Death Among The Stacks: The Body In The Law Library (3 page)

“
Can someone vouch for you
at the deli during lunch?”

“
Why yes, of course; ask
anyone--they all know me over there. They will be glad to vouch for
my time there.”

Yvonne began chewing her gum
more forcefully to the point to popping it. It began to give Sledge
a headache. To Sledge, her gum chewing didn’t jive with her
haughty, upper-class sense of herself.
You
wouldn’t see the First Lady chewing gum, now would you?
he asks himself.

“
Do you know any reason why
someone would want to kill him?” he asks her.

She replies, “No; I can’t think of any
reason. This is the weirdest thing that I’ve ever seen. How could
someone do this?”

Detective Sledge notices that she is on
the point of tears again and says, “I’m sorry that this upsets you.
I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask to see your assistant, Nic. Can
you call her and tell her to come here as soon as possible so I can
ask her a few questions?”

Chapter Four

When Yvonne calls Nic, her assistant is
busy gossiping with the rest of the staff about who might have
committed this crime. Nic says, “I’ll bet it was an inside job.
Someone here at the library probably did it.” Other co-workers
speculate who the culprit might be. Nic seems to think that it
might have been her boss. “You know how crazy Yvonne’s been acting
since her brother and sister died,” Nic tells her
coworkers.

Kelly thinks it might be John, the
reference librarian who was on the desk with Hung all morning. “You
know how anti-government John is. He’s always listening to that
Rush Limbaugh and getting all steamed up. I can’t stand it when he
turns the volume up on his boom box and we have to put up with
hearing his hate radio. He still can’t get over Waco after all of
these years. He says that he’s a Libertarian, but I think he’s just
racist. Look at how he has painted a mustache on that picture of
The President and put it front and center in his cubicle, so we
have to look at it every time we pass by. He’s nuts.” Many of her
coworkers listening to her speculation agree.

“
Yeah,” Nic says, “He’s
creepy. If he’s not looking at Internet pornography, he’s busy
furiously typing and adding his two-cents’ worth on one of those
crazy forums he likes, complaining about how the country needs to
restore honor again, like it was when the founding fathers set up
our government.” “Blah, blah, blah,” they all say. Nic’s phone
rings again, and she is annoyed about the interruption. When she
realizes that it’s her boss calling, she immediately jumps to
attention and tells Yvonne, “Certainly; I’ll be right up to talk to
the detective.”

“
Good luck, Nic,” her
co-workers say; glad that they aren’t the ones getting
grilled.

*******

Sledge is thumbing through some of the
staffs’ time cards when Nic comes into the room.

You asked to see me,
Detective?”

“
Yes, please sit down. I’m
sorry to have to put you through all this but you realize we need
to make sure we get our information correct in our
investigation.”

“
Yes, certainly, I’ll be
glad to help in any way I can,” Nic responds, acting as snooty as
possible.

“
I understand you discovered
Mr. Gaylord this afternoon?”

“
Yes. I was the first one to
discover him. You see I was doing my usual work-related rounds and
making sure everything was in its place when I discovered Mr.
Gaylord in the compact shelving.”

“
You mentioned this was
something you did every day?”

“
Yes, I’m always going to
the basement, well, sort of, I mean, I make sure everything is in
its correct place, I mean. I’m the Depository Assistant, so I want
to make sure everything is looking good and in presentable
condition for the public, you know.”

Sledge couldn’t help but detect a bit
of defensiveness, bordering on self-promotion in her
answers.

“
I pretty much take care of
all the depository business here at the library; in fact, if it
wasn’t for the work I put into the depository we wouldn’t be
getting accredited in the first place.”

“
You said ‘getting
accredited’; don’t you mean you hope you will get
accredited?”

“
Oh, I have no doubt we
will; I’m sure Mr. Gaylord was going to guarantee that we would get
the accreditation today.”

“
What time did you find Mr.
Gaylord in the basement?”

“
Oh, about 12:30 or 1:00, I
think.”

“
Can you be a bit more
specific about the time? What time did you leave your
desk?”

“
Oh yes; now I remember. I
left my desk at about 1:00, having just come back from lunch. I
then went immediately down to the basement to put some documents in
the compact shelving. Yes, that’s what I remember.”

“
Did anyone see you go down
to the basement?”

Nic, feeling a bit uneasy
and sensing that her story was beginning to unravel, says, “Yes, I
think, John did. Kelly and I came back from lunch and John saw me
go down the stairs. Yes, I’m sure if you ask him he’ll confirm
that.” Nic starts to feel sick and begins to wonder if she’d be
caught in her story. She thought
I hope he
doesn’t ask him
.

“
So when you found Mr.
Gaylord in the shelving was he, how can I put it, was he dead? Was
he moving? Did he say anything?”

“
Oh, he was very dead. He
didn’t say a thing and I knew right away that he was very
dead.”

“
You mentioned you came back
from lunch at about 1:00 with Kelly, is that correct?”

“
Yes, I believe
so.”

“
I’ve got a copy of your
time sheet, you know, the one that records when everyone enters and
leaves the building, and this one shows you coming into the staff
lounge area at about 1:28. Is that correct?”

Nic is really feeling sick now. Yvonne
might find out and she’d really be toast. “Ah, I believe that’s
correct, I thought it was about 1:00 but I could be wrong. I’m so
busy with all my work around her, I sometimes lose track of
things.”

“
I also show that Kelly came
in at that time, too. Do you remember Kelly coming in with you from
lunch, as you said before?”

“
Yes, I mean, I believe so.
I think it was John. It could have been Kelly but I’m really think
it was John.”

“
Thank you for your time,
Nic; we’ll get back to you if we have any further
questions.”

