Ghostly Wedding (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 17)

by Lily Harper Hart

  Lila smirked. “And crafts?”

  “I have an aversion to glue and glitter ever since Zander decided to run for prom queen junior year. I was still finding glitter in weird places a year later. I don’t think I’m crafty either.”

  “Yes, well ... .” Lila slid her eyes to Zander and smirked. “I know your mother. We play cards together once a month.”

  “She might’ve mentioned that,” Zander supplied. “She likes you, says you don’t suffer fools. That’s a pretty important compliment coming from my mother.”

  “I wouldn’t disagree.” Lila dusted off her hands and looked between them. “Tell me why you’re here, and no more lying. I want to know the truth.”

  Harper was debating how to respond when Zander took control of the conversation.

  “A man was hit by a car in Whisper Cove two days ago,” he said. “He was seemingly minding his own business when someone purposely ran him down. We don’t know this person. We did see the accident, though. Then, later that night, he came to Harper in a dream. He told her his name and then mentioned Montgomery Manor. We’re trying to figure out why.”

  Harper’s mouth dropped open. “Good grief, Zander. I can’t believe you just said that.”

  Instead of being incredulous, Lila looked pensive. “I see. That is ... quite the story.”

  “It’s the truth.” Zander was adamant. “We’re trying to figure out what happened to this guy because Harper is getting married in a few days and she’ll obsess about it if we don’t have answers by then.”

  “And you think a conversation with a ghost in a dream means something?” Lila directed the question at Harper.

  “Sometimes a dream is just a dream,” Harper replied. “Sometimes it’s more, though ... at least for me. He was right about his name. We had no way of knowing that until he told me. I just want to know why this happened. I can’t just let it go. That’s not who I am.”

  “Have you dreamed of ghosts before?”

  “Yes. Usually I’m awake when I see them, but lately ... I’ve been able to do more. I don’t know how to explain it. I believe he said ‘Montgomery Manor’ for a reason. When I think about it, all I come up with is your daughter.”

  “My daughter has been gone for a long time.”

  “I know but ... that’s the story that goes along with the property. I mean, there’s nothing else going on around here, right?”

  “Not much of anything,” Lila agreed as she started using pruning shears on her bush. “Penny is my claim to fame. I stopped living once she was gone. Her father, although still alive, was out of our lives when she was a small child. She was all I had and I loved her completely.”

  That was the opening Harper was looking for. “What do you think happened to her?”

  “I think something terrible happened to her. What, though, I can’t say. I’ve come up with a million scenarios over the years and each one is worse than the previous. I don’t like to think about any of them.”

  “But you’re certain she didn’t run away, right?” Harper pressed.

  “She had no reason to run away. While I wasn’t thrilled when she turned up pregnant — she was too young in my book — it was hardly the end of the world. I had money. That meant I could hire help. We had a plan for Penny to continue her schooling. She wouldn’t simply have abandoned that plan.”

  Harper was thoughtful. “And the baby’s father?”

  “She wouldn’t say. I believe it’s likely he’s the one who killed her. No matter how I pushed, she wouldn’t tell me who the father was. She said it wasn’t important. I felt as if she was hiding something but didn’t really feel the need to get to the bottom of things before the baby was born. I believed I had time.”

  Harper had overlooked that possibility. “Could it have been someone older?”

  Lila’s shoulders hopped. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t have believed it, but Penny was sweet — much sweeter than me — and she tended to believe the good in people while overlooking the bad. It’s possible someone older, someone in a position of authority, convinced her that he had her best interests at heart.”

  “And then when she turned up pregnant things shifted,” Harper mused out loud. “Maybe it was a teacher, or a married man who didn’t want to risk his family.”

  “Both of those are possibilities I’ve considered,” Lila confirmed. “I wish I knew. I’m not exactly young. I want to know what happened to my daughter before I die. I’ve stopped thinking that’s a possibility, though. I don’t want to make myself sick over it.”

  “Did your daughter have a relationship with anyone that might’ve made people suspicious?” Zander queried. “Like ... did she have a tutor, or was there some weird guy who gave her rides home from school?”

  “If I’d been aware of anything like that at the time, I would’ve said something. There was nothing. I thought I would be able to get the truth out of her later. That wasn’t the case.”

  “Well, that blows.” Zander made a face. “We were only kids when Penny disappeared, but everybody was talking about it. They seemed to rule out her being a runaway pretty quickly.”

  “Because she had no reason to run,” Lila replied. “We had a plan. Things would’ve been fine. It would’ve been a harder road for her than I would’ve chosen, but it was not the end of the world. I was in a unique position to make sure she still had a chance to make all her dreams come true.”

  “Then the question becomes, who had the most to gain from her disappearing?” Zander said. “I’m sure you’re as curious as we are.”

  “I am,” Lila acknowledged. “I looked up this Peter Humphrey on the internet last night. I can’t see how he would have any knowledge. He sold insurance, for crying out loud. I handled all that stuff for Penny.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t him,” Harper suggested, her mind busy. “Maybe someone confided in him and he felt the need to tell you.”

