“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.”
“It’s not awesome!” Harper wanted to punch someone and Zander made an appealing target. “It’s disgusting.”
“I don’t know about that, Harper.” Eric adopted a pragmatic tone. “I mean … they are your parents. They’ve obviously had sex before. You wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t so it’s not really disgusting.”
“Do you want to be fired?” Harper challenged.
Eric visibly shrank in the face of her fury. “Of course not. Your parents are heathens. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Thank you.” Her eyes were on fire when she focused on her mother. “I can’t believe you’re actually telling people about this. I mean … have you no shame?”
“Not where this is concerned.” Gloria was bland. “It’s not a big deal. We’re still married so it’s not even weird.”
“Oh, geez.” Harper buried her face in her arms on her desk. “Where are the locusts when I really need them?” She didn’t look up when the bell over the door jangled. “I need a bag for my head so I can walk around town without feeling the judgment of others.”
When no one immediately responded to her dramatic outburst, she lifted her head and found Jared and Mel standing in the doorway. Mel looked stern. Jared, well, he looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else.
“What’s going on?” Zander asked, immediately picking up on a bad vibe. “Has something happened?”
“It has,” Mel confirmed, leveling his gaze on Gloria. “We need to take you in for formal questioning in the death of Carl Gibbons. I’m sorry but … we don’t have a choice.”
Harper almost knocked over her chair in her haste to stand. “What do you mean? Why?”
“Heart … .” Jared looked pained as he took a step in her direction. Mel extended a hand to stop his partner from crossing to her.
“We don’t have a choice, Harper,” Mel intoned. “Some new information has come to light.”
“What information?” Gloria barked. “There is no information because I’m innocent.”
Harper swallowed hard. “This can’t be right.”
Jared wanted to go to her, take her in his arms, soothe the horror that was washing over her features. All he could do was stand to the side and hold out his hands.
“I’m sorry. We have to take her in.”
“YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN.”
Zander watched Harper pace the lobby of the police station an hour later, a ball of worry pooling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to help her, ease her distress. He had no idea how to do it.
“You need to calm down,” Harper fired back. “It’s not your mother that was just arrested by your fiancé.”
“She wasn’t technically arrested. They’re just questioning her.”
Harper narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “Really? Is that the hill you want to die on?”
�
��I would rather not die on any hill.” Zander refused to back down in the face of her rage. “Harper, they had no choice. You heard them.”
“Oh, I heard them.” Her tone was dark when she turned her eyes to the interrogation room. It was really a conference room with a big window and her agitation was on full display as she stared through the soundproof glass. “In fact … .” She took everyone by surprise when she strode toward the door.
“What are you doing?” Zander asked, frustrated.
“I’m going in.” Harper’s face looked as if it was carved out of granite when she walked into the room. “Hello, gentlemen.”
“What are you doing?” Gloria asked as she rubbed her forehead. Phil insisted on staying with her and serving as her representative even though he had no legal standing to do so. “You should stay in the lobby, Harper.”
“No.” Harper folded her arms over her chest as she plunked down in the chair on her mother’s left side and glared at Jared and Mel. “Well, let’s have it.”
“Harper, you can’t be in here,” Mel chided. “It’s not allowed.”
“My father is in here.”
“Yes, but … he won’t leave.”
“Well, I won’t leave either.” Harper lifted her chin, defiant. “If you want me out of here, you’re going to have to physically remove me.”
Mel slid his eyes to Jared, who immediately started shaking his head.
“Don’t even think about asking me to do that,” Jared warned, his tone low and full of warning. “I will melt down if you do that.”
“Fine.” Mel held up his hands in defeat. “This is already a circus. Why not make it worse?”
“That’s my philosophy,” Phil offered helpfully, earning a glare from Mel.
“Gloria, Carl’s neighbor says that you were at his house the day before he died,” Mel started. “She says there was an argument and you actually threw something at Carl. What do you have to say to that?”
“You’re obviously talking about Margie Driskell,” she said dryly. “That woman is blind and deaf. There’s no way she could identify me from a full house away.”
“And yet she did.”
“Well … she’s crazy.”
“That’s not really up for debate,” Mel noted. “I need to know if you were at Carl’s house.”
Gloria heaved out a sigh, the sound long and drawn out. “Yes. I was there. We had a fight. Is that what you want to hear?”
Jared, who had been trying to catch Harper’s eye from across the table, felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. “That’s not really what we want to hear, Gloria,” he replied. “What were you fighting about?”
“Oh, who can say?” She was airy as she fanned herself. “Is it just me or is it hot in here?”
“It’s just you,” Harper snapped. “Why didn’t you tell us about your fight with Carl before this?”
“You know why.” Gloria glared at her only daughter. “I knew your boyfriend would suspect me of being a murderer. This is exactly what he’s always wanted. He’ll be able to get me out of your life and take up residence as the most important person in your orbit if he manages to get the charges to stick.”
Harper growled as she rubbed her forehead. “He’s already the most important person in my orbit. It’s not as if he has to supplant you.”
“Ahem!” Zander, who had managed to hear the conversation through the walls (even though that was supposed to be impossible), banged on the window to get his best friend’s attention. “I’m the most important.” He thumped his chest. “That’s never going to change.”
“Oh, geez.” Mel glared at his nephew. “Why don’t we invite the entire town to this interview? I mean … everybody is practically in here now as it is.”
