Ghostly Distress (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 9)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Anything?”

  Eric shrugged. “Two unexplained deaths in the seventies. One disappearance in the eighties. I’m still drilling down. I’ll email you a report when I have it.”

  “That sounds good.” Harper moved to her desk, frowning when she saw the stack of files waiting for her. “What’s all this?”

  “That’s the normal Halloween calls we’ve received,” Molly replied. “Everyone sees ghosts this time of year and they want us to do something about it. They almost always turn out to be nothing, but you usually want to look at the call stubs all the same.”

  “I almost forgot about that.” Harper was thoughtful as she sat at her desk, flicking a gaze to Zander and Eric as they started talking about something else and moving to the storefront’s back room where GHI’s equipment was kept. “Things look to be going well between you and Eric.”

  Molly risked a glance over her shoulder, relief evident when she realized the men had disappeared. “Things are going really well and I’m not sure what to do.” Molly was enthusiastic by nature, but Harper couldn’t resist the way the young woman’s eyes sparkled as she perched on the corner of Harper’s desk. “I need your advice.”

  “You need my advice? About Eric?” Harper was understandably surprised. Eric spent almost two years crushing on her before settling into a relationship with Molly. During that time, Molly crushed on Eric to the point where it was almost painful. It took Eric forever to see what was right in front of him because he was too focused on Harper to look. The knowledge left Harper feeling uncomfortable at the oddest of times. “I’m not sure I’m the right person to give you advice on Eric.”

  Molly made an exaggerated face. “Wow. You’re kind of a trip when you want to be, huh? I’m not asking you for advice on Eric. Er, well, I’m not directly asking you for advice on Eric. It’s more that I want advice on maintaining a healthy relationship in general.”

  “Oh.” Harper wasn’t expecting that. “Okay, um … I guess I can try to help. How come you want advice from me, though? I don’t think I’m exactly what anyone would call an expert.”

  “No, but you have a healthy relationship with Jared. I mean … you guys are moving in together and everything. You’re the only person I know who has a healthy relationship going on right now so you’re like a unicorn in my book.”

  No matter how worldly she liked to consider herself, Harper liked the idea of being equated to a unicorn. “Okay, shoot. I’ll do my best to answer questions.”

  “Great.” Molly rubbed her hands together as she checked to make sure they were still alone. “How do you get a man to put the toilet seat down when he’s finished doing his business? I don’t want to be a nag, but there’s nothing more annoying than a splashdown in the middle of the night.”

  The question was the exact opposite of what Harper expected. That didn’t mean she was bereft of suggestions. “Take a seat. I could write a manifesto on that one.”

  “Yay!” Molly clapped her hands. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

  “Oh, men are tricky beasts. You have to tame them but not let them know they’re being tamed. You might want to grab a notebook and pen. I have a lot of wisdom to share.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “THIS PLACE IS AN absolute dump.”

  Jared made a face and kept his hands close to his body so he wouldn’t inadvertently touch something as he stood in front of a ramshackle apartment door.

  “It is a dump,” Mel agreed. “I can’t believe this place is up to code. I mean … there’s a hole in the floor over there.” He pointed for emphasis. “I can’t believe the New Haven building inspectors haven’t shut this place down.”

  “Maybe they have more on their minds.”

  “Maybe. Let’s see if Danny is here and then make a break for it,” Mel suggested. “I don’t want to be here longer than I have to.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” Jared rapped on the thin door three times in rapid succession, adopting a professional if somewhat detached demeanor when Danny opened the door and glared between faces. “Mr. Wood?”

  For his part, Danny looked as if the last thing he wanted was to entertain guests. “Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested in buying.” He moved to shut the door, but Jared slid his foot between the door and jamb to stop him. “Do you want to get your ass kicked?”

  Jared ignored the man’s tone. He figured it was mostly bravado, an act of sorts, but he wasn’t afraid to throw down if need be. “My name is Jared Monroe. I’m a detective with the Whisper Cove Police Department. This is my partner Mel Kelsey. We have some questions for you.”

  Danny didn’t immediately respond other than blinking … and sneering. Slowly he began to collect himself, though, and the look he shot Jared was right out of a bad eighties movie where rival gangs were about to fight. “And what if I don’t want to answer questions?”

  “Then we’ll have to take you into custody and transport you to the police department,” Mel answered without hesitation. “It’s up to you.”

  Danny worked his jaw, belligerence evident, but ultimately he pushed open the door. “Come on in.” The false bravado was back. “I would offer you a refreshment, but I’m out.”

  “I can see that,” Jared muttered in disgust as he stepped over discarded beer bottles and followed the man into what could loosely be described as a living room. “We don’t want to take up much of your time, but we need some information.”

  “About what?”

  “Maggie Harris.”

  Danny either couldn’t or wouldn’t hide his shock. “Maggie? The hot chick who worked at the bank?”

  Jared nodded, refusing to sit even as Danny threw himself onto a filthy couch and motioned to the chairs across the way. “I’m fine standing. Thank you, though.”