Nic rises and shakes Sledge’s hand--a
very clammy shake--and gives him a squeamish smile as she walks
slowly out of the Director’s office. She feels faint and dizzy and
can’t get a grip on what her story should be. Just before she
closes the office door, Detective Sledge asks her, “Nic, could you
do me a huge favor and ask John if he could come in to answer some
questions?”

“
Why yes. I’d be happy to.”
Sure she would.

Chapter Five

John Meadowlark strides into the
director’s office with obvious purpose and zeal in his demeanor.
John is a Public Service’s Librarian who’s very dissatisfied with
his current occupation. He fancies himself as a writer and
historian, yet his literary output left much to be desired. He made
up for lack of scholasticism with a strong sense of self. There is
more confidence in John than any person should have. John loves a
challenge and loves to debate anything. In fact, he does debate
almost anything, at any time--much to the chagrin of his fellow
workers. He doesn’t get much work done, needless to say. This whole
murder investigation is right up John’s alley. He relishes the idea
of locking horns with a policeman and the thought of outfoxing him
gives him goose bumps. He can’t wait to get his time with Detective
Sledge.

John enters the Director’s office,
without knocking and walks right up to where Sledge is sitting.
“Hi, I’m John, you needed to see me?”

“
You’re Mr.
Meadowlark?”

“
Call me John.”

“
Please sit down, John. I’d
like to ask you a few questions.”

“
Anything; I’ve got all the
time in the world.”

“
So I understand you were on
the reference desk when Mr. Gaylord arrived at the library this
afternoon.”

“
Yes, I was. I was
explaining the finer parts of tort reform to a patron when Mr.
Gaylord came to the reference desk and asked to see Yvonne--you
know, the librarian Yvonne. I told him I’d be right with him and to
have a seat. Do you carry a service revolver, Mr.
Sledge?”

“
Detective Sledge and yes I
do. Is that a problem?”

“
No, I mean, I was wondering
if you have ever had to use it.”

“
Mr. Meadowlark, can you
tell me if you escorted Mr. Gaylord to the basement this
afternoon?”

“
Yes, I took him down there.
Not that it mattered. I mean, what was he going to do down there?
Dressed in his fine government suit and briefcase, he didn’t look
ready to really work; I mean like the rest of us. These federal
inspectors act like they are God and we should all bow down to
them.”

“
Did you have any kind of a
quarrel with Mr. Gaylord in the basement?”

“
Me? Heck no; I don’t have
the time for these bureaucrats--why would I want to waste my time
with them? By the way, did you have to go to firearms’ classes to
carry your weapon?”

“
Mr. Meadowlark, can you
tell me if you saw Nic go down to the basement at any time this
afternoon?”

“
Nic, no; not that I
remember. I mean she could have snuck down there. I mean, any
chance to get some time to make a phone call, leave it to Nic--did
you know we nick-named her “Nic.dot.com” because she spends all of
her work time surfing the web? And if we called her out on it, we’d
be accused of some racial insensitivity. I mean, who needs
it!”

“
So, you didn’t see her go
to the basement any time today?”

“
No, not at all.”

“
Mr. Meadowlark, can you
think any reason anybody should want to kill Mr.
Gaylord?”

“
Heck, I don’t know; isn’t
that what you’re supposed to be figuring out?” Sledge feels his
fist tighten as John continues. “I mean, I suppose lots of people
might want him to, well at least be hurt, maybe. Take Yvonne; she
just hates all men and would stop at nothing to make sure the
depository stays here. And Kelly, she also hates men; I mean I’ve
heard rumors that she did some dirty stuff in the Marine Corps to
some men. Probably some sort of twisted
equal-rights-feminist-male-bashing-thing-gone-wrong. Who knows?
Hey, do you think I’d make a good Detective? I mean, I’ve got some
pretty good ideas, huh?”

“
Thank you, Mr. Meadowlark.
Your answers have been a great help. One more thing, you told my
officer this afternoon that you think you know why Mr. Gaylord was
killed, and yet didn’t tell me why. Are you holding anything
back?”

John feels a little caught off guard;
his comment to the officers was a bit premature and a bit of a
boast. He tries to formulate some sort of coherent response to
Detective Sledge. “Yes, I think I said I was pretty sure that the
murderer was here in the library, don’t you agree?”

“
That’s not what the
recording has you say. Mr. Meadowlark. Are you holding anything
back that you should be sharing with me?”

John starts turning red and his right
arm begins to tingle and twitch. “I meant that I think
that…well…we’ll find out, you know. You’ll find out who the
murderer is—that’s what I meant.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Meadowlark,
I have no more further questions.” John feels deflated, as if he’d
missed his golden opportunity to shine in front of the detective.
Yet as he walks out, he says, “Anything I can do to help, just let
me know; I’m here for you.”

“
Thanks,” Detective Sledge
answers. He then asks, “Could you please tell Kelly that I’d like
to have a few words with her as soon as possible?”

“
Of course,” John responds,
“I’m at your service.”

Chapter Six

When Kelly enters the office to be
questioned, the first thing that strikes Detective Sledge is her
beauty. She had long red hair, freckles, and blue green eyes. She
looks like she could twist any man around her finger and he
imagined her breaking many hearts of the men who happened to cross
her path. “Please have a seat, Kelly. Do you know why I’ve asked
for you here today?” inquires the detective.

“
Well, I assume it’s because
of the murder. All of us are completely stunned by what has
happened today.”

“
Did you know the
Inspector?”

“
Yes; he’s visited here
before and some of the staff have gone out to lunch with
him.”

“
What was your impression of
him when you went out for these lunches?”

“
I thought he was a big
flirt. Not only did he make suggestive comments to the waitress
while staring at her breasts; he also kept grabbing my leg under
the table.”