“I … don’t know.” Shawn felt helpless. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was just glad he stopped talking because he was being ridiculously annoying.”
“That kid is always annoying,” Zander muttered. “That doesn’t mean he’s a murderer, though.”
“I didn’t say he was a murderer,” Jared stressed. “That doesn’t mean I’m not worried about Harper. She’s not the type to let her imagination get away from her. If she believes someone was watching her from the woods, I have to believe that’s true.”
“I would probably agree with that, too,” Shawn said. “How do you want to handle her safety going forward?”
“I don’t want her alone if we can help it. She spends most of her days with Zander, which is good, but he can’t watch her every moment during tours. He’s just as busy as she is sometimes, and they still have a tour or two to finish out the week.”
“So, what?” Zander asked. “Are you going on every tour with us until they’re over?”
“As long as I can manage it. I’m not leaving Harper to fend for herself if I can help it. I’m not built that way.”
“I’ll clear my schedule and make sure I can be there for the remaining tours, too,” Shawn offered. “It won’t take much. I’ll just work day shifts at the gym and give everyone else the night shifts. That’s one of the perks of being the boss.”
“Thanks.” Jared couldn’t help being relieved. “Just knowing an extra set of eyes will be on her makes me feel better.”
“What about you?” Zander asked. “What are you going to do?”
“The first thing I’m going to do is drag Colin Thompson in for questioning tomorrow,” Jared replied. “After that, I have no idea. We’re nowhere near as close to solving this case as I would like and I can’t help but feel that time is of the essence here.”
“Why do you think that?” Shawn was legitimately curious. “Honestly, why do you think you’re running out of time?”
“Because I can’t shake the idea that whoever killed Maggie isn’t done,” Jared replied. “No matter what happens, I’m going to make sure that he doesn’t finish up with Harper. I won’t be able to live with it if I overlook something and she pays the price.”
“None of us will,” Shawn said. “Don’t worry. You can count on us.”
“I hope so. I certainly can’t do it alone.”
“You can count on me, too,” Zander offered. “In fact, the only thanks I ask in return is that you paint your kitchen pink. I think we’ll be all squared up after that.”
Jared scowled. “You need to let that go.”
“Never.”
“You make me so tired sometimes.”
“Pink would perk you right up.”
“Cripes. I need another beer.”
14
Fourteen
Harper did her best not to toss and turn in an effort to let Jared sleep. She slumbered intermittently, marking an hour at the most before waking again, and when she climbed out of bed the next morning she was even more exhausted than when she initially rested her head on the pillow.
“Are you feeling okay?” Jared pressed his hand to Harper’s forehead before she could answer. “You don’t feel warm, but you look sick.”
Harper mustered a smile that didn’t make it all the way to her eyes. “I’m not quite sure how to take that. Not all of us can wake looking as good as you. Some of us have bedhead to deal with.”
“I happen to like the bedhead.” Jared pressed a kiss against her forehead before pulling back. “You didn’t sleep, did you?”
“I was right next to you. I slept.”
“Not well.”
“I still slept. You don’t need to worry about me.” Harper squeezed his wrist. “I’m sure I’ll feel better after a shower. Hopefully for you, I’ll look better, too.”
Jared made a rueful face. “That’s going to come back to bite me, isn’t it?”
“Probably.”
“I still don’t think you got enough sleep,” he muttered as he followed her toward the bathroom. “We’re going to talk about this over breakfast.”
“I can’t wait.”
“YOU LOOK LIKE CRAP.”
Zander made a face thirty minutes later as he doled out eggs, hash browns, and bacon onto Harper’s plate. Shawn slid a glass of juice in front of her and pointedly elbowed Zander before sitting next to Harper.
“I think you look fantastic,” Shawn countered. “In fact, I think you look like an absolute dream. You could be a model or something.”
Harper arched an eyebrow. “That was laying it on a bit thick.”
Shawn was sheepish. “I knew it as soon as I said it. You are really pretty, though.”
For the first time all morning, Harper managed a legitimate smile. “Thank you.”
“Oh, when he says it you believe him,” Jared groused as he sat on Harper’s other side.
“I believe it when you say it most of the time, too,” Harper shot back. “I simply don’t believe it five minutes after you tell me I look like crap warmed over twice.”
“I’m fairly certain I said nothing of the sort.” Jared tapped the side of Harper’s plate. “You need to eat this. You still look sick.”
“Right. I look sick, not like crap warmed over twice.”
“You guys seem like you’re in great frames of mind this morning,” Zander noted as he deposited a plate of toast on the table before taking the final seat. “Are you fighting? Please tell me it’s because Harper has finally come to her senses and agreed to my pink kitchen project and you’re taking it as a dagger to the heart, Jared.”
“Neither one of us is ever going to come to your way of thinking on that one,” Jared shot back. “As for my very beautiful but tired girlfriend, I think you should cancel whatever you guys have going today and enjoy some serious resting.”
Whatever response he was expecting, that wasn’t it. Zander furrowed his brow. “You want us to spend the day resting?”
