Harper was incredulous as she turned to Maddie. “Did you know he was doing this?”
“Of course not.” Maddie shook her head, beside herself. “There were rumors at the hospital that he was going to be disciplined for sexual impropriety with the nurses. I never heard anything about the patients, though. He would’ve been fired and brought up on charges if that rumor leaked.”
“Which is why he went into private practice,” Nick surmised. “He wanted to get out from under the watchful eye of the other doctors and nurses.”
“I guess.” Maddie rubbed her cheek. “This changes everything, though. Jared and Mel have been looking for a disgruntled patient, someone unhappy with the work done on them.”
“As if,” Morton scoffed. “I don’t do work worthy of complaint.”
“We need to be looking into the women he forced into a sexual relationship,” Harper agreed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “You know what, Dr. Disgusting, we’re going to need names. I expect you to start spitting them out.”
“Absolutely not,” Morton argued. “I’m bound by doctor-patient confidentiality.”
“You’re dead,” Maddie reminded him. “You no longer have to hold that oath.”
“That’s not how I see it.”
Maddie took a determined step toward him. “You’re going to tell us who you did this to whether you like it or not.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Then we’ll send you to the other place,” Harper replied, making up the lie on the spot. She had no idea if there was a hell to go with the Heaven she’d seen, but it didn’t matter. Morton didn’t know what was true either way. “You’re going to talk or we’re going to send you down under. It’s your choice.”
Morton straightened, fury kindling in the depths of his eyes. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Harper was in no mood for games. “Then you’re dumber than you look.”
17
Seventeen
Jared and Mel spread out the files on their office floor and then started digging, a notepad sitting between them so they could add names of potential suspects. It wasn’t the most streamlined attempt, but it worked so they stuck with it.
“Maggie James is on here,” Mel noted, breaking the silence that had hung over the room for a good thirty minutes.
“I don’t know who that is,” Jared said, glancing up.
“Yes, you do. She’s the woman who makes the pickle fries at the festival.”
Jared searched his memory. “Isn’t she like seventy?”
“There’s nothing wrong with a little age on a woman.” Mel’s tone was accusatory. “You’ll be seventy one day, too.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Jared shot back. “I just meant ... why would a seventy-year-old woman let herself get bullied by a piece of crap like Morton?”
“You were pointing out her age for a different reason and we both know it.”
The realization that his partner was right had Jared feeling guilty. “Fine, I did mean it that way. I wasn’t trying to be mean, though. It’s just ... if you picture a narcissist — and that’s what we’re clearly dealing with when it comes to Morton — it seems to me that he would go young and streamlined.”
“It says here he did quite a bit of work on Maggie. Maybe she looks streamlined under the hood.”
Jared made a face. “Now who is being crass?”
“That would be me. I don’t want to be ageist, but it makes very little sense to me that he would go this route, too. It seems to indicate that he’s some sort of sex fiend.”
“Maybe he identifies as a sex addict or something. That’s all the rage when a celebrity cheats and gets caught.”
“That’s true.” Mel cocked his head. “Maybe it’s the same thing, just on a sliding scale.”
“How so?”
“Morton wasn’t a celebrity in the grand scheme of things, but Whisper Cove is small. We have no legitimate celebrities. Harper would be the closest thing we have to a celebrity, and that’s only because she’s been in the newspaper multiple times.”
“You’re saying Morton was a big fish in a little pond and he got off on the power.”
“It didn’t matter who he got to lord that power over as long as he got to do it.”
“Hmm.” Jared opened another file. “Well, this is interesting. Barbara from the cemetery got some free work, too.”
“Is that so?” Mel perked up. “I would’ve thought they could afford whatever she wanted.”
“Harper was right. She had a lot of work done. We’re talking tummy tuck, facelift, breast spruce. She also had fat sucked out of her butt and injected into her lips. There’s some sort of neck thing listed here that I’m not exactly familiar with, too.”
“My sister keeps talking about getting one of those,” Mel replied. “It’s so the wrinkles right here go away.” He pointed to a spot in the middle of his chest. “She also wants her gobbler reduced. That’s how she put it.”
“You’re talking about Zander’s mother.”
“He didn’t get his sense of vanity by accident.”
Jared chuckled, and then sobered. “She didn’t consult with Morton, did she?”
Mel extended a warning finger. “Shut your filthy mouth!”
“I’m not suggesting that she did anything,” Jared countered. “I’m just saying, if he’d approached her with the option, she would’ve reported it to you, right?”
“Oh.” Mel scratched his chin and shrugged. “I guess she would’ve. I mean, I can’t see her taking it well if he broached that particular subject with her. She probably would’ve killed him herself.”
“Which means she never got that far into the process.”
“She always said she couldn’t afford it,” Mel explained. “Personally, I think she was afraid of getting a botched surgery. If she really wanted it, she could’ve made it happen. She’s one of those women who sets her mind to something and doesn’t stop until she gets exactly what she wants.”
“I think she passed along that trait to Zander.”
“Oh, look who’s talking.” Mel’s smirk was pronounced. “You’re marrying a woman who is used to getting whatever she wants. You’re basically going to be married to my sister in forty years.”
