Ghostly Visions: A Harper Harlow Mystery Books 10-12

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I kept running into him, like it was meant to be or something, and we got to talking,” she continued. “The next thing I knew, he was asking me out. My initial inclination was to say no, but then I thought about Piper. She wouldn’t want me to be sad.”

  “She definitely wouldn’t want that,” Harper agreed. “I remember talking to her at a festival one year. It was a Halloween festival, because the kids were all over me for ghost stories. Anyway, she didn’t want to hear about ghosts. She wanted to know if Zander and I were going to get married. She seemed keen on it.”

  “She always had a crush on Zander,” Kasey supplied, grinning. “I tried explaining why it would never work between them, but she didn’t get it. She wasn’t old enough to get it. Then she got sick and it didn’t seem to matter. Although ... Zander was so sweet. He stopped by the hospital and saw her three times during her last big stay. He was wonderful.”

  Harper was taken aback. “I didn’t know that.”

  “He stopped between jobs or something. He always brought her a gift. I think he knew she had a crush on him.”

  “He never told me.” Harper adopted a far-off expression as she thought about it and then shook her head to dislodge the melancholy. She had plenty of time to question Zander about his actions later. For now, they had to get through this. “I know this might sound like an odd question, but did you spend any time with Jessica Hayden?”

  “No. You mentioned her on the porch, but Jessica and I weren’t close. I mean ... we would wave to each other if we crossed paths. We weren’t unfriendly. We stopped being true friends after graduation, though.”

  “So, you haven’t spent any time with her over the past few months?” Jared queried.

  Kasey shook her head. “No. Is there a reason you suspected I might be spending time with her?”

  “She’s dead,” Harper volunteered, ignoring the incredulous look Jared shot her. “We found her in the park. Zoe Mathers’s hat was in her car.”

  “What?” Kasey was shaking as she sat down in the chair across from the couch. “You think Jessica kidnapped Zoe?”

  “Either that or someone wanted us to believe she did,” Jared replied. “We’re trying to track down every possible angle, including parents who lost children who might be feeling lonely this holiday season.” He blurted it out, feeling like an idiot when her gaze sharpened. “I’m sorry. We just needed to check, and since you went to high school with Jessica ... .”

  “You had to make sure,” Kasey finished his sentence, no signs of anger crossing her pretty features. “I get it. If my child was missing, I would want you to follow every lead, however weak. You can search the house if you want. I don’t have her. I wouldn’t take her.”

  “It’s not that we thought you would take her out of malice,” Harper offered hurriedly. “It’s just ... we thought you might be sad.” She inclined her chin toward the wine glasses. “You’re moving on, though. That’s good.”

  “I don’t know that I would say I’m moving on.”

  “You’re dating. That’s kind of like moving on.”

  “I’ll never forget, or stop asking myself if there was something I could’ve done to save her. I’ll never look at a Christmas tree and not wonder what she would be like this year, how she would’ve grown and matured if she’d lived. I’ll never be able to put that behind me.

  “Still, I can’t spend my entire life shutting myself away from the world,” she continued. “I have to either move forward or live in the past for the rest of my life. I seriously considered living in the past before I sucked it up and realized that I wasn’t doing anyone any favors.

  “I can’t bring Piper back,” she said. “I’m also not done living my life, so I have to force myself to move forward. I’ll never let her go, though. She’ll always be part of whatever life I decide to lead. Her memory looms large in my heart.”

  “I think that’s a smart choice,” Harper said. “It sounds like you’ve been giving it a lot of thought.”

  “Actually, I got that from my support group.” Kasey was rueful. “I would like to take responsibility for coming to this conclusion myself, but they’re the ones who pushed me. They’re the ones giving me strength.”

  “There’s no shame in that.” Harper was firm. “If the group helps, that’s all that matters. That’s the same group Shana is part of, right? I believe she founded it.”

  “She didn’t found it, although she claims responsibility for it,” Kasey countered. “She was also kicked out of the group a few months ago. We couldn’t take her crap any longer.”

  “What crap?” Jared asked.

  “She’s totally crazy. In fact, I think she’s mentally ill. We couldn’t trust her, so we had to cut her loose.”

  “Why couldn’t you trust her?”

  “Because she was coming up with some ridiculous ideas, like removing kids from homes ourselves if we deem the parents aren’t paying enough attention to the kids. It was totally wacky stuff.”

  Harper and Jared exchanged a weighted look.

  “Tell me about it,” Jared said finally. “And, please, don’t leave anything out.”

  Seventeen

  “She’s just ... mental,” Kasey explained. If she thought it was weird for Jared and Harper to change the topic of conversation to Shana, she didn’t show it. “I mean, she’s all over the place. It was supposed to be a group where everyone got to talk about losing their child, but she took over each and every time, to the point where no one else could get a word in edgewise.”

  “What kind of group was it?” Jared asked.

  “It’s for bereaved parents. The only stipulation for membership is losing a child. It doesn’t matter if the child was murdered, died of natural causes, or was an adult when they passed.”

  “And Shana took over the group?” Harper pressed.

