Ghostly Holiday (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 11)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Don’t think that way.” Harper’s voice was low, guttural. “You don’t know that’s what happened. It’s Christmas. People get lonely around Christmas. Maybe someone lost a child ... or had a mental break of some sort. It’s possible that Zoe is fine, merely lost for a little bit.”

  “Yeah, well, I never thought I would be hoping for a crazy person to have her,” Rose said, sighing as she grabbed the pot of coffee from the warmer. “I need to take this around. Help yourself to whatever you want. I think we’re all going to need to keep caffeinated for this one if we expect to find Zoe.”

  Harper had the same feeling.

  Four

  Harper stayed at the coffee shop for hours, to the point where she was one of the few left. Even Zander and Shawn departed hours before she did.

  Harper couldn’t stand the idea of abandoning Ally, but she was at a loss of what to do.

  “I don’t want to be the rude jerk that kicks her out, but I can’t stay open,” Rose noted as she leaned against the counter. “What do you think we should do?”

  “I don’t know.” Harper stared at Ally for a long time. She was alone at the table, staring into nothing, and the vacant energy hovering around the woman was almost painful to bear witness to. “Maybe I should see if she wants to come to the house with me. That way she wouldn’t be alone.”

  Rose cast Harper a sidelong look. “I don’t want to tell you your business, but I don’t think sharing a roof with Zander is going to settle her.”

  “Yeah.” Harper rubbed her cheek and opened her mouth to suggest Rose take her when the door to the coffee shop opened. Whatever she was about to say fled because she recognized the figure standing in the doorway.

  Shana Hamilton, one of the most famous faces in Whisper Cove, briefly locked gazes with Harper before focusing on Ally. She didn’t force a smile, which was probably wise, and instead moved to the table and sat directly next to the traumatized woman.

  “Well, this is interesting,” Rose muttered.

  Harper couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah. I ... .” The door opened again, interrupting her, although this time the figure standing there wasn’t a surprise.

  “Hey, Heart,” Jared said as he stepped into the coffee shop. He looked exhausted, beaten down, and ready for bed. “I went to the house, but you weren’t there. I think it’s time you called it a night.”

  Agitation she didn’t know was previously there bubbled up. “We can’t just quit.”

  “We’re not quitting,” Jared countered. “We’re ... taking stock for the night and starting again tomorrow. There’s nothing more we can do right now.”

  “But ... .” Harper wasn’t keen on the search being abandoned — even for a few hours — but she couldn’t very well give voice to her fears in front of Ally.

  Jared flicked his eyes to the table and the sympathy on his face was profound. “I didn’t realize she was still here. She can’t stay here.” He moved to take a step in Ally’s direction, but Harper grabbed his arm to stop him.

  “Just ... don’t.” She exchanged a quick look with Rose, who was clearly thinking the same thing she was. “Shana might be able to help Ally in ways that we don’t understand.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Since he was fairly new to Whisper Cove, Jared obviously wasn’t aware of the story. It happened long before his arrival in town. “How?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way home.” Harper licked her lips. “Maybe Shana can lock up for you on her way out, Rose. You shouldn’t have to stay and I know you’re worried about kicking her out, but this might be a nice compromise.”

  “I guess, although that will just mean I have to listen to Shana tell wonderful tales about her locking-up acumen for months after.” Rose didn’t look happy with the suggestion, but her resignation was obvious. “You get going. You’ve done enough for one day. I’ll handle this.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She turned her eyes to Jared. “Get a good night’s sleep so you can find that girl in the morning. That’s the most important thing.”

  Jared nodded. “That’s the plan.”

  JARED WAITED UNTIL THEY WERE in his truck and heading home to ask the obvious question.

  “Who is the woman in the coffee shop?”

  “Shana Hamilton.”

  “Why do you think she’s powerful enough to help Ally through the most traumatic event of her life?”

  “Because she’s been through it herself.”

  Jared was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

  “It happened years ago,” Harper explained, searching for the right words as she held her hands in front of the heating vents. She’d picked up a chill while searching for Zoe and she’d yet to overcome it. “She had a daughter. Her name was Chloe. She was sixteen when she disappeared. That’s when Zander and I were in middle school. Chloe was three years ahead of us, if I remember correctly.”

  “What happened?”

  “It’s a mystery. Chloe was popular, pretty, and recently elected homecoming queen. She was blond and looked like a model. Zander used to joke that he would go straight for her.”

  Jared made a face. “That sounds lovely.”

  “It was just a joke. Back then, Zander was still ... struggling ... with who he was. He’s always been strong, but life in a small town would’ve been easier for him if he wasn’t gay. Most people didn’t have a problem with it, but there are always some people who just can’t live and let live, if you know what I mean.”

  “I understand, and I wouldn’t wish feelings of inadequacy on anyone. That includes Zander, who often goes out of his way to make my life hell.”

  “He enjoys messing with you. He’d stop if you wouldn’t make it so easy.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s focus on this Chloe girl. What happened to her? Could it tie into what happened today?”

