Ghostly Endeavor (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 19)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “You guys didn’t touch her, did you?”

  Zander shook his head. “We were going to check but ... well ... .”

  “It’s obvious she’s dead,” Jared finished as he knelt next to the body. He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves before touching the woman’s neck. “She’s been out here for a few hours at the very least.”

  “I’m guessing this happened when it was still dark out,” Mel noted. “She likes to run all over town, has a regular jogging route.”

  “She was jogging through the cemetery?” Jared couldn’t fathom that. “Why?”

  “There’s no fence at the back of the property,” Harper pointed out. “The gate at the front is mostly for show. If people really want to come into the cemetery, there’s no stopping them.”

  “Maybe that’s something we should fix,” Jared suggested.

  Harper hesitated and then shook her head. “I don’t like the idea of keeping people away from their loved ones. If someone is having a bad day and needs to talk to their dead mom, I don’t want to be the one to stop them.”

  “Fair enough.” Jared blew out a sigh. “You guys all know her?”

  “Cassie Clifton,” Harper confirmed. “She graduated with Zander and me.”

  “Did you know her well?”

  Harper hesitated and then held out her hands. “I don’t know. I mean ... I think we would have lunch together sometimes. We weren’t especially close or anything. I didn’t dislike her, though. We just didn’t hang out a lot.”

  “Okay.” Jared licked his lips and changed his angle so he could study Cassie’s neck. “She’s got marks on both sides. I think she was strangled.”

  Harper balked. “I thought maybe it was an accident, like she tripped or something when she was jogging. I mean ... she has on her jogging outfit.”

  Confused, Jared switched his eyes to Mel. “I still don’t understand why you would jog through a cemetery.”

  “Cassie was a fitness buff,” Mel explained. “She ran between seven and ten miles a day.”

  “Wow.” Jared shook his head. “I can’t imagine running that much.”

  “She took it seriously,” Mel said. “I think she was serious when it came to running marathons and stuff. She enjoyed it.”

  “That is not my idea of fun.” Jared rolled back on his haunches and focused on Harper. “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “I ... don’t ... know.” Harper searched her memory. “We would run into each other at the store occasionally, or when we were both downtown. We were always friendly and said hi. We didn’t spend a lot of time catching up with one another, though.”

  “And there was no reason for that?” Jared prodded.

  “No. I mean ... we just weren’t close.”

  “There was nothing wrong with her,” Zander explained. “I’m more than enough friend to go around, though. I eat up most of Harper’s time when she’s not working.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Jared grumbled under his breath. “What about you, Mel? Is there anything you can tell me about her?”

  “Just that she was recently divorced,” Mel replied. “Her husband was Chuck Clifton. He also went to school with Harper and Zander. He was on the football team, a quarterback. People thought he might actually be recruited for a college team, but it never happened. That’s almost never a thing in Whisper Cove so it was a big deal.”

  “Right.” Jared rolled his neck and pursed his lips. “I guess we know who to talk to.”

  “I would suggest talking to Luther, too,” Mel volunteered. “Technically this place belonged to him when the death occurred.”

  “He’s in the main office,” Harper volunteered. “He hasn’t packed up all his stuff yet.”

  “Then I guess we’ll start there.” Jared was grim. “Let’s get the medical examiner out here first. We need a time of death.”

  “Yeah, we need to get ahead of this,” Mel agreed. “Everybody in town is going to be buzzing as soon as they hear what happened.”

  Jared knew it was a concern. Whisper Cove was full of gossip. “Medical examiner first. Then we’ll go from there.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  3

  Three

  Even though he was on duty Jared held Harper’s hand for the walk back to the main building once the medical examiner showed up and took control of the scene. He understood that she was upset — anybody could see it — but he also grasped just what this meant in the grand scheme of things. He decided to look at the positives.

  “You guys are going to be famous,” he said as he squeezed her fingers. “Finding a body on your first day of work? That’s legendary.”

  Harper made an attempt at a smile ... and failed. “Yes, it’s going to make things so much easier,” she drawled. “It’s just what we were hoping for.”

  Jared recognized the sarcasm. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t what you wanted.”

  Harper shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have said it that way. I know you were just trying to help.”

  “It was a stupid thing to say,” Jared supplied. “I just don’t like it when you’re sad.”

  “Well, even newlyweds can’t be happy forever,” she noted. “It’s okay. I think the worst part is that we knew her. I’ve spent the last twenty minutes trying to remember when I last saw her and all I can come up with is the winter festival.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Jared released her hand and moved his fingers to the back of her neck so he could start rubbing at the tension there. “Why does that stick out in your mind?”

  “Because Zander and I were eating those huge caramel-covered apples with the sprinkles — you know the ones I’m talking about, right? — and she went out of her way to tell us how many calories and sugar grams we were eating.”

  “It doesn’t count when they’re put on top of an apple,” Zander argued, speaking for the first time since they’d left the body. “The apple cancels out all the sugar.”

  “Yeah, I don’t believe that’s true,” Harper hedged.

  “No, it’s a fact.” Zander was adamant. “I’ve researched it. You can ask anybody.”

