Ghostly Distress (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 9) Read online

  “Yes. Can’t you?”

  Harper immediately started shaking her head. “I honestly paint like a five-year-old with finger paints and a coloring book. Can you paint well?”

  “I believe I can do everything well.” Jared shot her a hot look. “And I do mean everything.”

  “Ha, ha.” Even though she knew he was teasing, Harper felt her cheeks flush with burning color. “What were we talking about again?”

  Jared snickered, amused by her discomfort. “We were talking about painting. If you want to save money so we can buy that bed I love, here’s a way to do it. I’m very good at painting. In fact, I did it for a company four years running during summers when I was in college.”

  Harper was pleasantly surprised. “And you can really do it as good as a professional?”

  Jared’s wolfish smile was back. “I can do everything as well as a professional.”

  “Okay, knock it off with the sexy talk.” Harper sipped her iced tea. “If you can really paint, that would save us thousands of dollars.”

  “I can really paint.”

  “I might need to see examples of your work to be sure.”

  Jared poked her side. “Do you want references, too?”

  “Only from your painting work. If you have references from the other work you’re bragging about I don’t want to talk to those people. In fact, I like to pretend those people don’t exist.”

  “Very cute. As for the painting. I can do it. Pick your colors and I can have it done in a reasonable timeframe.”

  “Well, that’s something to celebrate right there.”

  “You have no idea how excited I am to hear that. I think I know how we can celebrate and everything.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

  HARPER AND JARED ENJOYED an easy and cozy dinner, taking advantage of their time together to flip through the catalog and point out things they both liked. If Jared had his druthers they would use Harper’s money to buy furniture and take longer to pay off the house, but she was adamant that paying off the house should be their first priority.

  “It’s fun to look at this stuff, but we need to get inside the house and measure the space,” Harper noted. “I barely managed to make it to the closing on time because of all the tours. We haven’t even measured our space and taken a hard look at our furniture needs.”

  Jared pursed his lips as he wiped the corners of his mouth. “Well, what stuff do you own in the current house?”

  “My bed and dresser.”

  “That’s it?”

  Harper nodded. “Zander has a thing about furniture. He insisted on buying most of it because he wanted the final say in every decision. I let him do it because it was easier than arguing.”

  “I wish I could even feign surprise, but I can’t,” Jared said, sliding his arm around Harper’s shoulders as he got comfortable. “So, you’re basically saying that we have a bed and a dresser, huh?”

  “That’s what I have,” Harper countered.

  “Then that’s what we have.” Jared’s smile was rueful.

  Harper wasn’t sure what to make of the news. “You’re like thirty-one.”

  “Thirty,” Jared corrected, extending a finger. “I have four months before I’m thirty-one. Let’s not rush things.”

  Harper held her hands up in a placating manner. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were phobic about getting old. That’s something I’m going to have to file away and think about later.”

  “I’m not phobic about getting old,” Jared clarified. “I just like being thirty. I don’t want to be thirty-one.”

  “Of course.” Harper bit back a smile. “Still, though, you’re thirty and have no furniture. How did that happen?”

  “It’s not as big a deal as you make it out to be. I simply rented my whole life – and that includes furniture – so I have absolutely nothing to offer the new house when it comes to furniture.”

  “Huh.” Harper was flummoxed. “I thought for sure you would have a kitchen table or something. We can’t make it with just a bed.”

  “Well, we could.”

  Harper lightly slapped Jared’s arm, but it didn’t dislodge the smile on his face. “We might have to buy a few pieces of furniture early after all.”

  “My bed.” Jared eagerly rubbed his hands together.

  “We have a bed.”

  “I want a new bed. I want us to have something that belongs to us and no one else ever slept in … including Zander. I’m not going to change my mind on that.”

  “Fine. We’ll get a new bed.”

  “Great.” Jared brightened, his smile widening until he caught sight of a familiar face approaching the table. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. I thought we were finally going to talk about something I wanted to talk about.”

  Harper squinched her face and frowned, confused. “What are you complaining about?”

  “Hey, Harper! It’s so good to see you.”

  Harper practically jumped out of her skin when Colin appeared on the other side of the booth seat and poked his head between her and Jared. “Colin,” she rasped out, her heart pounding. “I didn’t see you there.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see you either.” Colin barreled forward, clearly oblivious to Harper’s discomfort. “We’ve been here for almost an hour and I only saw you when I was coming back from the bathroom – the refried beans from the fajitas went right through me, I swear. I wish I would’ve seen you sooner because then we could’ve eaten together.”

  “Yes, that would’ve been delightful,” Jared drawled.

  His response was enough to calm Harper and cause her to shoot him a warning look. While she fully understood Colin wore on Jared’s last nerve, there was no way she would allow her boyfriend to mistreat the gregarious young man. He really was harmless and his crush was cute … at least to Harper.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk to you earlier, too,” Harper said smoothly. “Who are you here with?”

  “Oh, some guys I graduated with.” Colin pointed toward a table in the corner and Harper recognized most of the faces when she caught sight of them.

  “That’s Rick Derry, Jay Forrester, Sam Archer and Dean Collins, right?”

