Better Late Than Never

by Jenn McKinlay

  “Ladies and gents, boys and girls, I have an announcement,” he said. He grabbed Mary’s hand and kissed her fingers. “Me and the missus are having a baby!”

  The entire restaurant broke out in happy cheers and applause. Lindsey saw Violet and Nancy exchange a look and she frowned at them.

  “You knew about it, too?”

  “We saw how much she was eating,” Violet said.

  “We were thinking it might be twins,” Nancy said.

  They exchanged a laugh. Then Violet rose from her seat and pulled Mary away from Ian and gave her a big hug.

  “Congratulations,” she said.

  “We’re having a baby!” Nancy cried as she took her turn to squeeze Mary tight.

  Lindsey and Beth joined the group hug and Mary’s tears slowly turned into laughter. After many congratulations, Mary and Ian went back into their restaurant to get a handle on the chaos, and the diners all resumed their conversations.

  “I can’t believe I’m the only one who didn’t know,” Beth said. She looked at Lindsey. “Even you knew!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t think it was my news to tell,” Lindsey said.

  “I felt the same way,” Sully said, then glanced out at the islands and smiled. “My parents are going to go berserk.”

  “If they’re anything like my parents, you’d better get used to the sound of beep-beep-beep as the delivery truck backs up to the house and vomits toys all over the front yard,” Aidan chimed in.

  “Noted,” Sully said, and the two men exchanged a look of understanding.

  “So, what do you think of our outfits?” Beth asked. “Aidan brought them by the library and we just had to try them on.”

  “You make an excellent ruler of Hyrule,” Sully said. Both Aidan and Beth looked at him in surprise. “What? Who hasn’t played The Legend of Zelda?”

  Aidan looked at Beth and said, “I knew I liked him.”

  Beth grinned and then she looked at Lindsey and noticed Sully’s arm around the back of her chair. “You’re not the only one.”

  Lindsey winked at her and Beth giggled. Beth’s lack of surprise clued her in to the fact that Beth had probably figured out what was going on between her and Sully as well. Ah, well, so much for her covert op.

  The group enjoyed their meal until the hour grew late and Nancy and Violet declared it was time for them to call it a night. They left, with Nancy taking Heathcliff home with her.

  Beth and Aidan followed shortly after them, leaving Sully and Lindsey to linger over coffee while she told him about the robberies all being connected somehow to Candice Whitley. Sully listened closely. He didn’t offer any questions until after she was done.

  “The only one that doesn’t really fit is the Larsens,” he said. “Unless they had a personal connection outside of the school.”

  “That’s what I was thinking, too,” Lindsey said. “Of course, I’m sure Emma is already on it.”

  “Hey, why do you two look so pensive?” Mary asked as she stopped by their table with the coffeepot. “It’s not because of me, is it?” She turned to her brother. “I asked Lindsey not to say anything to anyone.”

  “No, we’re fine,” Sully said. He grabbed his sister’s free hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m glad you and Lindsey are close enough that you can confide in her and she’ll be there for you.”

  He gazed at Lindsey with a look of pride that made her get the warm fuzzies inside. He was pleased that she and his sister were close. She knew it was because he was feeling very optimistic about their do-over. She smiled back. She was feeling the same way.

  “Oh, good. I would have felt terrible if you two were at odds over my own silliness,” Mary said. “It took me a while to settle into the idea of a baby, you know? I already have that big one in there.” She pointed toward the inside of the restaurant and Lindsey knew she meant her husband, Ian.

  “Don’t you worry,” Sully said. “We’ll help you burp and diaper the two of them.”

  Mary snorted a laugh and said, “Careful, I may take you up on that, especially the big one.”

  “Mary, Sully told me that Matthew Mercer was in your class,” Lindsey said. “What did you think of him?”

  “Is this about that overdue library book?” Mary asked. “Sully told me that you brought it to Chief Plewicki. Is she really opening up the case on Candice Whitley?”

