“I understand that. I’m still engaged to you, which creates an issue. I can’t be the one to interview her. I’m sorry. That’s a strict rule. I couldn’t interview you either.”
“You did before.”
“Before we were involved.”
“But … .” Harper made a frustrated sound deep in her throat. “I guess I understand it,” she said after a beat. “I don’t like it, but I understand it.”
“Thank you.” He brushed a kiss against her temple and then moved to the foyer so he could listen as Mel asked Gloria some very tough questions. For her part, Gloria seemed more together than before.
“How long have you been dating him, Gloria?” Mel asked, a notebook out as he jotted down her answers.
“Oh, I … can’t really remember.”
“You have to remember.” Mel was firm. “I doubt it’s been long enough to explain forgetting.”
“About a month,” Harper automatically answered. “I think it was about five weeks ago when she told me she was done dating Anton – I never got to meet him and I’m sad because I liked his name – and she was dating Carl within a week or so. We all had dinner about three weeks ago. Maybe it was even a month ago now that I’m thinking about it.”
“Okay.” Mel’s smile was benign. “That’s very good. How would you say things have been going between you?”
“Obviously they were going well.” Gloria’s tone was snippy. “Why else would I be here if they weren’t going well?”
“Gloria, you know we have to ask these questions. There’s nothing personal about it. We have no choice.”
“It feels as if you should have a choice,” Gloria countered. “I mean … you’ve known me for a very long time. I’m good friends with your sister. I practically raised Zander.”
Harper snorted … and then realized what she’d done when she earned a sharp look from her mother. She tried to cover it up with a cough, but it wasn’t a masterful effort.
“I believe my sister raised Zander, although I’m not sure why anyone would want to take credit for him,” Mel said dryly. “I still have to ask these questions, Gloria. If you’re uncomfortable, you can call an attorney and meet us at the police station.”
Gloria looked intrigued by the option, but Harper swooped in before she could answer either way.
“Oh, she doesn’t need an attorney.” Harper made a dismissive hand gesture. “It’s not as if she’s guilty. Just tell them what they want to hear, Mom. We’ll make sure you get something to eat afterwards. You probably haven’t eaten all day.”
“Yes, well … .” It was obvious Gloria wasn’t happy with her daughter’s insistence on answering the questions without legal representation. Gloria was a woman who liked to keep up appearances, though, and that’s exactly what she did now. “What do you need to know?”
“I need to know the basics of your relationship,” Mel replied without hesitation. “How close were you?”
“We’d only been dating a month like Harper told you,” she replied. “I mean … we were getting to know one another. I’m not sure how well it was going yet.”
“So … you weren’t intimate, right?” Mel’s cheeks burned, but he managed to maintain eye contact.
For her part, Gloria didn’t even bother feigning embarrassment. “Oh, we were intimate. I don’t believe in prolonging the inevitable if my partner is bad in bed. I mean … if he has shortcomings, you know what I mean, I need to know that right away. I’m not the sort of woman who wants to waste her time.”
Harper lowered her eyes and shook her head as Jared automatically moved his hand to her back. He’d known Gloria long enough to understand that she held nothing back when it came to talking about sex. She was open and free with the stories, which put Harper under a great deal of pressure and made Jared want to hide in a closet during her visits.
“Okay, so … you were intimate.” Mel flicked his eyes to Jared but found no help there. “How often were you spending the night together?”
“Oh, well … he was in his fifties, which meant he couldn’t go more than three times a week,” Gloria explained. “I guess we basically saw each other on the odd days of the week.”
“Meaning?”
“Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.”
“What about Sundays?”
“Even the Lord rests on Sundays,” Gloria replied, not missing a beat.
“Okay. Well … that’s lovely.” Mel scratched the side of his nose and tried to regroup. “Tell me about Carl. What do you know about him?”
“He’s a divorce lawyer.”
“And?”
“And what? He’s got all his own hair and only combs it over bald spots. As far as I can tell, he has all his own teeth. If he’s got fakes in there, they’re good, so I’m fine with that. He doesn’t wear polyester suits. Only leather shoes will do. He’s not married … at least any longer. That’s basically all I know about him. Oh, well, and he loves Italian food. I had to break him of eating that four times a week, though, because the garlic breath was outrageous.”
Harper wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but she remained standing as Jared lent her a little bit of his strength.
“What do you know about his family? Did he have children?”
“He had at least one son. I didn’t ask him about his family.”
“You didn’t ask him about his family?” Harper was mortified. “Mother, why would you date someone and not take the time to get to know him? I mean … that’s so rude. I’m sure you told him about me. Why wouldn’t you sit and listen to him talk about his children?”
“I didn’t tell him about you.”
“You didn’t?” Harper didn’t know if she should be relieved or hurt. “Why?”
“Because you’re almost thirty and I don’t want to be the mother of a thirty-year-old single woman. It looks bad.”
Jared shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with the turn the conversation was taking. “We’re getting married,” he pointed out.
“That doesn’t matter.” Harper’s frustration was obvious. “I don’t see the problem with acting your own age. You’re in your fifties, Mother. Why is that such a bad thing?”
