Harper brightened at the suggestion. “Good idea. I should get some whipped cream, too.”
“I didn’t tell you to turn into a sexual freak while plying him with the pie.”
“That’s just an added bonus.”
Thirteen
After three hours of fruitless digging, Jared could no longer bottle up his frustration.
“This is crap!”
Mel, who was focused on Judy Lange’s autopsy report, merely arched an eyebrow. “Problem?”
“Yeah, there’s a problem. I have a whole bunch of problems.”
Mel let loose a sigh that only an older partner could muster. “Lay it on me.”
“The hospital Quinn says he turned up in closed three years ago.”
Mel stilled. “Closed?”
“Yeah. It was a state hospital in New York. There are news stories all over the place about it closing, something about budget cuts and a psych patient escaping and killing a woman in Central Park. The hospital couldn’t recover from the negative press, so the state shut its doors and shuttled the patients to other locations.”
“Huh.” Mel honestly had no idea what to make of the news. “Quinn was there more than five years ago. It’s totally possible that it closed after he left. That happens a lot these days. Hospitals merge or close their doors all the time.”
“I know that.” Jared tugged on his limited patience. “My problem is that I can’t track down this doctor that he mentioned, Irwin Blum. Believe it or not, there are ten people in the city who have that name and I have no idea which one of them is the real deal.”
“Maybe you’re going about it the wrong way,” Mel suggested, choosing his words carefully. He recognized that Jared occasionally turned prickly when his investigative methods were called into question. “Instead of focusing on the names that Quinn supplied, why not pull the names from the old hospital and work your way down from there?”
“Right.” Jared brightened. “That’s a good idea. I don’t know if those people will be harder or easier to track down, but it can’t hurt.”
“Plus, we need outside verification,” Mel reminded him. “Just because Quinn said Irwin Blum was his doctor, that doesn’t necessarily make it true.”
“You’re right.” Jared felt like an idiot as he rubbed his forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because your mind is full of worry for a certain blonde. Don’t take it to heart. Tackle it like you would anything else. One step at a time.”
“See, you’re not just a crabby old guy who spends his time eating doughnuts,” Jared teased. “Zander has you pegged all wrong.”
“Zander is going to get a boot in his behind if he’s not careful.”
“I think he totally deserves it.”
HARPER AND ZANDER DECIDED to play holiday angels and deliver a special lunch to Mel and Jared. For her part, Harper wanted to reassure her boyfriend that everything was fine and he had nothing to worry about. For his part, Zander merely wanted to keep Harper’s mind on anything other than Quinn. Delivering lunch served a purpose for both of them.
“This is a nice surprise.” Jared beamed when he looked up from his computer and saw the takeout bag in Harper’s hand. “Are we having lunch?”
“Technically, I already had lunch with Zander.” Harper was apologetic as she handed Jared a bag. “The squash soup was so good, though, we thought we would surprise you guys.”
“We saw that the cruiser was here — plus both your vehicles — so we decided to be Thanksgiving elves,” Zander supplied. “You can thank me this Christmas, Uncle Mel, when it comes time for gifts.”
Mel snorted as he accepted the bag his nephew handed him. “Instead, how does being my favorite nephew sound? You can have the title free and clear.”
“I’m your only nephew.”
“And that’s exactly why you’re my favorite.” Mel winked and shifted his eyes to Harper. “Where have you guys been? Harper looks a little frazzled.”
“We were at the grocery store,” Zander replied, lowering himself into the chair across from Mel’s desk. “Harper doesn’t like crowds and she whined like a baby the entire time.”
“And, since that’s Zander’s favorite thing to do, it was something of a territorial dispute,” Harper offered. “He’s not happy with me usurping his territory.”
“I’m not happy with you using the word ‘usurp,’” Zander countered, his persnickety personality on full display. “That’s a stupid word.”
“It seems somehow apt in this particular situation,” Jared countered, leaning over so he could give Harper a soft kiss. “You do look a little worn down. Was the store really that busy?”
“You have no idea,” Harper replied, squeezing Jared’s hand and giving him a warm smile. “If I didn’t know better, I would think people got a heads-up about an incoming zombie apocalypse and they’re stocking up for the end of the world.”
“No zombie apocalypse. We would get a notice on that.”
“Good to know.” Harper’s grin was quick and easy as she sat in the chair across from Jared’s desk. “You have no idea how crazy people are acting, though. We actually saw two women fighting over who got the bigger acorn squash. Zander told them it was a myth that bigger is better, but they didn’t believe him.”
“Ha, ha.” Zander rolled his eyes. “I know what you’re really saying, and I refuse to fight with you in front of witnesses no matter how low you go.”
“Good to know.”
“We will fight when it’s just the two of us back at the house and I make you start doing food prep, though,” he added. “Just wait until I make you shove your hands up that turkey’s behind and rip out its guts.”
“You always know the sweetest things to say,” Harper drawled as Jared rummaged in his takeout bag. “I got your favorite roast beef sandwich and some of the butternut squash soup. It’s really good.”
“Thank you, Heart. You’re such a good provider.”