Jared ignored him and focused on Gloria. “I don’t want you in prison. Harper would end up hurt in that scenario and that’s the last thing I want. How can you not recognize that?”
“Because you’ve always hated me,” she responded without hesitation. “I see the way you look at me. You think I’m silly and vapid. I’m not oblivious.”
“I think you’re both those things,” Jared agreed. “That does not mean I want you in prison.”
Mel recognized quickly that he needed to get the conversation back on track. “Gloria, what were you and Carl arguing about?”
“What we always argued about,” Gloria replied, playing with the huge sapphire ring on her finger. “He didn’t think I was paying enough attention to him. He was extremely needy, if you must know. He made a big deal about not being the center of attention the night before when we were at a charity event. I told him he was being ridiculous and then he accused me of flirting with his son.”
Jared made a face. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Gloria’s expression was dark. “Carl wasn’t the easiest man to get along with. I’m sure you’ve already figured that out, though, unless you’re complete and total morons … which I haven’t ruled out. He thought he was in competition with everyone and that included his son.”
“We met Junior yesterday,” Mel noted. “He said he spent very little time with his father and didn’t even seem all that sad at his passing. He didn’t mention spending time with you and said he barely knew you.”
“Oh, well, I can’t speak to that aspect of their relationship,” Gloria said primly. “I wasn’t privy to the inner workings of their father-son dynamic. I know that Junior wasn’t exactly fond of his father because of something that happened with his mother.”
“Yes, he screwed his mother out of every penny in the divorce and left her destitute,” Jared drawled.
“How did he manage that?” Gloria was officially intrigued. “I wish I would’ve known that he could do that. I would’ve hired him as my attorney instead of dating him if I knew that were the case.”
Phil slid her a sidelong look. “Do you have to be such a pain?”
“Apparently I do.” Gloria made a sniffing sound as she smoothed the front of her cream-colored shirt. “It doesn’t matter, though. I dated him. It was casual. I really had no reason to kill him. I mean … I didn’t care about him enough to kill him. If I was going to kill anyone it would be Phil.”
“Oh, you say the sweetest things,” Phil deadpanned.
Harper glared at her parents. “Knock it off.”
“Gloria, you’re in real trouble here,” Mel noted. “You were the last person seen with the deceased. On top of that, we have a witness who says you arrived an hour before Jared and Harper made it to the house. Even when you take into account the bad roads that day, that means you were inside a full thirty minutes before you called for help.”
Gloria was taken aback. “Who told you that?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Mel was firm. “What matters is that you were there a long time before you called Harper. Why is that?”
“Because … because … .” Gloria turned a pleading set of eyes to her daughter. “Are you going to help me here?”
“Help you what?” Harper asked blandly. “I don’t know how to help you. It’s a legitimate question. Why were you at the house so long before calling us?”
“Even if it took you a few minutes to walk through the house and find the body, we’re talking twenty-five minutes here, Gloria,” Mel prodded. “What were you doing in that time?”
“I was in shock,” Gloria answered. “I mean … you saw him. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was seeing. I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought I was trapped in a dream.”
“Obviously you weren’t,” Mel argued. “What were you arguing about?”
“I told you. He thought I was flirting with Junior at the party the night before. I told him that was ridiculous – the boy is younger than Harper, for crying out loud – but he wouldn’t believe me. He said he was going to confront Junior and then he called me a woman of loose moral fiber.
“I threw a pillow at him when he said that,” she continued. “A pillow. That’s not enough to hurt him. After t
hat, I left. I didn’t come back until the next day. I certainly didn’t kill him over that.”
“What about Junior?” Jared asked. “Did Carl say anything about confronting him?”
“Yes. He said he was going to call him, although I have no idea if he managed to get him on the phone.”
“Well, great.” Mel rolled his neck until it cracked. “This just keeps getting wonkier and wonkier.”
“You can say that again,” Jared muttered, his heart skipping a beat when Harper finally met his gaze. She looked beaten down. “I don’t think we’re even close to being done digging.”
“That right there is a fact,” Mel agreed. “The question is: Where do we go next?”
Eleven
Jared tracked down Harper in the lobby after the interview ended. She stood at the front window, her expression thoughtful as she stared out.
“Hey.” Jared was gentle as he rested a hand on her arm.
Harper arched an eyebrow as she glared. “Hey?”
Jared pulled back his fingers and frowned. “I know you’re angry,” he started. “This isn’t what I wanted. I would throw myself on a grenade to keep you from feeling what you’re feeling now. You know that.”
Harper’s expression was neutral as she regarded him. Finally, she folded her arms over her chest and started tapping her foot. “What is it you think I’m angry about?”
The question caught him off guard. “What do you mean? You’re angry because your mother is a suspect.”
“No. I’m angry because you didn’t tell me my mother was a suspect.”
“I ... you ... what’s the difference?” Jared was genuinely flummoxed.
“The difference is that you should’ve told me that you thought my mother was a murderer.”
Jared balked, his frustration on full display. “I don’t think your mother is a murderer. That’s not what this is about. I didn’t have a choice but to take her in, though. You know that as well as I do. For crying out loud, she was seen — and heard, for that matter — having a fight with Gibbons hours before his death. We can’t simply ignore that no matter how much I love you.”
Ghostly Ordeal Page 10