Since Jared had yet to meet Mel’s sister he had no idea if that was a compliment or a slam. “I like that Harper is determined and set in her ways. Sure, sometimes I wish she would bend a little — especially when it comes to Zander — but I fell in love with her knowing that I would never want to change her because she was already perfect.”
Mel shot him an incredulous look. “You’re such a sap.”
“And you talk big, something Zander clearly inherited from you. I know darned well that you find Harper entertaining.”
“I do. That doesn’t mean I need to hear your sappy nonsense.” Mel jerked a sheet of paper out of the file he was reading. “Here’s another one. Cady Barton. She paid for the initial surgery and then went for two other procedures after the fact.”
“How angry could she possibly be about those breasts if she went back?”
Mel held out his hands. “I have no idea. Maybe she was working him to fix her breasts. As it stands, she signed off on what she got. I think that means she had no grounds to sue him. If he was smart — which he was, in a diabolical way — he would’ve made her acknowledge the warnings he’d given her.”
“True.” Jared picked up another file. “Here’s one I wasn’t expecting, although she’s more the type I would’ve expected Morton to take advantage of. Little Pammy Haskell had a nose job and butt sculpting.” He looked up. “What’s butt sculpting?”
“It’s when you try to look like a Kardashian.”
“Why would you purposely try to do that?”
“I have no idea. They’re not my cup of tea. Now, those women on Southern Charm, they’re a different story.”
“Ugh.” Jared held up his hand. “Don’t gross me out.”
�
�If I have to listen to you go on and on about Harper, then you can listen to me go on and on about Kathryn. She’s perfection, with a delightful accent, and she’s extremely bitchy.”
“I didn’t know that did it for you,” Jared said dryly. “You learn something new every single day on this job.”
“Don’t give me any lip.”
“Pammy was on his schedule twice a month it looks like,” Jared said, smoothly changing the subject. “I’m betting Darren doesn’t know about that.”
“I’m thinking Darren wouldn’t want to deal with the sort of woman who purposely sought out Morton. He thinks Cady is high-maintenance — and she is — but that little thing that acts all sweet and innocent around him these days is going to be even worse in five years.”
“He can’t see that. It’s a veneer with Pammy. He doesn’t want to acknowledge that she’s fake.”
“I get more of a father-daughter thing between them.”
Jared made a face. “That is horrifying.”
“Okay, father-daughter might be the wrong comparison. How about student-teacher?”
Jared was bland. “Do you really think Darren is teaching her stuff? She strikes me as the one who knows what she’s doing in that relationship. She’d be the one doing the teaching, and he’d gladly let her because he’s fine with the ego stroke.”
“I don’t disagree. However, in his mind, he’s the one with all the cards. She’s simply a doting sidekick.”
“Do you think Darren is capable of murder if his perfect bubble with Pammy were about to burst? I mean ... say he found out that his girlfriend was sleeping with the local plastic surgeon twice a month? Would that be enough to cause him to kill?”
“I ... don’t know.” Jared was thoughtful. “Darren strikes me as the lazy sort. I’m going to guess that was the source of a lot of his problems with Cady to begin with. She wanted things done a certain way and he wasn’t capable of giving her what she wanted.
“I mean, he’s not exactly a go-getter,” he continued. “He wants to sit around, watch SportsCenter, grill on the weekends, and have his bubbly twenty-year-old girlfriend tell him what a stud he is. That’s all he wants.”
“Are you saying you don’t like it when Harper calls you a stud?”
“Zander is the one who uses the word stud all the time. Harper is a woman of substance, and it’s not a fair comparison. Harper knows who she is and what she wants to accomplish with life. She doesn’t expect others to give it to her. I’m not exactly lazy either.”
“I was just joking,” Mel offered by way of apology. “I get what you’re saying, though. Darren is more likely to ignore the problem for a time than do anything. He doesn’t seem attached enough to Pammy to want to kill for her.”
“I’m not sure he even loves her,” Jared agreed. “He loves the attention he gets from her, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no strong emotional attachment there.”
“Which means Pammy would be the suspect in that scenario. Can you see her breaking off a piece of fence and jamming it into a man’s chest?”
“Not really.” Jared was rueful. “I think it’s far more likely that she would play the victim and report Morton to the cops.”
“And if she had, no matter how unethical her actions were, Morton would be the one in trouble.”
“Maybe he lured her out there to talk to her and something happened. Maybe we’ve got it all wrong. Maybe he attacked whoever he was shaking down and they finally retaliated.”
“Now that right there is an interesting idea.” Mel extended his legs. “It’s possible he decided to meet one of his conquests in the cemetery — although that’s a really weird place for a tryst — and our killer balked. Maybe she told him it was over, he tried to force himself on her, and she protected herself the only way she could.”
“Why not stick around then?” Jared pondered. “Why not own up to the attack and walk away free and clear?”
“Embarrassment. I doubt any of these women want to own up to the fact that they traded sex for surgery. That’s going to be in all the newspapers, even if the names aren’t revealed, and in a community this small word is going to get out.”
“But how would our killer know that would become public?”