  Colin nodded. “This is the first time we’ve been able to hang out together since graduating from high school. Rick and Sam live on the west side of the state now but came home for the weekend barn party – you know how that is – and Dean lives over in Utica. Jay is still with his folks. We’ve been having a good time hanging out, though.”

  Harper grinned. “I forgot all about the barn party.”

  Mention of the party jostled something in Jared’s mind. He’d almost forgotten what Heather told him about Maggie’s last known whereabouts – or at least dislodged the information until he returned to work the next day – but Colin’s simple statement brought him back to reality.

  “That’s the same party that Maggie Harris was at right before she disappeared,” Jared noted. “Did you see her there?”

  “Who are you talking about?” Colin looked confused.

  “She works at the bank,” Harper supplied. “She was two years ahead of you in school.” She turned to Jared, conflicted. “You didn’t tell me that Maggie was at the annual barn party before going missing.”

  “I didn’t think much about it,” Jared admitted. “I found out from Maggie’s roommate – a woman named Heather Bancroft – that they went to the party together but left separately.”

  Harper wrinkled her forehead. “Why would they leave separately? That doesn’t sound like very smart party behavior. Zander and I always made it a rule to stick together at parties so no one could separate us. Zander was very worried about someone trying to roofie his drink.”

  “Yes, well, I don’t think you and Zander were going to parties for the same reason that Heather and Maggie were going to parties,” Jared supplied.

  “I … don’t understand.”

  “He’s saying they
went to the party to hook up,” Colin interjected helpfully. “I know the girls you’re talking about. I didn’t immediately recognize the last names, but I knew them from the bank. They were definitely at the barn party.”

  “You saw them there?” Jared leaned forward. “How come you didn’t mention that when we were at the cemetery last night?”

  Colin shrugged. “Why would I mention it?”

  “Because you saw the dead girl the night before she was murdered and dumped in the cemetery. Are you saying you didn’t think that was important?”

  “Jared,” Harper scolded. “Don’t be mean to him.”

  Jared ignored Harper’s admonishment. “I’m just trying to understand why he didn’t say anything.”

  “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t realize who it was,” Colin explained. “I didn’t look at the body at the cemetery because … well … it was … um … .”

  Harper sympathetically patted Colin’s arm. “It’s okay. It was traumatic for all of us. There’s nothing to be ashamed about. I didn’t want to look either.”

  “I don’t think he believes there’s nothing to be ashamed about.” Colin jerked his chin in Jared’s direction, his dislike for the police officer obvious. “He thinks I was a baby not to look.”

  Jared would never use the word “baby” as an insult – at least on purpose – but he had trouble disagreeing with the sentiment. Still, the look on Harper’s face told him it would be a bad idea to push things too far. She felt protective of Colin for some reason, even though he was a grown man who kept panting after Jared’s girlfriend.

  “I understand not looking at a body.” Jared chose his words carefully. “I have to look because it’s my job. If it wasn’t my job, I wouldn’t look.”

  “Because it’s gross and icky?” Colin asked.

  “Because it’s … both of those things.” Jared avoided Harper’s mirth-filled eyes. “No one is judging you for not looking.”

  “Good.” Colin exhaled heavily and briefly allowed his adoring gaze to trace Harper’s high cheekbones before dragging his eyes to an annoyed looking Jared. “What were we talking about again?”

  “Maggie Harris,” Jared replied, tugging on his fraying patience. He was at his limit with Colin and his antics. “You said she was at the barn party the night before the cemetery tour. She died between the time she arrived there and the time you guys found her at the end of the tour so … what was she doing at the party?”

  “Oh, well, I don’t know.” Colin screwed up his face into a thoughtful expression. “I guess I saw her with a group of guys near the bar.”

  “What bar?” Jared was behind the curve. “I thought you said the party was in a barn.”

  “It is in a barn,” Harper explained. “This party has been going on for years, though. I mean like … years. It was around when I was in high school. Every year a group of people gets together to organize it – it’s not always the same group – and the organizers have gotten pretty good at filling the place with a lot of bodies. Three years ago, they built a bar out there and everything to add to the ambiance. It’s nice.”

  Jared was dumbfounded. “I thought this was an abandoned barn.”

  “It is. People enjoy the party, though, and you can’t have a good party without a bar.”

  “Wow.” Every time Jared thought he got a handle on the weird hijinks of Whisper Cove he realized he was barely scratching the surface. “I guess I’m going to need to head out to this barn tomorrow.”

  “Yeah. It couldn’t hurt.” Harper flicked her eyes to Colin and didn’t miss the dark look he shot Jared when he thought no one was looking. She snapped her fingers to drag Colin’s eyes to her. “Hey. What else do you know about Maggie Harris?”

  Colin shrugged. “I just know that people were saying she was easy and if I wanted a date that night to look no further than her. I don’t like my women easy, though. I like them difficult … with blonde hair and blue eyes and laughter that sounds like fairies in a garden.” Colin realized what he said too late to take it back. “I mean … I like them pretty and complicated and able to see ghosts.”

