Ghostly Visions: A Harper Harlow Mystery Books 10-12

by Lily Harper Hart

  Zander realized he made a mistake the second the words were out of his mouth. It was too late to take them back.

  Harper’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as she rounded on Zander. “You know what he got me.”

  “No, I didn’t say that.”

  “You do. You just said that I couldn’t top his gift. That means you know what he got me.” She grabbed his shirt, not caring in the least how he felt about wrinkles. “Tell me what I’m getting. Now! Tell me and then I can get him something appropriate.”

  Harper was the best friend Zander ever had. She was the yin to his yang, the cream to his coffee, the vinegar to his potato chips. No matter how much he loved her, however, he wouldn’t ruin Jared’s surprise.

  “No.” Zander calmly removed Harper’s fingers from his shirt. “I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. The only thing I can tell you is that you’re going to love it.”

  Desperation thick as a concrete wall washed over Harper. “What am I supposed to do if you won’t tell me?”

  “Follow your heart,” Zander instructed. “It won’t let you down.”

  Harper wasn’t sure that was true. “It allowed me to keep dating Quinn even though I knew he was a tool.”

  “You were close to breaking that off. You just don’t remember it because things changed when he went missing. Don’t dwell on that. You’re an adult now. You know how to give Jared exactly what he needs. Don’t forget that.”

  Harper scowled. “We’re going to fight about this like you wouldn’t believe when we don’t have an audience.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  CHET, TWO DAYS’ WORTH of stubble on his cheeks, drank straight from a bottle of Maalox as he rested his feet on his desk and regarded Jared and Mel with a dubious look.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen?” he drawled lazily.

  “We need to talk to you about Jessica Hayden,” Mel replied without hesitation.

  Chet narrowed his eyes. “Who is that?”

  “Don’t play games,” Mel chided. “We don’t have time for it.”

  “We know she was your client,” Jared added.

  “Well, since you already know that, you should probably also know that I can’t talk about my clients because it’s a breach of trust.”

  “She’s dead,” Mel declared.

  Whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it. Chet lowered his feet to the ground and leaned forward, suddenly keen. “Are you serious?”

  “No, we make it a point of lying about people being dead right before the holidays,” Jared drawled. “It’s how we get our kicks.”

  Chet slid him an annoyed look. “You’re the new detective around Whisper Cove, right? The one dating the ghost hunter.”

  The statement caught Jared off guard. “What makes you say that?”

  “I’ve seen you on the news recently, and in my job, it pays to watch the news. Your girlfriend was the one almost killed in the field. I saw you two on camera together in a few of the shots. She’s pretty.”

  “She’s not up for discussion,” Jared shot back. “We’re here to talk about Jessica, who was bashed in the head sometime yesterday afternoon and left in a park.”

  “A park?” Chet furrowed his brow. “That’s weird, right?”

  “What’s even weirder is that we were trying to track her down because we had some questions to ask her about the disappearance of Zoe Mathers,” Mel volunteered. “We need to know that she had no part in the kidnapping. If she did, we need to know who her partner was, because it seems to me, the partner is off the rails.”

  “And you just assume I have knowledge of this?” Chet was incredulous. “Why would I possibly want to participate in the kidnapping of a child?”

  “I don’t know. We need to know why Jessica hired you, though.”

  “How did you even know about our arrangement?”

  “She had a file in her office.”

  “Ugh.” Chet slapped his hand to his forehead. “I knew she was going to be a pain. Everyone knows you don’t leave a file laying around.”

  “Perhaps she didn’t know she was going to die,” Jared suggested. “Speaking of that, if you know anything about this, now would be a good time to tell us.”

  “I don’t know anything about this particular situation,” Chet replied, exhaling heavily. “Trust me. If I knew she was going to die, I would’ve stopped it. I liked her. She wasn’t a pain.”

  “Why did she come to you?”

  “Because she wanted me to follow her ex-boyfriend,” Chet answered, causing Jared to wrinkle his forehead. “She was convinced he was cheating on her with another woman and she wanted proof.”

  “Why, though?” Mel queried. “They weren’t married. It’s not as if she could get extra money from him in a divorce if she proved infidelity. How would she benefit?”

  “I brought up the same concerns. She didn’t care. She wanted to catch him cheating. I suggested that perhaps her ego couldn’t take being dumped for no reason and she had to blame someone else, but she didn’t agree with me.”

  “I don’t suppose she gave you an idea of who he was supposedly cheating with, did she?” Jared asked, his mind busy. “Her mother never mentioned her suspicions about infidelity. Perhaps that was something Jessica came up with after that fact.”

  “I guess that’s possible, but she had a list of things that she found ‘funny.’” Chet held up his hands and made the appropriate air quotes. “She was a bit manic when she stopped in, gave me the impression that she’d been up all night making this list.”

  “When was this?”

  Chet checked his file and read back the date, allowing Jared to do the math in his head.

  “That would’ve been the day after Luke broke up with her,” he mused. “He said she took it relatively well, but it sounds like she was just saving face.”

  “Where did she want you to follow Luke?” Mel asked. “I mean ... where did she think he was meeting this girlfriend?”

