Wicked Wishes (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 10)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I wasn’t doing anything.”

  “You were,” Jack shot back, frustrated. “You were spying on us, although I can’t for the life of me figure out why you thought that would be a good idea.”

  “I wasn’t spying.” Holly refused to back down. “I simply wanted to see you.”

  “Then why not knock on the door?” Brian challenged. “Why go through the trouble to look through the window rather than announce yourself? You weren’t going to have a conversation through the walls, so why were you spying?”

  “Stop saying ‘spying’ like that.” Holly crossed her arms over her chest. Jack got some satisfaction in the fact that her hair was a mess because she’d been kept from a hairbrush during her incarceration. The woman sitting in front of him looked nothing like the fashion plate Holly always tried to hold herself up as.

  “I wasn’t spying,” she repeated. “I just … I heard you inside when I was on the porch and I didn’t want to talk to Ivy because she’s so … stupid. I wanted to wait until you were alone.”

  “And what good would that have done you?” Jack asked.

  “I … .”

  “I think I can answer that one for her,” Brian said. “She heard you inside, looked through the window, and was stunned to see whatever gooey thing you and Ivy were doing. You mentioned a picnic. I’m going to guess that means you were petting one another while spouting absolute nonsense that would make a normal person want to lose his or her lunch.”

  Holly’s eyes widened. “Were you there, too?”

  Brian shook his head. “No, but I’ve watched them together for almost a year now. They’re ridiculous.”

  Jack slanted his eyes as he internally debated Brian’s tack. He understood his partner was trying to get Holly to confide in him, but it seemed like an odd way to go about it. Still, Brian had been at this a long time. Jack knew the older detective was good at his job so he decided to let things play out.

  “I don’t understand how this happened,” Holly groused, twisting her fingers together as she rested her elbows on the table. “This is not how I thought things would go when I approached Jack with an offer to get back together.”

  “And how did you think things would go?” Brian asked gently. “Did you think Jack would drop to his knees, thank his lucky stars that you were back and wanted to be in his life, and throw over Ivy as if she was yesterday’s news and forget all about her?”

  “Something like that.”

  “And why would you possibly think that?” Brian pressed. “More importantly, why did you decide after a year and a half of no contact that you suddenly wanted Jack back?”

  “I … you … it … there’s no easy way to explain it.” Holly stumbled over her words. “I’ve always loved Jack.”

  “You have not.” Jack refused to listen to Holly spin their history. “We barely liked each other. You wanted to date me so you could say you had a boyfriend if the need arose and I wanted to date you because … well … I knew you wouldn’t ask for more than I could give.”

  “Yes, and I put up with it because I thought you were limited for everyone, not just me,” Holly fired back. “Then it turns out you were only limited for me because you were open and giving to a freaking country bumpkin with pink hair. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Jack had no idea how to answer. “I don’t know. How is it supposed to make you feel? We weren’t in love.”

  “I don’t care about love. I never cared about love. We were supposed to stay together until you realized that I was your best option for moving forward. Then you were going to buy me a beautiful ring and we were going to get married.”

  Jack was dumbfounded. “We were going to get married even though we didn’t love each other?”

  Holly narrowed her eyes. “You talk a lot about love and yet it’s a word you never mentioned even once over the course of the two years we spent together.”

  “That’s because I didn’t love you!” Jack practically exploded. “I didn’t even like you.”

  “Like has nothing to do with it.” Holly squared her shoulders. “Eventually we were supposed to come to the same mutual conclusion … that we should get married. The was the plan. I even had a date programmed into my phone for when I would start pressuring you to see things my way if you didn’t figure it out on your own.”

  Jack’s mouth dropped open. “I. Can’t. Even.”

  Brian snickered as he rubbed his forehead. “You have a knack, don’t you, Jack? You make women crazy. What is it? Do you wear a special musk or something?”

  Jack scowled. “No, and I don’t make women crazy. Ivy isn’t crazy.”

  “She has pink hair!” Holly barked.

  “Why are you so fixated on her hair?” Jack growled. “That’s all you’ve talked about since you got here. Her hair is beautiful. I like the pink streaks. Why can’t you let it go?”

  “Because you’re you,” Holly spat. “You’re the sort of guy who wears regular blue jeans – no enhancements or fancy washes – with black T-shirts and a simple coat. You don’t date women with pink hair.”

  Jack leaned back in his chair as he tugged on his limited patience. “You’re right,” he said after a beat. “I don’t date women with pink hair. I don’t so much as look at women with pink hair. I believed that right up until I met Ivy … and then I fell completely in love with a woman who has pink hair.

  “You don’t get it, Holly, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not explaining it correctly or you’re being purposely dense,” he continued. “I didn’t come here to find Ivy. I came here because I needed to get away from the city. I wasn’t running toward Ivy as much as I was running away from a life that no longer fit me.”

  “You could’ve brought me with you.” Holly was stubborn. “I could’ve come and we could’ve made a go of it here until you were ready to return to the city. I wouldn’t have liked it but we could’ve made it work.”

