Harper Harlow Mystery 19 - Ghostly Endeavor

by Lily Harper Hart

  Harper felt otherwise. “I don’t think you can have a punny name for a cemetery. We’re still going to be handling burials and interments. Nobody is going to want to put Ghost with the Most Cemetery on a funeral announcement.”

  The wrinkles Zander had been working overtime to keep from his forehead appeared as he frowned. “I think people will like the name. It will make them laugh.”

  “Not during a funeral for a wife or mother it won’t,” Harper shot back. “We can’t go with that name.”

  “Then what about something like Haunted Hotel of Whisper Cove?” Zander countered. “Then we’ll put a tagline on the sign. ‘You can check in but never out.’”

  Harper thought she might fall over. “Absolutely not.”

  “Then what’s your idea?” Zander demanded. “What name do you think we should use?”

  “I haven’t even thought about it. I didn’t think a name change was necessary. Whisper Cove Cemetery is straightforward.”

  “And boring.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with a boring name for a cemetery.”

  “Oh, I don’t even know why I bother trying to add color to your life,” Zander groused, folding his arms across his chest. “You married a guy with an aura the color of coffee creamer for crying out loud. There’s no way you can see my vision.”

  “And a hearty ‘bite me’ to you, too,” Jared growled.

  Jason picked that moment to insert himself in the conversation. He recognized if things continued to spiral with the group, he would have to make his excuses and hide in the kitchen until they left. He was willing to give it one more shot, though. “What about something like Resurrection Cemetery of Whisper Cove?” he suggested. “That could get people thinking about your ability to see and talk to ghosts and still keep the town name in play.”

  Harper thought she would hate the idea but now, when she gave it hard consideration, she wasn’t completely opposed to the notion of a name change. “That’s not so bad, huh?” She glanced at Jared for his opinion.

  “I actually think it’s kind of cool,” Jared admitted. “I don’t hate it.”

  “Thank you so much,” Jason drawled.

  Jared managed a smirk. “It’s something to consider. I don’t think you have to change the name right away. Let’s close on the business, get the day-to-day operations up to snuff, and worry about the name after the fact. You guys are going to be facing a huge learning curve when you take ownership. There’s no reason to get caught up in the little things.”

  Harper knew he was right. “Yeah. I guess I’m just excited. This is a big deal for us.”

  Jared sent her a soft smile. “You’re going to do great.”

  “We’re going to do great,” Zander corrected. “I think we should all table discussions of the name for a few days at least. By then you’ll realize that Ghost with the Most Cemetery is a winner.”

  “Yeah, I’m never going to get to that place,” Harper countered.

  Zander wasn’t about to be dissuaded. “Never say never.”

  2

  TWO

  Harper woke up long before Jared the next morning. She did her best to remain still so as not to steal sleep from him, but she was a fidgety mess.

  “The sun is barely out,” he groused as he slipped his arm around her waist and drew her to him. “You have hours before you have to be at the cemetery.”

  “I know.” She tried to keep her voice even. “I’m just excited.”

  Jared cocked one eye. “I guess you have reason to be excited.”

  “It’s a big deal.”

  “It is,” he agreed.

  “There’s a lot of room in that building,” Harper said. “Between the cemetery operations office and GHI, that will take up the bulk of it but there’s still that big space in the back of the building that’s never been used for anything.”

  Jared knew his wife well enough to recognize she already had plans for that space. “A third business?”

  “No.” Her lips curved as she shook her head. She knew her hair was standing on end from the restless night of sleep — and the games they’d played before falling asleep — but she didn’t care. For some reason Jared found her bedhead endearing. That was only one of the reasons she loved him. “I was thinking it would be good for kids.”

  His mind still muddled from sleep, Jared’s brow furrowed. “You want to run a daycare out of there on top of everything else?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I was thinking for when we have kids. There are going to be years in there when we have kids, but they won’t be in school. If we have a nice room at the cemetery, they can go with me to work, hang out there and be close.”

  “Ah.” Jared rolled to his back and scratched his chin, considering. “Don’t you think hanging out at a cemetery constantly might warp kids?”

  “I spent tons of time in a cemetery when I was little.”

  “You had a reason.”

  “And our kids might have the same reason.”

  They’d talked about it of course. Harper’s ability was a family trait, something her grandfather had boasted as well. It was possible their children might be able to see and talk to ghosts, just like their mother. It was something that Jared had already accepted.

  “Well, it’s something to consider,” he said finally. “I think we have a little time before that needs to be tackled.”

  “Oh, I’m not saying we should have kids immediately,” Harper reassured him. “I want a few years of just you and me before we add to the mix. I do want kids eventually, though.”

  “I do, too.”

  “And I think Zander and Shawn will have kids. If they want to adopt, they’ll probably have to fill out all the paperwork a full year before they’re ready.”

  “I hadn’t considered that.”

  “And Molly and Eric,” Harper continued. “I think they’ll eventually have kids. Having a space right on the premises where we can see them throughout the day sounds cool. What do you think?”

