Ghostly Visions: A Harper Harlow Mystery Books 10-12

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I believe we know what they were doing.”

  “But … why?” Harper knew she sounded whiny, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Do you think they’re trying to kill me? I often thought that when I was a kid. I thought they fought because they wanted me to die of embarrassment. Now I think they’ve switched up their tactics.”

  “Oh, I don’t think it’s that bad.”

  “Of course you don’t. You didn’t have to see your parents having sex.”

  “Technically we only heard them having sex. They moved apart pretty quickly when I turned on the light. We didn’t see anything.”

  Harper’s glare was withering. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  “I have no idea. Did it?”

  “No.”

  “Then it wasn’t supposed to make you feel better.” His grin was amiable as he regarded her suspicious features. “Oh, Harper, there’s no reason to freak out. They’re adults … and they’re married. Technically. Your mother says she’s forty-four, but she’s probably too old to get pregnant so you don’t have to worry about that. That’s the biggest concern, right?”

  Harper’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, my … .”

  Jared roared with laughter as he covered her mouth with his. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

  AN HOUR LATER, AFTER SHOWERING and dressing for the day, Harper and Jared made their way into the kitchen. Gloria and Phil were already up and toiling behind the kitchen island. They looked to be making breakfast and they boasted extremely different expressions when the party widened to four.

  “Hello, honey.” Phil beamed at his daughter and shuffled around the counter so he could give her a hug. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I want to kill both of you,” Harper replied without hesitation. “Don’t touch me with those hands. I have no idea where they’ve been and if you’ve washed them.”

  “Oh, I totally washed them.”

  Harper narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “Thank you for that bit of … relief.”

  “You’re welcome.” Phil shot a sidelong look toward Jared before rushing back to hide behind his estranged wife. “We’re making pancakes and sausage.”

  “How awesome,” Jared enthused, moving his hand to Harper’s back. “I love pancakes.”

  “Mom loves sausage,” Harper offered, pinning her mother with a belligerent look. “Don’t you, Mom?”

  “I prefer bacon,” Gloria said dryly. “I can deal with sausage, though. It has a specific flavor that I adore.”

  “Ugh.” Harper slapped her hand to her forehead. “I know I started it, but I’m going to end it, too. Don’t ever talk about sausage in front of me again.”

  Even though he knew it was a painful situation for Harper, Jared had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “Let’s sit at the table,” he suggested, prodding Harper in that direction. “I think it’s time we had a discussion.”

  “And I think it’s time we didn’t.” Gloria was firm as she stared down Harper. “This isn’t a big deal. In fact, I don’t see why you’re getting so worked up about it. It’s not as if it’s the first time we’ve consoled one another.”

  “So you mentioned last night.” Harper’s affect was dull. “I honestly can’t believe you guys have been hopping in and out of bed together this entire time. I don’t understand it. If you love each other, why are you getting divorced?”

  “Because your father is an idiot.”

  “Because your mother is insufferable.”

  The answers only served to fire Harper up more. “If you feel that way about each other, why have sex?”

  “Oh, well, your father is gifted in that department,” Gloria explained. “If I could just get the sex and never have to deal with his mouth … and the fact that he refuses to pick up his clothes and put them in the hamper … I would stay married to him forever. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

  Harper turned a set of morose eyes to Jared. “This is supposed to be a happy time for us. We’re planning a wedding. We have a new house. How could everything that was going so right go so wrong?”

  “Oh, my poor Heart.” He kissed her forehead. “We’ll get it all back … just as soon as you tell your mother she can’t stay here any longer.”

  “I didn’t tell her she could stay here last night.”

  “You most certainly did,” Gloria fired back. “I’m in crisis. I can’t stay alone. My boyfriend is dead. That’s too much for me to deal with.”

  “Then go to Dad’s house,” Harper exploded. “He can comfort you there.”

  “That won’t work. I hate his new house. He won’t pick up his things. You know what a pig he is.”

  Harper buried her head in her arms on the tabletop. “Why me?”

  Jared could do nothing but rub her back. “It’s going to be fine,” he reassured her for what felt like the hundredth time. “We still have each other.”

  “There is that.”

  JARED LEFT HARPER TO DEAL with her parents. He had a belly full of pancakes and sausage and a fun story to tell his partner. In fact, when he was finished, Mel was laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “I can’t believe Phil and Gloria have been doing … that … since they separated. I guess it makes sense. They were together a long time and I always wondered what kept them from divorcing years before. That is … unbelievable, though.”

  “Harper is a wreck.”

  “I don’t blame her.”

  “It does make me feel a little better about Gloria, oddly enough.”

  Mel slid his partner a curious look. “What do you mean? Why would it make you feel better about her?”

  “Carl was stabbed five times. That’s what the initial autopsy report said. I went over it last night once Harper fell asleep.”

  “So?”

  “So, that kind of overkill usually means it’s a crime of passion,” Jared replied. “I’m not sure Gloria was passionate about Carl. In fact, given the way she’s acting, I’m starting to wonder if she even cares.”

