Ghostly Deceits (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 3)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I don’t think he’s getting what I’m trying to say,” Jared said, rubbing the back of his neck as he searched for the right way to tell Josh the truth.

  “Janet isn’t your mother,” Harper announced. “Alice Thorpe was your mother. She died in her sleep. The death certificate says she had a heart attack, but she was really smothered. Janet was her best friend and somehow she ended up married to your father in the aftermath of your mother’s death, but she’s not your real mother.”

  Josh’s mouth dropped open as Harper’s words washed over him. “W-what?”

  “Nice job, Heart,” Jared chided, making a face. “You have zero tact sometimes. You’re very sweet most of the time, but other times you completely lose your head. What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that Josh has a right to know who his mother is.”

  “There was still a better way to tell him,” Jared said, turning his sympathetic eyes toward Josh. “Are you okay?”

  “That’s not true, right?” Josh asked. “What she just told me, that’s a lie … or a game … or something other than the truth.”

  “It’s the truth,” Jared countered. “I don’t know everything that is going on, but I do know that Alice Thorpe was married to Linden Stokes. The marriage lasted almost ten years. Right after your birth, Alice was found dead in her bed. It was ruled a heart attack, but … .”

  “But she was murdered,” Josh finished, rubbing his chin as the words sank in. “How is this possible?”

  “Are you sure your father never hinted around that Janet wasn’t your mother?” Harper asked, her heart going out to Josh. “Maybe he said something that didn’t jump out at you at the time but now in hindsight it makes you wonder if he was trying to tell you something.”

  “My father has always been warm and loving toward me,” Josh said. “He’s never lied to me. Even when we were in real financial trouble and he was embarrassed, he never lied to me. Why would he do this? Why would he lie about this?”

  “Maybe he was upset himself,” Harper suggested. “Alice said she and Linden were high school sweethearts and very much in love. She said Janet was her best friend and had … um … jealousy issues. She was also your godmother.”

  “That sounds like the history I heard for my mother … I mean Janet,” Josh said, his face pale. “Are you saying that my real mother is dead and Janet stole her story and pretended it was her story?”

  Josh looked enraged.

  “I’m saying that something very bad happened to Alice and we need to figure out what it was,” Harper clarified. “I also think that Hal’s death plays into what happened to Alice, although I have no idea how.”

  “We need to get answers about Alice,” Jared prodded. “Who do you think would be the best one to ask?”

  “I know exactly who we’re going to ask,” Josh said, reaching into his pocket so he could retrieve his cell phone. “He can’t hide from me forever. It’s time I got the truth. He owes me the whole story about my mother at the very least. It’s time he told me about her.”

  Twenty-One

  Linden didn’t appear worried as he cut a path through the dining room and moved in his son’s direction. Josh was terse on the phone but held things together long enough to ask his father to join him for dinner. Once he disconnected he turned into a sweating mess and Harper and Jared spent the intervening five minutes trying to convince him everything was going to be okay.

  Linden approached the table with wary eyes. He offered a few of the guests head nods and waves, but never veered from the path he picked. He greeted everyone at the table with a watery smile and then sat, steepling his fingers as he waited for Josh to make his intentions known.

  “What’s wrong?” Linden asked finally, unable to take another moment of silence.

  “What makes you think anything is wrong?” Jared asked, his hand resting on top of Harper’s.

  “Because Josh is obviously upset and you two look as if you’d rather be in front of a firing squad than me right now,” Linden answered. “I’m not an idiot. Talk.”

  “I have to ask you something,” Josh said, licking his lips. “It’s a hard question, and I’m worried it’s going to upset you … or take you by surprise … or make you really angry. I have to know, though.”

  “Okay,” Linden said. “I’m sure we can get through whatever you need to ask me. Spit it out.”

  “I … .” Josh was floundering.

  “He wants to know about Alice Thorpe,” Harper interjected. “He knows she was his mother and Janet’s not. He’s kind of ticked off and really scared, but I think part of him is also excited because he really doesn’t like Janet and she’s mean to him.”

  “Oh, my.” Linden exhaled heavily while Josh slapped his hands over his eyes in an attempt to block out the scene.

  “You have to stop doing that, Harper,” Jared chided. “It’s weird and it throws people for a loop.”

  “Listen, I’m all for being prim, proper, and polite when the conversation warrants it, but we have a lot going on right now and we don’t have time to pussyfoot around the bigger issues at play here,” Harper said. “We need Linden to admit the truth about Alice so we can move on to the other stuff.”

  “Thank you, Heart,” Jared said, squeezing her hand and shaking his head. “Sometimes I think you channel Zander when it comes to tact.”

  “I take it you’re the ones who told Josh this … story?” Linden asked, his face unreadable.

  “We are,” Jared confirmed, refusing to back down.

  “And how did you hear it?”

  “We … um … .”

  “I can see and talk to ghosts,” Harper offered, her tone blasé even though Jared shot her an incredulous look. “What? I’m not going to lie any longer when we’ve got so much going on. You were the one who told me to tell the truth from the beginning. This should make you happy”

  “You’re a piece of work sometimes,” Jared grumbled.