Jared nodded. “I think you guys should sit around in your pajamas, eat candy, and watch however many chick flicks you can stomach.”
Now it was Harper’s turn to make a face. “It’s Halloween. We don’t watch chick flicks during Halloween.”
“First of all, assuming I sit around and watch chick flicks all day is stereotypical and I don’t like it,” Zander complained.
Jared held up his hands in capitulation. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven, but only because I happen to be a fan of chick flicks at all times. Harper’s not wrong, though,” Zander supplied. “October is horror movie month. December is Lifetime Christmas movie month.”
“And old episodes of Little House on the Prairie so we can cry without guilt,” Harper added.
Zander extended a finger and smirked. “And that. February is romance month. May is for animated movies. September is for alien movies. Um … what am I forgetting, Harp?”
“June.”
“Right. June is for Gossip Girl reruns.”
Jared was dumbfounded. “I’ve been practically living with you guys for months. How can I not know this?”
“We don’t broadcast our idiosyncrasies,” Harper replied. “We feel if we let too many of our secrets slip, no one will ever love us.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “Wow. I don’t even know what to say to that. I’m looking forward to September, though. I happen to love Sigourney Weaver.”
Shawn shot him an enthusiastic thumbs-up. “Right on. Why Gossip Girl, though?”
“Because Chuck and Blair are awesome,” Zander replied. “I’m also a big fan of headbands and I don’t think women wear them enough. Plus, I mean … Lonely Boy turned out to be Gossip Girl. There’s irony there. I’m sure of it. I happen to love irony.”
“Fair enough.”
“Okay, we’re going to discuss this monthly movie schedule thing later,” Jared said. “For now, though, why can’t you guys take the day off and watch horror movies? It’s almost Halloween. You guys ha
ve been running yourselves ragged for weeks. Take a breather.”
“I think you’re just saying that because you want me out of harm’s way.” Harper mixed her eggs and hash browns together, adding salt and pepper to the mix before forking some onto a slice of toast. “I already told you that I’m not really sure if someone was there last night. Besides that, even if someone was there, we don’t know that it was just some random visitor or a tour guest.”
“You know,” Jared argued. “You felt afraid. You have good instincts. Don’t turn your back on them now.”
“Oh, that’s very sweet.”
Jared made a face as she bit into her weird breakfast concoction. “What are you doing?”
“It’s our version of a breakfast bowl,” Zander explained. “Don’t judge her for it. I made it for the first time when we were in middle school. It’s comfort food.”
“How did you know she would need comfort this morning?” Jared asked.
“Because I figured she would have a rough time sleeping. It turns out I was right.” Zander mixed his food together in the same manner as Harper. “I’m also right about the pink kitchen.”
“Don’t push me on that.” Jared was at his limit. “Heart, I just think you should take it easy today. I know I would feel better if you did.”
“How about we compromise?” Harper suggested. “What if Zander and I agree to spend the morning here resting and watching bad horror movies … .”
“I totally want to watch Ghost Ship,” Zander enthused.
Harper nodded. “And we promise to hold off from doing anything until after we all meet and compare notes over lunch.”
Jared was caught off guard by the suggestion. “Where do you want to meet?”
“Jason’s restaurant. He has pumpkin soup today. I know because he texted me yesterday to say he was going to have it. I happen to love pumpkin soup.”
Jared shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth to give himself time to consider the suggestion. He started nodding before finishing swallowing. “Okay. I want to talk to Colin Thompson. I also want to know you’re safe and resting this morning. I agree to your terms.”
Harper smiled. “Great.”
“I want you to try to rest, though.”
“I will.”
“I also want to make April action adventure month,” Jared added. “I want to play, too.”
Harper snickered as she briefly leaned her head against his shoulder. “I can live with that.”
MEL AND JARED HAD AN interrogation room ready when Colin showed up. They sent an officer to pick up the young man at his house, apparently catching him while eating his Fruity Pebbles, and strategically placed themselves in the room as they waited for him to arrive.
By the time Colin walked into the interrogation room, he was a nervous wreck. That was exactly what Jared was going for, even though Mel thought he was taking things too far. Jared took the spot at the head of the table and watched as Colin picked a chair a decent way down on the far side. Jared found it interesting that he wanted to keep distance between them. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“Thank you for coming in, Colin.” Jared purposely kept his voice authoritative and detached. “I’m sorry if you had other plans, but we feel this is urgent and cannot wait.”
“I’m off for the day, but I didn’t get the idea that I had a lot of choice about coming.” Colin’s hands shook as he rested them on the table. “I don’t understand why I’m here. I … didn’t do anything.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I think so.”
“But you don’t know?”
“I … why am I here?” Colin sounded pathetic and whiny, but he didn’t seem to notice. “I know I didn’t do anything bad enough to get dragged in here.”
“That’s still to be ascertained.” Jared made a big show of shuffling papers in the folder in front of him. “We have a few things to talk about. Where do you think we should start?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even know why you want to talk to me. Unless … .” Colin broke off and tilted his head to the side. “Is this about Harper?”
