“I think that someone killed Maggie,” Jared replied evenly. “I think that you and Maggie were plotting something and that you already started implementing the plan so there was a chance you decided to cut Maggie out of the final payout simply because you were doing the work.”
“I … what?” Heather worked her jaw. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“Mark,” Mel supplied. “You seduced Mark because you wanted access to the vault key. You didn’t know the vault needed two keys or you wouldn’t have gone that route. You latched onto Maggie’s plan to steal a key from Mark, though. Don’t bother denying it.”
Heather swallowed hard. “I think I need a lawyer.”
“Maybe,” Jared conceded. “Of course, you guys didn’t really rob the bank and, according to Mark, you didn’t steal his key. So far all you’ve done is talk big and chat about a plan that could never have worked.”
Heather knit her eyebrows, frustration evident. “I told Maggie this was a stupid idea from the beginning. She refused to listen to me, though. Even worse than that she went off and got herself killed and left me behind to clean up the mess. That is so … Maggie.”
Jared managed to keep his face calm even as he internally crowed at Heather’s capitulation. “Why don’t you start from the beginning.”
“Fine. I’m not sorry Maggie is dead, though. I can’t be. She caused all this trouble and left it for me to clean up. I’m mad at her.”
“I can see that.”
“That doesn’t mean I killed her, though,” Heather added. “That’s not who I am.”
“Tell us the story and we’ll decide where to go after that,” Mel instructed. “We need to know everything, though. Don’t leave out anything.”
“Fine. I’ll start from the beginning.”
HARPER FOUND EZRA SOON after entering the barn. She was happy to discover that someone – although she had no idea who – had been through the space with garbage bags and cleaning supplies since her visit earlier in the week.
“This looks better, huh?” Harper offered up a bright smile for Ezra as she dug in her satchel for a dreamcatcher and studied the taciturn ghost. “At least the kids came back and cleaned up. That has to make you happy.”
Ezra shrugged, noncommittal. He looked solid enough except for the times he drifted in front of the window and the bright sunshine caused him to all but evaporate. “I still don’t think they should be out here doing what they’re doing,” he complained. “Back in my day, that sort of thing never happened.”
“What never happened?” Harper was legitimately curious as she scuffed her foot against the dirt floor and knelt to take a look at the ground. “I don’t think I’m following you.”
“The fornication and debauchery,” Ezra hissed, his voice low. “That stuff didn’t go on when I was a youngster.”
Harper snorted. This was hardly the first time she’d heard something similar from a ghost who grew up in another generation. “Do you want to know something? I don’t believe that. I think you had just as much debauchery in your time as we do now. It just so happens that it occurred in different ways and there was no social media so it was easier to keep secret.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’ve heard the stories.” Harper straightened her shoulders. “Do you know who came in and cleaned up? I didn’t even hear who this year’s party organizers were. I guess that means I’m getting old.”
“I didn’t take time to learn their names,” Ezra replied, irritation bubbling up. “Why would I? They all look and sound the same to me. None of them have jobs. None of them have kids to care for even though they’re of proper breeding age. It’s unseemly.”
Harper didn’t want to laugh – if only because she knew it would further irritate Ezra – but she couldn’t stop herself. “I think you’re taking life way too seriously. Things are different now. Women don’t get married as soon as they graduate high school. They’re not simply looking for a husband to take care of them.”
“And what is wrong with marrying right out of high school? That’s when I got married.”
“I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it,” Harper clarified. “I’m saying things have changed. Women can be whatever they want in this brave new world … and that includes wives and mothers or businesswomen. Me, for example, I chose to use my gift to help ghosts. Back in the day, I’m sure a woman would’ve been locked up if she said she could see and talk to ghosts.”
“And rightly so,” Ezra muttered, eliciting a smile from Harper.
“I’m just saying that things aren’t the same as when you were alive,” Harper noted. “I would like to point out that you’re a ghost and I’m talking to you, so that proves I really do have a gift. That’s neither here nor there, though.
“As for times changing, you guys had parties and debauchery back in the day,” she continued. “You guys were much better about hiding it and keeping secrets, though. This is the information generation and everything they do or say gets put on Facebook. I don’t necessarily think it’s bad – although I’m not always for it – but it’s not something to get worked up about.”
“If you say so.” Ezra rolled his eyes as he drifted to the window and looked out at the empty property where his house used to stand. “You said you were going to come back and help me cross over. Is that what you’re doing now?”
“Pretty much.” Harper bobbed her head. “I didn’t want to forget you and I know you’ve been here a long time. I can help you go someplace better … I mean, if you want to.”
“And this better place, where is it? You’re talking about Heaven, right?”
Harper wasn’t sure how to answer. She was never comfortable discussing religion with charges. Heck, she wasn’t comfortable discussing religion with random people. She was a big fan of letting people believe what they wanted to believe. That didn’t mean avoiding Ezra’s question was wise or warranted.
“I don’t know,” she answered after a beat. “I’ve obviously never been there so I can’t say with any degree of certainty that it’s Heaven. I think that it probably is, though. I think it’s definitely a better place no matter what you call it.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Ezra looked genuinely interested.
