Ghostly Deceits (A Harper Harlow Mystery Book 3) (5 page)

“Any second now,” Josh said. “They’ll make an announcement. You should be happy. It’s prime rib and all the fixings.”

“You had me at prime rib,” Jared said. “I … .” He broke off when a stately man moved to the head of the foyer and cleared his throat. “Oh, I think it’s starting.”

“Dinner is served,” the man said.

“That’s Trask Daniels,” Josh said, wrinkling his nose. “He’s been a butler for us since before we turned the house into a hotel. He has absolutely no sense of humor, so if you want to mess with him, I encourage you to do so.”

Jared grinned. “Let the games begin.”

“
T
hat was
the best meal I’ve had in I don’t know how long,” Jared said, his fingers linked with Harper’s as they walked around the Stokes Hotel property after dinner. “I’m not joking. I think I ate an entire cow.”

Harper giggled as she glanced at the night sky, tilting her head back and groaning when her own stomach lurched. “It’s a good thing I didn’t wear pants,” she said. “If I did, they would be unbuttoned right now.”

“Very cute,” Jared said, spinning Harper so he could plant a kiss on her lips. “Not that I’m complaining about spending time with you, but we could be up in our room right now letting dinner digest instead of walking around. Upstairs we could be naked, too, so I think it has the edge.”

Harper rolled her eyes. “I need to walk a little bit after that dinner we ate,” she explained. “If we go upstairs now, I don’t care what you say, we’re going to pass out instead of doing anything fun. This way we’ll get a second wind.”

“I like the way your mind works,” Jared said, giving her another kiss before releasing her and bending over. “I seriously ate too much. I haven’t been this stuffed since Thanksgiving – and then we dealt with it by planting ourselves on the couch and watching football.”

“You don’t have to stay with me,” Harper offered. “I’ll probably only be twenty minutes if you want to go back up to the room and rest.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with a murderer on the loose,” Jared said, wrinkling his nose. “Get real.”

“It’s a fake murderer.”

“And you’re my real girlfriend who I don’t want to be separated from,” Jared shot back. “I’m not leaving you.”

Harper pushed out a dramatic sigh. “Fine. We can go back to the room. Don’t come crying to me when we fall asleep before playing games on the balcony, though.”

“We don’t have to go inside,” Jared said. “I was just complaining because … well … I thought you liked it given your relationship with Zander.”

“Ha, ha,” Harper intoned. “I’m telling him you said that.”

“Make sure you also tell him my nipples are better than his nipples.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Harper said, turning her attention to the expansive lawn. The sun was long gone, but the heat of the day remained. Summer was officially here, and Harper was glad to shake off the doldrums of winter – and a shaky spring – to embrace the warmth. After autumn, summer was her favorite season. “It’s beautiful out here. Whisper Cove is pretty at night, too, but seeing the stars against the water like this is magical.”

“You’re magical,” Jared said, wrapping his arm around her waist from behind and rubbing his nose against her neck. “Did you have a good time tonight?”

“It was nice,” Harper said. “I didn’t really understand what some of the people were saying, but … they seemed mostly normal.”

Jared chuckled, his mind wandering back to the odd dinner conversation. “Those mystery people definitely have some quirks,” he said. “I like the guy who carries his own whiskey in a flask because he’s convinced someone is going to try and poison him because he’s so good at solving these mystery events.”

“He says he’s won seven of them,” Harper said. “Of course, Tara and Tim Lockhart, who happened to be sitting next to me, say he cheated. They also think he’s a pompous blowhard.”

Jared smirked. “He had that air about him, didn’t he?”

“I think they’re fine,” Harper said. “Everyone has different interests. While I think a murder mystery game sounds fun for a change of pace, I can’t see myself wanting to do it all of the time. We’ve had enough murders recently.”

“We definitely have,” Jared agreed, studying her profile. They hadn’t talked much about her ordeal at the hands of a former classmate several weeks before. He decided to let her open up about it at her own pace and not press her until she was ready. She’d barely mentioned it, though. “I heard an update about Jim, if you’re interested, that is.”

Harper shifted and for a moment Jared thought he saw worry flitting across her features. It was gone before he could be sure. “Please tell me he’s not going to get off on a technicality or something.”