  She was so earnest Jared could only agree. “I think it sounds great. The cemetery is just around the corner from the police department. I can come over for lunch and see my wife and little girl.”

  Harper frowned. “How do you know we’re going to have a little girl?”

  “Because when I picture us with kids there’s always a little blond girl in my dreams who looks exactly like her mother.”

  “What if we have a boy?”

  “I’ll be fine with it. We’re just at the dreaming stage, though. If I want a little girl, I think I’m allowed to dream a little girl without being guilted.”

  “Fair enough.” She snuggled in at his side. “I just want this to work. I think it’s the best possible scenario for all of us.”

  “I get it.” He smoothed her hair and rested his cheek against her forehead. “You know it’s going to be fine, right? You’re good at everything you do. This won’t be any different.”

  “It’s just a big change. I’ve never really considered myself an entrepreneur.”

  “Well, you’re the smartest woman I know. I have no doubt you’re going to turn this into a huge success. Are you sure you don’t want me there with you?”

  “I always want you around,” she reassured him as she leaned back far enough to stare into his eyes. “I would really prefer you and Zander not getting in a fight today, though. I just want it to be a relaxing day.”

  “I can promise not to get into a fight with Zander,” he replied automatically.

  Harper knew better. “You can’t go five minutes without getting into a fight with Zander right now.” Before he could muster an argument, she held up her hand to still him. “I get it. You’re still bitter about him invading our honeymoon. I don’t blame you.”

  He could read between the lines of the statement. “But you don’t want me ruining your big day.”

  “You could never ruin my day.”

  A fight could, though, he recognized. It could drag her down. He didn’t want he
r anything but happy today. “How about I make plans to bring home dinner so we can have a private celebration tonight?”

  “That sounds fun.” Her eyes were bright balls of liquid excitement. “Zander and I plan on spending the entire day after we close wandering around the cemetery and plotting out landscaping changes.”

  That was news to Jared. “Why?”

  “Because, if we want the cemetery to appeal to people looking for ghost tours, we need to add a few touches. It won’t be anything big,” she reassured him. “We’re talking bits of fencing and statues. We might do something with the lights, too. It will just add to the ambiance.”

  Jared never imagined he would get to a place in his life where the word “ambiance” would be married to the word “cemetery,” but he automatically bobbed his head. “I can’t wait to hear about your plans.”

  “It’s going to be a good day,” Harper said. “It’s the first day of the rest of our lives.”

  He smiled into her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder. “We’re going to have a lot of good days going forward. Just pace yourself. I don’t want you exhausted tonight when you get home. I have plans for you.”

  She managed a happy giggle. “Every single day since I met you has been a good day.”

  Not all of them, Jared mentally countered. He understood what she was saying, though. “I want you to have the best possible day. Text me when everything is done. I’ll be at work, but I still want to know.”

  “I’ll definitely text you. They might even be dirty texts.”

  “Now we’re talking.”

  THE CLOSING TOOK A FULL HOUR, BUT Harper and Zander were brimming with energy when they left the cemetery office.

  “The locksmith should be here in forty-five minutes,” Zander noted as he checked the time on his phone. “We have to be back to the building then. They’re also switching out the gate locks. It’s not that I don’t trust Luther but ... well ... I don’t trust him.”

  Harper made a face as she nodded. Luther, the former owner of the cemetery, had been something of a jerk since they’d entered into a purchase agreement with him. He was still smarting from losing the cemetery thanks to an affair he’d engaged in … and that had helped turn his wife Barbara into a murderous lunatic. Although Luther wanted to be rid of the cemetery, he wasn’t thrilled that Harper and Zander were the buyers since they’d been involved in the previous mess.

  “We definitely need to get the locks changed,” Harper readily agreed. “That was one of the last things Jared said to me before he left this morning. I told him we had it handled.”

  “I’m thinking we need to get extra keys made once he’s finished, too,” Zander said as he pulled a tape measure from his pocket. “We’ll have to cover everybody and then keep extra sets in our houses just to be on the safe side. I mean ... can you imagine explaining to people that they can’t visit their loved ones because we misplaced our keys?”

  “Definitely not. We’ll hit the hardware store on our way to lunch.”

  “Good idea.” Zander snapped the tape measure. “So, this is the spot where you want to put the bonfire circle, right?”

  Harper nodded. “Yes, but we can’t call it a bonfire circle. That might turn people off. I want to be able to have fires out here to tell ghost stories by, but it has to be tasteful.”

  “So ... no oversized clown statues, right?” Zander teased. “That’s what you’re saying.”

  “Definitely not. I think we’re going to have to be careful with statues. They should look mournful and not scary.”

  “They need to look scary, too.” Zander was adamant about that. “Otherwise, they’ll work against us. I think we can commission someone to make statues if we don’t find anything we like.”

  Harper hadn’t considered that, but she bobbed her head. “That’s probably smart.” She pulled a notebook out of her pocket. “Start yelling out measurements. We’re going to want cement benches out here, too, and I’m thinking we should plant big shrubs around the perimeter to isolate the circle from people just to be on the safe side.”

