“I didn’t say she was hurting anything,” Mel clarified. “I simply think it’s adorable that you brought her to work with you.”
“Oh, whatever.” Jared made an exasperated face as he shifted his eyes to Harper. “Mel says there is no case so we can be done. You don’t have to keep looking if you don’t want to, Heart.”
“Okay.” Harper remained focused on the deck, tapping her finger against her chin as she studied something only she could see.
“Did you hear me?” Jared probed.
“I heard you.”
“Are you going to listen to me?”
“Probably not.”
Jared heaved out a sigh as he moved in her direction, the sun poking through the clouds and bringing wisps of heat and humidity with it. “I think we should send in a clean-up crew and be done with it. Are you ready for the lunch you promised me?”
“Yeah.” Harper dragged her eyes from the deck and stared at him. “There’s just one thing.”
“What?”
“If nothing happened on this boat and it was an accident, why are there bullet holes in the deck?”
Jared stilled, dumbfounded. “Are serious?”
“See for yourself.”
“HOW DID you know those were bullet holes?” Jared remained calm as he sipped his iced tea and leaned back in his chair. After looking at the holes Harper noticed on the deck, Jared and Mel were both convinced she was right and called in a state police forensic team to look over the boat. Mel remained on the beach until they arrived and then followed Jared and Harper upstairs so they could enjoy lunch as a group.
“Because this isn’t my first rodeo,” Harper teased, sucking down half of her lemonade before coming up for a gasping breath. “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was.”
“Yeah, the humidity really takes it out of you,” Mel said, eyeing the shoes Harper held in her hands. “Are those your shoes?”
“No, I generally wander around the beach and look for shoes so I can steal them,” Harper deadpanned, wrinkling her nose. “Yes, they’re my shoes. I kicked them under the stairs last night because I knew I would slip if I tried to wear them while climbing on the rocks.”
“They actually look as if they’re okay,” Jared noted, eyeing the blue heels with muted interest. “Did you get lucky?”
“I got lucky the moment I met you,” Harper teased, poking his cheek. Despite finding bullet holes that couldn’t easily be explained away, her mood brightened considerably once she found the shoes and realized they weren’t ruined. “At least I didn’t throw five hundred bucks out the window for nothing, huh?”
“Five hundred dollars?” Mel sputtered, choking on his iced tea. “You spent that much on one pair of shoes? I don’t think all of my shoes together cost that much.”
Harper shot a derisive look toward his Reeboks. “You don’t say.”
Jared grinned as he grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m glad the shoes are okay. I don’t understand why you spent that much on them because you’re so beautiful you overshadow every pair of shoes ever made, but I’m glad they’re okay because it makes you happy.”
“Oh, that was so sappy I might throw up,” Mel complained, rolling his eyes.
“You can’t throw up until after you eat.” Jason Thurman, the restaurant’s owner, appeared at the edge of the table. His eyes twinkled as his gaze bounced from face to face. “Speaking of meals, we’re having a special on lobster because it was ordered for the party last night and no one got to eat it because of the boat catastrophe. I’m essentially swimming in lobster so it’s your lucky day.”
“How special is special?” Harper asked, curious.
“For you? Ten bucks.”
“How about for me?” Jared questioned. His relationship with Jason wasn’t always easy – especially since Jason went out of his way to flirt with Harper whenever the chance arose – but the two men did their best to find common ground for Harper’s benefit.
“The same for you and Mel,” Jason replied. “I need to unload this lobster and I hate to waste it.”
“Lobster sounds good to me.” Harper closed her menu and handed it to Jason.
“Me, too,” Jared said, following suit.
“You might as well make it three.” Mel used the back of his hand to wipe his forehead. “By the way, Jason, you haven’t had anyone showing interest in the boat, have you?”
Harper knit her eyebrows as she regarded Mel, surprised. “Why are you asking that?”
Mel ignored her and remained focused on Jason. “You haven’t seen anyone poking around the wreckage, have you?”
If he was surprised by the question, Jason didn’t show it. “I haven’t been looking all that closely, but everyone seems to be respecting the police line. Is there a reason why anyone would be trying to get on that boat? It’s a total loss.”
“Ha!” Jared perked up as he aimed a finger at Harper. “I told you that boat was toast.”
“I still think that they simply need to replace that section of the hull,” Harper argued. “It doesn’t matter, though. Now that we know there are bullet holes on the deck it’s going to be stripped from top to bottom by the state police techs and it will be a lost cause once they’re done with it.”
“Bullet holes?” Jason’s eyebrows winged up. “Someone fired a gun on that ship? I thought that was a no-no.”
“It’s pretty much a no-no to fire a gun anywhere that doesn’t involve a range or the woods,” Jared clarified, smirking. “As for the bullet holes, that’s supposed to be a secret.”
Harper had the grace to look abashed. “Oh, whoops. Sorry.”
“Yes. Whoops. Sorry.” Jared adopted an adorable expression as he imitated Harper and shook his head. “We don’t know what’s going on right now, but if you see someone poking around that boat, tell us.”
“The state police are down there right now,” Jason pointed out. “There will probably be nothing left by the time they’re done.”
