Ghostly Holiday (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 11)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Not even remotely normal,” Zander agreed. “I think that a puppy van would be the ideal vehicle for snagging children because ... who doesn’t love a puppy?”

  Harper slid him a sidelong look. “I wanted to get a dog years ago and you said no.”

  “That’s because they’re dirty and we work too much to have a dog.”

  “We could’ve taken the dog with us to the office so it was never alone.”

  “That doesn’t solve the dirty issue.”

  “Whatever.” Harper rolled her eyes until they landed on Jared. “Can you believe this guy? You’re open to getting a dog one day, right?”

  “I don’t see why not, but I would prefer we talk about it when we have time to sit down and really hammer out the issues,” Jared replied. “I don’t want this to turn into a thing where we get a dog and I end up taking care of it.”

  Harper balked. “I would be an excellent pet owner.”

  “Then I’m sure it will work out.” Instinctively, Jared stroked her hair. “Are you okay after what happened at the jail this morning?”

  Harper’s sea-blue eyes widened. “Of course. Is that why you thought I called? I’m perfectly fine, Jared. Nothing bad happened.”

  “What did happen?”

  “We can talk about it later. It’s not important now.”

  “I think you should at least give him a hint,” Mel interjected. “He’s been a whiny baby all morning because he’s been worried about you.”

  Harper studied Jared’s strong profile for a long beat and then acquiesced. “Fine. It was nothing. He wanted me to change my testimony and he promised that he would leave and never come back if I did. I told him that wasn’t going to happen and I was looking forward to him spending the rest of his life in prison.”

  “That’s it?” Jared was dubious. “That’s all he wanted?”

  “Well, his initial approach was to claim he got involved with me as a cover but then fell in love with me,” she admitted. “It was kind of like a bad romance novel. He couldn’t keep up the facade long, though, and when I called him on it he let his true colors show.”

  “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  “No. We were separated by glass and there was a guard on my side of the window, as well as his. He didn’t do anything but cry like a little girl.”

  “I wish you would’ve taped it,” Zander muttered, his expression turning dark. “We could’ve uploaded it to YouTube and had a grand time.”

  Harper patted his hand. “Next time.”

  Despite himself, Jared smiled at the interaction. If Harper was putting on an act, it was a good one. She seemed genuinely relaxed and happy, eager to get to work on finding Zoe. That was a much better outcome than he envisioned. “Well, as long as you’re okay, we’re going to start looking for this van. I don’t know that it will lead anywhere, but it can’t hurt to try.”

  “Good luck on that,” Harper said. “Zander and I are going to hit a few lesser-known places and look for Zoe. We know she’s probably not there, but at least we can say we looked. We don’t have anything else going on.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” Jared gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll see you for dinner tonight, right?”

  “The Christmas festival is downtown tonight,” Harper reminded him. “I’m guessing it’s going to become something of a candlelight vigil given what’s going on, but there will be food at the festival.”

  “And good food,” Zander added. “They have these mini-pumpkin pies that are to die for. I wish someone would share the recipe, but alas, it’s apparently a secret that Rose is going to take to the grave.”

  Jared chuckled. “Festival it is. I’ll be in touch. You guys be safe while you’re out and about.”

  “You don’t have to worry about us,” Harper said. “Worry about Zoe. She’s the one who is in trouble.”

  “That’s why we’re tracking down the van. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

  “You do that.”

  FINDING A VAN WITH DOGS painted on the side turned out to be harder than it sounded. Finally, Mel did the unthinkable and called his busybody wife to see if she knew who the van belonged to, which seemed doubtful. To his utter surprise, she offered a name right away.

  “Edwin Partlow.”

  “Excuse me?” Jared raised his eyebrows. “Who is that?”

  “He’s supposedly the guy with the van,” Mel said as he disconnected his phone.

  “Your wife actually knew?”

  “You would be surprised at the odd and strange things my wife knows.”

