Ghostly Distress (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 9)

by Lily Harper Hart

  The look Gary graced Harper with was almost piteous. “Well, maybe you have a brain tumor like I do. I would suggest going to the doctor to have yourself checked out but you’re not going to be around long enough to do it and I don’t want to give you false hope.”

  Harper swallowed hard. That was a lot of information to digest in one rambling statement. “Tumor? You have a brain tumor?”

  Gary bobbed his head. “Inoperable. In six months, I won’t even be able to stand on my own. Three months after that I’ll be bedridden. Three months after that I’ll be worm food.”

  “Thanks for that bright and shiny outlook on life,” Harper muttered, shaking her head. “How do you know you have a brain tumor?”

  “Because I went to the doctor when I started seeing ghosts,” Gary replied matter-of-factly. “They were everywhere. I couldn’t even walk out my door without seeing them. I knew something was wrong.

  “At first, my doctor thought I was having some sort of mental breakdown,” he continued. “He suggested lithium … and maybe even a stint in a locked ward for a bit so I could talk about what I was seeing with a licensed professional. I was so adamant, though, he eventually delved deeper. That’s when he found the tumor.”

  Harper was legitimately confused. “But Maggie is really here.” She gestured toward the quiet ghost, who gazed on her killer with furious eyes but otherwise remained silent. “I can see her, too, and I don’t have a tumor.”

  “So you think.”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s true,” Harper countered. “I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was a little kid. I’ve been in the hospital a few times since then, too. I doubt very much I’ve been living with a tumor for the bulk of my life without anyone noticing.”

  Gary tilted his head to the side, considering. “I guess that’s a fair point. I see ghosts because of my tumor, though. I know it.”

  “But … if we’re seeing the same ghost, how is that possible? Maybe you have a tumor and you can see ghosts. Perhaps those two things aren’t related. Have you ever considered that?”

  Gary immediately started shaking his head. “No. Ghosts aren’t real.”

  Harper felt as if she was mired in quicksand and sinking rapidly. “I’m really lost here, Gary, so I need you to start from the beginning. I want to help you and I’m not sure I can do that if I don’t understand what you’re thinking and feeling.”

  “It’s fairly simple. What I’m thinking is that I’m going to have to kill you or spend the rest of my life – however short – in prison. No one wants that. What I’m feeling is that your voice is like nails on a chalkboard and I want you to shut up.”

  “That’s not very helpful.”

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to be helpful. When did we agree upon that?”

  Harper bit back a sigh and tried to ignore how sweaty her palms were. She had a chance to get out of this. She merely had to wait for an opening. “I need to know why you killed Maggie,” she said, changing tactics. “I didn’t suspect you. Not even a little. I need to know why you would possibly want to kill a girl you didn’t even know.”

  “What makes you think I didn’t know her?”

  “She told me you didn’t.”

  “Ah, well she’s right. I didn’t know her.” Gary’s hands were devoid of a weapon but that didn’t mean he wasn’t armed. Harper watched him closely – paying particular attention to the waistband of his khakis as he shifted his hips back and forth – and prayed he was unarmed so she would have an easier chance of overpowering him. “I wasn’t looking for her in the cemetery that night. In fact, I thought she was someone else entirely.”

  The words were like a punch in the gut to Harper as Gary’s eyes suggestively snagged with hers. “You thought she was someone else?” Harper cast Maggie a sidelong look. The girl was young, in her twenties, and tall. She had shoulder-length blond hair and slim hips. Realization hit Harper like a brick to the head. “You thought she was me.”

  “And, finally, you’re starting to catch on,” Gary intoned, his eyes gleaming. “I was indeed there looking for you. That was the day my doctor gave me my prognosis. I knew I was sick before, you see, but I kept telling myself I would somehow be able to survive what was to come.

  “I knew odds weren’t in my favor, but I really believed things would get better once I knew what was wrong with me,” he continued. “I thought I would have to undergo an operation and a long recovery, but after that the ghosts would be gone. Unfortunately, my tumor is too big. There is no operation that can save me.”