  Harper tilted her head to the side, considering. “I don’t see how,” she said finally. “Chloe was older. Most people assume she was taken because of her beauty, although the police had precious few clues at the time. I remember because Mel was on the case and he was frustrated. No one saw Chloe after she left school one day. It was in the spring; I remember that because the search weather was hit-or-miss. She was on her way home and never made it.”

  “No body was ever found?”

  “No.”

  “Perhaps she ran away.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so. Chloe was close with her mother. She wouldn’t have run away like that. Besides, this was almost fifteen years ago. I think she would’ve gotten over whatever teenage angst was fueling her back in the day and showed up by now, don’t you?”

  “In theory, yes,” Jared confirmed, pulling into the driveway. “We don’t know what was going on inside that house, though. Maybe Chloe wanted to get away from her mother.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe Shana was abusive or something.”

  “I think people would’ve noticed that. Besides, Shana was a doting mother. She went to all of Chloe’s cheerleading competitions ... and chaperoned dances ... and attended parent-teacher conferences. If she was abusive, she hid it well.”

  “Maybe something else was going on. What about Chloe’s father?”

  “I ... don’t know.” Harper searched her memory. “I can’t remember what the deal was with him. I want to say he died when Chloe was little, but I’m not sure that’s true. It’s possible he simply abandoned the family. You’ll have to ask Mel about that one.”

  Jared had every intention of questioning Mel further. “So, you think Shana will be able to help Ally, huh? Perhaps talk her down from the edge.”

  “I don’t know that anything short of Zoe’s miraculous return is going to help Ally. Shana donates her time to missing children organizations now. She’s a familiar face on television when these cases inevitably pop up in the area.”

  “It’s nice that she managed to turn her tragedy into something good,” Jared noted. “Still, we need Ally to get it toget
her. She’s the one who can best answer our questions, and she’s an absolute wreck. It’s not as if Luke knows who was sniffing around Zoe.”

  Harper hopped out of the truck and waited for Jared in front of it. He’d clearly had a rough day and needed comfort. “I’m sorry you had to talk to him.” She opened her arms so she could hug him, sighing when he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in the hollow of her neck. “Tell me about your day,” she whispered.

  “There isn’t much to tell. We’ve searched everywhere. This town is tiny. There’s nowhere that kid could be hiding. Everyone rallied to find her and we came up empty.”

  “You think someone took her.”

  “I do.”

  “Then we haven’t searched everywhere.” Harper was calm even though her heart ached at the thought of Zoe spending the night locked in a dark room, which is exactly how things played out in her head. “We’ll go door-to-door tomorrow and ask for voluntary searches. We’ll get organized.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Jared swayed back and forth, as if dancing to a song only he could hear. “If our kidnapper gets word that’s happening, what’s to stop him or her from panicking and killing Zoe to keep her quiet?”

  “We might get lucky.”

  “And we might not.”

  Harper hated how defeated he sounded. “Well ... what other options do we have?”

  “I don’t know. I need to think on it.”

  “Then I’ll help you think.” She pressed her lips to his cheek. “We’ll find her. I have faith.”

  “I hope you’re right. It’s not going to be a merry Christmas for anybody if we don’t find that kid.”

  “We’ll find her.”

  They stood together, quiet, and absorbed each other’s warmth and strength. The moment was exactly what they needed.

  And then Zander opened the door and called out to them.

  “Don’t do it in the yard. Are you animals? We’ve been waiting for you and have dinner prepared. It’s going to get cold if you don’t get your bottoms in here.”

  Jared sighed as he rubbed his cheek against her head. “Just think. In a few days, we’re going to be living across the road and we’ll have no one to greet us this way after work.”

  Harper snorted. “You don’t think his voice can carry across the road?”

  “Good point.”

  “ANYTHING?”

  Shawn didn’t wait for Harper and Jared to get comfortable at the dinner table before asking the question.

  “Not yet,” Jared replied, rubbing his hand over Harper’s back as Zander carried a huge tray to the table. “What’s that?”

  “Roast chicken, potatoes, and carrots,” Zander replied. “It’s comfort food. I thought we could all use it.”

  “Actually, you have no idea how excited I suddenly am for dinner.” Jared’s stomach picked that moment to growl, causing everyone to laugh. The nervous chuckle was enough to kill some of the tension hanging over the table.

  “You can have first dibs on what you want,” Zander offered. “I have a feeling you’ve had a long day.”

  “We’ve all had long days,” Jared argued, although he accepted the huge spoon Zander handed him. “You guys spent hours searching the town. I had to run back to the coffee shop to drag Harper home. Ally is living through hell. No one’s day has been good.”

  “What about Luke?” Harper asked, smiling when Jared shoveled food on her plate before tackling his own. “You’re so chivalrous,” she teased. “You’re starving and yet you’re worried about me instead of yourself.”

  Jared merely shrugged. “You’ve had a long day, too.”

  “There’s plenty to go around,” Zander supplied. “I put everything in the slow cooker this afternoon, thinking we would be able to eat it when we found Zoe. It was between searches and I left to look again. I guess it’s a different kind of comfort meal now.”