“Because in the brief moments when I see it, all I feel is peace.” Harper opted for honesty. “It seems like a great place.”
“I don’t know.” Ezra mimed scrubbing his hand over the back of his head, a gesture Harper was certain he picked up in life and carried over to death. She found the idea that habits stuck with souls to be quaint and alluring. “What if I don’t like it over there?”
Harper held her palms out and shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you like it here?”
“I … this is my home.”
“Is it?” Harper challenged. “I’ve always thought of a home as a place where the people you love reside. Home isn’t a building … or a house. It’s not four walls and a roof. Home is where your heart is most comfortable.
“For you, I think that was the house you shared with your wife,” she continued. “I know that house is long since gone – and I’m going to guess your wife is, too – but that doesn’t mean you can’t go home again.”
Ezra adopted a thoughtful expression. “Do you really think my wife is on this other side you keep talking about?”
Harper nodded. “I think that’s a good bet. If you don’t want to cross over, though, I won’t make you.” She was sincere. “You’re not hurting anyone. You’re not terrorizing the populace. If you want to stay here, that’s your choice. I won’t force you to make a decision.”
“Well, that’s nice I guess,” Ezra grumbled, causing Harper to have to swallow a smile. “I need a moment to think, though. Can you give me a moment?”
“Absolutely.” Harper nodded and moved to the window, grinning when she saw Zander pacing in the high grass, his phone stuck to his ear. “I wonder who he’s talking to.”
&n
bsp; “Who?” Ezra followed her gaze. “Isn’t that your friend who likes boys? Why do you care who he’s talking to? I thought you were with the other guy.”
“I am with the other guy.” Harper dragged her eyes from the window and focused on Ezra. She half expected the ghost to say something derisive about Zander’s sexual orientation, but he merely looked thoughtful instead. “Ironically, though, my idea of Heaven would involve being with both of them on the other side even though Zander and I don’t roll that way.”
“I can see that.” Ezra’s tone wasn’t dismissive or judgmental. “You love him … just in a different way.”
“That’s exactly how I feel.” Harper desperately wanted Ezra to move on – mostly because she felt sorry for him being alone – but she didn’t want to push him before he was ready. “What do you think your wife has been doing all this time without you? Do you think she’s waiting on the other side? Do you think she’s been patient or agitated?”
Ezra held his palms out and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know how she’s been. If I had to guess, though, she’s probably been cursing my name while waiting for me. She was never known for her patience.”
“So maybe you shouldn’t keep her waiting any longer.”
“Maybe.” Ezra clearly wasn’t ready to make up his mind. “Tell me more about you. I listened that day you were out here with those two guys. My understanding is that you live with one of them but are moving in with the other. How come you just don’t marry the one guy?”
Now it was Harper’s turn to make a face. “Has Zander been out here telling you what to say to me? If he wasn’t afraid of dirt and bugs, I would almost think he had all of this planned.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. In fact … .” Ezra broke off, his gaze landing on a spot over Harper’s left shoulder.
Harper jerked her head in that direction, convinced she would find Zander waiting there as he tried to hurry her along. Instead, she met Maggie Harris’s steady gaze and frowned. “What are you doing here, Maggie?”
“I was looking for you.”
“Me?” Harper was legitimately surprised. “Why were you looking for me?”
“I remember what happened.”
“You do?” Harper’s heart rate ticked up a notch. “You remember who killed you? Who was it?”
“I was in the cemetery a bit ago.” Maggie seemed lost in thought. “He was there. He’s been there a lot over the past few days. I didn’t remember he was the one, though, until … well, today.”
Harper nodded encouragingly. “Okay. Who is it?”
“I don’t know his name.”
Harper’s lips curved down. “You don’t know the name of the man who killed you?”
Maggie shook her head. “He’s here, though. He followed me.”
Harper was ridiculously confused. “The man who killed you followed your ghostly form from the cemetery to here? I don’t understand. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“He’s like you.”
“Like me?” Harper licked her lips, unsure. “Do you mean he can see ghosts?”
Maggie nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean. He’s here. He came for me, followed me. He’s looking for you now, though.”
Even though her mind refused to grasp what Maggie was saying, Harper recognized fear when she saw it and she hurried back to the window so she could look out. Instead of seeing Zander’s reassuring figure, though, the area in front of the barn was completely empty … except for a car Harper didn’t recognize.
Her heart skipped a beat as multiple information sources collided.
“Who is it? Who followed you, Maggie?”
“I don’t know but he’s here … and he’s coming.” Maggie started to disappear. “I knew I was better off not remembering, by the way. I wish I would’ve followed my instincts.”
And just like that, Maggie was gone and the barn door was swinging open.
Harper swallowed hard. “Oh, this can’t be good.”
20
Twenty
Harper instinctively headed toward the door, her hand digging into her pocket for her phone. She was annoyed at Maggie’s disappearance, until the ghost suddenly reappeared with no warning and she walked directly through her, causing a chill. “What the … ?”
“You should run.”