  “That points to a sociopath,” Mel noted. “That doesn’t make me feel better about her.”

  “She’s not a sociopath.” Jared was almost positive that was true. “She’s just a difficult woman. She’s selfish and self-centered. She cares more about herself than anyone else. I mean … how can you have a great kid like Harper and not want to embrace everything about her?”

  Mel snorted, genuinely amused. “I think you might be asking that question from a place of bias.” He parked in front of Carl’s home and killed the cruiser’s engine. “I happen to be fond of Harper, too, but she’s not exactly what I would call an easy individual.”

  Jared was instantly on edge. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Not what you think it does, so simmer down.” Mel was stern. “It’s just … think about it from Gloria’s perspective. Harper was an only child who started spouting on and on about seeing ghosts when she was a kid. That couldn’t have been easy. I know for a fact Gloria thought she was going to have to be institutionalized at some point.”

  Jared’s blood ran cold. “What? Why?”

  “You know why. They thought she had mental problems.”

  “Well, she doesn’t.”

  “And that’s all well and good. She’s proven herself over and over again since that time. Still, it was weird when it first started happening. The only one who believed her straight off the bat was Zander, and he’s got his own issues.”

  Uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, Jared shifted so he could look out the window. “What are we doing back here?”

  “Talking to Margie Driskell,” Mel replied, thankful to be able to change the subject. “She called and left a message. She lives next door and swears she heard Carl fighting with someone the night before he was killed. We now know he died well after midnight, closer t
o two. The fight was around eight the previous evening. She might make a compelling witness.”

  “Fine.” Jared threw up his hands in defeat. “Let’s talk to Margie. Just for the record, though, Harper is wonderful.”

  “I know.”

  “She’s a dream.”

  “I know.”

  “She’s the best woman in the world.”

  Mel bit back a sigh. “I know.”

  MARGIE WAS FULL OF EXCITEMENT when she let Mel and Jared into her house. She had cookies on the table and fresh tea in mugs so they would have refreshments for the talk. She was in her seventies and lived alone, so she was always open to guests.

  “I’m glad you were prompt,” she told Mel as she handed him a napkin. “I don’t like waiting around with nothing to do and there’s a euchre tournament at the senior center this afternoon I don’t want to miss.”

  “Once you called I got over here as quickly as possible,” he soothed. “I understand you saw something the night Carl died.”

  “Well, it’s more like I heard it,” Margie corrected. “I didn’t see much of anything because it gets dark so early these days because of the time of year. I hate that.”

  “It’s definitely a downer,” Mel agreed. “What did you hear?”

  “Well, Carl was arguing something fierce with someone. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but I could hear raised voices. Whoever was in there with him was giving as good as she got.”

  Mel arched an eyebrow. “She?”

  “Yeah. It was a woman. I’m pretty sure it was Gloria Harlow.”

  Jared’s heart sank. “What makes you think it was Gloria?”

  “Well, it was her car parked in front of his house – she’s got that pair of lips on her back window so you can’t miss that it’s her – and I saw her through the window.”

  Mel ran his tongue over his teeth. “Which window?”

  “That one.” Margie pointed to the one on the other side of the room and Mel slowly got to his feet and strode in that direction so he could look through it.

  “This looks almost directly into Carl’s living room,” he noted.

  “Yeah. He’s in there all the time. Or, I guess he was. He’s not in there now or anything, although you obviously know that because he’s dead.”

  “And you say he and Gloria were fighting?”

  “Oh, they were spitting mad. Gloria even threw a pillow at him. Like I said, I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it’s obvious they weren’t getting along.”

  Jared swallowed hard when Mel’s gaze latched with his. “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The argument happened hours before he died.” He was plaintive when he turned to Margie. “Did you see Gloria drive away?”

  “I did.” Margie bobbed her head. “She drove away and then came back the next day. I thought everything was fine, that they made up. She was in there a long time. Then, like an hour later, I saw you show up. I realized then that not everything was fine.”

  “An hour later?” Mel’s eyebrows hopped. “That’s not good.”

  Jared felt the ground giving way beneath him. “That still doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Yes, it does.” Mel planted his hands on his hips. “It means we’re officially bringing Gloria in for questioning. There’s no getting around that now.”

  In his head, Jared knew that was true. His heart still wanted to put up a fight. He couldn’t, though. He had a job to do.

  “I’ll find out where she is.” Jared was morose. “This is going to hurt Harper.”

  “I’m sorry about that. It has to be done. We can’t let it go a second longer.”

  Ten

  For lack of anything better to do, Harper decided to escape to the GHI office. She was more interested in watching Molly and Eric make out than she was in dealing with her parents. Unfortunately for her, Gloria and Phil decided to tag along.

  “This really isn’t necessary,” Harper grumbled as she scuffed her feet along the sidewalk in front of the business’s front window. “You guys can go do … whatever it is you do when I’m not around.”

  “Oh, don’t be a sourpuss,” Gloria admonished. “We want to spend time with you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re your parents.”