  “She didn’t give me a specific place. She just wanted me to follow him after work every night for a week. She paid in advance.”

  “Did you follow him?”

  Chet nodded. “Three nights in a row, although I backed off when word started spreading about the kid going missing. I knew through my own research that he was the father and I didn’t want to get caught sitting outside his house.”

  “Yes, you’re a real paragon of virtue,” Jared drawled. “Did Luke go anywhere the nights you were watching him?”

  “No. As a matter of fact, he went straight home and stayed in the house. I looked through a window twice, convinced he must be looking at porn on the internet or something. He wasn’t, though. He was watching Netflix and drinking beer.”

  Jared and Mel exchanged a quick look.

  “Who was Jessica convinced he was having an affair with?” Mel asked finally.

  “The ex. Ally Bishop.”

  “Oh, geez.” Jared pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “We just made a really big circle.”

  Mel bobbed his head. “Yup, and I don’t like where this is headed. Not one little bit.”

  Twelve

  Harper bought the watch ... and a few other things. She didn’t leave the mall until her arms felt tired thanks to carrying heavy bags. Each time she purchased an item, she looked to Zander to see if it would be enough. To his credit, he managed to keep a straight face ... but just barely.

  When they returned home, Harper decided to carry Jared’s packages to the new house so she could wrap them in peace. Zander was fine with that, he had his own wrapping to do, and once left to her own devices Harper was able to allow her mind to drift as she wrapped.

  She thought it would be panic about Jared’s Christmas gift that took over her mind — and she was right to some extent — but it was more than that. Thoughts of Jared led to thoughts of Luke and Ally. At some point, Ally must have convinced herself that things would work with Luke. Even after he melted down abou
t the pregnancy, all signs pointed to the fact that she thought he would get over himself.

  He never did ... and that had to hurt.

  It took Harper about an hour to wrap everything, and when she was done, she placed the items in a box in the front closet and tugged on her coat. She had an idea that had been forming, and she couldn’t shove it out of her head.

  With that in mind, she left a note for Jared on the counter and then pointed herself toward Luke’s house. She had two reasons for heading in that direction. The first was Jessica. If she was really as obsessed with Luke as some people seemed to indicate, there was every chance her ghost was hanging around his house so she could watch him. If she wasn’t there, though, it wouldn’t be a total loss. She had a few things to say to Luke, and she didn’t think she could keep them in much longer.

  Harper parked in front of the house, taking a long moment to scan each side for hints of ghostly movement. There was nothing, and she couldn’t help feeling disappointed as she exited her car.

  It never occurred to her that Jared might be furious when he found out about her activities. Sure, in the back of her head she acknowledged that he was overprotective and prone to fits of exaggerated bossiness, but she legitimately didn’t think she was doing anything wrong.

  The feeling waned a bit when Luke answered the door wearing nothing but a loose robe and a pair of boxer shorts. He smelled like stale beer ... and lack of a shower, and his eyes were bleary when he focused on Harper.

  “You’re the ghost chick.”

  Harper merely shrugged at the greeting. She’d been called worse things. “I’m Harper Harlow.” She extended her hand. “We’ve actually met several times throughout the years, but you probably don’t remember that.”

  Luke slowly accepted her hand and looked her up and down, causing Harper to uncomfortably shift from one foot to the other thanks to the nature of his gaze. Finally, she did something that she found irritating in other people, but she couldn’t help herself. She decided to shut Luke down with a proactive strike.

  “I’m living with Jared Monroe, who happens to be a detective on the Whisper Cove Police Department,” she offered. “You might not want to stare too long.”

  Abashed at being caught, Luke quickly released her hand and rubbed his cheeks to wake up. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking about some things I’ve heard about you.” He didn’t ask why she was there, instead turning on his heel and heading inside the house. Harper took that as an invitation since he didn’t slam the door in her face. “You can talk to ghosts. It says that right on your office window.”

  “I can,” Harper agreed. Now was not the time to pussyfoot around Luke’s personal prejudices. If he didn’t like her, she didn’t really care. “I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was a kid.”

  Luke paused by the stove as he reached for the teakettle. “Have you seen Zoe?” He almost looked fearful to hear the answer.

  Harper shook her head. “No. I don’t want to see her, and so far I haven’t. I have seen Jessica, though.”

  “You’ve seen Jessica where?”

  “She was at the candlelight vigil last night,” Harper replied absently, something occurring to her after the fact. “You weren’t at the candlelight vigil.”

  Luke merely shrugged as he filled the teakettle and placed it on a burner. “I didn’t think I would be welcome there. I didn’t want to hurt Ally further by taking attention away from her. That didn’t seem fair.”

  Harper cocked a challenging eyebrow. “Since when have you felt like being fair to her? It seems to me, you were unfair to her from the start.”

  “You would say that,” Luke muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “You don’t understand how difficult it was for me. I really liked Ally. I mean ... really liked her. I thought there was a chance we might make it longer than my other relationships.

  “I never thought we would make it all the way because the idea terrified me,” he continued. “I thought maybe she could somehow break the curse I was mired in, though. I kind of wanted to be a better man when I was with her.”