  If Danny recognized why Jared didn’t want to sit, he didn’t show it. “I don’t understand why you want to talk about Maggie. I barely knew her.”

  “But you are aware that she was found at the cemetery the other night, right?” Mel queried. “You know she was murdered.”

  Danny’s eyebrows hopped. “I knew she was dead. I didn’t know she was murdered. The newspaper and television just said she was found under suspicious circumstances. I thought that could mean anything.”

  “I guess that’s fair.” Mel made a face as he considered sitting in one of the chairs but ultimately opted to remain standing. He was genuinely afraid some critter might be crawling around in the fabric and he didn’t want to take bedbugs home if he could help it. “We need to know about your relationship with Maggie.”

  “And what makes you think I had a relationship with Maggie?”

  “We’ve heard from several people that you were spending time together,” Jared replied. “I’m going to guess that time didn’t involve visits here.”

  “And why do you assume that?” Danny was doing his best to appear courageous and nonchalant, but Jared could read the tenseness settling over the man’s shoulders.

  “Because Maggie was all about money and this place doesn’t lend itself to pretending you have money,” Jared replied honestly. “She wanted a rich guy and you’re very clearly not rich.”

  Danny barked out a hollow laugh. “No, I’m not rich. That doesn’t mean I don’t do well with the ladies. Most women want a bad boy they think they can mold. I let them think I’m that bad boy and I do quite well.”

  “That wasn’t what Maggie was after, though,” Mel pointed out. “Maggie wanted financial stability. It was more important to her than street cred or looks. The money was her driving force.”

  Danny held his hands palms out and shrugged. “You guys seem to know a lot about Maggie and what she did and didn’t want. If you know so much, why are you here? I don’t have anything to offer you as far as Maggie is concerned.”

  “I think that’s partially true,” Jared countered. “I think you can offer us one thing, though.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Your plan to
steal from the bank.”

  For one brief moment, Danny looked like a deer caught in headlights. He continued to blink, but his breath lodged in his throat and he sputtered until he regained control of himself. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, don’t bother playing that game,” Jared chided, his discomfort at being trapped in the filthy apartment continuously growing. “We know you tried to lure Maggie in by telling her you had a plan to rob the bank. She was looking for a way to make money – mostly because her efforts at snagging a man who she thought had money and would fund the lifestyle she wanted were falling short – and this was the idea she came up with.”

  “She talked about it with Jay Forrester first,” Mel added. “She realized pretty quickly that he was all talk when it came to an actual plan, though. That’s when she turned to you.”

  Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is Jay the one who told you all this?”

  “We have multiple sources,” Mel lied. He saw no reason to point the finger at Jay when the kid had so many other problems. Besides, his father was going to handle the punishment for Jay this go around and Mel had a feeling it was going to be a dark reckoning. There was no reason to add to the mayhem. “What we want to know is how far you made it with the plan.”

  Danny touched his tongue to his lip as he internally debated how to answer. “I think maybe I should shut this down and get a lawyer.”

  “And I think you didn’t make it far when it came to planning and you were all talk, just like Jay,” Mel shot back. “We need to know, though. Maggie is dead. She was murdered. If this has something to do with your plan, we need to know about it.”

  Danny exhaled heavily as he ran his hand through his hair. He looked defeated. “I don’t know what to tell you. We talked about it. You already know that. It wasn’t so much a plan as a bunch of boasting, though. There was no way we had anything actionable.”

  Mel pursed his lips. “That’s what I figured. We still need to know the basics, though.”

  “The basics?” Danny held out his hands. “The basics were simple. If we wanted to steal from the bank we needed a vault key. That would have to fall to Maggie since the rest of us didn’t have access to anyone with a key.

  “She said she was going to seduce the bank manager and steal his key,” he continued. “To my knowledge, she was still trying to worm her way into his good graces. The plan was to have sex with him enough times that he trusted her. Once she got that far into things, then we would pick a day and wait until she could get him alone.

  “Then she planned to drug him and steal his key,” he continued. “Once she had the key we were going to load up her car with stuff, break into the bank vault, and steal as much cash as we could carry before making a break for it.”

  “And that’s it?” Jared asked. “You didn’t get any further than that?”

  “No. It was just big talk for something that was never going to happen. I mean … basically we talked about robbing the bank because it was fun to dream about how life would be if we could afford to buy anything we wanted. She didn’t even implement the first part of the plan, though, unless you call flirting with that schlub who runs the bank as implementation.”

  Mel tilted his head to the side as he flicked a gaze to Jared. “Mark didn’t mention Maggie flirting when we talked to him.”

  “He didn’t,” Jared agreed. “He might not have recognized it as flirting.”

  “Oh, Maggie wasn’t subtle,” Danny interjected. “If she wanted to flirt, there’s no way he could mistake it for something else. She was really obvious.”

  Mel traced his thumb over his bottom lip. “I guess we could go back and talk to Mark. He’s a pain in the butt most of the time, but he’s usually pretty forthcoming. If he didn’t mention Maggie flirting with him, there might be a reason.”

  Jared nodded. He was eager to get out of the apartment, even if it meant returning to the bank. “I think that’s probably the best way to go.”

