Ghostly Ordeal

by Lily Harper Hart

  “How did you identify it as the mother-in-law?”

  “There was a photo on the wall.”

  “Ah.” The ghost thing was still hard for Mel to wrap his head around. He’d known Harper since she was a small child, believed in her abilities, and was genuinely very fond of her. That didn’t mean he could get behind the idea of rampaging ghosts running around and causing trouble. His mind simply refused to accept it. “How will you handle the situation?”

  “We’ll simply trap her in a dreamcatcher and send her over. I even have one handy.” Harper dug in her pocket until she came back with one of the handmade dreamcatchers she designed to help lost spirits cross over. “I thought I might need to use it on Carl, but I guess I didn’t get that lucky.”

  “He’s not here, right?” Jared looked around for confirmation. He couldn’t see ghosts but there were times he swore he could feel them.

  “He’s not,” Harper agreed. “I don’t know where he is. I don’t really miss him. I guess I could look later if you want, though. We still need to figure out what’s in that new will. He might be the only one who can tell us at this point.”

  “Don’t worry about that ... at least for now.” Jared crossed to her and kissed her upturned mouth. “You do what you need to do for work. I don’t want you worrying about this. We’ll ... figure it out.”

  Harper wasn’t convinced. “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. We have three suspects. I guess we’ll just have to break it down.”

  “That sounds like a place to start.”

  WHEN THEY GOT BACK TO the office, Jared and Mel made a plan. They were going to whiteboard everything they had on all their suspects and go from there. That meant Gloria as well, something Mel hated to bring up. Jared barely batted an eyelash when he did, though.

  “No, I get it.” He was calm as he grabbed a marker and moved to the board. “For all we know, she could’ve somehow trapped him into changing his will so she’s the sole beneficiary. I think she might have that power over certain men.”

  Mel snorted, genuinely amused. “I would never underestimate her.”

  Jared blocked off the board into four parts and then started writing. “Okay, under Gloria, we have the fact that she fought with the deceased hours before his death.”

  “She also returned and was in the house a significant amount of time before calling you,” Mel pointed out. “Have we ever figured out why she did that?”

  “Um … no.” Jared furrowed his brow. “That’s a good question. I haven’t seen her to ask. Ever since Phil announced he was taking her to his house until she felt better, I’ve simply been so happy to have her out from under my roof I didn’t think to bother her with questions.”

  “So, maybe we should call her in here.”

  Jared shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable. “I guess we should do that. She’s going to put up a fight.”

  “Yeah, well, she needs to tell us the truth.” Mel was firm. “We could pretty much cut her out as a suspect if it weren’t for those two things. I mean … what are the odds Carl changed his will so she’s the beneficiary? He’d only been dating her for a few weeks.”

  “And the way Elliot made it sound, he was well aware the relationship wouldn’t last. He was only in it for the fun of it and had no doubt that it would be over once he got bored.”

  “That means it doesn’t make sense for him to make Gloria the beneficiary.”

  “No. Plus, Elliot said he contacted him two months ago about changing the will. He only finished the job two weeks ago. He wasn’t dating Gloria when he decided to change it.”

  “Another good point. Hold on.” Mel had his cell phone in his hand. “I’m messaging Phil. I told him that we need her in here to answer a few more questions and that she’s not under arrest. If he doesn’t message back in an hour, we’ll go looking for her.”

  “That should go over well.”

  “There’s nothing else we can do.”

  Since he agreed, Jared returned to the board. “Next up is Fran.” He felt bad for writing down her name, but they could hardly rule her out as a suspect. “She has no alibi other than work. We called and confirmed that she was at work during the run-up to the murder but not during the overnight hours. She left late that evening but had plenty of time to kill Carl.”

  “You’ve met that woman. Do you think she’s honestly capable of killing Carl?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so but … people have been known to do strange things when pushed to their limits. I don’t fancy myself a murderer, but I would kill to protect Harper. What if Fran found out that Carl was going to take Junior out of his will for some reason? That might’ve pushed her over the edge.”

  “I can see that.” Mel rubbed his forehead as he internally debated the possibility. “I have trouble picturing her doing it in my mind. I mean … after that first blow, he probably wouldn’t have been able to defend himself. If she took him by surprise, I can see that. I just don’t know what to think.”

  “I don’t want to believe it’s her either,” Jared acknowledged. “I don’t see where we have much of a choice, though. He screwed her over so badly that she very well could’ve tamped down her rage for years. Maybe she told herself it would all be worth it because Junior was going to be okay and then she found out the opposite.”

  “Even if Carl removed him from his will, though, that doesn’t mean Junior won’t be okay. He’s about to finish law school. His grandparents paid for that so he’s not in the hole. He seems like a good man who genuinely cares about his mother. Heck, he still visits his cranky grandmother even though I’m going to bet that woman hasn’t done a lot for him over the years.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to bet that, too.” Frustration welled up as Jared started making notes. “Technically, we have to list revenge as one of the motives under Fran. I’m willing to bet, if it is her, she did it to protect Junior. She might’ve figured that was her only shot to make sure he got everything she could never give him.”