“That’s a distinct possibility,” Jared agreed.
“All I’ve seen so far is interested looky-loos from the area,” Jason added. “A lot of people are still without power thanks to the storm and the most interesting thing for a lot of them to do is check out the wrecked boat on the beach.”
“Speaking of that, you don’t know anyone named Jack, do you?” Harper asked the question without giving it a lot of thought.
“I know a lot of people named Jack,” Jason replied, confused. “Is that a trick question?”
“Heart, Jack is a common name,” Jared reminded her. “I know the girl said she was convinced someone named Jack was on the boat, but I’m not sure that’s true.”
“You saw the bullet holes,” Harper challenged. “Someone else was clearly on that boat.”
“Unless Chad and Jessica Reiter were fighting and the thing they’re trying to cover up is their own culpability in this mess,” Jared hedged. “We don’t know what’s going on.”
“I believe Hayley heard what she said she heard,” Harper argued. “Someone named Jack was on the boat.”
“Was it during the storm?” Jason asked, taking everyone by surprise with his unveiled interest.
“She said it was right before the storm,” Harper replied. “She heard the argument and then the thunder started right away.”
“And you’re sure she said Jack?” Jason pressed.
Harper nodded.
“Well, this might seem odd, but I guess I’ll throw it out there anyway since I happen to be talking to the queen of ghosts,” Jason teased, winking. “Do you guys know Andrew Farmer?”
Jared shook his head. “Should I?”
“He’s an old-timer,” Mel supplied, bobbing his head. “He’s like eighty-five or something. He’s been retired forever and he spends the entire summer fishing. He knows every inch of the lake, and if he doesn’t know it, it’s not worth knowing.”
“That’s him.” Jason beamed. “He comes in here at least three times a week for soup
and breadsticks. I don’t pay him a lot of attention because he’s crabby. The other day, though, I happened to hear him talking to one of the other fishermen.”
“And we care about this why?” Jared asked.
“Because he was talking about Jack Corgan,” Jason replied, not missing a beat. “I forgot all about that story until he brought it up and he was dead serious when he said that Jack Corgan was hanging around the lake. Now, a few days later you guys are looking for a guy named Jack. I thought the two instances might be related.”
Jared made an exasperated face. “Yes, but who is Jack Corgan?”
“He’s a ghost,” Harper replied, her expression glazed. “I forgot all about him. He was an old fisherman from these parts and he supposedly haunts the water, coming and going depending on the season.”
Jared was understandably dubious. “Do you believe that?”
Harper shrugged, noncommittal. “Right now I have no reason not to believe it. I’ve technically never seen him myself, but that doesn’t mean he’s not real. Thanks, Jason. You’ve given me a direction to point my efforts.”
Jason shot Jared a triumphant look that caused the police officer’s skin to crawl. “Any time, cutie. Any time.”
“Yes, thank you,” Jared drawled, cracking his neck. “This doesn’t make things worse at all.”
7
Seven
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
Mel slid an unreadable look in Jared’s direction as they drove toward the main Whisper Cove fishing pier after lunch. Jared loaned his truck to Harper so she could take it to the library for research purposes – the notion of a ghost she’d purportedly forgotten about stoking her imagination – and he had no choice but to ride with his partner. Mel opted to take advantage of that situation.
“You know as much as I do,” Jared replied, leaning his elbow against the window as he adjusted the air conditioning vents so they pointed toward his face. “It’s freaking hot and muggy today. I think it’s going to be unbearable tonight.”
“Uh-huh.” Mel wasn’t impressed with Jared’s misdirection skills. “What’s going on with Harper?”
“She’s very pretty.”
Mel smirked when he caught sight of Jared’s lovesick smile. “Yes, she’s lovely. That doesn’t explain why you took her to work with you this morning.”
“I didn’t take her to work with me,” Jared countered. “I merely drove her to the hospital to see Hayley because I happened to be going there myself.”
“And then you took her to the boat.”
“We were going to lunch afterward,” Jared pointed out. “It seemed expedient.”
“You let her go through evidence.”
“Oh, good grief,” Jared complained, rolling his neck. “It’s not as if she was hurting anyone or messing with evidence. She actually helped us. She’s the one who noticed the holes on the deck and knew what they meant.”
“Yes, she’s very special,” Mel agreed.
“She’s going to dress up like a mermaid for me later.” The sentence was out of Jared’s mouth before he could think better of uttering it, and when he risked a glance in Mel’s direction he found the older man scowling. “You didn’t need to know that, did you?”
“Absolutely not,” Mel replied, his agitation evident. “I knew her when she was five and ran around in pigtails with Zander. You’d do well to remember that.”
“Was she cute?”
“When she ran around in pigtails?”
Jared nodded.
“She was very cute,” Mel conceded, fighting the urge to smile … and failing. “She and Zander were overly chatty children, to the point of being obnoxious. They would hold entire conversations with one another that were far too deep for playgrounds and better suited for hair salons. They were like little old people even though they were children. They were adorable.”
“There. Aren’t you glad you have that vision in your head instead of the mermaid one?”