  Lila’s eyebrows climbed toward her hairline. “Now that is a very interesting possibility.”

  “And it’s one I hadn’t even really considered until now,” Harper admitted. “Maybe he knew for a long time and the guilt ate at him. Maybe he found out only recently and the woman who killed him wanted to shut him up forever because she was either involved or married to someone who was involved.”

  “And how do you think we find out the truth?” Lila asked.

  “We ask the ghost,” Harper replied simply. “He’s the only one who can provide the answers.” Unfortunately for her, Harper had only communicated with Peter in dreams, not the real world. She had to fix that, although she wasn’t entirely certain how she should go about doing it.

  9

  Nine

  Lila called the main house and had a pitcher of iced tea delivered to the pretty bistro table located in the center of the garden. If she was bothered by Zander and Harper invading her home, she didn’t let on. Instead, she grilled Harper on her ability, and seemed legitimately interested rather than dubious.

  “I heard stories about you when you were a teenager,” Lila offered as she leaned back in her chair. “You found a missing child ... and his dead mother.”

  “That was kind of lucky,” Harper admitted. “The mother found me — how she knew to look I can’t say — but she begged me to save the child.”

  “And you did.”

  “I did, but it came at a cost. People kind of freaked out about what I could do. My parents had to field a bunch of calls at the time. People from all over the country — even in other countries, actually — wanted to hire me to find their loves ones.”

  “I didn’t consider that.” Lila was thoughtful. “It makes sense, though. I would imagine the majority of those people were not trying to exploit you. Not knowing is worse than ... well ... anything. They simply wanted closure. It was smart of your parents to keep you insulated, though.”

  “Did you consider trying to enlist me?” Harper was honestly curious.

  Lila hesitated and then nodded. “I did. It was after yo
u found that girl who had gone missing, the one who died. Her car had veered off the road and ended up in a bunch of trees. Search teams couldn’t see it, and there was no way anybody could know she was there.

  “Your parents at the time did their best to protect you,” she continued. “People in town talk a lot, though, and somehow a rumor got out. Somebody said the ghost led you to the car. Other people were laughing and said it was far more likely you were doing something else in the woods and stumbled across the body, but I didn’t believe those rumors.”

  Harper made a face. “What did they think I was doing in the woods?”

  Lila pointed at Zander. “Many people — not me, for the record, because I knew he was gay — but many people believed you two were a couple. The rumor was you went into the woods to party and have sex.”

  Harper was horrified. “I didn’t know that.” She turned to Zander. “Did you know that?”

  “I knew people talked about us,” he hedged. “I wasn’t against it at the time because ... well ... you know.”

  Harper did know. Growing up in a town the size of Whisper Cove wasn’t easy on either of them. The gossip mill was strong in the tiny community and they were both frequent targets. “You just let them think we had sex in the woods?”

  Zander rolled his eyes. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. You know I hate the woods.”

  “Of course that’s the part that bothers you,” Harper muttered under her breath. “Didn’t you think I would want to know? I mean, I was the one everyone thought was loose.”

  “That’s such an old lady way to put it,” Zander countered. “As for telling you, I didn’t see the point. Nobody said much to me. I heard a few whispers. It really didn’t matter. It’s not like it was true.”

  “I knew it wasn’t true because Zander’s mother told me when he was eleven that he was gay. I thought your friendship was adorable, even though I only heard about it in passing from people. Then, when you started showing up in the newspapers more and more, Harper, I followed your activities a little more closely.”

  “And yet you didn’t ask me to look for Penny,” Harper pointed out. “As a local, someone who knows Zander’s mother, I would’ve thought that you would take a shot.”

  “I made ... inquiries,” Lila explained. “I asked if you were for hire. I was more than willing to contribute to your college fund. Your parents, though, were desperate to keep what you could do hidden. I thought about it, how I would feel if the roles were reversed, and decided against bothering you.”

  “The truth is, I rarely find ghosts when I’m looking for them,” Harper volunteered. “I don’t know that your daughter is still around. I think the odds are unlikely, although if she’s hanging in the spot where she was killed and it’s remote, it’s not altogether out of the question.

  “The thing is, without a location to start the search, I would be going in blind,” she continued. “I don’t see her hanging around here right now, for example. Have you ever felt her presence in the house?”

  Lila shook her head. “I would like to say I have — it would be something to keep me going — but I haven’t felt her. Why do you think that is?”

  “Not everybody stays behind as a ghost. Honestly, I don’t have specifics, but I would say ninety-nine percent of people pass over. Even those who die a violent death don’t necessarily stay. The ones that do are almost always confused by what happened to them, or angry, or staying for a specific reason.

  “Like, I met a woman a few weeks ago who can do what I do and she said her mother stayed behind on purpose,” she continued. “She could also see and talk to ghosts and knew a little something about it. She plans to stay until her mother is ready to cross over and then they’ll go together. That’s a rarity, though. Almost every other ghost I’ve talked to has been ripped from his or her life.”

  “That’s how it would be with Penny, right?”