“He’s definitely not going to get off on a technicality,” Jared replied. “He’s locked up in the county jail until trial and then he’s going to move to a prison facility. There’s no way he can get off.”

Jim Stone was Harper’s former schoolmate and nemesis. After a local teenager showed up dead in Whisper Cove’s park, Jared and Harper investigated and found that Jim was using impressionable teens to move drugs and he wasn’t above murder to keep his secret. Stone kidnapped Harper with the intent to force her into submission at an isolated location, but she managed to escape and subdue him. She was still kind of shaky after a frightening run through the woods with a killer on her tail.

“What’s the update?”

“He’s trying to offer testimony against the teenagers for a lighter sentence, but the prosecutor shot him down,” Jared answered. “He’s not happy.”

“Good. I hope he’s miserable,” Harper muttered.

“I’m sure he is,” Jared said. “You’re not miserable because of him, are you?”

Harper was surprised by the question. “Why would you ask that?”

“That’s not an answer,” Jared prodded. “You never talk about it. It’s okay to be upset … worried even. I’m here if you need me.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I’m really fine.”

Jared cocked a dubious eyebrow.

“I’m mostly fine,” Harper conceded. “In case you’ve forgotten, I knew Jim was evil long before he kidnapped me.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Jared said, smiling despite himself. “I’ve learned to trust your instincts. You were definitely right about Stone. You had a nightmare a few nights ago, though. Was that about him?”

“That was about a ghost sneaking into Zander’s room and putting him in mismatched socks while he slept.”

“Harper … .”

“I’m not joking,” Harper said. “Zander was very upset in the dream … and that’s why he didn’t notice when Jim kidnapped me. It was a dream, though, Jared. It wasn’t real life. I survived. We’re together. Everything is okay.”

“I don’t want to force you to talk if you don’t want to do it,” Jared said. “I also don’t want you sweeping all of this under the rug because you think you’re being a burden … or somehow silly. You’re very strong, but it’s okay to let me take care of you if you’re upset.”

“Is that part of those relationship rules you’re always spouting?”

“It is,” Jared confirmed.

“I’m honestly fine,” Harper said. “If I need you, I know where to find you.”

“Right by your side.”

“Right by my side,” Harper said, tilting her chin up so she could kiss the corner of Jared’s mouth. “Do you mind if we take a ten-minute walk before going back to our room? I’d like this dinner to settle before we shake it up again.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Jared said, tweaking Harper’s nose. “Do you want to walk down to the lake?”

“Actually … .” Harper broke off and swiveled her head, racking her brain for a memory location before pointing toward a spot over Jared’s shoulder. “Let’s walk that way.”

“You want to walk to the woods?” Jared wasn’t thrilled with the suggestion. “Why do you want to go to the woods?”

“I don’t want to go to the woods,” Harper replied. “They have a family cemetery over there and I want to look at it.”

“A cemetery is worse than the woods, Heart,” Jared complained.

“Not this one,” Harper argued. “Zander and I saw it when we were younger and it’s only a few graves. It’s closed in by a fence with an iron gate, but it’s made up of tiny mausoleums and it has beautiful stained glass windows – at least it did ten years ago.”

“Okay,” Jared said, giving in and taking her hand. “Let’s check out the cemetery. You know you’re going to have to give me something really special in return for hanging out with you in a cemetery, right?”

Harper snorted. “What did you have in mind?”

“I was hoping for another bath.”

“Blech. I don’t want to see your nipples again. They’ll give me nightmares.”

“I’m going to kill Zander,” Jared muttered.

“
W
ELL
,
it’s definitely a cemetery,” Jared said ten minutes later, his gaze bouncing around the neatly kept parcel of land. “I don’t understand what the deal is with these tiny buildings.”

“It’s because of the lake,” Harper explained, her fingertips tracing the pattern on one of the ornate windows. “If there should ever be a flood or catastrophic weather event, the bodies would risk being washed away if they were planted beneath the ground. That’s why they have all of these mausoleums instead. The bodies are entombed above ground.”

“That is … still weird,” Jared said, although he was less creeped out than a few minutes before. “I thought maybe they had the buildings so people could hang out in them.”

“Like clubhouses?”