  “Something that will make her a sympathetic figure to any jury,” Mel noted. “They might let her off on a manslaughter charge or something.”

  “While I don’t want anyone to get away with murder, I would almost relish it if she did.” Jared moved to the next slot on his list. “That brings us to Junior. From his perspective, he might have a lot of rage built up where his father is concerned. I haven’t seen anything from him to indicate that, but I think it’s entirely possible. Maybe he’s adept at hiding it.”

  “I have to tell you, if my father ever did to my mother what Carl did to Fran, I might have a bit of anger myself,” Mel admitted.

  “I would’ve picked a fight with my father a long time ago under the same circumstances.”

  “We have to take the ransacking of Carl’s house into consideration, though,” Mel pointed out. “I have to think that means our culprit was looking for something very specific. Was Junior aware of the will potentially being changed?”

  “Um … I can’t remember.” Jared thought hard. “He was in that room with Harper for hours yesterday. She knew we were going to talk with Elliot. I texted her updates. I guess it’s possible she told him.”

  “But is it likely?”

  “No. I can text her, though. It might take her a little bit to get back to me if she and Zander are working but as soon as she sees the message, she’ll respond.”

  “That’s good.” Mel cracked his fingers and exhaled heavily. “Junior would be strong enough to kill Carl. He probably wouldn’t even need to take him by surprise.”

  “Yeah, but the medical examiner said that there were no defensive wounds on Carl. To me, that seems to indicate that he didn’t expect an attack. So, what? Does that mean that Junior walked into his house in the middle of the night, woke him up, and Carl didn’t expect anything even at the end?”

  “Your tone makes me think you don’t believe that’s a legitimate possibility.”

  “I don’t
. I think if Junior let himself into Carl’s house in the middle of the night that Carl would’ve realized he was in trouble. Of course, there’s always the possibility Carl didn’t think Junior was a threat simply because he’d beaten him down so much over the course of his life.

  “Harper said that Carl was acting smug and superior to Junior, degrading him. She seems to think that Carl got off on being a jerk to his own son,” he continued. “If he didn’t see Junior as a threat, he might not have been leery if he was the one who showed up that night.”

  “When did Harper say this about Carl and Junior?” Mel furrowed his brow, confused. “Did she spend time with them I don’t know about?”

  “No, it happened yesterday.”

  Mel made a face. “You mean that Carl’s ghost was doing and saying things.”

  “I believe that’s what I said.”

  “And I believe we can’t use hearsay from a ghost to make our case.”

  Jared shot him a quelling look. “Let’s not have this argument, okay? I happen to believe Harper. If she says Carl was being dismissive to his son, I see no reason for her to lie.”

  “I didn’t say she was lying.”

  “No, but you insinuated it. Let’s focus on this and I will refrain from bringing up ghosts for the rest of the afternoon. How does that sound?”

  “Freaking heavenly.”

  Jared smirked as he moved to the last square. “That leaves Agatha. She’s elderly, recovering from a stroke, and doesn’t have the money to hire a hitman as far as we can tell.”

  “The hitman angle bothers me for a different reason, and it doesn’t matter who would’ve hired him,” Mel admitted. “A hitman would’ve come in and popped him in the head once with a bullet. Maybe he would’ve used a knife if he wanted to stay quiet and didn’t have a silencer. He wouldn’t have stabbed him five times, though.”

  “No, that indicates a crime of passion,” Jared agreed. “In my head, I see him arguing with someone. That someone loses his or her head and stabs him. Then they either went into a frenzy or simply wanted to make sure he was really dead so he couldn’t live to tell the tale. I’m leaning toward frenzy, though.”

  “I’m right there with you.” Mel’s expression was thoughtful as he studied the board. “I think whoever took out Carl that night was enraged. Unfortunately, I don’t see how we can rule anyone out given that. With these four suspects, any of them could’ve lost their minds.”

  “We have to start whittling them down.”

  “How do you suggest we do that?”

  “I have no idea.”

  GLORIA AND PHIL STOMPED INTO the police station shortly after lunch. Gloria’s eyes were filled with fire and Phil looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else. Still, he held firm at Gloria’s side and didn’t back down when she started screeching.

  “What is the meaning of the text you sent Phil?” she snapped, her temper on full display. “How dare you demand he bring me here.”

  “I don’t believe that’s the way I phrased it,” Mel replied calmly. “I simply told him that we needed to speak with you again and asked him to call me so we could set up a time. I had no idea he intended to bring you down here.”

  “Oh, well, you had no idea.” Gloria fanned her face, which was red from exertion. “What do you vultures want now? I mean … haven’t you taken enough from me? I don’t have any dignity left. You’ve stripped it all from me. I’m a bare wreck.” She dramatically threw herself into the chair across from Jared’s desk.

  “Oh, geez.” Jared rolled his eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I would swear you’re Zander’s mother. I wondered where he learned that ‘woe is me’ crap he spouts. Obviously he learned it from you.”

  “Oh, suck it.” Gloria made a face and focused on Mel. “What is it that you want?”

  “We have to talk to you,” Mel replied. “We need to know what you were doing at Carl’s house in the time between when you found his body and when you called Harper.”