  “Apparently so.” Jared typed the name in on his computer and frowned as he searched the records. “He lives on Pleasant Ridge Road.”

  “That’s isolated out there,” Mel noted, shuffling closer to Jared’s desk. “The neighbors aren’t on top of one another. If he took Zoe, he could’ve easily gotten her into the house without anyone noticing.”

  “Yeah.” Jared scanned further down in the file. “He’s a sex offender.”

  Mel’s blood ran cold. “You’re kidding.” What had been a lark a few moments before, a far-off possibility, now became more than that. “What’s his level?”

  “Level one.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Mel said after a beat. “He might’ve been assessed as low risk to repeat because of his age or something. Can you get into his file?”

  “No. It’s sealed, which means he was a juvenile when he committed the crime.”

  Their eyes locked as they slowly got to their feet.

  “We should head out there and have a talk with him,” Jared said. “We have to be sure. Even if he’s not guilty, if someone did really see him in the area yesterday afternoon, maybe he witnessed something helpful.”

  “Good point. Let’s get on it.”

  HARPER AND ZANDER SPENT AN hour re-visiting childhood haunts, including visiting the river by their house just in case Zoe was drawn by the water. They came up empty, which was ultimately a relief. Not knowing was terrible, but in this particular case, finding a body would be worse than wondering. Harper had no doubt about that.

  With nothing better to do, Harper decided to play a hunch and visit Ally. It felt invasive, as if she was intruding on the woman’s grief, but she had to at least try and get information from the traumatized mother. If the van turned out to be a dead end, they needed a place to look.

  Ally was forlorn when she answered the door, all traces of energy and life missing from her features. She seemed broken, as if the world had started kicking her and refused to let up. She blinked several times when she realized who was on her porch, and then disappeared inside — leaving the door open — before offering a half-hearted greeting.

  “I guess you can come in.”

  Harper and Zander exchanged a long look, a myriad of emotions passing between them, and then they disappeared inside. This obviously wasn’t going to be a comfortable visit, but they had no choice but to push forward.

  “How are you doing, Ally?” Harper asked as she followed the woman into a messy living room. There were toys from one end to the other, a pink blanket on the couch, and a stuffed bear that looked like he’d seen better days resting on the coffee table.

  “How do you think I’m doing?” Ally asked as she grabbed the bear and threw herself on the couch. “My daughter is missing. My life ... is over.”

  “Don’t say that,” Harper chided, moving to the couch. Even though there were items strewn in every direction — clothes, coloring books, dolls, and dress-up clothes — she did her best to ignore the mess and sat. Zander, on the other hand, was so appalled he decided to stand in the corner and pretend his head wasn’t threatening to implode due to the overwhelming urge to clean.

  “You don’t understand,” Ally said, gripping the bear tighter. “She’s gone. I wasn’t paying attention, and she’s gone. This is my fault. I deserve this.”

  Harper’s heart rolled. “You most certainly don’t deserve this. You didn’t caus
e this, Ally. It’s just one of those things.”

  “I should’ve made her stay with me.” Ally steadfastly avoided eye contact, which Harper recognized as a way to distance herself from her guests. “She doesn’t like being around too many people at once and I thought she would kick up a fuss. That shouldn’t have mattered, though. I should’ve kept her with me.”

  “That will be enough of that,” Zander announced, taking everyone by surprise when he pushed away from the wall and strode toward Ally. “You’re her mother. You’re not doing anyone any good wallowing like this. You’ve got to snap out of it.”

  Hurt flashed hard and fast across Ally’s face. “You don’t know how I feel.”

  “I don’t,” he agreed, bobbing his head. “I have no idea what you’re feeling. I assume it must be crippling doubt for you to be acting this way. The thing is, now is not the time for you to fall apart. If ever you needed to be strong, this is it. Zoe is out there, waiting for you.”

  Ally’s lower lip began trembling. “It’s all my fault.”

