Chapter 2 9
Henberlin limped by Kyle’s office intending on a short visit on the way to his own. He’d walked the longer route through the hallways only to find the office empty. Hobbling into Kyle’s office, he looked for a pad of paper to leave a note asking Kyle to call when he returned from his mid-morning coffee break. Henberlin had overdone it on his ribs the night before with Leyna, but the welcome distraction of work brought him from his home this morning. Sitting in his bedroom with nothing to do gave him only one thing to think about: The pain in his ribs. At the office, he could check order status, call customers, and update project reports. He wouldn’t have his mind occupied by the pain alone. But, so far, he’d begun to think he’d made a big mistake by coming in.
Each step he took this morning felt like a thumb pressed into his bruised and aching bones. They screamed in reminder: “Still broken, still broken, still broken.”
Fatigue rushed on him after limited exertion, and exhaustion spied on the fatigue, ready to take over. Taking a deep breath to increase oxygen flow only increased the pain. He feared the pleasure awaiting him when he reached his office and had to lower himself into his chair. Once there, during the seating process, the pain made him rethink the benefit of sitting down. In a slight panic, he stopped halfway to the seat and thought of standing again. But he knew his ass had to find that chair seat. It might as well be now rather than stand up and try again .
Constricting his stomach muscles hurt and shifting his ribs hurt more. Finally arriving at the seat cushion, he relaxed the muscles forcing his ribs to grind against each other. He realized he’d been holding his breath and had to take in a deep one to prevent himself from passing out.
Leaning back in the chair broke the pain level in the wrong direction, shooting spikes into the cartilage between his ribs.
He forced his muscles to relax and took short, deliberate breaths to settle himself. In this manner, he reduced the tormenting agony to severe irritation. Then one of the cell phones in his pocket vibrated, startling him, causing him to tense his upper body muscles. Sparks shot through his brain as it registered the minor shift in his chest cavity.
‘It’s the Delaney phone,’ he thought. The Jian Liu phone, which he remembered this morning, lay quiet in his other pocket. Taking his time to retrieve the cell phone, he raised his face to the ceiling and closed his eyes while he concentrated on breathing through his nose.
“Hello,” he squeaked out.
“Neil, how you doing? You sound like shit.”
“Everything hurts, especially answering the phone.”
“Cracked ribs are a bitch, and it takes forever for the misery to ease up.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“Right, nothing helps. It’s one of those injuries you just have to take your lumps and live with.”
“Still doesn’t help.”
“Yeah, sorry. I don’t know if this will either. They found Jian Liu’s body snagged in some low branches down in the Bow River.”
Henberlin jerked to sit up, but pangs of pain sent him back. He groaned in response.
“They’re not sure when or where he went in. It’s too early to tell. They’re probably still putting him in the ambulance.”
“Wow,” Henberlin said. “No wonder he didn’t answer my calls. ”
“Oh no, his body hadn’t been in the water that long. He likely floated through the lower water side of the Harvie Passage. He snagged up after passing the final pool.”
“So he stayed in town.”
“I guess he knows where to hide.”
“Now what?”
“We stay on the others, see if they start working for someone else, see if someone takes over for Jian Liu. Did you manage to contact him yesterday?”
“No. I tried a few times but no answer, and he didn’t return my calls.”
“Okay. You just need to sit and wait. Let us know if someone makes contact with you. We’ll be in touch if we need additional input.”
“Yeah, sure. Listen, there may be something you can help me with. Not right now but maybe soon.”
“What’s that?”
Henberlin picked up a note of impatience in Delaney’s question.
“The detectives and their investigation into my wife. They’re coming on a little strong.”
“Neil, I can’t interfere with a police investigation.”
“I don’t want you to interfere. I’m thinking there may come a time when I need you for a character reference. You know, if you tell them how I’ve cooperated with you, they might cut me some slack over the way I’ve been trying to protect my wife.”
“Do you have a lawyer? And I don’t mean Hec Taylor?”