  Lindsey didn’t want to say too much, so she shrugged.

  “All right, I see how it is,” Mary said. “You’re not going to say anything in case I blab.”

  “No, that’s not it,” Lindsey said. She was afraid Mary might feel hurt and start crying again.

  As if reading her mind, Mary said, “Don’t worry. I have pregnancy brain. I wouldn’t trust me with any information either. You know yesterday I forgot to put the car in park and then couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition. I sat there like an idiot for ten minutes, thinking the car was broken. I swear this peanut is sucking the brain juice right out of me.”

  Lindsey smiled, mostly because Mary looked so pleased to have her brains being siphoned off by a peanut.

  The restaurant had quieted down, so Mary took a seat at their table. She looked nervous. “Listen, I do have some information about the situation that I think you might find valuable, but you have to promise you won’t judge me too harshly.”

  “More than you told me before?” Sully asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. She hung her head, looking ashamed. “I remember Matthew was very quiet.”

  “Quiet like thinking-about-ways-to-stalk-and-kill-people quiet?” Lindsey asked.

  “No.” Mary shook her head. “More like old-soul quiet. Matt always seemed years ahead of the rest of us, not just in smarts but in overall maturity.”

  “So, he didn’t fit in?” Sully asked.

  “Yes, but I don’t think he was angry or bitter about it. He wasn’t anti-social, he was more just tolerant of the rest of us, like he was an older sibling forced to sit at the kids’ table. I always got the feeling that he was patiently awaiting his freedom.”

  “If he was that mature, did you sense he was interested in Ms. Whitley as more than a teacher?” Lindsey asked.

  “No, she was with Benji Gunderson, and he came by the school quite a bit,” Mary said. “I’d see the three of them talking often. There never seemed to be any hostility.”

  Lindsey looked at Sully. “Having Matthew be a deranged teen stalker would have been too easy of an answer, I suppose.”

  “He was a poet,” Mary said. “He read one of his poems to the class once. It was full of literary references I didn’t understand but it also captured the angst of adolescence. I remember one image about standing on the knife’s edge between childhood and adulthood and hoping not to get sliced in half. It spoke so clearly of the pain of those years. I’m sure I’m not getting it exactly right, but I thought he was so much smarter than the rest of us. He seemed to have a level of understanding about life and literature that the rest of us were missing.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a teen who is swept up in unrequited love angst,” Lindsey said.

  “No,” Mary said. “And after Ms. Whitley was killed, he was so angry. I remember hearing him berating the principal for not doing more to find Ms. Whitley’s killer. I don’t think Matthew had a very supportive home life. Ms. Whitley was probably the only person who fostered his brilliance. It must have been devastating for him to lose her in such a brutal way and to then be considered a suspect. I never blamed him for leaving town and never coming back.”

  “What about Benji?” Lindsey asked. “You said he came by the school. Did you ever see anything suspicious about him?”

  “No,” Mary said. “He was funny and goofy when he came by the classroom. He always made Ms. Whitley laugh. When she was killed he seemed, I don’t know, broken would be the
word, I guess. It was as if everything he had known to be true was suddenly proven wrong and he didn’t know what to do or think. Looking back, I can see how devastated he must have been, but at the time . . .”

  Mary paused and looked away. Lindsey knew her well enough to know she was embarrassed about something. Sully knew it, too, because he reached across the table and took her hand in his.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “You can tell us anything.”

  Mary hung her head. “This is awful. I’ve never told anyone this before, mostly because I pushed it so far away, I never even thought about it until all this talk about Ms. Whitley and her murder started up.”

  Lindsey and Sully exchanged concerned looks.

  “I did not have the best sort of friends back in high school,” she said. “Michelle Moskowitz and Audrey Tapp were my besties at the time.”

  Lindsey glanced at Sully and noted he made a face like he’d tasted something bad.