Mel held up the records. “There was a paper trail, even if it wasn’t an obvious one.”
“True.” Jared heaved out a sigh. “That’s all from my stack. Are you done?”
“Just one more.” Mel held up a sheet of paper. “Isn’t this Luther’s secretary?”
Jared squinted to better read the name on the top of the document as he leaned forward. “Lexie.”
“You said she’s having an affair with Luther, right?”
“I did.”
“Barbara used the same surgeon. Maybe there’s a tie there we’re not seeing.”
“I wouldn’t think Lexie would need any work. She’s young.”
“She used to have a hook for a nose.” Mel crooked his finger to demonstrate. “She wasn’t unattractive, but after the nose job she looked like a model. Everyone in town was talking about it. I remember.”
“Maybe she’s the one who killed Morton,” Jared said. “Maybe she decided to put all her eggs in Luther’s basket. She’s been pressuring Luther to leave Barbara. Maybe she tried to cut off her relationship with Morton, he balked and threatened to tell Luther, and she retaliated.”
“There are a whole lot of maybes in there.”
“Yeah.” Jared glanced at his phone when it dinged with an incoming text message.
Mel, reading the change in his partner’s demeanor, lifted his eyebrows. “Are they in trouble?”
“No, they’re talking to a ghost who basically just admitted his part in a dastardly plan to force women to have sex with him. They’re ticked and want us over there.”
“We’re kind of done here. Maybe we should see what the ghost has to say before figuring out our next move.”
“You read my mind.”
JARED AND MEL KNEW EXACLY WHERE TO go to find the others, although the configuration they found when tracking down the other faction seemed odd to them both, especially since it looked as if Nick was serving as some sort of shield.
“What’s going on?” Jared asked, glancing around. “Did someone else show up?”
“Not so far,” Zander replied. “Nick is going to fight a ghost if he doesn’t stop calling Maddie a Mary Sue, though, and Harper has actually taken a swing at the air a few times.”
“I wasn’t swinging at air,” Harper snapped. “I was swinging at that stupid tool!” Her face was red with fury. “If he wasn’t already dead I would kill him myself.”
Sensing trouble, Jared moved directly to her and brushed her wild hair out of her face. She looked to have been taking continuous swipes with her hands, to the point where it was poofed on top. “Hello, love of my life,” he drawled, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “How is your day going?”
“I hate him,” Harper hissed. “He’s an evil beast. Whoever killed him did us all a favor.”
“I don’t disagree.” Jared moved his eyes over the space behind her. “Where is he?”
“Over there.” Harper offered up a vague wave. “He’s been telling us about his sex addiction.”
“We saw that coming,” Mel intoned. “We’ve been going over the list of his victims at the office. Jared brought up the sex addiction thing. I’m not surprised he’s using it as an excuse.”
“I don’t have to make excuses,” Morton interjected. “It’s a real thing. I know. I’m a doctor.”
“You’re a doctor of stupid,” Harper snapped. “Just ... shut your mouth. I’m sick to death of your voice. I don’t want to hear another word from you.”
“This sounds like a fun exchange,” Mel offered. “Does anybody want to tell me exactly what’s going down here?”
Since Harper and Maddie refused to answer, Nick took it upon himself to respond. When he was finished, the detectives were as disgusted as the rest of
the group.
“Maybe we should write this one off,” Jared suggested. “This guy is no big loss.” He didn’t mean it, but he found he could barely think about the dead doctor without growing incensed.
“We can’t do that,” Maddie argued. “He might be a jerk. He was still murdered.”
“I know.” Jared shot her a sympathetic smile. “I was just talking to hear myself talk. I learned it from Zander.”
“Says the nipple king,” Zander muttered.
“Don’t make me beat you,” Jared warned. “As for the good doctor, I don’t suppose he knows who killed him, does he?”
“He says he can’t remember,” Harper replied.
“Do you have reason to think he’s lying?”
“No. It’s not uncommon for ghosts to have trouble remembering their deaths.”
“Well, we have some information.” Jared launched into the tale of his afternoon, explaining about how they found Janice and the fury she was exhibiting as she tore through the office. When he got to the part about the records, Maddie could do nothing but shake her head.
“You look so proud of yourself,” she said to Morton. “You really don’t think you’ve done anything wrong.”
“That’s because I haven’t.”
“You’re full of it.” Maddie blew out a sigh and folded her arms across her chest. “What are we going to do?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Jared said. “What if we get all of our suspects here, tell them that Morton’s ghost is present and wants to talk to them, and take it from there?”
“You want me to act as a conduit,” Harper mused.
“Do you have a problem with that? I promise I won’t let any of them attack you.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” Harper countered. “Morton was killed in the heat of the moment. Whoever was meeting him didn’t bring a weapon. That means he likely mouthed off and infuriated whoever it was.
“In a group setting like you’re suggesting, the anger won’t be as prevalent,” she continued. “It might be a relief to admit what was done. Whoever it is will do time in jail, of course, but it might not be a lot of time once Morton’s machinations are made public.”
Ghostly Graves: A Harper Harlow and Maddie Graves Mystery Page 18