  “Then make it up to her.” Zander refused to back down, instead sitting on the coffee table so he could stare directly into Ally’s eyes. He didn’t give her an option to look away. “You need to pull it together, because everyone else is out looking for your daughter.

  “The state police are in town with dogs,” he continued. “Search parties are all over town, looking in every nook and cranny. Jared and Mel are tracking down a van someone saw close to the intersection yesterday afternoon.

  “Everyone else is working themselves to the bone to find your daughter and you’re being a defeatist,” he said. “It’s as if you’ve already resigned yourself to the fact that she’s not coming back. You can’t think that way. You have to be strong for Zoe. You’re her mother. That’s your job.”

  Surprisingly, instead of falling apart further, Ally straightened a bit. “You think I’m being weak, don’t you?”

  “I think you’ve taken a hard blow,” Zander clarified. “I think you’ve been through more than any one person should ever have to go through. You’ve been hit not once, but twice. The first time was when Luke turned on you and abandoned Zoe. The second time is now. You made it through the first time. That means you can make it through the second time.”

  “Do you think?”

  “I know you can.” Zander was firm. “Sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to help matters, though. You need to get up, get showered, and then join in the efforts to find Zoe. Don’t give up until there’s absolutely nothing left to fight for. We’re certainly not there yet.”

  Ally stared into his eyes for a long time. Finally, she slowly got to her feet. “You’re right. I’m being an idiot. I let Shana kill the hope I was building and that was a mistake. I don’t know why I let her tell me how to feel.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Zander beamed, and then sobered. “Wait ... what did Shana say to you?”

  “That it’s easier to let go of hope sometimes. She said she had hope with Chloe, but each year that passed the hope was eroded until it became a little ball of fury in the pit of her stomach and that ball of fury hurt more than the wondering and hoping. Then she joined a support group – and that’s why she came to see me because support is important – and that’s how she moved on.”

  Anger flared to life in Harper. “Listen, no one is saying that Shana hasn’t had it rough. What happened to Chloe was terrible. She shouldn’t be saying things like that to you, though. That’s not fair.”

  “What if she’s right, though? She would know better, wouldn’t she?”

  “I think they’re vastly different scenarios,” Harper said, choosing her words carefully. “Chloe was older, and probably taken by someone with a specific agenda. Zoe is younger. There’s every possibility that someone who is desperate for a child to love simply took her because of the holiday season. We simply don’t know yet.”

  “I guess.” Ally ran a hand through her messy hair and exhaled heavily. “I should probably take a shower, right?”

  “Definitely,” Zander answered immediately. “While you’re doing that, we’ll tackle the house. It needs a bit of a spruce.”

  “Don’t throw anything away. I mean ... Zoe is going to want her stuff when she gets home.”

  “We won’t throw anything away,” Harper promised. “We’re simply going to put it where it belongs. Take a shower, put yourself together, we’ll come up with a plan after that.”

  “Okay. I ... okay.” She offered up a watery smile. “Thank you. I don’t want to give up hope yet.”

  “Then don’t. We all have hope this is going to work out. We need to work together to ensure it.”

  EDWIN DIDN’T RUN WHEN he saw a police cruiser in his driveway. Instead, he stood on his front porch, arms crossed, and stared at the interlopers.

  “Can I help you, officers?”

  “We need to ask you a few questions, Edwin,” Mel replied as he warily walked up the driveway. Edwin didn’t appear as if he was about to become aggressive, but Mel had been on the job long enough to recognize that things could shift quickly.

  “About what?” Edwin queried. “If my neighbor is complaining about the noise again, I apologized. I didn’t realize she could hear the music that far away. I’ve been good since the initial complaint.”

  “We’re not here about the music,” Mel replied. “We’re here about Zoe Mathers.”

  Edwin didn’t look panicked, instead shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know who that is. Is she a neighbor, too?”

  “No, she’s the little girl who went missing in town yesterday.”