  “I know, I know,” Mary said. “You didn’t like them.”

  “They were horrible,” he said.

  “You think that because you know they only became friends with me so that they could get close to you,” she said.

  Now Lindsey made a face like she tasted something bad. Her brother, Jack, had been quite the high school heartthrob; she knew all about being befriended by mean girls so they could get close to her brother. “Using you to get to your brother; that’s the worst.”

  “It’s okay. It was a good life lesson for me in how to choose my friends more wisely—you know, after I cried buckets when they cut me loose because Sully left for college and I was of no use to them anymore.”

  “That’s awful,” Lindsey said. She wished she’d known these girls so she could do some damage to them for harming her friend.

  “Not everyone is as true as the crafternooners,” Mary said. She put both of her hands on her belly as if to find comfort in the life taking shape inside. “Besides, I deserved it.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Sully said. “You were a bit of a princess during your adolescence but you weren’t mean.”

  “Yes, I was,” Mary said. Her voice was soft and low and Lindsey had to lean forward to hear her. “I was so caught up in being part of the in crowd that I didn’t care what it cost or who got hurt.”

  Sully frowned. “What are you saying?”

  “Do you remember the rumors surrounding Benji at the time of Ms. Whitley’s death?” Mary asked.

  “A few of them,” he said.

  “They were mostly about how he was so possessive of Candice, how he had a terrible temper, how they fought all of the time because of it.”

  “I vaguely remember something like that,” Sully said. “But even then I knew it wasn’t true. Benji was as mild mannered as they come.”

  “Well, there was another rumor that he hit on the girl students in Candice’s class and that the two of them had fought about it.”

  “I don’t think I ever heard that one,” Sully said. “It wasn’t true, was it? He never hit on you, did he?”

  “No.” Mary shook her head. “He never hit on anyone. Not only that, but he wasn’t at all possessive nor did he have a temper. It was all lies; horrible, horrible lies told by vicious girls because they wanted to bring attention to themselves and be the poor victims of the madman.”

  Sully blew out a breath and looked out over the water. “Those lies ruined his life. The whole town turned against him. He was fired from his job. No one would even talk to him.”

  “I know,” Mary said. Her voice was shaky and she pressed her lips together as if to keep from crying. “And it’s my fault because I knew who was telling the lies and I never did anything to stop them.”

  “Michelle and Audrey?” Lindsey guessed.

  Mary nodded.

  “Where are they now?” she asked.

  “Michelle is on her third husband. I heard he’s in his seventies and keeps the purse strings pretty tight. She’s been in and out of rehab for the past ten years. Audrey is bitter since she lost everything when her billionaire divorced her since she was the one who was caught cheating and they had a solid prenup. Now she lives in a rundown apartment in New Haven and is scouting for a new sugar daddy, but I think she might be past her prime for that.”

  “Karma can be a bitch,” Sully said.

  “Indeed,” Mary said. “Which is why I wonder, what does it have in store for me?”

  “You didn’t tell any lies about him,” Sully protested. “You’re not to blame.”

  “Aren’t I?” Mary asked. “If you know the truth and you don’t say anything, aren’t you just as bad as the person telling the lie?”

  “No,” Lindsey said. She didn’t want to see Mary beat herself up over a decision made when she was just a teenager. “You made a bad decision at the most vulnerable time in your life. That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

  “I have to disagree,” Mary said. “But that’s why I’m going to visit Emma tomorrow. I’m going to tell her everything I know about Benji and the lies that were told about him so that this time when the murder is investigated his name doesn’t get ruined again.”

  “I know Herb will appreciate that,” Lindsey said. “He’s been upset that they were going to have to live through this all over again.”

  “But if what Mary is saying is true—and I believe that it is—then who killed Candice Whitley?” Sully asked. He paused and gave his sister a side eye as if to check and make sure he didn’t make her cry.