“I do my best.” Harper shifted her eyes to Jared’s notebook, a series of furious scribbles evident. “Are you having trouble tracking down a suspect in Judy Lange’s murder?”
“Oh, well ... .” Jared exchanged a quick look with Mel, uncomfortable.
“We’re trying to figure out who Judy had ties with in the area,” Mel supplied smoothly. “It’s not easy because she moved away years ago and only came back to get money from her mother. The mother is in a home because she has Lupus and doesn’t know who Judy was spending her time with.”
“You said she was arrested several times when she lived here,” Harper noted. “Maybe you should track down the people she was arrested with.”
Though agitated he wasn’t the one to come up with the avenue of attack, Mel nodded in agreement. “That right there is a good idea, young lady. You think like a police officer. Have you ever considered a career in law enforcement?”
“I don’t think most precincts would enjoy my methods,” Harper replied dryly. “I mean ... can you imagine the first time I said a ghost told me where to find evidence? I would be locked up.”
“Oh, you can be my partner.” Jared, his mouth full of roast beef, smiled. “I like your methods.”
“Nice.” Mel made a face. “If she’s your partner, who is my partner?”
Jared inclined his chin toward Zander. “I think you two would be really happy with your partnership.”
“Oh, geez. We would kill each other before the end of the first shift.”
“That is a blatant lie,” Zander countered. “You would thank your lucky stars if you had a partner like me. I’m a great detective.”
“What have you ever detected?”
“Today I found a dude in the grocery store and detected he was warm for my form,” Zander fired back, not missing a beat as he dug in his pocket. “Harper thought he wanted her, but I think I know better.”
“Oh, really?” Mel showed zero interest when Zander showed him the video.
“There was a guy flirting
with you in the supermarket?” Jared asked Harper, suddenly alert.
“He didn’t even talk to us,” Harper countered. “He was simply watching us.”
“Me,” Zander corrected. “He was watching me because I’m hot and people everywhere want to catch me. Unfortunately for them, I’m already caught. Still, I thought Shawn would like to get a gander at who is out there trying to woo me.”
Jared snagged Zander’s phone so he could study the video, his eyebrows drawing together after a few seconds of boring video footage. “The guy leaning against the wall?”
Zander nodded. “He wants me.”
“Because he’s leaning against a wall and staring?”
“You weren’t there.” Zander made a move to grab his phone back, but Jared kept it out of his reach. “Hey! You can’t keep my phone if you’re going to make fun of me.”
“I had no idea that was the rule, but I’ll keep it in mind,” Jared said dryly. “I don’t suppose you know who this guy is, do you?”
“No.” Zander shook his head. “He’s simply some random hot guy in the store who wants me.”
“He looks familiar.” Jared leaned back in his chair as he started the video over from the beginning. “I’m sure I recognize this guy.”
Finally showing some interest, Mel swiveled in his chair so he could look at the video. “You’re right. I recognize him, too.”
“From where?” Harper asked, legitimately curious.
“I don’t know.” Something niggled at the back of Jared’s brain and he jolted forward. “Except I’m almost positive this is one of the people we saw on the video entering the hospital the night Judy Lange was poisoned.”
Mel snapped his fingers and nodded. “You’re right. He’s on that video right before Quinn steps inside. He’s one of the faces we couldn’t identify, and the lighting was so poor outside we couldn’t collect a proper image to run through our search engines.”
“We need to run the hospital video again to be sure,” Jared said, hitting a few keys before video footage filled his screen. “That was after midnight but before one, right?”
“Yes,” Mel confirmed.
Curious, Harper moved so she could stand behind Jared’s desk and see the footage for herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe Quinn was at the hospital that night. It was more that she wanted to see his face for herself, perhaps get an inkling of what he was thinking.
Instinctively, Jared slid his arm around her waist as he stood and pointed with his free hand. “Here we go. This is the guy in your video.”
Harper leaned forward, not caring in the least that Zander had appeared out of nowhere and was leaning over her back. “That’s definitely him. Heck, I think he’s wearing the same baby blue shirt as in the video.”
“That’s what triggered my memory,” Jared admitted. “That shirt is not a normal color.”
“I told you.” Zander was smug as he watched. “There’s no doubt that’s the same guy.”
“I’m going to need you to send me the footage you shot, Zander,” Mel instructed, his expression hard to read. “Your image is brighter. We might be able to get a hit in the database if we have a better-quality image.”
“Sure.” Zander snagged his phone from Jared as Harper rested her hand on top of her boyfriend’s wrist to still him from stopping the feed.
“I want to see Quinn,” she said quietly.
Jared’s gaze was searching. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Finding the right words was more difficult than Harper envisioned. “I know you think that Quinn could be a suspect and that’s why you don’t want him around me.”
Even to himself, Jared couldn’t admit there was more to his dislike for the man than simply that. “Heart, about this morning ... .”
Harper held up her hand to still him. “No, I’m not angry about this morning. Don’t apologize. What happened was a little weird, but I get it. I want to see the footage of him, though.”
“I do, too,” Zander interjected. “I’m nowhere near as snowed as Harper when it comes to Quinn. That being said, I don’t know that I can picture him sneaking into a hospital to kill a woman he barely knew.”