  “Right back at you.”

  Linden shook his head as he studied Harper, his usually kind eyes keen. “You can see and talk to ghosts?”

  “I know you probably don’t believe me, but yes,” Harper answered. “My grandfather was the first one I ever saw, in fact. He came into my room to say goodbye the night he died.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Linden said.

  “You’re handling this a lot better than I did a few hours ago,” Josh said. “When Harper told me, I accused her of playing an elaborate prank on me and then forced them to storm out and desert me until I came to my senses.”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about Harper’s abilities,” Linden said.

  Harper tilted her head to the side, surprised. “Really? Who told you?”

  “You’re relatively famous in certain circles, Harper,” Linden said. “You’ve found bodies, missing children, and kidnap victims over the course of your short life. People have whispered about you for ages.

  “Harsens Island and Whisper Cove are separate, but not by much,” he continued. “I heard stories about you and then I ran into your father a few years ago and he confirmed them. He’s very proud of you.”

  “He is?” Harper wrinkled her nose. “I know my father loves me, but he’s never seemed especially proud of me.”

  “That’s because you’re his only child and he doesn’t want to risk crowding you,” Linden replied. “I’m the father of one child, too. I know how that works.”

  “So, wait, you believe her?” Jared asked.

  Linden nodded. “I do believe her.”

  “Is she telling the truth about Alice Thorpe?” Josh asked quietly. “Was she my mother?”

  For a second Harper was convinced Linden was going to lie to his son. He didn’t.

  “She was your mother,” Linden confirmed.

  Josh let out a strangled gasp and dropped his head in hands. Jared reached out and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder.

  “Why didn’t you tell Josh about his mother
?” Harper asked, taking control of the conversation. “He deserved the right to know about her.”

  “He did,” Linden agreed. “You have to understand, I loved Alice a great deal. I loved her when I was fourteen years old and I loved her when I was thirty. I thought we were going to be together forever. When she died in her sleep at such a young age … well … I was lost.”

  Harper opened her mouth to point out Alice didn’t die in her sleep, but Jared offered a small shake of his head to warn her off. Harper read between the lines: Jared wanted Linden to tell the story in his own time.

  “I didn’t think I would ever get over Alice’s death,” Linden said. “I was crushed and broken. I didn’t get out of bed for days and finally Trask is the one who made me get up for her funeral. I know you don’t understand why I keep him on given his attitude, but he was the best friend I had in the dark days after your mother died. I owed him.

  “I wasn’t a very good father to you during that time, Josh,” Linden said. “I was a terrible father, in fact. I had no idea who was taking care of you because I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. I thought I was going to get a full life with Alice. I felt cheated and I was angry.”

  “That doesn’t explain how you ended up with Janet,” Harper said, making a face when Jared shot her a dark look. “What? I’m not being a busybody. I’m genuinely curious.”

  Despite the surreal nature of the situation, Linden chuckled. “She’s fine, Jared. I find her refreshing. In fact, I think the reason I took such a shine to her right from the beginning was because she reminded me of my Alice.”

  Josh made a face. “Are you saying I was attracted to a woman who reminds you of my mother?”

  “That’s exactly what he’s saying so you need to stop hitting on her,” Jared said. He wasn’t actually trying to be a pain. He was going for levity, though, and they all needed it. “If you keep hitting on her it will be like incest and no one wants that.”

  “That’s pretty convenient for you,” Josh quipped. “I guess this whole fake mother thing worked out to your advantage.”

  “Hey, I think you won here, too,” Jared said. “You always wondered why your mother – er, Janet – never bonded with you. Now you know.”

  “Tell us about Janet,” Harper prodded. “I’m dying to understand how Alice’s best friend ended up in your bed.”

  “There’s no need to get crude,” Linden chided, although his eyes momentarily sparkled. “The truth is, I was at a loss as to what I should be doing following Alice’s death. We had plans to add to our family down the road. We wanted three children. We had everything planned out.”

  “And then she died,” Jared supplied.

  “And then she died and everything changed,” Linden said. “They say you go through stages of grief. I got mired in the anger one a little too long. I became angry at Alice for leaving me alone and I did some absolutely moronic things.”

  “Like marrying Janet?” Harper asked.

  “I know it might seem hard to believe now given the stories you’ve probably heard about Janet, but she was a good woman at one time,” Linden said. “She’s the one who took care of Josh when I was inconsolable after Alice’s death. She made sure he was fed and loved. She rocked him to sleep every night. She loved him. Of course, she was his godmother, she had to love him.”

  “How did all of that change?” Josh asked. “How did she grow to hate me?”

  “She doesn’t hate you, Josh,” Linden clarified. “She’s simply … limited. I didn’t realize it at the time because I was paralyzed with grief, but Janet has emotional deficits. She can’t engage with people. I wasn’t engaging with people when I decided to marry her, and it was far too late to change things once I realized what was going on.”

  “You married Janet because you didn’t know what else to do, didn’t you?” Jared asked.

  Linden nodded. “I didn’t believe it was possible to love anyone ever again and Josh needed a mother,” he said. “I knew Janet had a crush on me. Alice and I used to laugh about it when we were alone sometimes. I thought Janet would jump at the chance to live in the house and take care of Josh. I thought that would be enough.”