  Kasey nodded. “I think it must have been legitimately harder for her because Chloe disappeared and there’s no way of knowing what happened to her. Her membership wasn’t initially a problem because odds are Chloe is dead, and Shana has obviously grieved. She made it a problem, though.”

  “Can you expand on that?” Jared prodded.

  “I guess. Basically, she made everything about her. She told Chloe’s story over and over, which is normal, but she refused to let others talk. She basically acted as if she was the only one suffering.

  “In addition to that, she lied all the time,” she continued. “She told wild stories about the FBI wanting to recruit her to be a profiler because she knew a lot about the criminal mind thanks to Chloe’s disappearance. Of course, that didn’t make any sense.

  “That was on top of the fact that she would melt down if people didn’t give her constant praise,” she said. “When she would bring cookies to our meetings, she would get upset if people didn’t tell her how good they were. One time, Helen Moffet brought cookies and everyone raved about them and Shana basically melted down.”

  Harper pursed her lips. “Did anyone ever call her on her behavior?”

  “A few of us did. That just made things worse. She accused us of being jealous and painted herself as a victim. It got to be more and more uncomfortable, to the point where no one wanted to keep attending group if she was going to be part of it.”

  “She sounds like she has Narcissistic Personality Disorder,” Jared mused, stroking his chin.

  “You’re not the first person who has said that,” Shana admitted. “We have a therapist in the group and that’s exactly what she said.”

  “How did Shana take it when you booted her from the group?” Jared asked, his mind racing. “And go back to that thing where she had the idea of stealing children.”

  “Well, that was essentially the last straw,” Kasey admitted. “She put together folders for everyone — I’m not kidding — and they were basically how-to guides for identifying children who were being neglected.

  “The thing is, she seemed to think a child was being neglected if he or she went to the park without a
parent — we’re talking about ten-year-olds here — or if a child played in a yard alone,” she continued. “The things in that packet were outrageous.”

  “I’m assuming you called her on it,” Jared prodded.

  Kasey bobbed her head. “Of course we did. No one was going to agree to kidnap children. She said it wasn’t kidnapping, rather that it was saving the children. She got really weird, to the point where we simply asked her to leave because we were uncomfortable.”

  “And how did she take that?”

  “She freaked out. She said we couldn’t have the group without her because she founded it. That wasn’t true, by the way. The group was in operation years before she joined. She said that we couldn’t keep her group and that we were trying to steal from her and stealing wasn’t allowed. She was ranting and raving so loudly I thought someone would call the police.”

  “How did that end?” Harper asked.

  “She basically stormed out of the group when she realized we weren’t going to change our minds,” Kasey replied. “She hasn’t spoken to any of us since, at least to my knowledge.”

  “Well, that’s interesting,” Jared mused.

  “Especially since she said she was working on behalf of a support group when she started hanging around Ally,” Harper added, earning a curious stare from Jared. “That’s what Ally told me. In fact, Ally also told me that Shana was telling her to let Zoe go even though she’s only been missing for a few days.”

  “You didn’t mention that,” Jared said. “Why didn’t you tell me about that?”

  “Because Ally is messed up, and when I asked Shana about it, she said that wasn’t remotely what she said to Ally,” Harper replied. “How was I to know that Shana was probably lying? I don’t know her all that well and she seemed perfectly rational.”

  “What if she’s not, though?” Jared was thoughtful as he got to his feet. “What if Shana is the one who took Zoe? She might’ve made an enticing target because she was alone in front of the coffee shop.”

  “Still, that was a gutsy move,” Harper argued. “She could’ve been caught.”

  “Maybe she didn’t care in the moment. Maybe she decided that she needed a child to take the place of her lost one and Zoe fit the bill.”

  Kasey held up her hand to get their attention. “Listen, I don’t want to get Shana in trouble if she’s innocent or anything. I feel kind of bad that you’re looking at her.”

  “You won’t feel bad if we find Zoe and she’s okay,” Jared said, gesturing for Harper to move toward the door. “We thank you very much for your time, Kasey. We’re sorry for bothering you. Have a good time on your date.”

  Kasey was incredulous. “That’s it? You’re not going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “We don’t know what’s going on yet,” Harper replied as Kasey followed them to the front door. “You might have given us a very valuable clue, though. You have no idea how thankful we are for it.”

  “Okay, well, keep me posted.”

  “We’ll definitely do that,” Jared promised. “You’ve earned an update or two.”

  THE HOUSE WAS BUZZING with activity when Jared and Harper returned. At first, because they weren’t gone very long, everyone was upset. They assumed the trip had been a waste of time. Then Harper explained what Kasey had told them about Shana, and the entire room broke into pandemonium.

  “You can’t be serious.” Zander was aghast. “You think Shana is behind it? But ... she’s like the go-to person for missing children in the area. She can’t be a kidnapper.”

  “Maybe that’s exactly why she’s a kidnapper,” Jared offered, grabbing his phone from his pocket and striding toward the bedroom. “I’m going to try and get a warrant. Fill them in, Heart. Hopefully we’ll be able to move on this tonight.”

  Harper nodded as she watched him go, thoughtful.