  Mary didn’t look teary now so much as determined. Lindsey had a feeling that by deciding to right the wrongs of the past she was on a mission, and everyone knows there is no room for tears on a mission.

  “I don’t know,” Lindsey said. “But someone returned the book and, as far as I can tell given the short time between Candice checking the book out and her murder, I think it must have been taken by the murderer. So it stands to reason that they are the one who returned it.”

  Mary shivered and both Lindsey and Sully patted her arms.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I just never thought . . . I mean . . . I guess . . .”

  She stammered to a stop and Sully gave her a rueful look.

  “You thought her murderer left town,” he said.

  “Even knowing that they weren’t the killing type, we were all quick to assume it was either Matthew or Benji. When they both left town . . .” Mary’s voice trailed off.

  “It was easy to believe the killer was gone,” Lindsey said. “I can see that.”

  She leaned back in her chair and a yawn snuck up on her. She covered her mouth with her hand but it was too late. Both Sully and Mary yawned, too.

  “Stop that,” Mary said. “I have to make it to closing.”

  “Sorry.” Lindsey shook her head as if she could shake off the sleepy. Another yawn tried to creep out but she clamped her jaw together, refusing to let it.

  “Come on, sleepy librarian,” Sully said. “Let’s get you home.”

  • • •

  It was a quiet ride in Sully’s truck back to her apartment. With the windows down, the cool night air blew into the window, ruffling her hair and bringing in the sound of crickets chirping. Lindsey wondered if Candice had heard the crickets right before she was murdered.

  “Hey, why the frown?” Sully asked. He reached across the seat and took her hand in his. “Thinking dark thoughts?”

  “You know me so well,” she said. She squeezed his hand. “I was thinking about Candice on her last night and what might have been going through her mind.”

  “Even darker than I suspected,” he said. “I don’t suppose we’ll ever know the answer to that, but I’m hoping for her sake that it was quick.”

  Lindsey gave him a sad look.

  “Yeah, I know,” he said. “It’s highly unlikely that strangulation would lend itself
to quick and painless, but I still hope.”

  He pulled into the driveway in front of Nancy Peyton’s house, where Lindsey rented the third-floor apartment. Sully walked her to the door, where they were greeted by an exuberant black ball of fuzz.

  Heathcliff jumped back and forth between them, demanding love and making Lindsey laugh as he wagged his tail and barked at them as if he was trying to say hello. She bent over and scratched his ears.

  “He was dead asleep until he heard the truck turn the corner onto our street, and then he bolted for the door,” Nancy said from the open door of her first-floor apartment.

  “Thanks for watching him,” Lindsey said. “He was okay? No chewing?”

  “He would never,” Nancy said.

  Lindsey just looked at her. “I know you love him, but if he’s been naughty, you can tell me. I know he chewed up two of your throw pillows.”

  Nancy bent down and rubbed Heathcliff’s head. “I was planning to replace those old things anyway. He was doing me a favor. See? He is a perfect dog.”

  Lindsey looked down at Heathcliff, who sat on her foot and gazed up at her from under his hairy black eyebrows. “You are so spoiled.”

  He thumped his tail on the ground as if in agreement.

  “And how about Mary’s news?” Nancy asked. She hugged Sully tight. “You’re going to be an uncle.”

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” he asked. His grin was huge and Lindsey could tell he was happy about the news. “I can’t decide if I want Ian to get a wild boy like himself or a girl just like Mary. I’m thinking either way the baby is going to give them a wonderfully terrible time and I have a front-row seat.”

  “So how soon will you buy the baby a drum set?” Nancy asked.

  “I don’t know. How old are they when they can sit up?” he asked.

  Nancy chuckled and Lindsey shook her head at him. She gave Nancy a quick hug.

  “Sorry to run, but I am beat,” she said. “As always, thank you so much for dog-sitting.”

  “My pleasure,” Nancy said. She waved to them and disappeared into her apartment.