  Rather than argue, Harper simply nodded. “I love those apples so I don’t care how many calories are in them.”

  “I remember your face after eating that apple.” Jared smiled at the memory. “I was late meeting you there and you were halfway to an eventual sugar coma when I showed up. You had caramel and sprinkles all over your face.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  He laughed, relieved to be able to alleviate some of the tension that was permeating their group. “I’m always going to be a big fan of sugar. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  Harper nodded and then lowered her eyes. “I was irritated with Cassie when she said what she said. I just wanted to eat my treat in peace. The thing is, she was always obsessed about the fat content of food and she would drop it into regular conversation. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to hang out with her all that often.”

  “There’s nothing more annoying than someone who always has to find the negative in something,” Zander agreed.

  Jared sent a sharp look toward the other man. Zander always found the negative when dealing with a positive. “It sucks when that happens,” he said dryly.

  “Totally.” Zander remained oblivious to Jared’s thoughts. “I still don’t like that she was found on our property. We’re not liable for this, are we?”

  “No,” Mel answered automatically. “You and Harper didn’t close on this place until ten o’clock. Heck, you probably didn’t officially close until it was almost eleven o’clock given all the papers you had to sign. Cassie was dead long before then.”

  “I didn’t hear what the medical examiner said,” Harper interjected. “What was the time of death?”

  “They’re putting it between midnight and seven o’clock right now,” Mel replied. “That’s a broad window they’ll narrow later. It gives us
something to work with, though.”

  Harper blew out a sigh when they reached the front door of the building. “Just as a heads-up, Luther isn’t in the best of moods. If he’s rude, just know that it’s not you. I think he’s still bitter about how things went down with Barbara.”

  Jared nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve dealt with crabby people before.”

  THEY FOUND LUTHER IN WHAT USED TO be his private office. It would soon become the office of GHI. He’d packed up anything of interest into a box and looked to be ready to depart. When he heard footsteps on the floor, he jerked up his head. Instead of a smile, he greeted Jared and Mel with a scowl.

  “Oh, just who I wanted to see on my last day in this craphole town,” he complained, shaking his head. “Are you here to give me a hard time again?”

  “I don’t remember ever giving you a hard time,” Mel countered, his eyes briefly flicking over the box. “Is there a reason you didn’t do this before you were set to close? I mean ... this building no longer belongs to you.”

  “Thanks for the update,” Luther shot back. “That really helps matters. Thanks.”

  “We told him it was okay,” Harper interjected quickly. “He was out of town last week and only flew in late last night. He said he would pack up the stuff in the middle of the night if he had to, but we told him it wasn’t necessary.”

  “You flew in?” Mel’s eyebrows drew together. “Where were you?”

  “I’m moving to Florida,” Luther replied. “I’ve already bought a little place down there. I’m getting out of Michigan. Well, more importantly, I’m getting out of Whisper Cove. This is the last time you’ll be seeing me.”

  “Are you taking Lexie with you?” Jared queried, referring to Luther’s mistress, a young woman who had dollar signs in her eyes when she settled for Luther, and ultimately became disillusioned with how things turned out when Barbara was uncovered as a killer.

  “No, I am not,” Luther replied coldly. “She’s out of my life ... and good riddance.”

  His response was a little too pointed for Harper. “What happened?”

  “Why do you care?” Luther fired back. “You got what you wanted from me. Why should I believe you give a rat’s ass about me now that I’ve served my purpose?”

  “There’s no need to talk to her like that,” Jared shot back. “She didn’t cause this situation. You did that to yourself.”

  “Oh, thank you, Officer Friendly,” Luther snapped. “I’m so glad to get your opinion on things. I’m basically done here, though, so I think I’ll be going.”

  “You’re not done,” Mel countered, stepping in front of Luther so the other man couldn’t leave. “We have something we need to discuss with you.”

  “Well, since I’m no longer a resident of Whisper Cove, I have no idea what that would be,” Luther countered. “I think I’m good.”

  “Do you know Cassie Clifton?” Jared queried.

  Luther’s expression was hard to read. “I ... don’t know. I guess I know her from around town. She’s the one who is always running somewhere, right? That’s probably a metaphor for living in Whisper Cove. Running, constantly, in an attempt to get away. The town does its best to swallow you up whole, though.”

  “We just found her body out by the storage shed,” Harper blurted out. “She’s dead.”

  Luther blinked several times in rapid succession. “I ... don’t know what to say,” he said finally. “That’s sad, I guess. I told her she shouldn’t be jogging through the cemetery, though. Those paths are uneven. I guess that’s your problem now.” He fixed a deranged smile on his face for Harper’s benefit. “Have fun. The dead bodies you keep finding are now your problem.”

  “This one is still your problem,” Jared insisted. “She was killed sometime during the night. You were still the owner of the property then.”

  “Killed?” Luther shook his head. “She probably tripped ... or maybe she had a heart attack. I know people who run for miles on end are supposed to be in great shape, but they’re always the ones you hear about dying at a young age.”

  “She didn’t have a heart attack,” Jared said. “She was strangled. The medical examiner is out there now. He says she was killed between midnight and seven ... and it most certainly wasn’t natural causes.”

