“I guess so.”
Nineteen
“Eat.”
Jared pushed a plate with scrambled eggs and dry toast across the kitchen table the next morning and fixed Harper with an expectant look.
“I’m going to say thank you for making that for me but … um … no.” Harper, her hair still wet from the shower, shook her head. “I’m going to fast for the day. I’m feeling a little thick through the hips.”
“Your hips aren’t thick so I don’t ever want to hear that again. Also, it’s not as if you have the flu,” Jared argued. “You ate too much ice cream and made yourself sick. You need to eat something to shore up your stomach. That’s a bland breakfast I made there for you.”
“What a great selling point,” Zander intoned, breezing into the room. “No wonder she doesn’t want to eat that. Harp, do you want me to take you for doughnuts?”
Harper made a disgusted face. “No.”
“Oh, this isn’t really about food, is it?” Zander said, making a clucking sound. “Don’t worry about Jason being married. It’s still flattering that he liked you at all. It’s almost more flattering … like he was willing to cheat on his wife to reclaim his great high school crush. Someone could make a movie out of that.”
“W-what?”
Zander froze, his hand halfway to the coffee carafe. “Crud.”
“Yes, crud,” Jared said, shaking his head.
“I take it you haven’t gotten to that part of your morning yet.”
“Nope.” Jared pressed his lips together as he widened his eyes and made what he hoped to be an adorable expression. “Before you freak out, Heart, you should know that I wasn’t keeping it from you. I wanted to see if you could hold your breakfast in before dropping the bomb.”
“Jason is married?” Harper was flabbergasted. “How is that even possible?”
“Well, when a man loves a woman very much … .” Zander hopped out of the danger zone when Harper lashed out to smack him.
“I didn’t find out until you were already in bed last night,” Jared supplied. “There was no way I was waking you up after what happened.”
“You could’ve told me this morning.”
“I think brushing your teeth and taking a shower were more important given the fact that our morning cuddle routine was interrupted by … something that smelled like death.”
“You suck,” Harper grumbled.
“You’re such a smooth talker,” Zander said, clapping Jared’s shoulder. “Way to make things better.”
“I can’t believe this,” Harper said, shaking her head. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”
“Because he probably realized you wouldn’t date a married guy,” Zander replied. “Although … would you date a married guy if he looked like George Clooney? I have standards, but I might have to break them for a guy who looked like that.”
“Shut up,” Jared said, cuffing the back of Zander’s head. “We don’t know what’s going on yet. I need to place a call to the wife and talk to Jason.”
“Maybe I should talk to him.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Zander said. “All he’s going to do is lie to you now that he knows it works. You fell for that ‘just talking to Rosie’ story pretty quickly the other night and now we know he’s a murderer.”
“We don’t know that yet,” Jared challenged. “We know he’s married and hid it. That doesn’t mean he killed Rosie.”
“It does in my head.”
“Your head is a scary place to live,” Jared said.
“You have no idea,” Zander said, admiring his reflection in the microwave door. “I think you should at least take Harper and me with you when you talk to Jason. Harper’s newly psychic – although that may be on the fritz given her ailment – and I can see the future.”
“You can’t see the future,” Jared shot back. “I don’t want to hear about that stupid tick again either.”
“We’re naming him Chuck.”
“Oh, geez. You two need a kitten or something,” Jared muttered. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to the station to fill Mel in and see if I can get in touch with the wife. Then I’m going to talk to Jason … and I’m going to do it with my partner. You guys are officially off the case.”
Harper narrowed her eyes to dangerous blue slits. “Excuse me? You can’t kick me off the case.”
“I’m not kicking you off the case,” Jared clarified. “I’m … managing my workforce so it’s more streamlined.”
“Oh, bravo.” Zander mocked clapped as Harper shoved her plate back in Jared’s direction.
“Heart, I don’t want you involved in this,” Jared said, adopting a gentler tone. “It’s too dangerous.”
“You didn’t think that yesterday,” Harper argued.
“Yesterday I didn’t think Jason was a viable suspect because he didn’t have a decent motive,” Jared said. “That’s not the case any longer. If Jason is married and Rosie threatened to tell his wife what was going on … .”
“You don’t know they were even involved!” Harper exploded.
Jared held up his hands in mock surrender. “You’re right. I don’t know that. I have to ask him questions to ascertain that.”
“Why can’t I go with you?”
“Because I don’t want his focus on you,” Jared replied, refusing to kowtow to her murderous expression. “You’re too important to me.”
“Oh, well, that was a little sweeter,” Zander said.
Harper pressed her tongue to the front of her teeth as she shook her head. It was a sweet sentiment. “Will you at least call me when you know something?”
“Will you promise to behave yourself and focus on your work instead of mine today?” Jared decided to hammer out a deal before agreeing to anything.
“Yes.”
“Then I will call you as soon as I know something.”
“I guess that’s all I can ask for,” Harper said, sighing when Jared pushed the plate back in her direction. “I’m not eating that.”
“Then I’ll feed it to you.”