  “And I’m legitimately sorry about that,” Harper offered. “It doesn’t seem fair that you should suffer this way and then be told there’s no way out. That still doesn’t explain why you killed Maggie. That doesn’t explain why you’re here threatening me now.”

  “I killed Maggie because I thought she was you. I already told you that. I went to the cemetery to talk to my parents – they’ve been gone a number of years now – and I was really upset. I wanted someone to make things better, even if they weren’t really there. I needed to talk things out. Then I saw you.”

  Harper frowned. “You thought you saw me.”

  “You were walking through the cemetery and all I saw was red,” Gary explained. “I saw red and went to chase you down, only it wasn’t you. I realized too late it was someone else, but I was so angry I couldn’t stop myself from taking out my frustration anyway.”

  Harper felt sick to her stomach. “You strangled her.”

  “She almost looked like you while I did it. That made me feel better.”

  “And that’s why you were on the tour the following night,” Harper supplied. “You wanted to be the one to discover her body. You wiped her down with cleaning supplies, those germ wipes you get at the grocery store, but you needed to be sure no one would question you should some of your DNA be discovered. That’s why you went off in the direction you did even though it didn’t make sense.”

  “Pretty much.” Gary wasn’t bothered by Harper’s tone. “I knew once I killed her that I had to cover my tracks. A brain tumor isn’t going to keep me out of prison and I have a lot of living I want to do in the next six months.”

  “What about the living I wanted to do?” Maggie asked, her voice raspy. “I had a lot of living I wanted to do, too.”

  “From what I can tell, you were a drain on society,” Gary replied, blasé. “You would’ve ended up trying to trap a man with a pregnancy to steal his money and then probably gone on welfare or something. I don’t think the world is weeping over your demise.”

  Harper was insulted on Maggie’s behalf. “She was young. You don’t know what she would’ve grown to be. All you know is that you were angry with me and I don’t even understand why you were feeling that way.”

  “You don’t understand?” Gary let loose with a low snarl. “You don’t understand why I was upset? How many of your stupid tours have I been on over the years?”

  Harper frantically did the math in her head. “I don’t know. Like five, at least I think.”

  “Try seventeen.” Gary was a man running out of patience, something his tapping foot clearly signified. “I went on my first tour four weeks after I saw my first ghost. I was looking for answers and saw your ad in the newspaper. I thought it was divine intervention.”

  “You never mentioned it, though,” Harper pointed out. “You never told me what you saw. How did you expect me to help you if I didn’t even know you were having a problem?”

  “What did you think all those long discussions were about?” Gary challenged. “Did you honestly think I wanted to discuss the nature of the universe with you? I needed to know what was true. Whenever I asked you a question – like how did you manage to get your power in the first place – you completely ignored me. No, that’s being kind. It was more that you rolled your eyes and verbally swatted me away.”

  Harper wanted to argue with the assertion, but she wasn’t sure she could. She remembered being frustrated with Gary to t
he point where she and Zander made fun of him behind his back. She remembered rolling her eyes so many times when the man opened his mouth that she’d honestly turned it into a game of sorts. The realization didn’t make her proud.

  “Yeah. You’re remembering.” Gary was smug as he folded his arms over his chest. “I wasn’t at those tours because I had a crush on you like poor Colin, or because I was really interested in why that Randy Johnson douche spent all his time throwing grave decorations at people. I wanted answers on the bigger picture.”

  Harper felt beyond helpless. “And what made you think I would have those answers?”

  “You’re the expert, aren’t you? You’re the ghost hunter to end all ghost hunters. You’re such a real deal they’ve written about you in the newspaper. If you didn’t have answers for me, who was I supposed to turn to?”

  “I … .” Harper didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know. You were in a bad position. That doesn’t mean what you did to Maggie is right. It’s not forgivable.”