  “He calls you ‘Heart,’ huh?” Pam’s amusement was obvious. “I thought I heard him say it earlier, but I wasn’t sure because we were in the restaurant and everyone was talking at once. That is the most adorable thing ever.”

  Harper’s cheeks burned under Pam’s scrutiny. “It’s just something he started doing.”

  “That made Harper go gushy,” Zander teased, poking her stomach before sobering. “Seriously, though, do you really think it could be Shana?”

  Harper held her hands palms out and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve always thought she was a little off, but I convinced myself it was because she was trapped in a state of perpetual grief. The things Kasey told us were ... weird.”

  For lack of anything better to do, Harper launched into the tale. When she was done, everyone was rapt.

  “Wow,” Shawn said finally. “That sounds odd. Did you know that about her? I mean ... that she was a narcissist.”

  “I don’t know her well enough to make a clinical diagnosis,” Harper replied drily. “Seriously, I’ve only ever seen her around town and at gatherings. I’ve barely talked to her. Although ... .” She trailed off, something occurring to her.

  “I know exactly what you’re thinking,” Zander surmised. “She came around after Quinn disappeared. She wanted to sit with you, offer prayers and a shoulder to cry on. You were a mess and your mother chased her away.

  “We weren’t living in this house at the time,” he continued. “We were in apartments. We didn’t move in together until months later, when I was certain you wouldn’t come out of your funk without an intervention.”

  “And you definitely got me out of my funk.” Harper graced him with a heartfelt smile. “You were the one who saved me from the self-doubt.”

  “Yes, I’m a hero,” Zander agreed. “I remember thinking it was weird the night Shana showed up, though. Quinn wasn’t your child, so I didn’t know how she expected to help. She kept claiming she had expertise to give. I was so worried about you, though, that I couldn’t focus on her. Now I’m suspicious.”

  “Yes, well, that makes two of us.” Harper chewed on her bottom lip. “Shana went out of her way to ‘help’ Ally. She told her to move on. When I questioned her about saying that to Ally, she denied it, said Ally was making it up. What if Ally wasn’t making it up, though? What if that’s part of Shana’s game?”

  “How would that be part of it?” Shawn asked.

  “If Shana really is a narcissist — and from the things Kasey said, it sounds entirely possible — then she would get off on manipulating the emotions of others,” Harper explained. “I’m not an expert on personality disorders, but narcissism is an ugly one. Shana is definitely an attention whore.”

  “I always thought she was that way because she needed a hard outer shell to ease the pain she was feeling inside,” Zander said. “Maybe it started that way and she somehow turned into another person. I mean ... people do strange things when they’re grieving, right?”

  Harper nodded, her mind busy. “I can’t remember her before Chloe disappeared. I just remember seeing her everywhere — on television, in the newspapers, on the radio — in the aftermath. Chloe’s disappearance shook everyone because, before that, we assumed Whisper Cove was a safe place.”

  “Whisper Cove is a safe place,” Zander said. “No place is without danger, though. That’s impossible in this day and age.”

  “I think it was always impossible,” Shawn offered. “We just didn’t hear the stories back in the day because there was no internet to disseminate them.”

  “That’s probably true,” Pam agreed. “Do you think Jared will get a warrant?”

  Jared returned from the bedroom before Harper could answer and she turned to him with hope in her eyes. It was quickly dashed.

  “The judge says we don’t have enough for a warrant,” Jared volunteered, grim. “I tried arguing with him, explaining the nature of the situation, but we need more to go on.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” Harper asked.

  “I’m going to stakeout Shana’s home. Maybe I’ll be able to see Zoe through the window or something. That would
be enough to enter the house without a warrant. It would be just cause.”

  “Do you think she would be stupid enough to allow Zoe near the windows?”

  “No, but I can’t do nothing.”

  Harper took in the serious set of his jaw and nodded. “Well, then I’ll go with you.”

  “No.” He immediately began shaking his head. “That’s not necessary. It’s cold out. I’ll be there half the night. Mel is going to relieve me after midnight.”

  “I want to be with you.” Harper was firm. “Zander and Shawn will entertain your mother and make sure there’s pot roast for us when we get back. Isn’t that right?”

  “I guess.” Zander didn’t look thrilled with the prospect. “I think you should stay here with us and eat the pot roast now. You’re not a cop.”

  “No, but maybe Jessica will be at Shana’s house,” Harper pointed out. “Maybe she’ll remember what happened to her and give us something that leads to the evidence we need. That’s a chance I’m not willing to pass up.”

  Zander let loose an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. I’ll save some pot roast for you. Just make sure you actually watch the house for signs of Zoe and don’t spend the entire night fogging up the windows.”

  “Why would you care how foggy the windows get?” Jared asked.

  “Because car sex is gauche.”

  Jared smirked. “Good to know. I don’t think you have to worry about that, though. I’m determined to find Zoe before Christmas. This just ... feels right. I think we’re going to find the answers we need this time.”

  Harper hoped he was right.

  “I’VE NEVER BEEN ON a stakeout before,” Harper said as she glanced out the window and stared at Shana’s house. Jared picked a spot on the street that was hidden by a thick cropping of trees. They could see the windows of the house clearly, but it would be difficult for Shana to see them thanks to the darkness.