Mel scorched Jared with a dark look. “You’re not going to distract me. What’s the deal with Harper? I noticed you two looked as if you were fighting when she left the hospital last night. Then today you went out of your way to grovel whenever the chance arose.”
Jared was offended. “I hardly think I was groveling.”
Mel cocked a challenging eyebrow. “You were practically begging.”
“Whatever.” Jared pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead and blinked several times in rapid succession as he stared out the front window of the police cruiser. “I upset her last night.”
“I figured as much,” Mel said. “Does this have something to do with Tina Dobson?”
“Yes, and before you give me grief you should know that Zander waited up for me to get home last night and he already gave me a firm talking to about that situation,” Jared noted. “I’m going to explain things to Tina the first chance I get.”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“No, but you were thinking it,” Jared muttered. “I never encouraged Tina to flirt with me.”
“Son, she doesn’t need encouragement,” Mel pointed out. “She does what she wants, when she wants. That’s the way she’s built. She can’t seem to help herself.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t realize how dangerous she was until talking to Zander. Now that I know she’s a danger I’m going to handle the situation in a mature fashion and make sure Tina knows where she stands.”
“I see.” Mel pressed his lips together. “I don’t want to make this worse – and I definitely don’t want to risk you saying something perverted about Harper again – but when you say Tina is dangerous … um … that doesn’t mean you’re going to shoot her or anything, right?”
Jared mustered a “well, duh” expression as he rolled his eyes. “Of course not. I don’t mean that she’s physically dangerous. She’s more liable to be hurting Harper’s feelings than her body. I’m too old to play games, though. Harper doesn’t want to play them either, but Tina is apparently trying to back her into a corner. I’m going to handle it.”
“That’s good and I totally encourage that,” Mel said, bobbing his head. “How are you going to handle it?”
“I’m going to explain that I have a girlfriend and I’m not interested in anyone else.”
“So … what? Are you going to walk up to her and announce that?”
“Yes.”
“No.” Mel vehemently shook his head, catching Jared off guard. “You cannot do that.”
“What? Why?” Jared knew he sounded whiny and pathetic, but he couldn’t fight his initial reaction. “I thought that would fix things.”
“First off, I doubt very much you have to fix things,” Mel offered. “Harper is a reasonable woman and she knows you would never cheat on her.”
“That’s what I said, but Zander argued that she’s as mad at herself for being jealous as she is at me for not telling Tina to shove her stupid opinions when it comes to GHI,” Jared protested, referring to Ghost Hunters, Inc.
“Oh, well, if Zander says it.” Mel made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat and shook his head. “Listen, I know Zander and Harper are thicker than pea soup stuck on the stovetop all day, but Zander looks at things from a woman’s perspective … and I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing because he’s gay or anything.”
“That’s good, because it’s not a bad thing,” Jared countered. “It’s a good thing. Zander gets it when Harper is upset, and it’s not simply because she’s a woman. He gets it when she can’t wrap her head around something and he explains it to me so I can fix things. When it comes to stuff like this, Zander is a godsend.”
Mel pursed his lips, surprised. “I never considered that,” he conceded. “So he told you to apologize?”
“He told me that Harper is upset because she’s worked up at all and she doesn’t think of herself as a jealous person,” Jared clarified. “He also made me realize that I’m not going to let anyone else run Harper down because t
hat’s not fair to her or our relationship.
“The thing is, I didn’t ignore the things Tina said because I agreed with them,” he continued. “I ignored them because I didn’t want to cause a scene. Now I realize that was a mistake.”
“Because she took it as encouragement,” Mel surmised. “I get it. Tina is a woman who needs things explained to her. That still doesn’t mean you can march up to her and lay down the law.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s the type who will claim sexual harassment if you do,” Mel replied, his voice level. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. You’re going to have to be cold, stilted even, but you can’t come out and say anything to her unless she says something to you first.”
Jared rubbed his chin. He hadn’t considered that potential quandary. “I … didn’t think of that.”
“No, I don’t doubt that.” Mel forced a smile. “You haven’t done anything to encourage her, but you need to be careful and not do anything to embarrass her. I think that’s when she’s going to turn into a real pain in the behind.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for the heads up,” Jared noted. “You’ve given me a few things to think about. I’ll give it some thought before I do anything.”
“I think that’s best for everyone concerned,” Mel said. “Now, let’s see if we can find anyone in the know about this potential Jack person at the pier. I think that’s definitely our best place to start.”
HARPER KNEW her way around the Whisper Cove Public Library. She hadn’t been very popular in high school – Zander serving as her best, and often only, friend – so she read a lot to pass the time. She was happy when she headed toward the front desk and saw Angie Whitaker standing behind it.
“Hey, Angie.”
The young woman, bookish glasses perched on the end of her nose, boasted luscious brown hair and a figure most women would kill for. Angie, of course, was oblivious to the number of heads she turned on a regular basis, or what that “nerdy librarian” persona she imbued did to hormonal men. That was only one of the reasons Harper liked her so much. The other was that she was unbelievably knowledgeable when it came to Whisper Cove’s history.
Ghostly Wrecks (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 6) Page 6