by Kate Young
I shivered at the notion of Harper being controlled by a man with strange ideas.
“So when did the family move in?” Amelia asked gently, tucking a single stray silver curl behind her ear.
Harper let out a shuddering sigh. “They were already here when we got here. Leonard said people in that movement study he took part in lived this way. I thought it was weird, you know?”
We all nodded.
“But then after Leonard explained that having family close by meant we’d always have a strong support system and would always be close, I thought that idea was sort of nice. I’m an only child, you see, and my aunt raised me after my parents died in a car wreck when I was four.”
“Oh, Harper.” Amelia squeezed her hand.
“It’s okay. I don’t even remember them. But having so little family, I thought it would be kind of nice to be close to my new family.” Harper dabbed her eyes. “And it was at first. Then things got weird.” She gulped from her cup as if she needed a second to scrounge up her courage. “A couple of months after we moved here, I was getting homesick. Plus, it was feeling a little overcrowded in the house.” We all nodded in sympathy. “That’s when I started talking to Leonard about taking a trip home and spending a few weeks with my aunt. Just she and I, like we used to. I thought it would do me some good. He hit the roof, yelling and saying that part of my life was over now, and we had a higher calling. We had no room in our lives for those who didn’t believe the way we did.” Her voice hitched.
Amelia sucked in a sharp breath.
“What he meant was the way he believed.” She put her fists to her chest. “Because I didn’t have any idea what he believed other than wanting to keep me all to himself. I knew then that I needed to leave.”
“So, did you?” Mel leaned forward.
“I called my aunt and told her everything. She told me she’d come and get me. I needed about a week to get my things in order. I packed a small bag, things Leonard wouldn’t notice missing. But she never showed up. I called her cell more times than I can count. I called her friends, and they hadn’t seen her. I even called the police. She simply vanished.”
“When was this?” I felt my brow furrow. “Is this who you wanted me to help you find?”
“Yes. My aunt went missing last year. Her neighbors started noticing her newspapers piling up on her front stoop. Everyone thought perhaps she’d had an accident or heart attack or something. They called the police, and they broke the door down. She’d just gone. Her bank accounts were cleaned out, and her clothes were all gone.”
“She just left without a word?” Amelia looked shocked.
“They said she must have left. They had a hit on her credit cards. Still, Phyllis never wanted to leave the house she shared with my late uncle. She was sixty-eight for heaven’s sake. Settled and happy. But the police wouldn’t do anything. As much of a fuss as I made, they just put out a missing person’s report.” She let out a loud sigh. “After that, I felt stuck. And Leonard knew it. I wasn’t supposed to express my opinion outside our marriage quarters, and never in front of the family. Then he started telling me who I could and couldn’t be friends with.” She glanced over at Mel, who wiped her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I said gently.
“I felt so ashamed. I had a weak moment a few weeks back at the market. Your mom was there, and when she showed me kindness, I spilled my gut. She offered to help me, and we began making a plan for me to open a new bank account, and she said she’d help me find a place. I made her swear not to tell you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, and God, I’m so sorry you’ve been living through such hell.” I gave her a sad smile as my heart broke. No wonder Mother had taken such a stance to help her. It all made sense now. To think that she’d been living such an oppressed existence for years was horrifying.
“It wasn’t all bad. Leonard could be charming sometimes.” She gazed out over the back lawn. “The strange thing was, all this time I thought Leonard just wanted us to lead a simple life. You know, embody some of the minimalistic qualities—getting rid of superfluous things or sharing housing—but really, I think he was losing his mind. I was changing my lifestyle and dress because of the ravings of a madman.” Harper rubbed her forehead.
“How’d you find out?” Amelia asked as she wrapped up tighter in her thick gray sweater.
“I found a journal he’d been writing in. He scribbled a lot of crazy stuff in there. It was turned over to the police this morning. Perhaps it was early onset dementia or something. I don’t know.”