  Jack’s sigh was bitter. “No, we couldn’t make it work. I didn’t want you with me. I made that apparent when I broke up with you, which was two months before you showed up in the hospital and tried to force me to your way of thinking. I didn’t want to spend my life with you then and I certainly don’t want to do it now.”

  “Because of Ivy.”

  “Because of so many things, although Ivy is the biggest factor,” Jack conceded. “I don’t think you can understand until you’re in the situation yourself, Holly. I didn’t choose Ivy as much as we found each other. She’s … well, she’s my miracle.” Jack knew it sounded hokey, but he didn’t care. “I wasn’t looking for her and yet I couldn’t stay away. I knew almost instantly that there was something different about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on what that something was.”

  “She has pink hair,” Holly groused, making a face.

  Jack ignored the dig and Holly’s tone. “I tried to fight it, but it was a losing battle. I love Ivy. I’m always going to love Ivy. We belong together. I don’t know why you can’t see that.”

  “Because I don’t happen to believe in love,” Holly replied matter-of-factly. “I think it’s some chemical thing that people’s brains trick them into believing. You’re a smart guy, though, Jack. You’re pragmatic and reasonable. What are you going to do when you become bored with this place? It will be too late. You’ll be saddled with a wife and unable to leave. I don’t want that for you.”

  “You’re so full of crap I need a plunger to get through this interview,” Brian announced, taking Holly and Jack by surprise. “I mean … do you actually believe the stuff you spout or is it all an act? I can’t be certain when I look at you. Part of me thinks you’re so delusional that you convince yourself this stuff is actually true and the other part thinks you’re smart enough to realize that everything you say is total bupkis.”

  “I’m not making it up.” Holly adopted an air of innocence. “It’s the truth. Apparently I’m the only one who can see it.”

  “I don’t really care what you can
and cannot see,” Jack intoned. “You’re not my problem and there’s nothing for you here. I know about your financial problems. I know you’re desperate to find someone to dig you out of them. I’m a little confused why you thought I could do it on a cop’s salary, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  “You have money,” Holly argued. “I know you do. You sold that house in St. Clair Shores and the cost of living is so much lower up here. Your mother said you were doing well and moving in with your girlfriend. That means you don’t have to pay rent or anything, which means you have money.”

  Jack worked overtime to keep from spewing a volcano’s worth of verbal lava all over Holly. She was more sad and pathetic than anything, he reminded himself. She was a bitter woman with no hope or love in her life. That was to be pitied, not hated.

  “I don’t have money.” Jack decided to approach Holly on a level she would understand. “I had money after the sale of my house, but I funneled all of it into the renovations at Ivy’s house. That’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives – and it’s small – so we needed to update the basement. That wasn’t a cheap project.”

  Holly worked her jaw. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  “But … why would you possibly put your money into that house when it’s not yours? That makes no sense.”

  “It is my house,” Jack countered. “I live there. I share a life with Ivy there. In a few months, although we haven’t set a date yet, we’re going to get married and then we’re going to spend the rest of our lives in that house.”

  “But what happens when you return to the city?”

  “I’m not returning to the city.” Jack was adamant. “I have no interest in returning to the city. I’ve always hated the freaking city. Sure, I thought I wanted to be part of a heavier crime beat, but it turns out I didn’t want that at all. I like investigating crimes, but I absolutely hated the life I was living in the city, and I disliked it even before I was shot.”

  “But … .” Holly looked as if her entire worldview was crumbling. “That’s not going to work for me.”

  “I don’t really care if it works for you or not. You’re not my priority. Ivy is my priority.”

  “And Ivy is why you’re here right now,” Brian added. “We need to know if you decided to reclaim Jack by more aggressive means.”

  Holly wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

  “A woman was shot in my driveway,” Jack reminded her. “She was minding her own business, walking up to the house so she could take some measurements, and she was shot. We have two theories going, and you play into one of them.”

  “You think I shot your designer?” Holly’s eyes widened to saucer-like proportions. “Why would I possibly do that?”

  “The prevailing theory is that you thought she was Ivy.”

  “Does she have pink hair?”

  “No.”

  “Then I’m pretty sure I would’ve realized she wasn’t Ivy,” Holly pointed out. “Why would I want to kill Ivy anyway? That would just martyr her in your mind and make you less likely to move on with me. That’s counterproductive to what I want.”

  Jack stared at her for a very long time, his mind jumbled. Finally, he turned to Brian. “I hate to say it because she’s such a terrible person, but I simply don’t think murder is in her wheelhouse. She’s too vapid to care about someone else enough to kill.”

  “I agree.” Brian’s expression was thoughtful. “She doesn’t have the money to hire a professional. I guess she could’ve offered up sexual services to get it done, but she doesn’t seem the type to do that.”

  Holly was horrified. “I will sue you for saying anything of the sort!”

  Brian rolled his eyes until they landed on Jack. “I don’t think it’s her. I don’t think she’s balanced by any stretch of the imagination, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s her.”