  “But ... .” Luther’s face drained of color. “This is how you guys plan to keep me in this town, isn’t it? You thought I was guilty once before. Turned out I wasn’t, but you didn’t care. Now you want to blame me for this.

  “For the record, I barely knew that girl and I certainly didn’t want anything to do with her,” he continued. “You can’t pin this on me.”

  “I’m not saying we believe it’s you.” Jared forced himself to remain calm. He hated Luther’s attitude. In fact, he despised the man from head to toe. He saw him as a user and abuser. That didn’t mean he had motive to kill Cassie. “We just want to know if you stopped in at the cemetery last night when you got into town.”

  “No.” Luther vigorously shook his head. “My flight got in at Metro Airport late last night. I don’t even have a car here any longer. I took an Uber from the airport to the hotel. I checked in around ten o’clock — you can verify it with the front desk — and I went to bed. I was exhausted. Then, when I got up this morning, I came straight to the office and started packing. I didn’t even look at the grounds. There didn’t seem to be a reason.”

  “He was in the middle of packing when we got here,” Harper confirmed.

  Jared nodded. “What about Lexie? I know you said you were no longer together, but would there be a reason for her to try to cause trouble for you before it’s all said and done? That whole thing from a few months ago turned ugly and she got a lot of attention she didn’t likely want.”

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong,” Luther said. “Lexie loves attention. She loves money more. Once she found out I wasn’t going to be nearly as wealthy as she imagined, she cut me loose. She seemed happy to get rid of me.

  “As for my soon-to-be-ex-wife, she’s in the county jail awaiting trial for murder,” he continued. “I’ve already served her with divorce papers. The bulk of our finances are tied up in court, though. There’s no way she could arrange for something like this to happen from behind bars. She doesn’t have the money.”

  Harper stirred. “Barbara wouldn’t do this anyway. She wouldn’t go after an innocent woman just to make you pay.”

  “Um ... isn’t she in jail because she killed another man?” Luther challenged.

  “Yes, but ... she convinced herself she had a reason for that. She wouldn’t just kill Cassie because she was jogging through the cemetery.”

  “I don’t really care why she does anything any longer,” Luther replied. “I just want to be free of her. She’s not important to me ... in the least. That’s why I’m moving to Florida. Nobody there knows about my ex-wife or that little viper who only wanted me because she thought I had money. I can officially be a new man there and nobody will know about my past.”

  “Well, it sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” Jared noted, his tone icy. “You’re cutting ties with everyone and moving on to fresh victims.”

  “Look at it however you want,” Luther fired back. “I didn’t create this situation ... at all. I might’ve made mistakes in my past, but they don’t include what happened to Cassie Clifton. You can’t pin this on me. I just want out of here.”

  Jared worked his jaw. “How long are you going to be in town?”

  “Not one second longer than I have to be. I want out of here.”

  “That wasn’t an answer.”

  “I fly out tomorrow,” Luther replied. “If you plan on trying to keep me here, you’re going to run into a wall of lawyers. I want nothing more than to put this place in my rearview mirror. You can rest assured that I didn’t murder anyone for fun on my way out.”

  Jared might’ve hated the man, but he recognized the truth in his words. “I don’t think Whisper
Cove is going to miss you, Luther. Good travels anyway.”

  “Thanks, but I’m definitely not going to miss this town. I can’t wait to be out of here.”

  AFTER GOING THROUGH THE BUILDING to see if Luther left anything behind — he hadn’t — Jared and Mel offered to take Harper and Zander out to lunch. They settled on Jason’s restaurant because it was clam chowder day and picked a table by the window so they could talk in private.

  “I know you don’t like Luther, Harper, but I don’t believe he has motive or means to have carried out this murder,” Jared said as they sipped their iced teas and perused the specials menu. “He’s a jerk but there’s no benefit to him.”

  “I know.” Harper flicked her eyes to the window, soaking in the beauty of the day. “It would be easier if we could blame Luther, but I don’t see how it fits either. He’s not stupid. Well, I mean, not that stupid.” She offered up a rueful smile when she turned back to him. “He wouldn’t fly back into town, drop a body, and expect nothing to happen to him.”

  “He clearly wants out of Whisper Cove,” Mel noted. “If he’s decided to become a serial killer, something tells me he’ll be doing it in Florida.”

  Jason, who was approaching with clam chowder for everybody, pulled up short. “Who is becoming a serial killer? Is it Shawn? I always wondered how he put up with Zander without snapping.”

  Zander shot the restaurant owner a hateful look. “Keep it up.”

  Jason smirked as he doled out the soup. “That was just a joke by the way. I am curious who is becoming a serial killer, though.”

  “We thought maybe Luther from the cemetery might be having a bad day since we found a body out there this morning, but that turns out to be unlikely,” Jared explained.

  Jason blinked several times as he straightened. “Okay, I’m not an expert or anything, but aren’t there always bodies at the cemetery?”

  It wasn’t an amusing situation, but Harper couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “We don’t normally toss the bodies out by the storage building at the cemetery,” she explained. “They’re usually in caskets when they arrive, not thrown out like trash.”