“Carl thought I was forty-four.”
Jared choked out a laugh before he realized that Gloria was glaring at him. “Oh, um … .”
“There’s no way he believed you were forty-four,” Harper argued. “Come on. You look good, but you don’t look that good.”
“I moisturize,” Gloria shot back. “I look amazing for my age. You should take a page out of my book before it’s too late.”
“I’ll get right on that,” Harper grumbled, shaking her head.
“You look fine,” Jared reassured her. “Gloria, you need to focus on the questions Mel is asking. It’s important.”
“I’m answering them.” Gloria’s eyes fired with resentment. “I don’t know what you want from me. We didn’t know each other all that well. We spent a few nights a week together. I didn’t hear from him yesterday, which was unusual, so I came over today to see what he was doing. The front door was unlocked so I let myself in … and I found him in the living room.”
“And that’s it?” Mel queried.
“That’s it.”
“How long were you in the house before you found him?”
“Oh, not long.” Gloria screwed up her face in concentration. “I’m guessing it was about three or four minutes. I checked the kitchen first because he’s usually in there, but the living room was my second stop.”
“And then what did you do?”
“I called Harper because I was freaked out. I knew she would be able to get Jared to come to the scene and my mind wasn’t working very well on its own. I mean … you saw it in there. It was horrible. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Jared thought about the snow he saw piled on Gloria’s vehicle in the driveway. To him, that indicated she’d been in the house longer than she wanted to admit. The obvious question was on the tip of his ton
gue, but he couldn’t make himself ask it.
“Okay, I guess that’s all I need for now,” Mel said. “I’m going to be in touch again, though. This isn’t the end of it. There are other things we need to do before we question you again, though.”
“Oh, well, I’m so looking forward to that.” Disdain practically dripped from her tongue. “Come on, Harper. Let’s get out of here. I believe you offered me dinner. I would like to make that happen.”
“Oh, well, sure.” Harper looked to Jared for help. “We can go to Zander’s house. That’s where we were going to eat tonight. He won’t care if we add another hungry mouth.”
“Whatever. I just want out of here. I’m utterly famished.”
“You’ve had a rough day. I’m sure food will make you feel better.”
JARED VOLUNTEERED TO RETURN to Carl’s house once he dropped Harper off at Zander’s place – he wasn’t comfortable allowing her to ride with her mother, who insisted she was an expert at navigating the snow even though she had a small car and bad reflexes – but Mel told him it wasn’t necessary. Until they got a warrant to go through Carl’s files and had more information from the medical examiner to work with, there was absolutely no reason for Jared to stay. That was almost a disappointment for the small-town detective, especially since that meant he would have to sit through a meal with Gloria.
Zander and his boyfriend Shawn met the trio at the door and Zander was already pandering to Gloria when Jared slipped out of his coat and hung it on the over-the-top rack on the door.
“You poor thing,” he cooed. “I can’t believe you found a dead body today. That’s horrible.”
“I’ve found numerous dead bodies,” Harper pointed out. “You never say it’s bad when it happens to me.”
“You’re used to it,” Zander shot back, causing Jared to smirk.
Ever helpful, Shawn helped Harper out of her coat as she looked around at the newly rearranged living room. “Your hands are cold. You should’ve remembered gloves when you were going out.”
Harper ignored the admonishment. “What’s going on here?” she asked, confused as she twirled. “Why does the living room look completely different from how it used to look?”
“Because we changed things,” Zander replied without hesitation. “Shawn pointed out – and I agree – that the Feng Shui of the room was off. We decided to fix that.”
“The Feng Shui?” Harper made a face. “I was the one who picked out how the room was laid out before.”
“And now you don’t live here,” Zander reminded her. “You live across the street and have your own furniture to arrange. Although … have you bought new furniture yet?” He directed the question to Jared, as if he was the one holding Harper back from having new things.
“We’re working on it,” Jared replied. “We were looking through catalogs when we got the call from Gloria.”
“Oh, yes, it’s my fault,” Gloria drawled. “It’s not as if you guys haven’t had months to pick out furniture. Me discovering a body is obviously the worst thing that happened to you today.”
Jared glared at her. “Listen here … .”
Harper put a hand on his arm to still him. “Please don’t make things worse,” she whispered, her eyes open and pleading. “I can’t take it if you do that. I’m serious.”
He growled out a noise but maintained control. “We’re getting furniture. In fact, we’ll have it before you know it.”
“I think you should let me loose to pick out the furniture,” Gloria argued. “I’ll have that place decked out in two weeks flat if you let me have control.”
“I think Jared and I would prefer maintaining control of our own home,” Harper argued. “Besides, you have other things to worry about … like your dead boyfriend. I still can’t believe you discovered him like that.”
“I can’t either.” Gloria made a clucking sound with her tongue. “I mean … it’s the absolute worst. I’ll have nightmares because of it. I won’t be able to sleep in my own home because of the fear.”
“Was it bad?” Shawn asked, directing the question to Jared.
“It was bad,” he confirmed. “It was … an unfortunate scene.”