  Jared made a sound as he shook his head. “I’m betting that sounded better in your head, huh, kid?”

  Colin drew his eyebrows together. “I don’t see how you lucked out and got her. I really don’t.”

  Jared’s smile was easy. “That makes two of us. I guess I’m just lucky.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Colin focused on Harper. “Are you sure you want to live with this guy? I won’t always live in my mother’s basement.”

  Harper took pity on Colin and ruffled his hair. “You’ll make a fine catch for some woman one day. I’m looking forward to seeing that happening.”

  Jared tilted his head so he could lean closer to Colin. “She’s basically telling you to move on, sport.”

  “I can’t even hear you,” Colin grumbled. “You’re just dust in the wind.”

  Jared snorted. “I guess you’re kind of funny. That makes me feel a little better.”

  6

  Six

  Zander was still grumpy when Jared offered him a mock salute and slipped through the front door the following morning. It was early, but Jared was keen to get back to investigating Maggie Harris’ death and that meant heading out to the barn to start his day.

  As for Zander and Harper, they had their own business to tend to.

  “We have more than ten messages from people asking to be added to tonight’s tour,” Zander announced as he collected the breakfast dishes and carried them to the dishwasher. “For the record, I checked with Uncle Mel and he says we’re not allowed in the cemetery tonight. That means we’re going to have to postpone tonight’s tour until tomorrow so we might want to allow the add-ons.”

  “Is that normal?” Shawn asked, cupping his coffee mug and leaning back in his chair. “I mean … do you deal with last-second changes like that all the time?”

  “We usually get an addition or a subtraction – sometimes a whole family or group – but ten calls is a bit much,” Harper replied, thoughtfully narrowing her eyes. “Any idea why we have so many additions, Zander?”

  Zander bobbed his head, taking Harper by surprise. “I know. You do, too, if you really think about it.”

  Harper tilted her head to the side, considering. It didn’t take long for her to realize what her best friend was referring to. “Maggie. Everyone thinks finding her body was part of the show and they want to be involved in the investigation into her death.”

  “Ding, ding, ding! And we have a winner!” Zander’s distaste for the conversational turn was obvious. “It’s basically a bunch of ghouls who want to invite themselves along for the ride.”

  “Wait … .” Shawn furrowed his brow. “Are you saying people want to be part of the next tour because they think there’s a chance Harper will cross paths with Maggie and they want dirt on how she died?”

  Zander nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “But … that’s horrible. Why would people do that?”

  Instead of being irritated – or short-tempered – Zander merely offered his boyfriend a fond smile. “You’re so pretty.” He turned to Harper for backup. “Don’t you think he’s pretty?”

  Harper didn’t want to grin at Shawn’s expense, but she couldn’t stop herself. “He’s lovely.”

  “Oh, stop talking down to me.” Shawn wrinkled his nose. “I just don’t understand why people would possibly want to insert themselves in the investigation like that … or even participate in a tour simply because you guys discovered a body two nights ago. It makes me uncomfortable.”

  “It’s pretty much normal.” Harper drained the rest of her coffee and then stood. “Speaking of that, though, I’m going to hop into the shower and head over to the cemetery. I want to see if I can find Maggie’s ghost and have a talk with her before we get kicked out of the cemetery by the cops and state police tech team.”

  Zander nodded. “I figured. What do you want
me to do about all the calls?”

  Harper ran her tongue over her lips as she considered the question. “Let them join.”

  “Really?” Zander was understandably dubious. “You wouldn’t have allowed that in years past. How come you’re allowing it this year?”

  “Because Jared and I just figured out last night that the only furniture we have is my bed – which he wants to replace – so that means we need money and this is an easy way to get it,” Harper replied. “They just want a show. I always put on a good show.”

  “Okay.” Zander kept his smile in place as he watched her go, waiting until she was out of earshot to speak again. “This isn’t going to end well.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Shawn said dryly. “You don’t have to worry about her. She’s a big girl.”

  “I knew her moving away from me was going to be a bad idea.”

  Shawn rolled his eyes. “You’re just saying that because she wants to make her own decisions on décor.”

  “Well … that’s my area of expertise. I should be in the thick of things, not sidelined like some talentless interior design loser.”

  Shawn snorted, genuinely amused. “I think you’ll survive. More importantly, I happen to believe this is good for her and Jared. It’s something they should be doing together. It’s a couple thing. You should be happy for them.”

  Zander was affronted. “Sometimes I don’t understand how we even ended up together. It’s as if you don’t get me at all.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  JARED WAS ALL BUSINESS when Mel parked in front of the party barn an hour later. He’d passed the structure numerous times since moving to Whisper Cove, but he’d never had occasion to give it much attention or thought.

  “So … what’s the deal with this place again?”

  Mel chuckled at his partner’s obvious confusion. “It’s the Standish barn. It’s been here since … well … since I was a teenager.”

  Jared made a face as he studied the barn’s weathered walls before flicking his eyes to the tall grass on either side of the pathway they walked. “And who owns this property?”

  “Technically the bank owns this property.”

  “And yet it’s a party house.”