  “You’ve been my parents since the start,” Harper pointed out. “This is the first time you guys have ever wanted to come to work with me.”

  “That’s not true.” Phil adjusted his coat to hold off the bracing cold. “I’ve wanted to join your outings for some time. You always said it wasn’t a good idea because it wasn’t safe.”

  Oddly enough, Harper vaguely remembered that conversation. She’d been tickled when her father suggested going on an outing. She’d also been terrified because Phil was the sort of person who needed constant attention. “We’re not doing anything but paperwork,” she supplied. “You’ll be bored.”

  “Nonsense.” Gloria adopted the sternest face in her repertoire. “We’re your parents. We want to watch you in action.”

  “Well … great.” Harper was glum as she strolled through the front door. She barely paid any of her co-workers any notice, including Zander, who was sitting at his desk having a chat with Eric. They both looked toward the people with Harper and the gobsmacked expression on Zander’s face was one for the record books.

  “Hey, Harp,” he called out. “I didn’t know you were coming in today.”

  “That makes two of us.” Harper shrugged out of her coat. “I thought it might be a good idea to get ahead on the paperwork and my parents thought it would be a good idea to come with me.”

  “Oh, your parents.” Eric smiled brightly. “I’ve heard a lot about you Mr. and Mrs. Harlow. Although, to be fair, everything I’ve heard about you would seem to suggest it’s not good for you to be in the same location together.”

  “We’re going through a family ordeal,” Phil explained. “We thought it best to do it as a unit.”

  “They thought it best,” Harper stressed.

  “Harper is in a bad mood,” Gloria volunteered. “I expect you to get her out of it, Zander.”

  “Of course.” Zander amiably bobbed his head. He was used to dealing with Gloria and knew exactly how to handle her. “I’ll get right on that.”

  “You do that.” Gloria planted her hands on her hips and glanced around the office. “This place needs a spruce. It’s far too drab given what you guys do for a living. You need brighter paint … and maybe a mural.”

  “A mural?” Eric cocked an eyebrow and looked to Zander for answers. He was clearly confused. “Why would we need a mural?”

  “Because it’s a proven fact that businesses with murals are more popular than those without murals.”

  “And what would the mural be of?” Zander queried.

  “I don’t know.” Gloria made an annoyed face. “How about ghosts? You could do a Scooby-Doo mural. That’s what I’ve always pictured when it comes to thinking about you and Harper on a job together.”

  Zander’s lips curved. “I often think that myself.”

  “Don’t encourage her,” Harper hissed, shaking her head as she sank into her desk chair. “What’s going on here? Do we need to fill out invoices or anything?”

  “We’re all caught up,” Zander replied with a bit of trepidation. It was obvious Harper needed a distraction and he had nothing to give her. “You really didn’t need to come in. Things aren’t going to pick up until February. It’s always like this around the new year.”

  “I didn’t have a choice,” Harper growled.

  “I don’t understand,” Eric hedged, shifting so he could lean his hip against the corner of Zander’s desk. “Why are you all together?”

  “Because Gloria is a suspect in a murder,” Phil replied. “That means we’re basically at Defcon One.”

  “You’re the only one who says things like that,” Gloria shot back. “And I’m not a murder suspect. I was simply dating a dead man. Besides, that’s not why we’re
here. We’re here because Harper is going through something existential, a crisis of sorts. As her parents, it’s our job to see her through it.”

  Amusement glinted in the depths of Zander’s eyes. “Are you having a crisis, Harp?”

  “You have no idea.” She rubbed the tender spot between her eyebrows. “I should’ve stayed in bed and never gotten up today.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  The quick shutdown only made Zander more curious. “What happened?” He turned his gaze to Phil and Gloria. “What did you do to my Harper?”

  “We didn’t do anything to her,” Gloria replied. “She’s simply being ridiculous and Phil and I have decided to shadow her until she gets over herself.”

  “That was actually Gloria’s idea,” Phil countered. “I thought we should hide and pretend it didn’t happen. Eventually Harper will start talking to us again when she’s over the shock.”

  “The shock of what?” Eric asked.

  “Don’t answer that question,” Harper warned, extending a finger in her mother’s direction. “I don’t want news of this spreading. Nothing good can come of it.”

  “Oh, pipe down.” Gloria rolled her eyes. “Last night, through no fault of our own, Harper walked in on a private moment between her father and me. If she would’ve knocked, none of this would’ve happened.”

  Harper was beside herself. “Through no fault of your own?”

  “The door was closed.”

  “It’s my house!” Harper’s voice boomed throughout the room. “You were having sex in my house. How is that not my business?”

  Zander was convinced he was going to have to pick his jaw up from the ground. “No way.”

  “They say they do it all the time,” Harper added. “Can you believe that? All this time, when they’ve been fighting about spoons and the velvet Elvis painting, they’ve secretly been doing it.”

  “That is … awesome,” Zander said finally. “I can’t believe you guys managed to keep that a secret.”