  “And what about what was done to me?” Gary challenged, his face twisting with anger as spittle formed at the corners of his mouth. “How is it fair that I saw ghosts and it caused me to have a brain tumor? Why did it happen to me?”

  “I think you’re tying one of those things to the other without proof,” Harper shot back. “Maybe you could always see ghosts and never realized it until recently. I always thought I saw my first ghost at five but, come to find out, that wasn’t true. I didn’t realize that until recently when I ran into a ghost I met long before I remembered seeing what I thought was my first ghost.

  “The same could be true of you,” she continued. “You might’ve been able to see ghosts your whole life but only realized it when you got sick because the veil between the two worlds was somehow thinner. That doesn’t mean that you’re dying because you can see ghosts.”

  “And it doesn’t mean I’m not.” Gary pressed his lips together as he regarded Harper. “I didn’t come here for you today. I want you to know that. I came here for her.” He pointed toward Maggie’s furious image. “I wanted to talk to her about what happened. It’s not that I needed to apologize or anything, mind you, but I figured I owed her some sort of explanation. She ran from me, though, and I find it interesting that she ran straight to you.”

  “And why do you find that interesting?”

  “Because you were the one I was looking for that night,” Gary replied honestly. “I was angry at you and I took it out on someone else. It made me feel better. Can you imagine, knowing that, how much better I’m going to feel after exerting my anger on a real target this time? It’s as if fate intervened.”

  Harper was taken aback and took another step away from the crazed man, inadvertently running into the bar. “This isn’t fate. This is your madness.”

  “I think I’m fine with that.” Gary reached into his pocket. Harper wasn’t sure what he was trying to grab, but she realized she was officially out of time. “Now, if you could stand still, this will be a lot easier.”

  “I don’t think so.” Harper moved to scramble away from the bar, but she didn’t get a chance because another figure appeared in the open doorway. This one was taller, his footing uneven, and he looked absolutely furious. “Zander?”

  Gary sensed they were no longer alone and moved to swivel, but it was already too late. Zander smashed the branch he carried – something he must have picked up outside – against the back of Gary’s head and caused him to pitch forward. He lashed out again as Gary staggered, just to make sure.

  Zander swiped at the blood along the side of his face, grimacing at the grime and filth on his fingers, and then sneered at Harper. “You’re welcome.”

  Harper exhaled a shaky breath. “I … thank you. Are you okay?”

  “I need a doctor.”

  “I’ll call right now.” Harper’s fingers shook as she tried to look anywhere but at Gary’s crumpled body. “He’s not dead, is he?”

  “No, but he deserves to be. He hit me from behind. He deserves a lot more than I gave him.”

  “I’ll call for help.”

  “Good.” Zander slowly sank to the floor, ignoring the dirt and focusing his full attention on Gary. “Now that I’m your hero, I think we should talk about the color pink while waiting for the cavalry.”

  Harper knew he was talking simply to have something to focus on so she decided to give him what he needed … an argument. “Don’t push me.”

  “Oh, I think I’ve earned a fantastic shade of pink.”

  “It’s not going to happen.”

  “Just you wait.”

  21

  Twenty-One

  “How do I look?”

  Zander stepped out of his bedroom shortly after five the next day and offered Harper, Shawn, and Jared an expectant look. His head injury – which the doctor said he was lucky to have survived with no ill effects – forced a change in costume. The cowboy hat he wore, full of pink and purple sparkles, made Harper smile.

  “You look like a rhinestone cowboy.”

  “That’s exactly what I was going for.” Zander let out a groan as he settled on the couch next to Shawn and rested his feet on the coffee table. “When are we leaving for the town party?”

  “It doesn’t start for another hour,” Harper reminded him. She was halfway prepared – her fairy makeup highlighting her angular features – but she’d yet to slip into the pretty costume and instead preferred lounging around in her robe. “We’ll be on time. Don’t worry.”

  “Do I look worried?”

