Ghostly Wrecks (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 6)

by Hart, Lily Harper

  “Oh, geez.” Harper made a disgusted face. “That’s hitting below the belt.”

  “I have to do what I have to do.”

  Harper licked her lips as she shook her head, finally shrugging and holding her hands palms up. “Fine. I’ll do it for you.”

  “Thank you.” Jared leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. “I will make this up to you.”

  “Oh, you bet you will,” Harper muttered. “I’m getting you a seashell bra, too.”

  Jared barked out a laugh, genuinely amused. “Whatever floats your boat … and thank you.”

  Some of the worry vacated his eyes and Harper knew she’d made the right decision. “I expect a romantic dinner for two when this is over, too,” she added. Just because she made the right decision, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to milk the situation for all it was worth.

  Jared wasn’t bothered by her negotiation tactics. “I’m pretty sure that can be arranged.”

  20

  Twenty

  Two hours later, Harper sat on the living room couch, Zander busily painting her toenails, and glared at the television screen.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m going to die of boredom.”

  “No one ever really dies of boredom,” Zander said, calmly attacking her middle toe with a practiced hand. “Now, hold still. I want you to have pretty feet for when you seduce Jared with your shell bra. Have you found one of those, by the way?”

  “No, because you won’t let me up to grab my computer.” Harper’s attitude was getting progressively worse. The house was hardly small, but once Jared made it clear that Harper wasn’t to leave it all she could think about was leaving. “Maybe we should go to the mall and see if we can find one in person. I think a shell bra is one of those things you should really try on in person.”

  Zander narrowed his eyes. “You promised Jared that you wouldn’t leave the house.”

  “I know, but I also promised him I would get a shell bra,” Harper pointed out. “Which promise is more important?”

  “I’m pretty sure that Jared would say the one to stay in the house is more important,” Shawn said, staring at the screen of his iPad. “Here’s a blue one. I think it would look amazing with your eyes.” Shawn handed over the iPad and smiled, the expression brightening his handsome face. “We can get free two-day shipping from Amazon so it will be like hardly waiting at all.”

  “Fun … or not.” Harper made a disgusted face as she accepted the iPad. “Oh, well, it’s kind of cute.”

  “It has a puffy satin lining so your lady parts don’t get pinched.” Shawn was a marvelous salesman and Harper couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

  “My lady parts?”

  “I was going to say breasts, but after Jared walked in and found us all sleeping in the same bed this morning, I thought it might behoove me to put some distance between your sexy business and me,” Shawn replied.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that.” Zander waved off Shawn’s concern. “Before you came along I used to sleep with Jared and Harper on a regular basis. It was the same amount of men, just a different configuration. He didn’t care.”

  “I wouldn’t say he didn’t care,” Harper countered. “He came up with rules for when you could climb into bed with us.”

  “Oh, see, that sounds more realistic.” Shawn chuckled. “I had serious doubts that Jared would be happy about Zander sharing a bed with him.”

  “You make it sound dirty when you phrase it like that,” Zander argued. “I’ll have you know that Jared loves me. In fact, Harper and Jared went away to Harsens Island – and didn’t invite me, mind you – and they Skyped with me every single day they were gone because they missed me so much.”

  Shawn pressed his lips together as he shifted his gaze to Harper. “Is that true?”

  “Are you calling me a liar?” Zander’s eyes flashed. “I am not a liar.”

  “He did kind of miss him,” Harper conceded, grinning as Zander pulled away from her feet. “I’m going to order this shell bra. I’m thinking of getting a grass skirt to go with it. Do you think Jared will like that?”

  “I think Jared will like anything you wear, especially if you’re naked.” Shawn winked and smiled. “I can tell you’re about to go stir crazy, Harper. We need to come up with an activity to amuse you. What do you want to do?”

  Harper answered without hesitation. “Go to the mall.”

  “What else do you want to do?”

  “Go to the ice cream shop.”

