to the circulation desk with her basket while answering her phone.

  Lindsey scanned the new books. There was a new one all about barbecue. Well, wasn’t that convenient? As a good librarian, she always tried to keep an eye out for books she knew her patrons might be interested in, and since former police chief Daniels was interested in barbecue, she was just being a good librarian by calling him and letting him know they had a new book he might want to check out. Yes, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

  She went into her office and called the Daniels’ house. He picked up on the fourth ring.

  “Daniels’ residence, can I help you?” he asked.

  “Hi, this is Lindsey at the library,” she said. “I think I have a book you might be interested in.”

  “Is that so?”

  “It’s about barbecue, Tennessee style,” she said. “Did you want me to put it aside for you?”

  “That’s thoughtful of you,” he said. “Thanks.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” Lindsey said. She grabbed a pen out of the holder on her desk and tapped it on a pad of Post-it notes. “We’ll hold it under your name at the front desk for three days.”

  “Excellent. Now go ahead,” he said.

  “Go ahead, what?” Lindsey asked.

  “Go ahead and tell me why you really called,” he said. “This has to do with the Whitley murder, doesn’t it?”

  “Well . . .” Lindsey drew out the word as she answered in an effort to buy time. In hindsight, she probably should have prepped a bit more before she made this call. Daniels had caught her off guard. “Okay, you got me. What do you know about Herb Gunderson’s temper?”

  “Ah, so that little gem turned up again,” Daniels said. “Who mentioned it?”

  “Actually, I saw it,” she said.

  “Oh.” He sounded intrigued.

  “And I was wondering if anyone ever looked into his relationship with
Candice or his whereabouts during the killing.”

  “We did, because there was an altercation that caused us to look at him more closely. He was cleared as a person of interest,” Daniels said. “He wasn’t in Briar Creek at the time of the murder, which we verified.”

  “Then why did Doug Renner make such horrible accusations?” Lindsey asked.

  “Because Doug was jealous of Benji’s relationship with Candice and he knew he could provoke Herb,” Daniels said. “Or, more accurately, because when it comes to women men are stupid.”

  “Speaking from experience there?” Lindsey asked.

  “My wife might think so,” he conceded.

  They were both silent for a moment. Lindsey had one other question for him but she wasn’t sure how to phrase it. She tapped the pen on the pad again and decided just to go for it.

  “Since we’re talking about Candice Whitley in a purely conversational and not at all inquisitive way, I was wondering one other thing,” she said.

  She thought she heard amusement in his voice when he said, “Go ahead.”

  “What was the Larsens’ relationship with Candice?” she asked.

  “As in Principal James Larsen and his wife, Karen?” Daniels asked.

  “Yes.”

  “He was Candice’s boss, so naturally we interviewed him,” he said. “I was in uniform back then so I wasn’t as in on the details as the powers that be.”

  “Any idea what was said?”

  “The chief back then was mostly concerned with any personal issues Larsen might know of in regards to his employee,” he said. “If she had a rival at work, what her relationship with her students was, that sort of thing.”

  “Did anything turn up?” she asked.

  “There was one thing,” Daniels began, but then hesitated. “Let me ask a question before I say anything more.”

  “All right,” she said.

  “What brought the Larsens to your attention?”

  “Well, as you said, he was her boss,” she said. “You are aware of the robberies in town?”

  “Yes, Chief Plewicki and I have talked about them,” he said.