  Even though he was opening himself up, Harper found she wanted to beat his head into a cupboard. “You’re basically saying you don’t take any personal responsibility for the things you’ve done.”

  Luke let loose a sigh. “That’s not what I’m saying. It’s just ... I liked playing the field. I liked jumping from girlfriend to girlfriend. I didn’t like the idea of intimacy because it always seemed to backfire on me.

  “If I remembered something wrong, they would blame me for not caring enough to remember,” he continued. “If I forgot something outright, they would accuse me of being self-absorbed. I realized at some point that if they already thought I was self-absorbed, then it was best to honestly be self-absorbed because very little would be expected of me.

  “That worked out well for a long time,” he continued. “I had no problem breaking hearts ... until Ally.”

  Despite herself, Harper felt sorry for him because of the hangdog expression on his face. “You loved Ally, didn’t you?”

  Luke’s face flushed dark red. “I ... no. I’ve never been in love with anyone.”

  Because he avoided eye contact, Harper knew he was lying. “Oh, geez. You loved Ally.” She rolled her neck as she thought back four years before. “I remember people talking about you around then. I was kind of in a haze because I had my own issues, but I remember sitting at the coffee shop one day and you went walking by with Ally.

  “People still had hope for you then,” she continued, amused at the way he grimaced. “They thought you were one of those guys who was going to sow his wild oats for a few years and then settle down. They all claimed they’d seen it before and that you weren’t really a bad guy.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Luke didn’t look convinced. “Most people nowadays believe I’m the worst guy.”

  “That’s because you did some really horrible things when Ally was pregnant. I mean ... accusing her of drugging you. What was up with that?”

  Luke’s mouth opened and closed, making him look like a guppy gasping for breath, and finally he merely shook his head.

  “You don’t know why you did that?” Harper challenged, refusing to let him off the hook. “That was such a specific accusation that I would think you’d never forget the reasoning behind it.”

  “Ugh. You’re a real ball buster, aren’t you?” Luke scowled. His hair was filthy— it had clearly been days since he showered — but his eyes flashed with true outrage for the first time since Harper entered the house. “I didn’t want to be a father. It scared the crap out of me. Like ... seriously. My stomach was upset for weeks and I had digestive issues in the bathroom because of it.”

  Harper made a face. “That was a massive overshare.” She was officially disgusted. “Why would you tell me that?”

  Luke shrugged. “I just want someone to understand that I didn’t set out to be the worst guy in town.”

  “Then why did you allow it to happen?” Harper challenged. “I can see being surprised. While I don’t agree with it, I can see momentarily freaking out and saying something stupid. You abandoned your child, though. You accused her mother of heinous things.”

  “Do you think I’m not aware of that?” Luke was morose. “Do you think I don’t know that I’m a complete and total tool?”

  “And yet, knowing that, you still haven’t made things right with your child.” Harper’s voice was soft. “Why haven’t you even met Zoe? She’s adorable, by the way. She’s precocious and she knows weird things.

  “Like, right around Halloween, Zander and I were in the coffee shop and Ally was there with Zoe,” she continued. “Rose gave her a cake pop and Zoe had hot chocolate smeared around her mouth, but she lit up when she saw us.

  “She heard things around town, you see,” she said. “She heard that we were having a ghost tour and she wanted to go with us. She wanted to catch a ghost and put it on a leash so she would always have someone to clean her bedroom.
She was adamant about it and no matter how we tried to explain about ghosts, she wouldn’t back down.

  “She’s a stubborn ... and smart ... and really sweet little girl,” she said. “We heard her telling Ally when we left that she really wanted the ghost for her mommy so she didn’t always have to work so hard.”

  Luke made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. “She said that, huh?”

  Harper didn’t miss the fact that his eyes were glittery as she nodded. “She did say that. She loves her mother. I think she would love you, too, if you would simply get your head out of your behind.”

  Luke rubbed his forehead, lost. “I thought I would have more time.”

  “More time for what?”

  “More time to get to know her, be her father.”

  “Well ... you still might. That doesn’t change the fact that your child is missing and you seem to be hiding instead of looking for her. Have you left the house since you got the news? Have you taken a night off from drinking? Have you considered going to Ally and offering support?”

  Luke balked. “I can’t do that. She hates me. Now is not the time she’ll want to see me.”

  “You might be surprised.”

  “I just ... it hurts to think about her,” Luke admitted. “I’ve seen her around town. I watch when I think no one is looking. In the summer, they had that petting zoo thing and one of the local farmers had puppies. Zoe was there with Ally and she was begging for one of the puppies, but Ally told her no because she worked too much and it wouldn’t be fair to the puppy.

  “I wanted to step in right then, tell Zoe she could have that puppy and I would make sure it was taken care of,” he continued. “I didn’t, though. I hid in the shadows like a coward.”

  “If you want to be a father, why not approach Ally and tell her you’ve had a change of heart? She’s a good person. She wouldn’t cut you out of Ally’s life for no good reason.”

  “Look around.” Luke gestured at the mess of a kitchen. “Do I look like I would be a good father? There are beer cans everywhere ... and I haven’t eaten anything other than pizza in a week.”