  Shawn let loose with a long-suffering sigh. “I really don’t want to get on your bad side because Zander won’t like it and I like him a great deal, but I’m not going to let you go against Jared’s wishes.”

  Harper and Zander exchanged a weighted look.

  “Excuse me?” Zander shifted so he remained sitting on the floor but was facing Shawn.

  “Don’t give me that look.” Shawn crossed his arms over his chest, defiant. “I’m not taking Jared’s side just to take his side. He wants to keep Harper safe. I would think that’s your primary concern, too, Zander.”

  “Oh, that was low.” Zander made an exaggerated face as he heaved out a sigh. “Still, he has a point, Harp.”

  “Oh, you’re turning on me, too?” Harper was unbelievably disgusted. “I can’t believe I’ve surrounded myself with men who want to do nothing more than boss me around.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Shawn deadpanned. “We’re being unreasonable just for the sake of being unreasonable.”

  “I happen to believe that’s true.” Harper hopped to her feet, wobbling as she walked around the table thanks to the toe separators between her painted digits. “I think I need some air.”

  “Don’t you even think about it,” Zander warned, extending a finger. “You are not wandering around alone outside. I will tie you to me if you’re not careful – and it won’t be nearly as sexy as that movie we watched a couple of weeks ago.”

  “I’m not going to wander around alone,” Harper countered. “I’m merely going to take a book to the porch and read outside.”

  “It’s sweltering.”

  “I know, but I can’t breathe in here because I feel as if I’m in a cage,” Harper explained. “It’s a mental thing. If I’m on the front porch I won’t feel trapped.”

  Zander closed one eye, offering up a suspicious expression. “If you take off I will never forgive you. No, close your mouth for a second. I mean it. Also, I want you to remember that you were desperate and depressed yesterday when you hurt Jared. How are you going to feel if you crush him two days in a row?”

  Zander’s question hit its target and Harper swallowed hard. “I have no intention of taking off. I promise.”

  “You’d better not.” Zander rolled to his feet and stood. “I’m not joking. I will be really ticked off if you leave that porch and the first thing I will do if I notice you missing is call Jared.”

  Harper’s mouth dropped open. “You’re going to tattle on me?”

  “You bet your sweet bottom I am,” Zander replied, not missing a beat. “Don’t put me in the position to make that choice. I will choose you, but it won’t be in the way you want me to choose you.”

  Harper nodded, resigned. “I’m just going to read a book.”

  “Make sure you keep your promise,” Zander stressed. “I will make your life hell if you don’t.”

  HARPER STRUGGLED to get into her book – a snarky mystery about crazy witches in the Midwest that was outright hilarious – but finally managed to get comfortable and let her mind wander. Zander checked on her every five minutes – getting close to the window glass, pointing at his eyes, and then waving his fingers at her to signify he was watching – and she managed to get used to it after the twentieth time or so.

  She was actually enjoying herself when the sound of feet on gravel assailed her ears and she jerked up, ramrod straight, and stared at the driveway. Instead of a menacing figure, though, she found herself staring at the small silhouet
te of Hayley Reiter.

  “W-what are you doing here?” Harper was stunned as she closed the book and rested it on the small table next to her chair. “I … is someone after you?”

  Hayley shoved her hair out of her red face, sweat dripping down her brow as she pinned Harper with a hard look. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  Harper arched an eyebrow, surprised. “I’m pretty sure the police have been looking for you.”

  Hayley rolled her eyes in a manner only an individual under the age of twenty could pull off without looking ridiculous. “I don’t care about the police. I came here looking for you. I stopped at your office – do you really hunt for ghosts, by the way, because that’s totally cool – and some girl with purple hair told me that you were probably here.”

  “So you came looking for me?” Harper rested her hand on Hayley’s shoulder and steered her toward the porch. “Do you need something to drink?”

  “Yeah.” Hayley bobbed her head. “I’ll take a beer.”

  Harper pressed her lips together and tilted her head to the side, her very stance serving as a form of challenge.