  “Great,” Danny enthused. “Does that mean I’m off the hook?”

  “It means you probably shouldn’t leave the state,” Mel clarified. “We might not be done with you.”

  “Oh, now why would I want to leave all this?” Danny drawled. “That’s just crazy talk.”

  Even though he found the young man’s attitude lacking, Jared couldn’t help the wave of sympathy from washing over him. “I hope things start looking up for you.”

  “Yeah, that would be nice. I won’t hold my breath, though.”

  18

  Eighteen

  “That is fascinating stuff.” Molly was rapt as Harper laid out the rules of spending a boatload of time with men. “So you’re saying that you can’t tell a man what to do. You have to lead him to the water and let him think it’s his idea to drink, so to speak.”

  Harper bobbed her head. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “Wow. I never would’ve thought to do it that way.” Molly tapped her painted fingernails on the desktop, thoughtful. “That’s genius. How did you come up with that?”

  Harper was amused. “I grew up with a best friend who also happened to be a man. To be fair, his mother told me how to get him to do stuff, though, so I’m hardly the one who came up with this plan of action.”

  “Still, it’s genius.”

  “It’s a load of a crap is what it is,” Zander announced, strolling into the room with Eric on his heels. He had a handheld EMF reader in his hand and a scowl on his face. “I can’t believe you just filled her head with all that nonsense, Harp. I’m really disappointed in you.”

  Harper refused to be ashamed despite being caught. “I stand by what I said.”

  “And how did this lovely conversation start?” Eric asked, his eyes on Molly as he sat at his desk. His expression was hard to read but he didn’t look particularly upset. “I mean … how did a subject like this even pop up?”

  “Oh, well … .” Harper shifted on her chair, unwilling to throw Molly under the bus.

  “I asked about building a strong relationship,” Molly replied without hesitation. “This is my first real relationship and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t do something stupid to alienate you.”

  Eric was taken aback. “I see. Um … why is it you think you’re going to alienate me?”

  Molly shrugged, noncommittal. “Because we’re still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship. We’re still at that point where I find everything you do cute and entertaining and you find everything I do endearing and adorable.”

  Eric leaned back in his chair. “At the risk of starting a fight I don’t want to finish, what makes you think that I find everything you do endearing and adorable?”

  Now it was Molly’s turn to be caught off guard. “Why wouldn’t you find everything I do amazing and entertaining?”

  “Well, for starters, it’s impossible for one person to be perfectly adorable twenty-four hours a day.” Eric chose his words carefully. “I find you adorable a good eighteen hours out of every day. The other six hours are more of a struggle.”

  Molly’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

  Eric refused to back down. “You heard me. You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect either. I would much rather you just tell me when something is bothering you than do that thing Harper was talking about. I prefer honesty and think it’s a two-way road. If I’m doing something irritating, I want you to tell me. If you do something irritating, I’ll do the same.”

  Molly balked. “I’m not sure I want to know that you find parts of my personality irritating. Isn’t that a surefire trip to fightland?”

  “Couples fight.” Eric was matter-of-fact. “That’s what they do. The key is to move past those fights with a stronger relationship. I thought we were both on the same page there.”

  “We are.” Molly chewed on her bottom lip before turning back to Harper. “Do you and Jared fight?”

  Harper nodded. “We do. It’s usually nothing major, but we definitely fig
ht. I don’t think you can have a real relationship without fighting.”

  “Just this afternoon they fought over why Jared doesn’t want to marry her,” Zander offered helpfully. “I was there and it was ugly.”

  Harper made a face. “We did not fight about that.”

  “You did so.”

  “We did not!”

  “Not that I want to get in the middle of this because I’m worried it’s going to turn into war, but why aren’t you guys getting married?” Eric asked, raising his hands to quiet Harper and Zander before they got full heads of steam and tipped the conversation in a direction no one wanted to follow. “I would think the normal thing to do was get engaged and then move in together. Is there a reason you’re not doing things that way?”

  “Yes.” Zander was somber. “It’s that whole cow and getting the milk for free thing. I’m afraid Harper has fallen prey to it.”

  “That did it.” Harper moved to get to her feet, but Molly wisely shoved her boss back down before Harper could gain her balance.

  “Let’s not fight,” Molly suggested. “There’s no reason to fight over this. If Jared hasn’t proposed yet, he must have a good reason.”

  “He does,” Harper agreed. “The house across the way opened up and it was absolutely perfect for our needs. We couldn’t risk letting it go. We might be doing things a little backward, but that doesn’t mean we’ll end up in a bad spot.

  “That house is absolutely perfect for us and there’s only one house that fits the bill,” she continued. “We need the house. Now we have the house. The other stuff will happen when it’s supposed to happen.”

  “And you really believe that?” Molly couldn’t help being impressed. “You really believe things happen because they’re supposed to happen, don’t you?”

  “I deal with ghosts and death on a regular basis,” Harper replied. “I think I have to believe in a world order or I would go crazy. As for Jared and me, I’m happy. I don’t remember ever being this happy before. Why wouldn’t that be enough for me?”