  He looked tired, Harper internally noted. She’d been a nervous wreck when calling for help the previous day and refused to leave Zander’s side until the doctor assured her he wasn’t going to lose consciousness and never wake up. That was long after Jared and Shawn showed up to offer emotional support, both of them realizing quickly that Harper needed to focus on Zander so Gary’s motivations for murder wouldn’t cause her to melt down.

  “We were talking about Gary,” Shawn volunteered, ignoring the dark look Harper shot him as he stroked his hand over Zander’s forearm. “It seems he’s claiming to be innocent despite admitting everything to Harper. Jared was just telling us about this morning’s interrogation.”

  “I thought Gary was in the hospital,” Zander said, distaste evident. “He was claiming memory loss from when I hit him last time I checked.”

  “He’s still claiming that,” Jared supplied. “He says he has no idea why he was at the barn and has no recollection of attacking Harper.”

  “He didn’t technically attack me,” Harper pointed out. “He was gearing up to do it when Zander swooped in and saved me.” She offered her best friend a frothy smile. “My hero.”

  “Ugh.” Jared made a face. “How long are you going to keep placating him by calling him that?”

  “Until he stops demanding a pink kitchen in return for his heroics,” Harper replied.

  “Oh, I’ll never give up on that.” Zander managed a flirty wink. “I’ve yet to begin to fight on that front.”

  “I can’t tell you how much dread that fills me with,” Jared supplied, running his fingers over Harper’s hand as he leaned back in his seat. “As for Gary, I’m not sure how much his sudden memory loss is going to matter. The doctor checked him over and he wasn’t lying about having an inoperable brain tumor.”

  Harper wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about that. “Is it wrong that part of me feels sorry for him?”

  “No. I think we all feel sorry for him. He still murdered an innocent woman.” Jared lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the palm. “You have a big heart. That’s one of the first things I noticed about you … besides how smoking hot you are. I think it’s normal to feel sympathy for someone in Gary’s position.”

  Harper snorted as Zander rolled his eyes.

  “Maggie is still dead,” Jared pointed out. “She’ll never have a chance to be more than what she turned out to be. I think that’s as sad as what’s happen
ing to Gary.”

  “Speaking of Maggie, you never really got into a lot of detail about what happened with Heather,” Shawn pointed out. “What did she have to say about her actions?”

  “She said that she was reticent about sleeping with Mark, but she agreed to do it because she didn’t want to be left out in case Maggie and Danny actually managed to pull off their plan,” Jared replied. “It wasn’t that she wanted to rob the bank as much as she didn’t want to be the person who didn’t get rich from robbing the bank.”

  “That’s pretty sad, too,” Harper said.

  “It is,” Jared agreed. “She’s been fired, by the way. She threatened Mark with telling his wife about the affair if he didn’t back down, but he had no choice. He has a fiduciary responsibility to the bank clients so Heather had to go.”

  “Do you think Heather will tell his wife?” Shawn asked. “I mean … I don’t know her. Is she that sort of person?”

  “A week ago, I would’ve said no,” Harper answered. “Everything I’ve learned about both Heather and Maggie this week makes me think otherwise. I think it’s entirely possible Heather will tell Mark’s wife about the affair. Of course, since Mark is a big cheater, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for him.”

  “I hate it when things work out this way,” Zander lamented as he stared at the ceiling. “I much prefer it when the ghosts we’re supposed to help are innocent and we can be sure we’re doing good.”

  “Ezra was innocent,” Harper pointed out. “In fact, after witnessing what happened in the barn yesterday, he said that made his decision to cross over easier. He doesn’t care how annoying his wife was in life – and he stressed she was really mean and bitter when she wanted to be – he thinks being with her is better than being alone.”

  “When are you going over there to help him cross over?” Jared asked. “I’ll go with you when it’s time. I don’t want you going to that barn alone.”

  “I already helped him cross over while you were busy at the hospital this morning.”

  Jared wrinkled his forehead. “Why would you do that without me?”