“You sure you won’t reconsider and come to stay with me? I hate to think of you staying here after all the crap you’ve been through.” Melanie looked as though her heart was breaking. My tender-hearted bestie would move heaven and earth for a friend in need.
“You such a good friend, Mel. And I promise you this: if it becomes too unbearable, I will.”
Melanie nodded. “Okay. I won’t smother you with constant calls and visits. But I’m available day or night.”
“That goes for all of us.” I smiled, and Amelia patted her arm.
“The reason you invited me over in the first place was to see if I could find your aunt. That’s what you were going to ask me about at the library?” I hated to tell her that if her aunt hadn’t been seen in over a year, the likelihood that she was no longer with us was great, although the credit card hit did shed a glimmer of hope. Especially if there was more than the one hit, and recently.
Harper nodded. “Maybe Leonard threatened her, and she left out of fear. Maybe she’s been on the run all this time.”
“Do you think Leonard could’ve done something like that?”
“I just don’t know.” She met my gaze directly; her hazel, almost green eyes were red and watery. “But I have to find out. And when they arrest the person responsible for Leonard’s death, and this all blows over, I can go home, and so can she.”
In my opinion, and if Leonard’s family had anything to say about it, nothing about this case was going to blow over.
“Will you help me?” Harper pleaded.
“Yes, I’ll do my best to help you find her.”
Chapter Nine
“It was awful. I felt so helpless.” Amelia tapped the shoulder of her husband, Ethan, and pointed to the wine bottle decanting on the sideboard behind him. “Our suspicions about Leonard seem accurate by Harper’s account. And that family—wow.”
Melanie and I nodded in agreement with our friend.
“Ethan, you should have seen her. She was such a mess. She just sobbed and sobbed.” Amelia cleared her throat. I could tell she fought for control over her emotions.
“You have such a tender heart. Don’t go blaming yourself for not getting involved. Even I could tell from the little time I spent with Harper how private she was. She isn’t the type to confide easily, and you’re not a mind reader.” Ethan handed her the bottle of merlot and kissed her on the cheek. He always regarded her with such love, even after ten years of marriage. Melanie and I kidded Amelia that her tall, dark, handsome man, with dark chocolate-colored eyes and steel-colored hair, was the last of his kind.
I’d genuinely felt that way until I’d started dating Brad. I smiled over at my date, glad to be ending this day on a better note. He’d arrived at my house right when I’d finished washing the day off me and putting the finishing touches on my makeup. He’d looked so good in his dark blazer and navy slacks that I wished we didn’t have to leave my house. But plans were plans, and Amelia would have been miffed with me. Now, my heart warmed at being surrounded by some of my nearest and dearest.
I gazed down the mahogany table lit by candlelight, taking in the moment of normalcy. The Klein’s dining room was tastefully decorated in muted tones of tan, cream, and browns. Sconces and framed designer prints adorned the walls. Amelia invited us to dinner at least once a month. Usually Rosa came, sometimes stag and sometimes with a date. Since she had to work this evening, it was just Brad an
d me, Mel and Wyatt, and of course Amelia and Ethan.
We always had Italian—lasagna Bolognese, to be specific—the dish Amelia had perfected from the cooking class she’d begged me to take with her last spring and abandoned after the scalding water burn incident. Not that I minded—I hated to cook. Mel and I always enjoyed coming over to their home. The love she and her lovely husband shared was an inspiration.
We continued discussing Harper and her situation, and Melanie, in typical Melanie fashion, let her opinions about the family living with Harper be known. “I’ve never in my life met anyone like the Richardson family, and that’s saying something. The mixed bag of nuts I call my relatives don’t even hold a candle to that family.” Mel hit the nail on the head. That family had a creep factor off the charts. “The whole family was just peculiar.” Melanie shivered. “And that house had a vibe like—”
Amelia, Mel, and I all said in unison with wide eyes, “Three Gables.”