  Harper held out her hands. “I honestly don’t know. We have no way of knowing what Penny was facing. She might’ve been knocked out. She might not have seen it coming. She might’ve been asleep and had no idea she was dying. There are too many variables.”

  Lila let out a sigh. “Ah, well, I guess I was hopeful. You wouldn’t think I would be after all this time, but I still have this dream that I’ll be able to lay her to rest.”

  Harper hesitated and then barreled forward. “Just out of curiosity, after all this time, can’t you have her declared legally dead? Then you could at least have a tombstone and plot in the cemetery.”

  “I could but I don’t. I guess part of me is hopeful she’ll somehow appear someday, like she’s been held captive for almost twenty years and will somehow find her way home. It’s not a realistic dream, but I always imagine her saying ‘you gave up hope’ in that scenario, how hurt she might be at the thought. I don’t want to give up.”

  “I can see that.” Absently, Harper patted the other woman’s hand. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I also can’t make any promises. I will try to talk to Peter Humphrey, though. If he knows something that can help us—” She didn’t finish the statement. It was unnecessary.

  “I’ll be very glad to help in any way that I can if you find a direction to look,” Lila promised. “I know in my heart that she’s gone, but like I said, not having answers is crippling. Whenever I read a story about a girl coming home years after she was taken, it gives me unreasonable hope.”

  “Not unreasonable.” Harper shook her head. “You don’t know what happened. Until we do, it’s okay to hope. You can’t let the opinions of others dictate your life. You do what you need to do.”

  “And what will you do?”

  “Find the ghost. I mentioned before, I think that’s our only shot. I’m not sure how easy it will be, but I’m still going to try. I won’t be able to rest unless I do.”

  “And what if you don’t find him? Will you be able to live without the answers you seek?”

  “I can’t always tie everything up in a neat bow. I always try. Sometimes I fail, though. I learned to live with the failures a long time ago. If I don’t, I’ll be eaten alive and then I won’t be able to help anyone.”

  “Well, I thank you for your candor.” Lila’s smile was hopeful. “I just want to know. If you can help, then I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life.”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Thank you.”

  JARED SPENT THE MORNING GOING over footage from Main Street. Multiple cameras caught the car. None managed to deliver a license plate, and none had a clear view of the driver. The only thing that could be determined was that the driver boasted long blond hair. That was it, and it was nowhere near enough to go on.

  “I set up a search,” Mel announced when Jared returned to their office with fresh coffee from the bakery. “We’re running the car. It’s a red Honda Civic, though. It’s going to take forever to track down the driver that way, likely weeks.”

  “At least it’s something.” Jared delivered Mel his drink and then sat at his desk. “I’ve called every garage within a twenty-mile radius and asked that they contact us if anyone brings in a red Civic with front end damage.”

  “Whoever it is could take the car to another part of the state to get it repaired.”

  “They could,” Jared agreed. “They could also abandon it in the woods or hide it in the garage for the foreseeable future.”

  “Which would be the smart thing to do.” Mel rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know where else to look. We don’t have enough to go on.”

  “We have Montgomery Manor.” Jared slid his partner a sidelong look. “Maybe we should start breaking that down.”

  Mel hesitated and then shook his head. “We have no reason to focus on Montgomery Manor.”

  “Harper says—”

  “Harper had a dream,” Mel insisted.

  “Oh, don’t go there.” Jared made a face. “Harper got actionable information from that dream. If it wasn’t real, how did sh
e manage to deliver Peter Humphrey’s name?”

  “Maybe she heard it on the street.”

  “I think she would remember that.”

  “Unless she was walking down the sidewalk with Zander, heard someone call out the name in the background, and discarded it. Her subconscious might’ve provided the name in her sleep.”

  Jared folded his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “You don’t really believe that.”

  “I think it’s just as possible as a ghost having a conversation with her in a dream.”

  “Except it’s happened before,” Jared pointed out. “With Rain, she managed to figure out what was going on there.”

  “I know.” Mel made a grumbling guy sound and stared at his computer. “I don’t know what to tell you. We have no reason to focus on Montgomery Manor, though. I think stopping there at all made us look like idiots. She’s probably still laughing ... and maybe placing a call to the governor to complain.”

  “She didn’t strike me as a vindictive woman,” Jared argued. “She was more curious than anything. Besides, Harper and Zander are out there traipsing around the property right now. She’s likely got her hands full with them and has completely forgotten about us.”

  “Oh, geez.” Mel slapped his hand to his forehead. “Why did you tell me that?”

  “Because if I have to know, then you have to know, too.”

  “That’s nonsense,” Mel insisted. “They can’t just wander around someone’s private property.”

  “I explained that to Harper.”

  “And?”

  “And she disagrees.”

  “Oh, you’re so whipped.” Mel’s annoyance was on full display. “You’re marrying that woman.”

  “Oh, gee, really? I had no idea.”

  Mel ignored the sarcasm. “You’re marrying her and that means you need to put your foot down. All this crap she and Zander are always doing is not appropriate for the wife of a detective.”

  “I can’t control Zander.”