  “No,” Jack agreed. “She’s not interested in hurting Ivy just to hurt her. In fact, she doesn’t care about Ivy other than to obsess about her hair and fixate on what I see in Ivy. She’s angry at Ivy because she thinks Ivy is keeping her from money, but that’s the extent of it.

  “Whoever killed Shannon was filled with rage,” he continued. “Ivy confirmed that with her special … um … gift.”

  Brian nodded, understanding. “I believed rage was at the center of this from the beginning because of the second shot. Whoever it was moved close enough to Shannon that she could see her killer. I think that was on purpose.”

  “Which leads us back to the supposition that Shannon really was the intended victim despite the fact that she was killed in our driveway,” Jack noted. “We’ve been splitting our investigative efforts because we were worried Ivy was the target. I don’t think she was.”

  “No, but she could be a target now,” Brian pointed out. “I’m sure gossip has made the rounds and the town is probably talking about the possibility of Shannon dying in Ivy’s place. What if our killer has figured that out, too?”

  Jack’s stomach somersaulted. “Then the killer might go after Ivy to shift suspicion in a completely different direction.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And Ivy might be in trouble.”

  Brian hesitated. “She’s at the nursery. I’m sure she’s fine.”

  “I’m going to call her to make sure.”

  “Of course you are.” Brian shook his head. “Try not to get too mushy on the phone. We need to take another look at the people in Shannon’s life. I think we missed something.”

  “I think we did, too.”

  Holly glanced between the two men, expectant. “Does that mean I’m free to go?”

  “Oh, no.” Brian wagged a finger and clucked. “You’re getting charged with trespassing.”

  Holly was affronted. “But why?”

  “Because you strike me as the sort of person who won’t learn unless there are repercussions.”

  “You’ve got that right,” Jack muttered. “Charge her and hand her over to the prosecutor. Let him worry about bail and the judge.”

  Brian bobbed his head. “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  “I’m going to sue you guys three times over,” Holly screeched.

  “Well, at least you’ll have something to think about while you’re in the cell waiting for the prosecutor,” Brian offered. “That should brighten your day. No one likes being bored.”

  Eighteen

  Ivy was lost in thought as she moved her work outside. It was a nice day – especially for so early in the spring – and she wanted to take advantage of the weather to get ahead on her clean-up efforts.

  Jack and Max offered to help when it came time to mow and cut back weeds, but before then she needed to wipe down the front booth and check the other greenhouses to make sure everything was in order. The larger greenhouses were for when the sprouts took hold and needed to be transplanted to bigger pots. That’s also where customers ultimately selected their purchases. That meant those greenhouses had to be clean, which is what Ivy opted to tackle now.

  She hummed to herself as she swept the floor, swinging her hips as music only she could hear played in her head. It didn’t take long until she realized it was an old song that she had stuck in her head, one Max often belted out when he was a teenager. It was by Poison and the lyrics mentioned something about talking dirty and cellar doors.

  Ivy was so lost in thought she didn’t notice the dark figure watching her from the open expanse in front of the greenhouse. The individual in question didn’t even attempt to hide. Instead, eyes filled with mayhem, the figure watched … and stared … and plotted.

  A plan was starting to form, and it wasn’t a good one.

  “DOES THE PROSECUTOR have Holly under control?” Brian asked as he delivered a fresh cup of coffee to Jack’s desk.

  Jack nodded, never moving his eyes from the computer screen. “His office assistants picked her up twenty minutes ago. She was still t
hreatening lawsuits and the like as they dragged her out the door.”

  “Are you worried she’ll come back once she’s released? There’s no way a judge is going to keep her behind bars for a simple trespassing charge.”

  “Probably not,” Jack agreed. “She might not be able to make bail, though. That’s how broke she is. As for being worried that she’ll come back, I’m over it. She can’t hurt us unless we let her and I have no intention of allowing that to happen. If we ignore her, she’ll go away.”

  “She could put up a fuss before that happens.”

  “I really don’t care. If she gets her jollies by spying on us she’s going to get nothing but a schmaltz overdose. She won’t last long under those conditions. Ivy knows she’s trying to cause problems between us. She won’t let it happen either. We’re good.”

  “I’m glad you’re so confident in your relationship with Ivy.” Brian meant it. “A few months ago I’m not sure you would’ve felt the same way. You guys are strong, though, and you’ve managed to muddle through the hard part.”

  “You mean the part where she got shot and I ran away like a petrified child?”

  “That was definitely the hard part.”

  “We’re over it,” Jack agreed. “I still feel a bit of guilt about it, but we’re fine. What I want to focus on now is Shannon’s death. I can’t help but wonder if we wouldn’t have already put this one to bed if it weren’t for Holly showing up and costing us time.”

  “Yeah, she definitely picked the worst time ever to play her games,” Brian agreed, sitting at his desk. “I think we need to go through everyone’s alibis a second time. Did you get the phone records for everyone involved?”

  “I did and I’m sifting through them right now.”

  “Who are you working on?”

  “Victor.”

  “Okay. I’ll take Priestley. Let’s see if we can find anything of interest.”