“No, she didn’t do anything. Why would we need a lawyer when we have nothing to hide? We’ve cooperated all along, but they don’t know how this is affecting my wife.”
“We’ll see. I really don’t want to get involved with the locals.”
Disappointed, Henberlin said, “Yeah, well it hasn’t come to that, yet. Let’s hope it doesn’t.”
“Right. I should go.”
The line went dead.
The Jian Liu phone began to burn a hole in his pocket. It had to go. But where? Was it slim enough to shove through the shredder he had over his waste basket? No, it had to go through the industrial shredder in the copy room. Before he self-inflicted another round of scrambling his pain receptors, he decided to delete anything he found on the phone in the privacy of his own office. He flicked it on, then clicked on the contacts. The only entry, Jian Liu. He highlighted it and a secondary menu popped up. He clicked on the calls box and deleted each of the calls listed. When he finished, he ended up back at the pop-up menu. Though he’d never sent Jian Liu a message, he clicked on the messages box anyway.
He had to shake his head to make sure he saw the displayed information. Messages sent. Based on the content, they’d been sent by Leyna.
He stared at the messages for a long time. When he awoke from his stunned state, he deleted the messages, stood, and, ignoring the pain, walked to the copy room.
Alone, he took a few sheets of blank paper from the supply shelf. He fed half of them into the shredder, then dropped the phone in behind. The shredder blades slowed and labored for a second, then buzzed a high-pitched buzz before falling silent. Small plastic chips sprayed against the plastic garbage bags in the machine’s hopper. He placed another stack of paper into the feeder to clear any phone debris that may have stuck in the cutters.
Geneva’s voice startled him. “What was that noise?”
“I fed an entire report folder to save time, one of those ones with the metal fold-over tabs for three-hole punch paper.”
“Did it go through okay?”
“Noisy, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for this beast.”
“Kyle was just asking for you.”
“Oh, he’s back. Well, can you tell him I’ll call him later? I’m feeling a little done in. I shouldn’t have come here.”
“I was surprised to see you. I’ll tell him. You go take care of yourself.”
* * *
In the elevator on the way down, Henberlin’s personal cell phone rang. He looked at the screen to see it was Detective Sweetland.
“Hello Detective.”
“Good morning, Mr. Henberlin. Would it be okay if we came over to have a talk with you?”
“Actually, I’m heading home now. My ribs are acting up a little.”
“Then could we come to your home?”
“I guess. What do you want?”
“Something’s happened that I’d rather not talk about over the phone.”
“Fine.”
“Will Mrs. Henberlin be home?”
“Should she be?”
“It would be great if she could.”
“I have to make a quick stop, so can we make it after lunch?”
“Great. See you around one.”
Henberlin placed a call to his wife. When she answered, he told her about the detectives coming to the house at one o’clock.
“Again?” she said. “What do they want this time?”
“Well, you probably haven’t heard, but they found Jian Liu’s body in the river this morning.”
“Jian Liu? The old man?”
“Yes. They didn’t mention him, but I’m sure the detectives want to ask us if we know anything about it.”
“Why would we?”
“Right. Are you at home?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m on my way. We’ll talk when I get there.”
* * *
Sweetland and Richie arrived early. A short time after Henberlin had gotten himself seated and medicated, the doorbell rang. Even though they’d been in the home before, the two detectives looked around, checking the room with the same moderate taste they’d observed previously.
“When was the last time you spoke with Jian Liu?” Richie finally asked.
“Yanmei’s father? I suppose it must have been after I was released when you arrested me. I called to thank him. Why?”
“And you, Mrs. Henberlin?”
Leyna bounced upright in her seat. “Me? I’ve never met him.”
“Jian Liu is dead. Do either of you know anything about that?”
Both of the Henberlins sat wide-eyed and seething as they shook their heads.
“What are you saying? That because you mistakenly believe Leyna had something to do with his daughter’s murder, she’s somehow involved in this man’s death as well?
