Ghostly Ordeal Read online

  “I guess that’s possible.” Mel didn’t look convinced. “We’ll have to get a warrant to go through the files. I doubt we’re going to get that today. Until then, we can search the house for clues and let the medical examiner handle the body. After that, though ... .” He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to. Jared knew exactly what he wasn’t saying, and it was a heckuva lot.

  “I’m sure the suspect we’re looking for is in the files.” Jared hoped he sounded more certain than he felt. The more Mel talked, the more he wondered if Gloria would legitimately be considered a suspect. The idea terrified him for more than one reason. “Let’s not jump to conclusions before it’s necessary.”

  “Okay.” Mel held up his hands in capitulation. “For now, we’ll do things your way. We’re still going to have to question Gloria because she found the body ... and I’m the one who needs to do it because you’re engaged to her daughter. That makes you tainted goods as far as she’s concerned in this investigation.”

  That was a position Jared was happy to take. “You can question her. Try not to be too aggressive until we know more. Harper will blow up if she thinks that you believe her mother is a murder suspect.”

  “I’ve got everything under control. This isn’t my first time interviewing the relative of a friend. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

  Jared hoped that was true, but he couldn’t make himself believe it.

  Three

  Jared and Mel focused on their work, taking a step back when the medical examiner’s team entered and took over the scene. The man on duty was one they’d dealt with before. John Farber was the chief medical examiner and it was unusual for him to head out to a case … especially in inclement weather.

  “I’m surprised to see you,” Mel noted as he watched the action from behind the couch. “How did you end up with this duty?”

  “Half the staff called in because of the weather,” Farber replied, his gaze grim as he studied Gibbons. “I don’t think it’s going to be hard to ascertain how he died. See this wound here.” He indicated a messy spot to the upper left of the man’s chest quadrant. “That’s likely a direct blow to the heart. I’ll have to make sure when I cut him open but that’s my initial assumption.”

  Jared pursed his lips as he watched Farber’s aides work. “Can you tell us anything else?”

  Farber hiked an eyebrow. “Snow makes people crazy.”

  “Not that. I’m talking about the angle of the wounds. Do you think he was sitting down when he was attacked? Was he standing? Did the blows come from below?”

  Mel cast his partner a sidelong look. “Those are all good questions. They can’t be answered until he gets the body into the lab, though.”

  “That’s very true,” Farber agreed. “I don’t know if he was attacked on the ground or not.” He moved closer to the couch. “I don’t see any blood spatter here, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It’s a patterned couch and the pattern has some red in it.”

  Jared thought of the plaid couch he had at home and immediately started hating the fabric as much as Harper. “Well … just keep us informed.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Jared and Mel moved toward the door in unison. Even though he wasn’t looking forward to it, Jared knew what would come next. It was time to question Gloria … and the conversation wouldn’t be pleasant.

  “Do you know anything?” Harper asked. She was hovering in the doorway and she almost pounced on Jared when he stepped through the opening.

  “We know he’s dead,” Mel replied, earning a harsh look from the blonde. “We know he was stabbed multiple times. We need to get a warrant to go through his files, though, so that won’t come through until tomorrow at the earliest.”

  “Oh.” Harper moved closer to Jared. “What do you think?”

  She was anxious, Jared realized. She wanted him to reassure her that Gloria wasn’t a suspect. He wanted nothing more than to do that, but he’d promised never to lie to her … and he wasn’t about to start now.

  “I don’t know, Heart.” His fingers were gentle when they brushed her flaxen hair away from her face. Between the dry air, their afternoon romp, and the snow that dampened her hair before entering the house, she looked as if she was boasting an extreme case of bedhead. Under different circumstances, it would’ve made him smile. Now, all he could do was avoid the question. “It’s really too soon to say.”

  “My mother isn’t a suspect, though, right?”

  Jared involuntarily cringed. “We don’t have suspects yet. You know how this works. We need more information. Heck, we need those files.”

  Harper wasn’t placated, but she couldn’t push him further. “Yeah, well, what comes next?”

  “Mel has to ask your mother some questions.”

  “Mel?” She was instantly suspicious. “Why is Mel asking the questions?”

  “Because it’s inappropriate for me to do it given my relationship with you.”

  “But … Mel has known my mother longer than you have,” Harper argued. “Our families have been tight for a really long time.”

  “I understand that. I’m still engaged to you, which creates an issue. I can’t be the one to interview her. I’m sorry. That’s a strict rule. I couldn’t interview you either.”

  “You did before.”

  “Before we were involved.”

  “But … .” Harper made a frustrated sound deep in her throat. “I guess I understand it,” she said after a beat. “I don’t like it, but I understand it.”

  “Thank you.” He brushed a kiss against her temple and then moved to the foyer so he could listen as Mel asked Gloria some very tough questions. For her part, Gloria seemed more together than before.

  “How long have you been dating him, Gloria?” Mel asked, a notebook out as he jotted down her answers.

  “Oh, I … can’t really remember.”

  “You have to remember.” Mel was firm. “I doubt it’s been long enough to explain forgetting.”