  “I’ll take a bottle of water.” Hayley was appropriately sheepish. “It’s really hot.”

  “No joke.” Harper attempted to hide her smile … and failed. “Why don’t you come inside? It’s cooler and we have water.”

  “Sure.” Hayley hopped to a stop behind Harper. “Do you have beer inside?”

  “No, but I have hot boys for you to ogle.”

  “Even better.”

  Zander reclined on the couch, one arm thrown over his forehead as he let the ceiling fan do the bulk of the cooling work and widened his eyes when he caught sight of Hayley. “What is she doing here?”

  “Who is she?” Shawn asked, curious. He’d shed his shirt while Harper was outside and rubbed an ice cube over his chest as he stared.

  “You weren’t lying about the hot guys.” Hayley smiled as she moved closer to Shawn. He owned and operated a gym so he was in ridiculously good shape. “Your muscles are so big they look drawn on. Can I touch them?”

  “I … don’t know.” Shawn shot Harper a worried look. “Can she touch them?”

  “As long as it’s not in a lascivious way,” Harper replied, lifting Zander’s feet and plopping onto the couch next to him. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, Hayley, but what are you doing here? The cops are looking for you and your mother. A body was found on the beach last night.”

  “Really?” Hayley lost interest in drooling over Shawn and turned her attention to Harper. “Who is dead?”

  “I … well … I’m not sure I should be the one to tell you that,” Harper hedged.

  “Oh, you can’t drop that on her and then leave her hanging,” Zander complained, adopting a sympathetic look. “Honey, it was your uncle.”

  “Chuck?” Hayley’s eyebrows flew up her forehead. “Okay. He was kind of a jerk anyway. How did he die?”

  Hayley’s blasé attitude threw Harper for a loop. “He was shot in the back.”

  “Oh.” Hayley lowered herself until she was sitting on the coffee table. “Do you know why?”

  Harper shook her head. “Jared is investigating it.”

  “He’s the hot cop, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does he walk around this house shirtless, too?” Hayley asked, returning to her original point of interest. “If so, I can’t see why you would ever leave.”

  “That’s exactly what I was trying to explain to her earlier,” Zander said, knitting his eyebrows as he looked over their young guest. “Honey, where is your mother?”

  “What? Oh, I ran away from her.” Hayley shook herself out of whatever sweaty reverie she was in as she watched Shawn run the ice cube over his chest. “She’s a terrible person.”

  “Everyone feels that way about their mother when they’re your age,” Harper offered.

  “Harper feels it about her mother and she’s almost thirty,” Zander added. “Did your mother make you check out of the hotel for a reason?”

  “She just said we were going,” Hayley replied. “I was angry because I thought we were staying until Dad was ready to check out of the hospital. The doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. I know what’s wrong with him, but no one will listen. That’s why I decided to run away.

  “I waited until my mom had to run into the grocery store over in Sterling Heights – she insists on going to organic places where you can’t get real sugar, which drives me nuts – and then I took off and hid from her,” she continued. “I walked across the highway and hid in a parking lot until I could get a ride.”

  Harper was horrified. “You hitchhiked? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

  Hayley snorted, amused. “Hitchhiked? Who does that? This isn’t a horror movie.”

  Harper was appropriately abashed. “Oh, well, how did you get here?”

  “I used Uber.”

  “Wait, is that supposed to be safer?” Shawn asked, incredulous.

  “I have no idea,” Harper replied. “She’s here now so I’m not going to dwell on it. Hayley, you said you know what’s wrong with your father. The doctors have been baffled. What’s wrong with him?”

  “My mother is poisoning him.”

  “Oh, um … .” Harper had no idea how to react to that and glanced at Shawn for help.

  “Your mother is poisoning him?” Shawn leaned closer. “How do you know that?”

  Hayley dug into her pocket and pulled out a bottle of pills. “Because I saw her grinding these up and slipping them into his water when we were visiting. They’ve been fighting for a long time and I think she’s trying to kill him.”