“The facts clearly indicate my wife couldn’t have murdered Mrs. Albin. Your refusal to believe that is now harassment. It seems that the only form of satisfaction you can derive from this misdirected investigation of yours is to make our lives miserable. We have no knowledge of anything Mr. Liu ever did in life. None.”
“Certainly during your affair with Mrs. Albin, the two of you would have mentioned her father. You must know something about him.”
“Do you insist on calling it an ‘affair’ deliberately to harass my wife?”
“Come on, Mr. Henberlin. Nobody believes you when you say there wasn’t an affair.” Detective Richie leaned forward. “I can even see in your wife’s eyes that she doesn’t believe you. You went outside your marriage. Your wife became jealous and put an end to the affair—and we’re going to prove that she did. But that’s not why we’re here. We want to know anything you can tell us about Jian Liu.”
Henberlin raised his body, ignoring the pain he felt in his ribs, and leaned forward as Leyna drew back against the back of the sofa. “You’re wrong,” Henberlin said, “and my wife knows you’re wrong. You’re trying to shake her belief in me, and that’s not going to happen. Why are you assuming we know anything about Jian Liu? ”
“I’m only trying to piece together any information I can find about Mr. Liu. You have a connection to the family.”
Shaking his head, he said, “No I don’t. I had a business relationship with Mr. Liu’s daughter. It had nothing to do with Mr. Liu and therefore nothing to do with his death. There’s nothing we can tell you about what happened to Mr. Liu. If that’s why you’re here, then I’d say we have nothing more to discuss.”
“Can you tell us where you were last night?”
“If you’ll tell us what your motive is for asking us questions that imply we know something about his death.” Henberlin’s jaw dropped when he finished his question.
“Mr. Henberlin, we’ll be out of your hair in minutes—if you’ll tell us where you were last night.”
“You’re harassing us with your questions. We told you, we have no relationship with Mr. Liu. That should be the end of it, unless you are intent on disrupting our lives. You haven’t said whether or not Mr. Liu’s death was murder or an accident. You would only be asking us about our whereabouts if you suspected us of being involved with his death. Are we suspects in the death of Mr. Liu?” Henberlin’s voice rose as he asked the last question.
“We’re not at that point yet,” Detective Richie said.
“Then you’re harassing us. Get out.” Henberlin indicated the direction of the front door.
He kept watch until their car pulled away from the curb, then turned to Leyna. He indicated with his hand for her to come close. He placed his mouth beside her ear and whispered, “Please tell me you had nothing to do with Jian Liu’s death.”
Leyna pulled back and looked down at the coffee table. He could tell she hesitated while concocting something that she hoped didn’t upset him. He knew of her texts to Jian Liu the previous day, and wanted to find out if she would be honest with him, if she would continue to trust him with her freedom.
‘What if she denies contacting him?’ Henberlin thought. ‘What if she admits she had something to do with another murder? Could I still protect her or have I had enough? If she’s involved in Jian Liu’s death, then three people are dead because of her insecurity.’
After too long a time waiting for her reply, he signaled her close again.
“I heard you,” she said in a soft voice but remained in place. “I couldn’t help it. Something had to be done about that man.”
“Nooo…” Henberlin moaned.
“He has the video and he tried to kill us. Were we going to sit around waiting for him to attack again? That threat’s gone now, thanks to me.” Anger built in her words.
“He was about to leave the country,” Henberlin said. “In fact, they suspected he already had. He wouldn’t have been a threat any longer.”
“They were wrong, weren’t they? He was still here and would still be a threat if I hadn’t taken care of things. You should be happy I got rid of the problem. Now we can begin to live normal lives.”
“How? Knowing that you’ve killed three people, how can we live normal lives?”
“We do, that’s all. We just do.”
“Do you think those detectives are going to leave us alone?”
“With time, yes. They have nothing. They can’t charge us with anything. You’re in as much trouble as I am, so you have to protect us by living as normal.”