  “About a month,” Harper automatically answered. “I think it was about five weeks ago when she told me she was done dating Anton – I never got to meet him and I’m sad because I liked his name – and she was dating Carl within a week or so. We all had dinner about three weeks ago. Maybe it was even a month ago now that I’m thinking about it.”

  “Okay.” Mel’s smile was benign. “That’s very good. How would you say things have been going between you?”

  “Obviously they were going well.” Gloria’s tone was snippy. “Why else would I be here if they weren’t going well?”

  “Gloria, you know we have to ask these questions. There’s nothing personal about it. We have no choice.”

  “It feels as if you should have a choice,” Gloria countered. “I mean … you’ve known me for a very long time. I’m good friends with your sister. I practically raised Zander.”

  Harper snorted … and then realized what she’d done when she earned a sharp look from her mother. She tried to cover it up with a cough, but it wasn’t a masterful effort.

  “I believe my sister raised Zander, although I’m not sure why anyone would want to take credit for him,” Mel said dryly. “I still have to ask these questions, Gloria. If you’re uncomfortable, you can call an attorney and meet us at the police station.”

  Gloria looked intrigued by the option, but Harper swooped in before she could answer either way.

  “Oh, she doesn’t need an attorney.” Harper made a dismissive hand gesture. “It’s not as if she’s guilty. Just tell them what they want to hear, Mom. We’ll make sure you get something to eat afterwards. You probably haven’t eaten all day.”

  “Yes, well … .” It was obvious Gloria wasn’t happy with her daughter’s insistence on answering the questions without legal representation. Gloria was a woman who liked to keep up appearances, though, and that’s exactly what she did now. “What do you need to know?”

  “I need to know the basics of your relations
hip,” Mel replied without hesitation. “How close were you?”

  “We’d only been dating a month like Harper told you,” she replied. “I mean … we were getting to know one another. I’m not sure how well it was going yet.”

  “So … you weren’t intimate, right?” Mel’s cheeks burned, but he managed to maintain eye contact.

  For her part, Gloria didn’t even bother feigning embarrassment. “Oh, we were intimate. I don’t believe in prolonging the inevitable if my partner is bad in bed. I mean … if he has shortcomings, you know what I mean, I need to know that right away. I’m not the sort of woman who wants to waste her time.”

  Harper lowered her eyes and shook her head as Jared automatically moved his hand to her back. He’d known Gloria long enough to understand that she held nothing back when it came to talking about sex. She was open and free with the stories, which put Harper under a great deal of pressure and made Jared want to hide in a closet during her visits.

  “Okay, so … you were intimate.” Mel flicked his eyes to Jared but found no help there. “How often were you spending the night together?”

  “Oh, well … he was in his fifties, which meant he couldn’t go more than three times a week,” Gloria explained. “I guess we basically saw each other on the odd days of the week.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.”

  “What about Sundays?”

  “Even the Lord rests on Sundays,” Gloria replied, not missing a beat.

  “Okay. Well … that’s lovely.” Mel scratched the side of his nose and tried to regroup. “Tell me about Carl. What do you know about him?”

  “He’s a divorce lawyer.”

  “And?”

  “And what? He’s got all his own hair and only combs it over bald spots. As far as I can tell, he has all his own teeth. If he’s got fakes in there, they’re good, so I’m fine with that. He doesn’t wear polyester suits. Only leather shoes will do. He’s not married … at least any longer. That’s basically all I know about him. Oh, well, and he loves Italian food. I had to break him of eating that four times a week, though, because the garlic breath was outrageous.”

  Harper wanted to crawl into a hole and die, but she remained standing as Jared lent her a little bit of his strength.

  “What do you know about his family? Did he have children?”

  “He had at least one son. I didn’t ask him about his family.”

  “You didn’t ask him about his family?” Harper was mortified. “Mother, why would you date someone and not take the time to get to know him? I mean … that’s so rude. I’m sure you told him about me. Why wouldn’t you sit and listen to him talk about his children?”

  “I didn’t tell him about you.”

  “You didn’t?” Harper didn’t know if she should be relieved or hurt. “Why?”

  “Because you’re almost thirty and I don’t want to be the mother of a thirty-year-old single woman. It looks bad.”

  Jared shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with the turn the conversation was taking. “We’re getting married,” he pointed out.

  “That doesn’t matter.” Harper’s frustration was obvious. “I don’t see the problem with acting your own age. You’re in your fifties, Mother. Why is that such a bad thing?”

  “Carl thought I was forty-four.”

  Jared choked out a laugh before he realized that Gloria was glaring at him. “Oh, um … .”

  “There’s no way he believed you were forty-four,” Harper argued. “Come on. You look good, but you don’t look that good.”

  “I moisturize,” Gloria shot back. “I look amazing for my age. You should take a page out of my book before it’s too late.”

  “I’ll get right on that,” Harper grumbled, shaking her head.

  “You look fine,” Jared reassured her. “Gloria, you need to focus on the questions Mel is asking. It’s important.”

  “I’m answering them.” Gloria’s eyes fired with resentment. “I don’t know what you want from me. We didn’t know each other all that well. We spent a few nights a week together. I didn’t hear from him yesterday, which was unusual, so I came over today to see what he was doing. The front door was unlocked so I let myself in … and I found him in the living room.”