“You’re not very cute right now, just for the record,” Jared said. “I’ve never seen anyone have an actual cemetery on their property.”

“Harsens Island isn’t very big,” Harper pointed out. “They have a community cemetery on the other side of the island, but since the Stokes family was the richest one here, it probably made sense to have their own so they didn’t have to mingle with the little people.”

“How?”

Harper shrugged. “When people have money they like to spend it on weird things,” she replied. “I think cemeteries are beautiful – and I’m not just saying that because I spend so much time in them – but I wouldn’t want one on my property. I’ve seen
Poltergeist,
and that way leads to spooky clown dolls and trees that eat people.”

“And you’re back to being cute,” Jared said, tickled by her take on life. “I’ve been considering asking Josh about his family’s money problems, but that somehow feels invasive. On the flip side, it kind of feels callous to ignore the situation. What do you think?”

“I would let him bring it up to you if he wants to talk about it,” Harper answered. “If you ask him he might think you’re prying. You guys haven’t been in regular touch so I think it would be out of place if you mentioned it out of the blue.”

“That’s probably true,” Jared. “You’re wise and adorable.”

“I know,” Harper said, shooting him a flirtatious wink.

“By the way, if you want to tell Josh what you really do for a living, I think he would not only understand but enjoy talking about it,” Jared said. “I saw how uncomfortable you were when he asked you how you ended up back in Whisper Cove after college. You’re a terrible liar – which is a good thing – but I honestly think you’re overreaching on this one. Josh would be fine with it.”

“I know,” Harper said. “It’s just … people always look at me differently when they find out what I can do.”

“I don’t.”

“But you did,” Harper said.

“When?”

“When we first met I could tell you thought I was attractive,” Harper said, choosing her words carefully. “That didn’t last long once Mel told you I thought I could see ghosts. You thought I was certifiable after that and wanted as much distance between us as possible.”

Jared opened his mouth to argue and then snapped it shut. She wasn’t wrong. “Okay,” he conceded. “I questioned your sanity a little bit after Mel told me what you could do. It didn’t take long for me to realize you were telling the truth, though.

“And, if we’re being honest, part of me wanted to believe you from the start,” he continued. “I’m a practical guy, though. I didn’t believe in ghosts and the supernatural so I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. In the grand scheme of things, I came around really quickly.”

“You did, and I’m thankful for that,” Harper acknowledged. “I would just prefer a week where I don’t have to explain that I see and talk to ghosts. I want to be normal this week. Are you okay with that?”

“I’m okay with anything you do,” Jared said, extending his hand. “Now I want to be okay with what you do in that big bathtub.”

Harper took his hand and smiled. “I have a feeling you’re going to cover me with bubbles and then use me as a waterslide.”

Jared barked out a laugh. “I love the way your mind works.”

H
ARPER
was being chased
. She was lost in a dream – and on some level she realized that – but that didn’t stop her heart from hammering as the shadowy figure behind her closed in.

She scampered toward the stairs, realizing they were the ones that led to the main foyer of the Stokes Hotel, and glanced over her shoulder when she was convinced better lighting would reveal her stalker. It didn’t. He was still nothing but a black mass and angry words. Harper didn’t recognize the voice as he screamed about making her his personal property, and she was so fixated on trying to make out facial features she missed the top step and tumbled down the winding staircase, landing on the marble floors below with a sickening thud.

Harper turned swiftly – imagined dream pain minimal compared to the real thing she’d experienced when she jumped out of a moving vehicle weeks before – and found a black hand reaching out for her.

She opened her mouth to scream and instead bolted upright to a sitting position in her hotel room. It was dark, dawn still hours away, and her heart raced as she tried to understand the dream.

“What’s wrong?” Jared murmured, shifting in the bed next to her. “Did you have a bad dream?”

“It’s okay,” Harper said, shaking her head. “I … fell down the stairs in my dream and woke myself up when I tried to catch myself.”

“I’ll catch you,” Jared said, slipping his arm around her waist and tugging her head to his bare chest. “Go back to sleep, Heart. We have a big day ahead of us.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s okay,” Jared whispered, stroking the back of her head. “I’m right here.”

Despite his statement, Harper was convinced she would have trouble drifting off again. She was wrong.