  “When did you realize it wasn’t enough?” Harper asked.

  “I lived that first year in a fog,” Linden answered. “I did my best to spend time with Josh, although it wasn’t quality time. I managed to get my act together better on that as time passed, but that first year I was neglectful and I’ve always felt guilty about it.”

  “It’s not like I remember it,” Josh pointed out. “You were in mourning.”

  “I was in mourning, but I should’ve done almost everything differently,” Linden said. “If I had things to do over again … .”

  “You can’t go back in time,” Harper said. “What happened with Janet?”

  “Janet thought I married her out of love and then slowly came to the realization that I married her out of convenience,” Linden replied. “For a time I think she believed she could change my mind and make me fall in love with her. She doted on me … and Josh … and she went out of her way to be a loving wife and mother.

  “At some point realization kicked in because she grew bitter,” he continued. “I’m not sure when it happened. One day I looked at her and realized it wasn’t love I was seeing reflected back in her eyes but hate.”

  “Why did you keep Alice’s memory hidden?” Harper asked. “That doesn’t seem fair to her, especially because you claim that you loved her.”

  “I was angry with her for a very long time,” Linden said. “I didn’t know how to grieve properly so I blamed her for something she had no control over. When Josh started asking questions as a child I decided it would be easier for him if he believed Janet was his mother. It’s not like Alice’s family ever came to visit. He didn’t know any of his relatives on that side of the family. After Alice died they ceased visiting. I thought it would be better for Josh if he thought Janet was his mother. I didn’t want him spending his adolescence searching for a ghost.”

  “That’s kind of ironic when you think about it,” Harper muttered.

  “By the time Josh hit middle school I realized I made a mistake,” Linden said. “I approached Janet, intent on telling Josh the truth and hoping we could do it as a unit, but she had a complete and total meltdown. She said that she was Josh’s mother and she wouldn’t stand for any talk of Alice in her house. That’s when I realized how much Janet had changed.

  “I know it sounds simplistic, or even asinine, but I was oblivious to many of Janet’s faults until it was too late to fix what I had done,” he continued. “Josh has turned into a happy and well-adjusted adult. I thought he deserved to know about his mother, but I didn’t want to rock the boat. That’s on me.”

  “Harper showed me her photograph in the dining room,” Josh said. “If Mom … I mean Janet … wanted my real mother out of this house so badly, why did she leave the photo up?”

  “I don’t know,” Linden answered. “You’ll have to ask her that. She went through a period where she scoured through the entire house to make sure nothing of Alice’s remained. I regret that.”

  “That must be how Alice’s locket ended up in the water,” Harper said. “We found it there the other day. I recognized it when her ghost showed me her locket today.”

  Josh looked hopeful. “Really?”

  “It’s in our room,” Harper said, sympathy rolling off of her. “We’ll make sure you get it. You’re going to have to take it to a jeweler to get it open, but … you’ll have something from your real mother.”

  “We have another problem,” Jared added. “Actually, we have several other problems. The first is that Alice is still hanging around and needs to be put to rest. She’s been walking these grounds for thirty years. I think she deserves some peace.”

  “How was I supposed to know that?” Linden asked.

  “You weren’t,” Harper said. “The thing is, um, most souls don’t hang around because they died in their
sleep. They hang around because they were murdered.”

  Linden stilled, surprised. “No. That’s not right. Alice went to sleep and never woke up. We had a doctor come out here and everything.”

  “I don’t want to upset you, but the odds of a woman as young as Alice dying in her sleep aren’t very good,” Jared said. “My partner has been going over Alice’s records, and he says it’s almost as if there’s been a concerted effort to wipe Alice from the record books.”

  “Is that possible?” Josh asked. “This is the information age. You can’t erase people now.”

  “Alice died long before the information age,” Jared replied. “She also claims she was suffocated in her sleep.”

  “What?” Linden’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “You can’t be serious.”

  “She was pretty convincing,” Harper said. “She said she felt exhausted and that’s why she didn’t wake up, but I’m going to bet if we did an autopsy we would find she’d been drugged to make it easier for someone to suffocate her.”

  “Does she know who killed her?” Josh asked.

  “If she does, she’s not saying,” Harper said. “She’s … complicated. I think she’s bitter about her memory being erased from the house, but she called Josh handsome and a good man.”

  “She’s seen me?” Josh looked hopeful.

  “She’s seen everything,” Harper said. “In fact, I have her out looking for Hal’s body right now. If we’re lucky she’ll be able to find it and help us solve our second mystery.”

  “Wait a second,” Linden said. “Who is Hal?”

  “That’s what I was just about to ask you,” Jared said. “Hal Baker is the head of the mystery troupe. He’s dead. Harper ran into his ghost in the library. He’s playing coy and says he doesn’t know where his body is, but something else is going on and Harper is convinced all of this – Alice’s murder and Hal’s death – somehow all play together.”

  “How is that even possible?” Linden asked. “Alice died more than two decades ago.”

  “I want to see everything you have of hers, by the way,” Josh said. “I want to see it all.”