“It’s from a book we were reading,” Melanie explained to her date with a little smile.
Brad, who was sitting next to me, let out a loud belly laugh as he set his beer glass on the table. He had the best laugh in the world. A deep rumbling sound that was infectious, and his smile knocked ten years off his face.
“It’s true.” I tried to keep a straight face. Because now, after I’d said it out loud, I could see how absurd and hilarious it sounded. “All kidding aside,” I said, smirking at Brad, “they have eight adults living in that house. Well, seven now that Leonard has passed. And none of them were torn up about his death.”
This got his attention. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. The family seriously didn’t seem to care a bit.”
“Except for Harper and his older brother, Felix.” Melanie rushed to add. “That old guy was something else.”
“Right,” I agreed. “Leonard’s brother and, of course, Harper were upset. But we overheard cousins, or whatever they were, talking about seeing crime scene photos and how disappointed they were that the paper hadn’t managed to print any.”
Brad furrowed his brows.
“Exactly.” I shook my head.
“Though none of them are fans of Harper except LJ, the son.” Amelia’s brows rose. “But Felix disparaged Harper with no compunctions.” Amelia dipped a breadstick in the leftover sauce on her plate.
“True,” I agreed. “Felix called Harper a gold digger.”
“Hold on. You mean the family, other than the brother and wife, weren’t in mourning, and someone murdered the man?” Brad cocked his head toward me.
I nodded. “That’s what I’m saying. Oh, everyone in the house is interested in who’s going to inherit his fortune but no one seemed to be missing him.”
“Not even his children?” Ethan put his fork down. “You said he had a son and daughter, right?”
“His son wasn’t upset.” Amelia wiped her mouth. “And I couldn’t tell about the daughter. She was as unique as the rest of them, dressed in a flapper dress and using one of those French cigarette holders.”
“Are you sure you gals weren’t projecting your book onto the family?” Brad looked amused. His eyes were crinkled around the corners as he took another drink of his beer.
“It’s God’s honest truth.” Melanie leaned around me to give Brad a dead-level stare, but her lips twitched. “This old sister and brother live there along with his weirdo ass son, daughter, and two cousins. They were the strangest group of people ever. We weren’t projecting anything; they were like the family in the book.”
“Wow, that does sound far-fetched, Mel. You gotta admit that,” Wyatt said. His curly blond mop of hair bounced around as he shook his head. Wyatt and Mel lived next door to each other after she moved in with her grandmother. They’d dated for a while in their teens. Back then, I thought he’d be the one, but it fizzled out as teen romances seem to do, and they went their separate ways. When they saw each other across the dance floor last month at a Western bar on the outskirts of town, Mel said it was an instant connection. Sparks flew, as Mel put it. They looked well together—both blonds with bright blue eyes.
“It does sound crazy.” Mel giggled. “It was just a wild experience that I don’t think you can appreciate unless you were there.”
Wyatt smiled and shook his head.
“This is the type of family you’d see featured on one of those TLC shows. Everyone would watch.” Melanie wiped her mouth. “It was an eerie experience.”
Amelia nodded in agreement.
“Mel’s right. ‘Odd’ and ‘eerie’ are adjectives I’d use to describe that family.” I sipped from my glass. “They’d certainty attract viewers if they had a program. The most difficult part for me was leaving Harper there. I’m concerned for her.” I went on to explain our suspicions regarding the family and the journal the family submitted into evidence.
“Rosa said the family turned over this evidence, correct?” Brad’s face altered from amused to his GBI scrutinizing expression. Not much fazed Brad except a good case that got his blood pumping.
I nodded.
“Are you sure this journal Harper mentioned was what she was referring to?”
“I have no idea.”
“Hmm.” Brad put his glass down. “I would think you’d need more than something like that to acquire a search warrant. Do you have the specifics on her aunt’s disappearance?”