Jared managed to keep from flinching at mention of his girlfriend’s name. “Why do you think this is about Harper?”
“Because you’re her boyfriend.”
“And what is she to you?”
“She’s … awesome.” Colin took on a far-off expression. “She’s so pretty and fun. She can see ghosts … and talk to them … and she’s always ready for an adventure. She looks really good in her jeans, too. I mean … like really good. Her butt kind of looks like an apple, which makes me want to take a bite out of it.”
Colin realized what he was saying and his cheeks flushed with color as he darted a look to Jared. For his part, the police officer managed to hold it together – even as Mel’s shoulders shook with silent laughter – but just barely.
“What was I saying again?” Colin asked, licking his lips.
“I believe you were talking about how Jared’s girlfriend is an apple-bottomed girl,” Mel offered.
“We’re not talking about that,” Jared said hurriedly. “We’re going to talk about something else. We’ll start with your relationship with Maggie Harris. What can you tell me about that?”
“Maggie?” Colin wrinkled his forehead. “I didn’t really know Maggie.”
“That’s not what others have told us. We heard you and your friends were hanging around with Maggie and Heather for weeks before Maggie’s murder. I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t mention that when you found out who Gary Conner tripped over the other night.”
“That’s because I didn’t think it was important,” Colin supplied. “It’s not as if we were friends. We were just hanging around the same people. She was much more interested in Jay’s group than our group. She only tolerated us because she wanted to be close to Jay, and Jay and I hung around occasionally because we graduated together.”
Mel stretched his long legs out under the table and crossed them at the ankles. “Are you talking about Jay Forrester?”
“Who is Jay Forrester?” Jared asked.
“He was quarterback of the football team, the most popular kid in school the year that Colin graduated. Last time I heard, he was selling cars at that place his father owns out on Hall Road.”
“That’s the Jay I’m talking about,” Colin confirmed. “He hangs at Dave & Buster’s four nights a week. We meet him there for game night at least once a week, sometimes twice if we’re really bored. It’s not a big deal.”
“And how did Maggie play into this?” Jared was starting to get the sinking suspicion that Colin wasn’t as dark and demented as he initially thought. There was every possibility that Colin was simply a geeky kid who spent far too much time looking at Harper’s rear end.
“Maggie started showing up a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t figure out why at first because she really seemed like an unhappy person,” Colin replied. “I don’t want to speak ill of the dead but … she was a total witch with a capital W.”
It took everything Jared had not to start laughing. It was a surreal situation, but Colin’s reaction somehow struck him as funny. “I’m going to need more information than that. How was she a witch?”
“She was just rude all the time. It was as if she decided that some people were worth talking to and others were not only a waste of time but also something to make fun of because she got off on being mean to people.”
“Let me guess, she was nice to the people with money and mean to the ones still living in their parents’ basements.”
“Pretty much,” Colin agreed. “How did you know that?”
“Let’s just say that Maggie had a certain reputation,” Jared replied. “She only wanted to associate herself with people who had money. You just said this Jay guy was working at his father’s car lot, though. That doesn’t suggest to me that he had a lot of money.”
“Maggie didn’t realize that until two weeks ago, tho
ugh,” Colin said. “Up until then she thought Jay had money because he was always flashing a wad of bills. She didn’t know he stole that money from his dad’s safe.”
“Wait a second.” Mel held up his hand and leaned forward. “Are you saying Jay Forrester stole from his father?”
“I’m saying that’s the rumor and his dad changed the combination on the safe so Jay ran out of money. When that happened, Maggie was irritated. She kept asking questions and not getting the answers she wanted.”
“And yet she still hung around,” Jared noted. “If she was really that irritated, why did she hang around?”
“Probably because Jay suggested a way for them both to make money and Maggie jumped at it,” Colin replied. “I thought she would call him crazy and run away, but she was all for it. All I know is that I didn’t want to be part of it so I backed away. Actually, my entire little group backed away because we were all afraid they were going to do something stupid and maybe drag us into it.”
Jared was officially intrigued. “So, Jay suggested a new plan of action to Maggie where they could both make money? I’m dying to know what that is.”
“They were going to rob the bank.”
Jared felt as if Colin had kicked his legs out from under him. “I’m sorry but … what?”
“They were going to rob the bank,” Colin repeated. “I don’t mean that they were going to take guns and hold it up or anything. They were going to do a heist … like in Ocean’s Eleven … and steal everything in the vault and make a run for it.”
Colin was calm as he offered up the information.
“Seriously, I’m not making it up. True story.”
Jared slowly flicked his eyes to Mel. “I think we might have finally got that little tidbit we needed to start narrowing this down.”
Mel nodded. “I’m right there with you. Things are finally getting interesting.”
15
Fifteen
Jared texted he was going to be a few minutes late so Harper and Zander chose a cozy booth in the corner of Jason Thurman’s beachside restaurant, both reaching for the specials menu at the center of the table at the same time.
Ghostly Distress (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 9) Page 13