  “Huh.” Harper rubbed the back of her neck, confused. The bottle wasn’t marked and she had no knowledge of pills so there was no way to identify what Hayley found. “That’s not normal.”

  “Gee, what was your first clue?” Zander drawled, rolling his eyes. “Honey, why would your mother want to kill your father?”

  “Because she wants his money and she’s my stepmother, not my mother.”

  “Oh.” Something clicked into place in Harper’s head. “Jessica isn’t your mother?”

  “My mother died when I was a baby,” Hayley explained. “Cancer. Jessica was my mother’s best friend. She married my father like a year later. She raised me, but she’s not my mother.”

  “I don’t know what to make of this,” Harper muttered. “Did we know this?”

  “I’m guessing no,” Zander said. “You should probably call Jared and get him over here. This is way out of our wheelhouse.”

  “Well, you’re not wrong.” Harper forced a smile as she moved toward the kitchen. “I’m going to call for help and get you a bottle of water, Hayley. Why don’t you get comfortable on the couch with Zander?”

  “That sounds fun.” Hayley smiled as she shifted to the other side of the table and rolled onto the couch. “So, are you going to take your shirt off, too?”

  Zander grinned. “Maybe. You have to ask nicely, though.”

  Harper cast one more look at Hayley before reaching for her phone on the counter. She jumped back, startled, when Jack Corgan’s ghost popped into view. “What are you doing here?”

  Jack didn’t stand on preamble. “You have to leave right now.”

  “I can’t. I promised Jared I would stay. Wait … why?”

  “Because the bad guy is here, the other one from the boat,” Jack replied. “He’s walking up the driveway … and he has a gun.”

  “Son of a … this is so not my fault.”

  21

  Twenty-One

  Harper walked straight through Jack, not caring about his complaints or the fact that the move was considered rude. She strode toward the front door, pulling up short when she caught sight of the two figures moving up the driveway.

  “Son of a … .”

  “What is it?” Shawn appeared at Harper’s side, as if reading her mood, and peered through the w
indow. “Who is that?”

  “Jessica Reiter,” Harper replied, rolling her neck until it cracked. “That’s Tommy Lupone with her. He’s Tim Dalton’s attorney.”

  “So the violent bookie might be here, too?”

  Harper nodded.

  “Okay.” Shawn was calm as he grabbed his shirt from the coffee table. “We need to get out of this house right now.”

  Zander, lost in his own little world, realized something bad was happening much later than his best friend and boyfriend. “What’s going on?”

  “Jessica Reiter and Tommy Lupone are walking up the driveway,” Harper replied, grabbing Hayley’s hand and dragging her to her feet. “We have to get out of here right now. Lupone has a gun.”

  Hayley’s expression shifted from annoyed to terrified in the blink of an eye. “Are they going to kill us because I ran away?”

  Harper took pity on the girl and shook her head. “They think we took something from the boat, although I have no idea what that is. We need to put distance between them and us … and we need to operate as if Tim Dalton is wandering around out there, too, because I figure he has to play into this somehow.”

  “So … what do we do?” Zander was on his feet. “Where do we go? We can’t get in the vehicles because we’re cut off and this house isn’t big enough to find a suitable hiding spot.”

  “I know.” Harper chewed on her bottom lip, tilting her head to the side. “I have an idea.”

  “That’s always something to fear,” Zander muttered, although he didn’t waste time arguing and instead followed Harper and Shawn toward the kitchen. “Do you want to share with the class, Harp?”

  “Hurry!”

  JARED WAS tired. He was tired of coming up empty, and he was tired of not knowing what was going on. Something was about to go massively wrong. He could feel it. The problem was he had no idea what … or how to head it off.

  “I’m having Chad Reiter put under room arrest,” Mel announced, walking into the detective area and fixing Jared with a dark look. “He won’t give us any information to work with and yet he’s demanding to be released. I have the doctor keeping him there with hospital red tape right now, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Any luck on Jessica and Hayley Reiter?”