“Word on the street is that he was stabbed so many times Norman Bates is jealous,” Zander supplied.
Jared frowned. “Um … how can you possibly know that?”
“Because Mel was supposed to have dinner with my mother and canceled and that’s what he told her.”
“Oh, well … .”
Zander didn’t want for Jared to respond. “Do you know what you should do, Gloria? You should move in with Jared and Harper for a bit. They’ve got a guest room and need help decorating and you’re afraid to stay by yourself. It’s best for all of you.”
If looks could kill, Zander would be dead.
Jared uncomfortably cleared his throat. “Um … I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he hedged. “I mean, we barely have a bed in the spare room. It doesn’t even have bedding on it. Like … there are no sheets or pillows.”
“Oh, I can handle that.” Gloria appeared thrilled with the suggestion. “I think it’s a fine idea. It will give me something to focus on besides the horror that my life has become.”
Harper felt put upon, but she didn’t see where she had much of a choice. “We would love for you to stay with us tonight.”
“Great.”
“Just one night,” Harper stressed. “I’m sure you’ll be feeling better tomorrow.”
“We’ll play it by ear.”
Four
Jared was up a full hour before Harper woke, but he remained still so she could sleep. His mind was busy with possibilities ... and none of them were good.
The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if Gloria was capable of murder. He tried to line up what he knew about the woman and realized it was precious little.
She was in the middle of a contentious divorce that seemed to be going nowhere. In fact, since he’d met Harper — and that was almost ten months ago — he’d seen no movement on the divorce. As far as he could tell, Phil and Gloria Harlow enjoyed making each other miserable so there was no reason to divorce. They were getting exactly what they wanted out of the current predicament.
She was a passive-aggressive nightmare, meaning she enjoyed messing with Harper’s mind whenever she stopped by. She was the sort of woman who thought other women got their self-worth from the men they were dating. Harper didn’t believe that and held firm when Gloria started bandying about relief regarding the fact that her daughter was finally dating someone and not going to be alone for the rest of her life.
Gloria was a woman who liked fine clothing, shoes, dishes, and furniture. She was willing to pay more for name brand items. She liked expensive purses — Jared was pretty sure Harper only had one purse and rarely carried it — and she even wore a fur stole in the winter months, which Harper found abhorrent.
She liked to argue with Harper, wear her down at times. So far, Jared hadn’t voiced his concern about this tendency, but he was gearing up for it now that he and Harper were planning their wedding. There was no way he would allow Gloria to steamroll Harper when it came to picking the venue and dress.
Other than that, Jared realized he knew very little about the woman, and he found it troubling.
“Are you up?” Harper’s voice was sleepy as she stretched.
“I am.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead as she snuggled closer. He relished this time with her. Quiet mornings were a favorite part of his day. The fact that he was worried he would soon be arresting her mother only made him more desperate to embrace this morning, when time felt somehow precious.
“How did you sleep?”
That was a loaded question, Jared mused. “I slept okay.” He shifted his eyes to the window. “It’s stopped snowing.”
“That’s good.” She kissed his strong jaw. “I can hear your busy brain from here. Do you want to tell me what you’re thinking?”
“I’m
thinking that I love you.” The response was easy ... and true. “What are you thinking?”
“That you’re mad because my mother spent the night.”
He stilled, surprised. “I don’t care about that,” he said finally. “Er, well, I’m not happy about it exactly. I’m not mad about it either. I understand why you wanted her here.”
“Oh, I didn’t want her here.” Harper made a hysterical face that caused Jared’s lips to quirk. “This place is a mess. It’s basically a nonstop way for her to criticize me. I was hoping she wouldn’t visit until spring. She’s like a bear in some ways. She likes to hunker down and hibernate for the winter.”
“That explains the fur coat.”
She laughed, the sound warming Jared to his toes. “I hate that coat.”
“I know you do.” He ran his hand over her hair to smooth it. “We should probably get up. For all we know, she’s out there rearranging our kitchen.”
“We only have four glasses, five plates, and plastic forks. She’s not going to take that well.”
“I don’t care.” He tipped up her chin so he could stare into her eyes. “I only care what we like ... and I happen to like you best.”
Her eyes sparkled. “I like you best, too. Although ... don’t tell Zander.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
GLORIA INDEED WAS KNEE-DEEP IN the cupboards when Jared and Harper finished showering and dressing in their master suite.
“Where is your good china?” she asked by way of greeting when she stood and fixed them with expectant looks.
Harper merely shrugged. “At your house until you die.”
Jared choked on the coffee he’d just poured, his cheeks turning a bright shade of red.
“Very funny, dear.” Gloria was blasé as she glanced around the room. “Why don’t you have real dishes?”
“Because we haven’t picked any out yet.” Harper accepted the mug of coffee Jared slid in her direction. “It’s not a big deal. That’s actually low on our list of things we’re worried about right now. Furniture is first.”
“Furniture is definitely a thing,” Gloria agreed, wiping off her hands on the apron she’d tied around her waist.
Ghostly Visions: A Harper Harlow Mystery Books 10-12 Page 42
