Linda Crowder - Jake and Emma 02 - Main Street Murder Read Online Free Page A

Casper with her husband Joe more than 20 years ago.  He’d been in the oil business and she found a job as a teller in a local bank to counter the loneliness of the “week on, week off” oil field schedule. 
    She was a hard worker, quick but accurate, friendly but professional with the customers.  Over the years she’d worked her way through the ranks, completing her business degree in the evening with the help of the bank’s tuition reimbursement benefit.  Five years ago, she’d been promoted Vice President of Operations.  She and Joe had celebrated with dinner out but the celebration had turned tragic when their car was hit by a drunk driver on the way home.
    After Joe’s death, Cheri found solace in her work and in the home they’d built along the shore of the North Platte River.  Most days, she spent her time resolving logistical and personnel issues that arose naturally from overseeing operations at six branches scattered across four Wyoming counties.
    Today she had to perform her least favorite task, letting go of an employee whose performance had not risen to bank standards.  Cheri opened the folder on her desk and carefully reviewed the personnel file.  She cross-checked the steps that had been taken to improve the employee’s performance against the bank’s polices manual.
    From verbal coaching to performance improvement plan to written warning, the supervisor had documented every effort to work with an increasingly truculent employee.  Cheri had met with both the supervisor and the employee twice, once when the warning was issued and later, when she had placed the employee on probation.  Both encounters had been unpleasant for all concerned.
    Cheri had supervised staff in some capacity for nearly ten years and she was still saddened and surprised when a troubled employee was either not willing or not able to turn things around.  She’d earned a reputation within the bank of being tough but fair because while she gave employees every opportunity to excel, she did not hesitate to act when problems arose.
    One bad apple spoils the bunch, she reminded herself and it was certainly true in managing people.  Turn a blind eye to a problem employee because you hate confrontation or feel sorry for the person and you can ruin an entire team’s performance and morale.  Cheri never lost sight of the pain it would cause the employee to be let go, but she believed that pain to be ultimately self-inflicted.
    There was a light knock on her door as Cheri’s assistant opened it to show in both the supervisor and the employee in question.  Cheri rose to shake hands with each and her assistant quietly withdrew from the room, shutting the door behind her.

 
     
     
     
     
    5
     
     
    Spring warmed into summer and thoughts of murder faded from the public mind.  The citizens of Casper were gearing up to host the Summer Solstice Rodeo, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sanctioned event that drew barrel racers, bareback riders and bull riders from across the country. 
    Cheyenne, the state capitol, claimed top rodeo honors with  Frontier Days.  Founded in 1897, this “Daddy of them All” event was part of the national rodeo tour, dwarfing other Wyoming rodeos.  Casper’s Summer Solstice Rodeo couldn’t compete on so grand a scale but the community was justifiably proud of the event.
    Most Wyoming towns, certainly of any size at all, hosted some sort of rodeo event.  Even tiny Shoshoni, on the shores of Boysen Reservoir, boasted a pint-sized rodeo ring.   Rodeo was the marquee sport at several of Wyoming’s high schools and community colleges.
    Emma had never been to a rodeo before moving to Wyoming, but it was so much a part of the fabric of the community that she had looked forward with excitement to her first Summer Solstice event.  Barrel riding, a women’s event where horse and rider work in perfect harmony to  complete a complex circuit of barrels within the arena in the shortest time