  “And you’re here to talk to me about that?” Edwin’s eyes went wide. “I ... why? I didn’t have anything to do with that. If someone said otherwise, they’re lying.”

  “Someone saw your van downtown yesterday,” Jared offered. “We’re trying to tie off loose ends. Can you tell us what you were doing down there?”

  “Sure. As soon as you tell me why you would possibly consider me a suspect in the kidnapping of a kid I’ve never met.”

  “Like I said, we’re trying to tie off loose ends.”

  “Uh-huh.” Edwin didn’t look convinced. “I deliver furniture for the Thompsons out on the highway.”

  “The ones who make the Amish furniture?” Mel asked.

  Edwin nodded. “They’re not technically Amish, but they prefer someone else make the deliveries. It works out well for all concerned because I can’t make furniture.”

  Jared slid his eyes to the van in question. “And the reason for the dogs on the van?”

  “What? You don’t like dogs?”

  Jared waited, his eyes never leaving the man’s face. He was waiting for him to bolt, although Edwin’s relaxed body language pointed toward the opposite.

  “I also help with the mobile vet,” Edwin said after a beat. “I help with animal rescues and adoptions. The van is merely an advertising tool.”

  “There’s no website on it, though,” Mel pointed out. “How is it advertising if people don’t know who you represent?”

  “The lettering for the mobile rescue was wrong so they had to re-order it. It’s due to arrive Tuesday. If you don’t believe me, Darcy at the clinic can vouch for me. Is that all?”

  “Just one more thing.” Jared took a determined step forward. “You’re a level-one sex offender. Can you offer us any insight into the charges levied against you?”

  Understanding dawned on Edwin’s face, and instead of being upset, he barked out a laugh. “Oh, that’s why you’re here. I couldn’t figure it out. That charge is from when I was a teenager. I had to register as a sex offender, even though there was nothing sexual about what happened.”

  “We’d still like to hear it,” Mel pressed.

  “I urinated on the library wall while drunk with friends during my senior year of high school. The mayor happened to see me, and instead of apologizing, I was a moron and mouthed off. The mayor decided to make an example of me .
.. and here we are.”

  “Why not get that expunged?” Jared asked.

  “Because getting a sex offense expunged is virtually impossible,” Mel answered. “That’s why the record was sealed. That’s the best the court can do in the current climate.”

  “Pretty much,” Edwin agreed. “You might not like me — and I don’t blame you if you don’t — but I’m not a kidnapper. I can promise you that.”

  “You were downtown, though,” Jared noted. “Did you see anyone out of place while you were down there? The little girl was in front of the coffee shop. She had on a pink coat and hat.”

  “I don’t think I saw anything out of the ordinary, but I wasn’t really looking,” Edwin said. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what that poor mother is going through. There were people on the streets when I was stopped at the intersection, people shopping. I think you were down there shopping.” He inclined his chin in Jared’s direction. “I only remember because you were with that really loud guy who is always in the gym.”

  “Zander,” Jared supplied helpfully for Mel. “I was with Zander ... and he’s right. I was down there.”

  “I didn’t see a little girl,” Edwin said. “If I did, I would’ve told you. I might not be a perfect man, but I wouldn’t stand by and let a kid be kidnapped and not do anything about it. That’s not who I am.”

  “Okay, well ... I don’t suppose you’d let us search your house just to mark you off the list, would you?” Mel asked. “It would be helpful.”

  “Knock yourself out. I have nothing to hide.”

  Nine

  Harper dressed warmly for the Christmas festival, opting for her blue parka and a matching hat. Even though electric warmers were moved to Main Street, it was Michigan, and winter in the Great Lakes state meant cold weather.

  Jared texted that he would meet her there, so she rode with Shawn and Zander. This was Shawn’s first Christmas festival in Whisper Cove, so he had no idea what to expect.

  “Is there outside square dancing?”

  Zander was insulted by the question. “Do I look like I square dance?”