Harper didn’t doubt that, but she couldn’t run until she knew exactly what she was dealing with. She focused on the door opening as she clumsily fumbled in her pocket for her phone.
“Who is here?”
It was a stupid question, but Harper felt a desperate need to fill the conversational gap. Maggie didn’t have a chance to answer – or brush off the question – because a figure appeared in the doorway. It was a familiar face, and it threw Harper for a loop.
“Gary?”
Of all the people she expected to find, Gary Conner was the last one on a rather short list. In fact, Harper was so dumbfounded she could do nothing but openly gape.
“Ms. Harlow.” Gary glanced around the barn, his eyes darting in a myriad of different directions. “I guess I should’ve realized you were in here when I ran into your friend outside.”
Zander! Harper’s heart gave a lurch. She didn’t understand what was going on but recognized she was in a vulnerable position. “Is he still out there?” Harper did her best to appear calm. “I’m surprised he didn’t call out to me when you pulled up. Did you talk to him?”
“He’s … otherwise engaged.” Gary’s demeanor was hard for Harper to read, but when his gaze landed on the spot to her left – the spot where Maggie’s ghost floated – Harper had the distinct impression that things were about to shift … and not necessarily in a good way. “You don’t have to worry about him. He’s out of the picture, so to speak.”
Gary’s chilling tone was enough to make Harper’s blood run cold. “Did you do something to him?”
“Oh, all manner of things.” Gary’s lips curved. “What are you even doing here? I must confess, this is not how I planned on spending my day.”
“It’s not how I planned on spending my day either.” Harper moved to her left when Gary took a tentative step forward, making sure to keep a reasonable distance between them. “I guess we’re both off our games, huh?”
“I never really considered this a game.” Gary kept his eyes on Harper’s face, his mouth moving occasionally, as if keeping up some internal debate only he could hear. “In fact, I came to you in the first place because I was having a crisis of faith. You kind of blew me off – that’s your way, though, isn’t it? – and now we’re here. I find the entire thing … interesting.”
Harper didn’t know what to make of the statement. “You killed Maggie, didn’t you?”
“I protected myself,” Gary corrected. “There’s a difference.”
“How so?”
“I didn’t go to that cemetery looking for her,” Gary answered, shifting a tad closer and forcing Harper to take a step in retreat. He seemed to be enjoying his power over her, something Harper wasn’t keen to spend too much time reflecting upon. “I didn’t expect to kill her that night, in case you’re wondering. I was as surprised as her when we crossed paths.”
Harper licked her lips as she debated how to proceed. The Gary Conner she knew from cemetery tours was not a killer. He was an annoying man who always seemed eager to engage in debates about the paranormal, always questioning the very existence of ghosts, but he was not a murderer. How he turned into the predator Harper could clearly see now was beyond her limits of understanding.
“So, she went to the cemetery after all,” Harper mused, buying time. “Did she drive herself there?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
“Okay.” Harper flicked her eyes to Maggie. “Did you drive to the cemetery?” Harper wasn’t putting on a show as much as testing Gary. She had a theory and she needed help from the two ghosts in the building to prove it.
Maggie nodded. “I drove there. I was supposed to meet someone
.”
“Danny Wood?”
Maggie widened her eyes. “How did you know I was seeing him?”
“Because Jared and Mel have been doing endless legwork,” Harper replied, shaking her head. “They know about your plotting with Jay Forrester and Danny Wood. They know that you were going to attempt to steal from the bank. They even know how some of those plans were – or were not, in this particular case – were shaking out.”
“I guess that’s supposed to make me feel bad, huh?” Maggie pursed her lips. “I don’t. That money in the bank was insured. No one was going to get hurt if I took it. Insurance companies are full of fat morons who do nothing but sit back and make money hand over fist. My plan was harmless.”
Harper opened her mouth to respond, but Gary beat her to it.
“Harmless, huh?” Gary made an odd sound in the back of his throat, as if he were trying to dislodge something stuck there. “People would’ve lost their jobs over that if you managed to carry it out. How is that harmless?”
Harper almost felt triumphant when Gary answered. Then she remembered her predicament. “You heard her.”
“What?” Gary’s face was blank.
“You heard her,” Harper repeated. “You can hear Maggie. She said you followed her here. Does that mean you can see her, too?”
“Oh, that.” Gary’s face reflected mild boredom and disinterest. “Yeah. I can see her, too. Is that important to you? I can see and hear her. It’s … ridiculous.”
“Why is it ridiculous?” Harper knew she needed to buy time. Jared was aware of her location, but he had no reason to believe she was in trouble. She had a phone in her pocket, but if she pulled it out with the intention to call her boyfriend, Gary was liable to react in a violent way. That meant she needed to put space between herself and Gary before making the attempt. To do that, she needed to lull him into a false sense of security. The only way she knew to achieve that was through conversation.
“Because ghosts aren’t real,” Gary replied simply. “They’re not real and I know it.”
Harper furrowed her brow. “You heard Maggie speak, though. You followed her from the cemetery to here. She’s real. I can see her, too.”
Ghostly Distress (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 9) Page 18