“I hate all men today,” Harper grumbled as she grabbed her fork. “This is not over!”
“At least you’re feeling strong enough to plot payback,” Jared said. “That’s the most important thing today.”
Harper had other ideas about what was important, but she wisely kept them to herself.
“OH, JARED is going to kill us.”
Zander made an exaggerated face as he hopped out of Harper’s car and followed her toward the dentist’s office.
“What Jared doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Oh, who are you kidding?” Zander was incredulous. “You may be angry with him now, but that’s all going to change when he turns the tables and is furious with us.”
“Well, he still kind of owes me for the scene he made,” Harper pointed out. “I think we’ll come to a mutual understanding.”
“I think you’re going to emotionally blackmail him and since he’s still vulnerable, he’s going to let you,” Zander corrected. “That’s not something a good girlfriend would do.”
“Yes, well, a good boyfriend wouldn’t cut me out of the case I’ve been working on from the beginning,” Harper said, stopping in front of the glass door. “I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m trying to find a murderer. This isn’t dangerous. All we’re doing here is talking to Rosie’s co-workers.”
“Jared already talked to them.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t have the magic touch when it comes to getting information out of people like I do.”
“You’re just making that up,” Zander said, shaking his head. “I heard you promise Jared not two hours ago that you wouldn’t get involved in this case.”
“No, that’s not what I promised,” Harper argued, lifting a finger. “I promised I would focus on my work instead of his. There’s a big difference – and a lot of potential meanings – when you break down that promise.”
“O
h, well, great,” Zander deadpanned. “I can’t wait to hear you make that semantics argument when you’re yelling about this before bed tonight. I think Jared is going to take it really well.”
“I think you need to stop kvetching like an old woman and trust me,” Harper instructed. “After all, you owe me, too.”
“Oh, that was low.”
“I know, but I’m not above using your mistake to get what I want,” Harper said, reaching for the door handle. “I can’t help it if what I want is to solve a murder.”
“How are we even going to talk to these women? They’re working.”
“I handled that, too,” Harper said, smiling brightly. “By the way, you may have a cavity that needs to be filled and I told the woman on the phone you were deathly afraid of dentists so I had to be with you. Act like you’re in pain.”
“Oh, it won’t be an act.”
“THIS IS … I don’t even know what to say about this.”
Mel scratched his cheek and sat back in his desk chair as Jared laid out the past twenty-four hours of developments.
“I called the wife in Chicago but had to leave a message,” Jared said. “She might already be at work or something. I did a cursory check on her and found out she’s a lawyer at a brokerage firm.”
“And she’s alive, right?”
“As far as I can tell,” Jared replied. “No one has filed a missing person’s report and there’s been regular activity on her credit cards. I called the prosecutor’s office to see if we can get a warrant to look at Jason’s phone records, but he says we don’t have enough evidence.”
“We don’t have nearly enough evidence,” Mel said. “We have a theory that fits certain facts. We also only suspect Jason because he never owned up to having a wife. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty.”
“I know that,” Jared said. “It doesn’t necessarily look good for him either.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Mel said. “The thing is … I remember Jason being a good kid. He never got in a lick of trouble. I was pulling Harper and Zander out of drunken parties left and right and Jason was one of the few people who didn’t cause me fits around that time.”
“So just because he didn’t drink in a field when he was a teenager that means he’s magically innocent?”
“Of course not.” Mel made an exasperated face. “I need you to be really careful here, Jared. After what happened the other night … .”
“I apologized to Harper and Jason for that,” Jared said, cutting off his partner. “I apologized to you right away, too. I know I was wrong and I’ve owned up to it. That’s not what’s going on here.”
“Jason hit on your girlfriend and told you he was going to make a move.”
“And then Harper told him there was no move to make and everyone hashed all of that out,” Jared supplied. “There’s no animosity between the two of us … unless he did kill Rosie and now he’s set his sights on Harper. Then there’s going to be animosity.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Mel cautioned. “If Jason is guilty, we’ll catch him. We’re not going to focus on him to the detriment of everyone else, though.”
“I didn’t say we should do that,” Jared said. “I think we have to go through everything again. I want to put a timeline together and narrow down a list of suspects.”
“Until we know who Rosie rented that house to share with, we can’t put a definitive list of suspects together,” Mel said.
“Unless she rented it to share with Jason.”
“Oh, you’re killing me,” Mel muttered. “Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s say I buy your theory. Why would Jason care enough to have Rosie rent a place for them to share if his wife isn’t even living with him?”
“Maybe she’s not coming to town yet,” Jared suggested. “Maybe she couldn’t take off right away from her job and she’s hanging around until they find a replacement. Maybe she has to stay and pack. Maybe they’re trying to unload a house and someone has to handle that.”
“I guess that’s feasible.” Mel cocked his head to the side. “So you think Jason moved back to town and got involved with Rosie. He thought it would be a fling until his wife joined him. Rosie thought otherwise so Jason strangled her to keep the secret.”