“I do. Harper forwarded me the contact info of the police department in charge of the case.” I put my fork on the plate. “I’ll do my best for her. Harper seems to hold out hope for a reunion still.” Brad and I shared a knowing glance. We both knew the chances of that were slim if there wasn’t any recent activity on her credit cards or bank records. In this day and age, people just didn’t disappear—especially people with little to no means.
“It was so nice of Lyla too.” Melanie finished her lasagna and smiled. “And I know Harper appreciates your help.”
I smiled down the table at my oldest friend. Fierce and loyal, that’s our Mel.
“I wonder why the police have not had any luck locating a woman who just up and left town.” Amelia directed her comment toward Brad.
Brad finished his beer. “It might be they never really looked into it.”
“That’s horrible,” Melanie said, and Amelia nodded in agreement.
“If resources are scarce and there’s no sign of foul play,” Brad said with a shrug, “they may believe the woman took off somewhere. Maybe with someone. It’s unusual but not unheard of. Especially if there is family conflict.”
“And when isn’t their family conflict.” Melanie sighed. “Well, I’m glad Harper brought this to you, Lyla. She needs us right now. And I could tell how much she appreciated us stopping by and offering our help.”
The mood in the room began to plummet.
Amelia brightened. “Well, all I have to say is that no one appreciated my thoughtful addition to the meal. And it would have been helpful to the poor girl too. Not a lot of adventurous palates in Sweet Mountain.” Amelia made a face at Mel and me over her glass.
“Adventurous palates, my ass.” Mel giggled.
“No one could appreciate an awful tea like that,” I said, and started laughing.
“What kind of tea?” Wyatt asked.
“Oh no. You didn’t take that skunk tea, did you?” Ethan shook his head.
“Oh my God. Yes!” Melanie pointed at Ethan. “That’s the perfect way to describe it.” Melanie started laughing. “Wyatt,” she said, leaning closer to him, “I know you think I can be melodramatic sometimes, but Lyla will back me up on this. Everyone in the proximity of that tea can attest to the offensive odor. It smelled like someone dipped up some sewage and packaged it up.”
I nodded and covered my mouth with my napkin as I chuckled.
“See.” Melanie pointed at me and snorted a little as she laughed. “I … thought … I thought someone had stepped in dog mess!”
Mel, Amelia, and I were all
dying with laughter now—a much-needed release for all of us after the day we’d had.
Brad cast an amused glance down the table and over at Ethan. “It stinks that bad?”
Ethan nodded. “It’s pretty bad. I nearly gagged when she brought it to me after a stressful day of work.”
Amelia hit him with her napkin, still laughing. “It’s from the earth.”
“I’m sure it is, darling. I just don’t want to drink it.” Ethan stood, smirking. “Why don’t we have dessert. Amelia makes a fabulous tiramisu. And we’ll have coffee instead of her Valerian tea.”
While the Klein’s went to retrieve dessert, and Mel and Wyatt were having a low, giggly discussion between them, I took a sip of wine, making eye contact with Brad over the rim of the glass. His dark eyes that once intimidated me had a completely different effect now, and I couldn’t wait for this dinner to be over.
Chapter Ten
Monday morning, I got a call from my uncle. We were having issues with the wiring at the office, and Calvin was trying to get us an appointment with an electrician ASAP. Problems in the old building were something we’d grown accustomed to. Luckily the new virtual private network I convinced him we needed to purchase was up and running and allowed us to access our system. It would be getting a test run today. He seemed happy when we spoke that we could now work from our computers securely, wherever we were. Calvin worked old school style, and I’d done my best to bring us up to modern processes.
While I waited for my coffee to brew, I called the police department and inquired about Harper’s aunt. The officer I spoke to told me that the case had been reclassified three weeks after her niece reported her missing. She’d used her credit card to book a hotel room and at a gas station on the outskirts of town. The clerk remembered her and a gentlemen friend she had with her. I’d be checking to see if there were any recent hits to said cards later.