“I didn’t say I thought he was guilty,” Jared hedged, using his mouse to fast forward the footage. “As you can see, though, very few people entered that hospital in the middle of the night. There are only so many people to look at.”
Jared had watched the video of Quinn entering the hospital so many times he knew exactly where to stop. “Here we go.”
Harper narrowed her eyes as she watched the footage. “It looks like he came from the front parking lot.”
“He did.”
“If you were going to kill someone, would you park directly in front of the building?”
“The lot was mostly empty,” Jared explained. “I don’t think most people would worry about being seen.”
“If you were coming to commit a murder, though, witnesses would be a worry,” Harper persisted. “I’m not standing up for Quinn simply to stand up for him — although I’m certain that’s what you believe — but I honestly don’t think he’s capable of murder.
“He was a decent guy, a nice guy,” she continued. “He was a little boring if you believe Zander, but he was a good man.”
“He was totally boring … and kind of bossy,” Zander agreed. “He didn’t have freaky man nipples and he never wanted to talk with me over coffee. He even put his foot down and said I couldn’t have a key to Harper’s apartment.”
Jared was taken aback. “And you agreed to that, Heart? I couldn’t even negotiate a full week without having to share a bed with Zander.”
“I didn’t agree with it,” Harper hedged. “I just kind of let him think I agreed with it.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.”
“I know.” Harper was embarrassed. “I was twenty-two. I was young. When he made the request, I was caught off guard and agreed before I realized what I was doing. I was going to talk about it with him again, but the accident happened. It was a long time ago.”
Sympathetic to the core, Jared squeezed her hand in a reassuring manner. “Fair enough.”
“No matter what you say, I simply can’t see Quinn as a murderer,” Harper pressed. “He didn’t hunt, and he always opened doors for people at restaurants. Killers don’t open doors for people.”
Jared had to bite back a sigh. “Heart, just because he was polite, that doesn’t mean that he’s not capable of murder. Still, though, simply turning up at the hospital in the middle of the night doesn’t make him guilty. We have no proof he visited Judy Lange’s room and poisoned her.”
“On top of that, we have no way of knowing if he could get his hands on cyanide,” Mel added. “We’re in the beginning stages of this investigation, and given Judy Lange’s rather colorful history, it’s not going to be easy to track down who did this to her.”
“What about the other guy, though?” Harper asked. “He could be guilty. I think it’s weird that he was at the hospital in the middle of the night, too. Besides that, he’s not familiar to me and yet he’s been in town for several days.”
“Maybe he’s not from Whisper Cove,” Jared argued. “Maybe he was visiting a relative in the hospital and didn’t know about visitation hours.” Even to himself, Jared had to admit that sounded lame, but he stuck to his guns. “There are a variety of reasons he might not be the individual we’re looking for.”
“Except we just saw him at the store a few minutes ago,” Harper reminded him. “He’s still in town. If he’s not from Whisper Cove, why is he hanging out so close to the holidays? Plus — and I didn’t want to admit this to Zander because I was certain he would whine if I did — it was creepy the way he stared at us in the store. I was uncomfortable with his attention.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?” Jared challenged. “If someone was following you around the store and staring, then you should’ve called me so I could check him out.”
“He did
n’t really follow us,” Harper clarified. “He just ... stared.”
“At me,” Zander added. “He was interested in me, not Harper. I don’t think this is your guy. There’s no way he could murder a woman and then spend the rest of the week pining for me. That sounds like pure torture.”
Even though it was a serious situation, Jared was forced to press his lips together to keep from laughing. “I’m sure it was torture. To see you and not be able to touch you? That’s the worst kind of torture.”
“I know you’re being sarcastic, but that’s a true statement.” Zander’s eyes flashed as he watched the footage of Quinn entering the hospital play for a second time. “I know you probably don’t want to hear it, man, but I have to agree with Harper on this one. Quinn is a boring pain in the posterior, but he’s never acted in an aggressive fashion as far as I can tell. In fact, he always acts the opposite.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jared asked.
“He’s passive aggressive. He’s kind of a whiner, too. He used to complain about Harper and me going out after dark because it wasn’t safe. He was always such a worrywart.”
“I’m not a fan of you guys going out late at night either,” Jared pointed out. “Do you call me a whiner behind my back, too?”
“I believe I’ve said it plenty of times to your face,” Zander countered. “That doesn’t matter, though. I simply don’t see Quinn being a killer.”
“I hope you guys are right.” Jared gave Harper a deliberate squeeze. “For everyone’s sake, I want to follow your instincts on this one. I simply can’t discount him at this point. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Harper’s fingers were soft as she combed them through Jared’s hair. “Do your job. I’m sure everything will work out how it’s supposed to in the end.”
“I hope so, too.” Jared found he meant it. The pain Harper would go through otherwise was too much to bear. “It’s going to be okay either way. Trust me.”
Fourteen
The search process with the new photo would take time. That meant Jared and Mel needed to fill their afternoon with other avenues of investigation. The first was tracking down a woman named Marley Porter, who just so happened to have an arrest record that overlapped with Judy Lange’s several times over.
Ghostly Despair (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 10) Page 13