  “It’s exactly what the doctor ordered.” Jared offered Zander a heartfelt smile. They didn’t always get along, but they were both good men who recognized when to support one another. “Thanks a lot for this.”

  “Just think, when you move across the street, you’re going to miss out on meals like this. Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you stole my best friend.”

  Jared’s smile slipped. “Are you seriously going to start in on that again?”

  “No.” Zander made a face. “I was simply messing with you.”

  “You’re good at that.”

  “I’m the king of that,” Zander agreed. “Tell us about Luke, though. I’m guessing that wasn’t the most comfortable of conversations.”

  “That guy is a complete and total ... jerk,” Jared replied, opting for a much softer word than he was originally envisioning. “I don’t know how he can live with himself.”

  “I take it he didn’t know anything about Zoe’s disappearance,” Harper noted.

  “Nope, and he didn’t seem all that concerned. He said he doesn’t have anything to do with the kid and he came to an arrangement with Ally, so he doesn’t owe child support. He claims he has no motive. Technically, he’s right. He did allow us to search his home, although he wasn’t happy about it.”

  “Obviously you didn’t find anything,” Shawn said. “Was he at all sorry about not being part of Zoe’s life? I mean ... I can’t imagine having a child out there, my own flesh and blood, living in the same town and never interacting with her.

  “I’ve seen that little girl before and she’s adorable,” he continued. “She was with her mother a few days ago on Main Street. She had hot chocolate and it was all over her mouth, and when she smiled at me she looked so cute I wanted to buy her more chocolate.”

  “She’s definitely a cutie,” Zander agreed. “At the Halloween festival, she insisted on being a princess even though I told her princesses aren’t scary. She said she was going to be the first scary princess and that I was allowed to be her prince if I promised to be a scary prince.”

  Harper’s heart plummeted at the memory. “Yeah. She loved you, said you were handsome and definitely prince material.”

  Zander snickered. “We have to find her. I can’t lose a member of my fan club.”

  “We’re going to, but I don’t know that I believe Luke is at the center of this,” Jared said. “I mean ... the guy isn’t perfect. I would never say he is, but he seemed legitimately shaken when I told him what was going on.”

  “Not shaken enough to rush out and look for his kid,” Zander muttered, bitter.

  “No, not shaken enough for that,” Jared conceded. “He was hard to read, though. His place was full of empty pizza boxes and beer bottles. He didn’t exactly act as if he was living a great life.”

  “Did he tell you anything of note?” Harper queried.

  “Just that he was dating a woman named Jessica Hayden until recently. He broke up with her out of the blue, and was apparently rude while doing it. I think that’s his normal mode of operation, though. Do you know her?”

  Harper nodded. “She’s a crisis counselor.”

  “Yeah. I met her a few weeks ago when that girl died at the school, although I don’t really remember her. We stopped by her house hoping to interview her after we finished with Luke, but she wasn’t home.”

  “Do you think she’s a legitimate suspect?” Shawn asked. “I mean ... are you thinking that maybe she took the kid as payback for him breaking up with her?”

  “That would be a radical form of punishment,” Jared countered. “I’ve heard of weirder things, though.”

  “What about dogs?” Zander asked. “Why hasn’t the state police sent dogs?”

  “They did right before dusk. They searched the entire town. It was difficult because the atmosphere was roiled up thanks to all the searchers, but they didn’t have to go far.

  “The dogs made it exactly one block down the street, to the closest intersection, and then they lost her scent,” he continued. “To me, that seems to indicate she got in s
omeone’s vehicle. She was long gone before her mother even noticed she was missing.”

  “If she got in a vehicle, that means she might not still be in town,” Harper said. “If it was a crime of opportunity, then whoever took her could be in another city. Heck, it’s been long enough for whoever it was to get out of the state.”

  “True, but I think it was a local.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it took guts to call out to Zoe in the middle of the street when there were so many people around shopping,” Jared replied. “Whoever it was understood the rhythm of the town, that people were in the coffee shop ... and the other stores. They knew he or she only had a very small window to operate.

  “Plus, you saw the video footage of Zoe,” he continued. “While it was difficult to make out her expressions, she didn’t look afraid when whoever it was called out and got her attention. Her body language didn’t reflect fear.”

  “What does that mean?” Shawn asked.

  “That perhaps she knew her kidnapper.”

  To Harper, that was almost worse. “Do you think it was planned? I mean ... do you think someone was watching Ally and waiting for an opportunity to lure Zoe away?”

  “I don’t know. We don’t have enough information to make that determination either way.”

  “What does your gut tell you?”

  Jared wasn’t sure he wanted to answer the question. He knew if he didn’t, though, Harper wouldn’t let it go. She was agitated, worked up, and she needed time to decompress. She would only do that if he somehow managed to make her feel better.

  “I believe that Zoe is still alive, although I have absolutely no facts to back that up. It’s an assumption, and I won’t rule out other avenues of investigation because of that assumption.”

  “Thank you for the clarification, Detective,” Zander drawled.

  Jared ignored him. “I think whoever took her doesn’t plan on harming her. That might be wishful thinking, but it’s what I’m holding on to for the time being. I think you should hold on to it, too.”