“It was probably in the heat of the moment,” Jared said. “Knowing the kind of woman Rosie was, she probably threatened to out him to his wife if he dumped her. She told Harper she wanted a pool, boat, and BMW. She added she was really close to getting the BMW.”
“So?”
“So Jason has a BMW.”
“Oh, we can’t use that as a basis for our investigation,” Mel snapped. “I love Harper beyond measure, but we can’t use hearsay from a ghost as a reason to arrest someone. A judge will laugh us out of his courtroom.”
“I’m not saying we use it for testimony or anything,” Jared shot back, annoyed. “I’m also not saying I’m completely convinced that Jason is the killer. I am saying that lying about a wife while hitting on Harper is a red flag.”
“I don’t like that either,” Mel said, adjusting his tone. “This is all just conjecture until we talk to the wife and Jason. Don’t you think we should start there?”
“I was hoping to interview the wife before approaching Jason, but we don’t have time to wait for her to call back if Jason is really a killer,” Jared said. “My next stop is his restaurant. They’re still a few hours away from the lunch hour so I’m hoping to sit down for a nice long chat.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” Mel looked conflicted. “Part of me thinks I should and the other part thinks I should chase the wife. Maybe I can track her down at work.”
“Stay on the wife,” Jared instructed. “We need her to corroborate things before she talks to Jason and they get their stories straight. I don’t know that a wife would lie to cover up her husband’s affair, but I don’t know that she wouldn’t either.”
“I’m going to follow you on this and do everything your way, but I need you to promise you won’t fixate on Jason to the point where you might overlook something else,” Mel prodded. “We need to be sure on this because if we’re wrong … .”
“I don’t want to be wrong,” Jared said. “I want to make sure that whoever killed Rosie doesn’t get the chance to hurt someone else.”
“Especially Harper.”
“I think that’s a given,” Jared said. “I asked Harper to stay out of this and she agreed. For now I don’t have to worry about her questioning Jason. That’s my next task, and I’m kind of looking forward to doing it.”
“Well, good luck,” Mel said. “If this blows up in your face, don’t come crying to me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Twenty
“What seems to be the problem?” The dental hygienist approached Zander with a bright smile. “I heard you might need some emergency dental work.”
“You heard wrong.” Zander stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest as he shot Harper a dark look. “My teeth are perfectly fine. I brush three times a day and floss twice. I could be on a Colgate commercial, for crying out loud.”
“Wow. It sounds as if you’re quite the slave to your dental care. My name is Cecilia, by the way. Your friend here told me that you might be a little nervous and I want you to know that everything is going to be fine so you can relax.” Cecelia patted Zander’s arm. “Now … unclench a bit and let me see what’s going on in your mouth.”
“Nothing is going on in my mouth,” Zander shot back. “My mouth is perfect. I have at least five men who will sign affidavits testifying to just that fact.”
Harper made a face and gripped Zander’s arm. To the outside observer she looked as if she was trying to help her friend. To Zander if felt as if she was trying to rip his arm off. “I told you that this was necessary or your tooth might get infected and fall out. Just … let the nice lady look in your mouth. The longer you fight this, the longer it’s going to take to complete.”
“I’m good.” Zander briefly pressed his eyes shut to block out the pain of Harper’s fingernails digging into his arm. “I am … better than good, in fact. I am amazing.”
“Maybe he’s not in pain,” Cecelia suggested. “Maybe you were wrong.”
“I’m not wrong,” Harper said, putting her best “I’m a worried best friend and you have to trust me” smile in place. “He’s just unbelievably nervous. I’ve never understood it, but he has performance anxiety. He always has.”
“You traitor,” Zander hissed.
Harper ignored him. “I have no idea what happens. He just folds under pressure.”
“She’s lying,” Zander snapped. “She’s making that up. I am a master under pressure.”
Cecelia giggled at Zander’s outrage. “It’s okay,” she said, giving his wrist a friendly squeeze. “A lot of people are afraid of the dentist. I think they even have a name for it.”
“Yes, its name is Zander,” Harper said, widening her eyes to comical proportions. “One day I hope he’ll get over his performance anxiety. Maybe then he’ll be able to hold a man for more than one night. They all leave him for some reason. It’s just sad really.”
Zander scorched Harper with a murderous look as Cecelia moved closer to the front bubble and exchanged a few words with the receptionist. “I do not have performance issues,” he seethed.
“Prove it,” Harper snapped, her voice low. “You were born to play this part. I need you to do it. For me.”
“You suck.”
“Zander … .”
“I’m going to do it, but if anyone comes near my mouth with a drill … or anything other than love … I’m going to kill you,” Zander warned.
It was a serious situation and Harper didn’t want to smile, but she couldn’t help herself. “You know that kind of came out dirty, right?”
“I heard it as soon as I said it.”
JARED watched Jason through the front window of the restaurant, taking advantage of the fact that the man didn’t know he had company. He didn’t look like a murderer. Of course, most murderers didn’t appear to stand out in a crowd – except for those occasional mug shots where everyone wonders how they didn’t know the guy dressing up as a clown was evil.
Ghostly Worries (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 4) Page 16