  Gloria was taken aback. “Excuse me? I believe I told you that I was in shock.”

  “And I don’t believe you.” Mel was matter-of-fact. “Gloria, you’re many things, but you don’t shrink in the face of hard times. You did something in that house. I want to know what it is.”

  She moved her jaw but didn’t immediately speak.

  “It’s important, Gloria,” Jared prodded. “It’s important to you, of course, because we would really like to clear you. It’s most important to Harper, though. It hurts her to think that you could potentially go to jail. Now, I don’t care if you enjoy playing games. For once in your life, I would appreciate it if you did what was right for her.”

  Gloria stared, unblinking, for what felt like a long time. Finally, she heaved out a sigh. “If you must know, I was searching his upstairs rooms for the tickets he bought to the bar association gala next week.”

  Jared was confused. “What?”

  “I don’t have time to find another date,” she explained. “Besides, I actually paid for those tickets because he was the cheapest man alive. There’s no way I was just going to leave them there.”

  Jared didn’t even know what to say so he looked to Mel for help. “Did she just say what I think she said?”

  Mel nodded. “Yes. She was looking for party tickets in a dead man’s house.”

  “Oh, well, that’s what I thought she said.” Jared slapped his hand to his forehead. “Please don’t let Harper end up like her twenty-five years from now. Please.”

  Mel was amused. “Are you praying?”

  “Yup.”

  “If you’re going to pray, remind God that I’m forty-four,” Gloria said. “I’m only fourteen years older than Harper … at least as far as everybody else in town knows. I want that rumor to spread and stick for a change.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it.”

  Eighteen

  Harper was stiff and dirty when she got back to the office to drop off the equipment. She and Zander flipped a coin to see who would be responsible for logging it back in … and she lost. She wasn’t happy, especially since she was the one who did most of the running around at Eleanor’s house to catch the ghost, who not surprisingly did not want to be caught.

  The ultimate takedown happened in the attic, which was dusty and full of cobwebs. Since he claimed he was allergic to cobwebs – a dastardly lie – Zander refused to do more than stick his head through the opening and shout out encouragement. In the end, it took almost a full hour to trap the feisty mother-in-law, who swore up and down she was only doing bad things to Eleanor once a month as payback for the years she was married to her son.

  Harper didn’t believe her and a fight ensued. Harper was so relieved when she finally trapped the ghost with the dreamcatcher that she almost took the equipment home without checking it in. She’d only done that once before and somehow lost an expensive EMF monitor in the process, so she knew better.

  The office was quiet when she let herself in through the front door. It was after closing time and Molly and Eric were long gone. She didn’t bother locking the front door. She knew she wouldn’t be long. Instead, she carried the equipment to the storeroom, marked each item off the list as she returned it to the allocated slot, and then hurried back the way she came.

  She was almost to the door before she realized someone was standing on the other side of it … and it wasn’t a ghost.

  “Who are you?” It was dark enough Harper couldn’t make out his features and she wisely took a step back, internally cursing herself for not taking the time to flick the lock. Zander and Jared would get on her about that … that is if something terrible wasn’t about to happen.

  “It’s me.” The voice was decidedly male, but she’d already figured out that for herself because of his broad shoulders.

  “You’re going to need to be more specific.”

  “Carl Gibbons, Jr.”

  “Oh.” Harper let loose the breath she’d been holding and cocked her head to the side. “What are yo
u doing here?”

  “I need to talk.”

  “About?”

  He pointed toward the window. “You talk to ghosts, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want to talk to my father.”

  “I see.” Harper wisely made sure she kept as much distance between her and Junior as possible as she circled to her desk. She had a taser in the drawer. Jared gave it to her as a gift for Christmas. She had no idea if it was even charged, but she didn’t have anything else that even resembled a weapon close enough to grab. “And what do you want to talk to him about?”

  “I want to know why he was the way he was.” Junior’s face was still shrouded in shadows, but his voice was low and mournful. “I want to make sure I don’t have it in me to be that way, too. You don’t think it’s genetic, do you?”

  Harper’s heart went out to him. At the same time, she didn’t trust him. “I don’t think that’s genetic. If genetics were the most important thing that played into personality I would be chasing lawyers looking for someone to date like my mother or living on the beach so I could get away from responsibility like my father.”

  “Yeah. You don’t have great parents either.”

  “I don’t have terrible parents,” she countered, sliding into her desk chair and keeping a firm gaze on a man she desperately wanted to be lost and searching rather than hunting. “You had it much worse in the father department. My father was simply … goofy. He was there for me most of the time, though. He always had an ear to listen and still does to this day.”

  “That’s how my mother is, although she’s not really goofy.”

  “I don’t know your mother. I don’t think I’ve ever met her. Jared has met her, though. He likes her a great deal. He says that most women wouldn’t have been able to pick themselves up and start over like your mother did. He said she was remarkable.”

  “My mother is remarkable. She always took care of me, made sure I got the best she could possibly give even if she had to go without herself. I didn’t even realize how bad we were off until I was in middle school. She was working eighty hours a week to get by and still trying to help me with my homework when she could.”