  “And that’s it?” Mel queried.

  “That’s it.”

  “How long were you in the house before you found him?”

  “Oh, not long.” Gloria screwed up her face in concentration. “I’m guessing it was about three or four minutes. I checked the kitchen first because he’s usually in there, but the living room was my second stop.”

  “And then what did you do?”

  “I called Harper because I was freaked out. I knew she would be able to get Jared to come to the scene and my mind wasn’t working very well on its own. I mean … you saw it in there. It was horrible. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

  Jared thought about the snow he saw piled on Gloria’s vehicle in the driveway. To him, that indicated she’d been in the house longer than she wanted to admit. The obvious question was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t make himself ask it.

  “Okay, I guess that’s all I need for now,” Mel said. “I’m going to be in touch again, though. This isn’t the end of it. There are other things we need to do before we question you again, though.”

  “Oh, well, I’m so looking forward to that.” Disdain practically dripped from her tongue. “Come on, Harper. Let’s get out of here. I believe you offered me dinner. I would like to make that happen.”

  “Oh, well, sure.” Harper looked to Jared for help. “We can go to Zander’s house. That’s where we were going to eat tonight. He won’t care if we add another hungry mouth.”

  “Whatever. I just want out of here. I’m utterly famished.”

  “You’ve had a rough day. I’m sure food will make you feel better.”

  JARED VOLUNTEERED TO RETURN to Carl’s house once he dropped Harper off at Zander’s place – he wasn’t comfortable allowing her to ride with her mother, who insisted she was an expert at navigating the snow even though she had a small car and bad reflexes – but Mel told him it wasn’t necessary. Until they got a warrant to go through Carl’s files and had more information from the medical examiner to work with, there was absolutely no reason for Jared to stay. That was almost a disappointment for the small-town detective, especially since that meant he would have to sit through a meal with Gloria.

  Zander and his boyfriend Shawn met the trio at the door and Zander was already pandering to Gloria when Jared slipped out of his coat and hung it on the over-the-top rack on the door.

  “You poor thing,” he cooed. “I can’t believe you found a dead body today. That’s horrible.”

  “I’ve found numerous dead bodies,” Harper pointed out. “You never say it’s bad when it happens to me.”

  “You’re used to it,” Zander shot back, causing Jared to smirk.

  Ever helpful, Shawn helped Harper out of her coat as she looked around at the newly rearranged living room. “Your hands are cold. You should’ve remembered gloves when you were going out.”

  Harper ignored the admonishment. “What’s going on here?” she asked, confused as she twirled. “Why does the living room look completely different from how it used to look?”

  “Because we changed things,” Zander replied without hesitation. “Shawn pointed out – and I agree – that the Feng Shui of the room was off. We decided to fix that.”

  “The Feng Shui?” Harper made a face. “I was the one who picked out how the room was laid out before.”

  “And now you don’t live here,” Zander reminded her. “You live across the street and have your own furniture to arrange. Although … have you bought new furniture yet?” He directed the question to Jared, as if he was the one holding Harper back from having new things.

  “We’re working on it,” Jared replied. “We were looking through catalogs when we got the call from
Gloria.”

  “Oh, yes, it’s my fault,” Gloria drawled. “It’s not as if you guys haven’t had months to pick out furniture. Me discovering a body is obviously the worst thing that happened to you today.”

  Jared glared at her. “Listen here … .”

  Harper put a hand on his arm to still him. “Please don’t make things worse,” she whispered, her eyes open and pleading. “I can’t take it if you do that. I’m serious.”

  He growled out a noise but maintained control. “We’re getting furniture. In fact, we’ll have it before you know it.”

  “I think you should let me loose to pick out the furniture,” Gloria argued. “I’ll have that place decked out in two weeks flat if you let me have control.”

  “I think Jared and I would prefer maintaining control of our own home,” Harper argued. “Besides, you have other things to worry about … like your dead boyfriend. I still can’t believe you discovered him like that.”

  “I can’t either.” Gloria made a clucking sound with her tongue. “I mean … it’s the absolute worst. I’ll have nightmares because of it. I won’t be able to sleep in my own home because of the fear.”

  “Was it bad?” Shawn asked, directing the question to Jared.

  “It was bad,” he confirmed. “It was … an unfortunate scene.”

  “Word on the street is that he was stabbed so many times Norman Bates is jealous,” Zander supplied.

  Jared frowned. “Um … how can you possibly know that?”

  “Because Mel was supposed to have dinner with my mother and canceled and that’s what he told her.”

  “Oh, well … .”

  Zander didn’t want for Jared to respond. “Do you know what you should do, Gloria? You should move in with Jared and Harper for a bit. They’ve got a guest room and need help decorating and you’re afraid to stay by yourself. It’s best for all of you.”

  If looks could kill, Zander would be dead.

  Jared uncomfortably cleared his throat. “Um … I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he hedged. “I mean, we barely have a bed in the spare room. It doesn’t even have bedding on it. Like … there are no sheets or pillows.”