  “Good plan.” Zander moved to the east side of the circle. “Okay, here we go.” He started calling out measurements. Harper took the time to sketch out the location. After about ten minutes, they had what they needed.

  “Let’s head over toward the storage building,” Harper suggested. “A lot of the statues we’re going to order can be placed almost anywhere. That doesn’t necessarily need to be plotted out. That building is an eyesore, though.”

  “That building is basically new,” Zander countered. “It’s the old one on the back of the property that’s an eyesore.”

  “Yes, but that old building looks haunted,” Harper said. “I was thinking we could try to have the roof fixed and maybe turn it into an exhibit or something.”

  “An exhibit?” Zander was confused. “This isn’t a museum.”

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t have ghostly artifacts and stuff. We could always deck out the old building and make it a stop on the tour.”

  “Oh, that might be fun.” Zander fell into step with her as they marched toward the new storage building. “What’s the plan with the new building?”

  “Well, we can’t make it invisible. It needs to be accessible, too. I don’t think it’s terrible, but I was kind of wondering if we could get the windows replaced with stained glass and plant a bunch of bushes around it. I mean ... it’s just a building in the middle of the property now and it’s boring.”

  “That’s true.” Zander chattered away about nonsense as they approached the building.

  Harper only kept one ear on him as she started imagining what she wanted to do ... and then something caught her attention. “Is that a shoe?”

  “Hmm?” Zander shifted his eyes to her, confused. When he found her looking away from him, he glanced in that direction ... and frowned. “That is a shoe. It looks like a Nike.”

  Harper shot him a disbelieving look. “How can you identify what type of sneaker it is from thirty feet away?”

  “I have a gift. You can’t question my fashion recognition ability. It’s unparalleled.”

  “Oh, right.” Harper shook her head as she approached the slight hill, frowning as they got closer and she realized the shoe was attached to something. “Is that ...?” she trailed off.

  Zander pulled up short when he realized what they were looking at, his heart pounding in his ears. “That’s a body,” he said dumbly.

  Harper reacted on instinct, going to the woman on the ground. Her first thought was that someone had tripped and accidentally knocked herself out. When she got closer, though, and realized the woman was spread eagle on the ground and staring sightlessly at the morning sky, she knew better.

  Her mouth was dry, her heart hammering, but somehow Harper managed to maintain her wits. “That’s Cassie Clifton.”

  “She graduated with us,” Zander said dumbly. “I see her around town all the time, running. She’s in great shape. I bet she doesn’t eat a lot of carbs.” It was a ridiculous thing to say and yet he couldn’t stop himself.

  “She’s dead,” Harper blurted out.

  “No.” Zander was a smart man and yet he couldn’t wrap his head around what he was seeing. “She’s probably just sleeping.”

  Harper was incredulous. “With her eyes open?”

  “Well ... stranger things have happened.”

  “Not in our world.” Her fingers shook as she retrieved her phone from her pocket. She took a long beat to study the screen and then began searching her contacts.

  “Who are you calling?” Zander demanded. He already knew the answer, but he couldn’t stop himself from panicking.

  “Who do you think I’m calling?” Harper shot back.

  “Don’t you think we should get our stories straight first?”

  Harper made a face. “We didn’t kill her.”

  “Oh, right.” Zander straightened his frame. “This is a real kick in the pants on our first day.�
�

  Harper couldn’t disagree.

  IT ONLY TOOK JARED TEN MINUTES to get to the cemetery once he’d collected his partner, Mel Kelsey. The two men parked in front of the cemetery office and then made the rest of the trip on foot. It didn’t take them long to find Harper and Zander when using the storage building as a landmark.

  “Are you okay?” Jared broke into a jog when he saw Harper and immediately swept her up into his arms.

  “We’re fine,” Harper reassured him. She’d had a few minutes to settle and was no longer on the verge of melting down. “We didn’t see this happen or anything. We were never in any danger.”

  “Yes, well ... .” Jared searched her face for several seconds before releasing her and moving toward the body. “How did this happen?”

  “I have no idea.” Harper sent Mel — who also happened to be Zander’s uncle — a flat smile. “We were just heading over here to make some decisions about bushes when we found her.”

  “We saw the Nikes first,” Zander offered. He was still shaken by the discovery but doing his best to cover. “We thought someone left shoes out here. Then we saw ... well, you know what we saw.”

  Jared absently clapped his hand on Zander’s shoulder. As much as the man irritated him — and it was a lot — they were still close. In fact, Harper often marveled at the way they interacted. They didn’t realize they were friends, but they were. Even if Harper was the glue that held them together, they also had their own relationship to navigate, no matter how thorny it was.

  “You guys didn’t touch her, did you?”

  Zander shook his head. “We were going to check but ... well ... .”

  “It’s obvious she’s dead,” Jared finished as he knelt next to the body. He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves before touching the woman’s neck. “She’s been out here for a few hours at the very least.”

  “I’m guessing this happened when it was still dark out,” Mel noted. “She likes to run all over town, has a regular jogging route.”