“Oh. You’re…” The man scanned me from head to toe like I was a college dropout applying for a loan.
“Detective Max Jagger.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, I’m Arlo Harper. Harper Construction.”
Okay. That did it. The man attached his company to his introduction and I officially couldn’t stand him.
“Sunny Harper’s father.” He continued, ‘father’ being the lesser of the two titles. “I want to know what happened tonight.”
“I’m sure Sunny gave you all the details when she called you.”
“I haven’t talked to her.”
“How did you hear about the incident, then?” I asked.
“Hazel De Ville called me.”
“Hazel De Ville, the owner of Mystic Maven’s?” The same art shop where Seagrave had been found with six bullets in the chest?
“Yes. She called, saying Erickson called her looking for my contact info.”
“How do you know Erickson?”
“Bought some land from me years ago. Good man.”
“How do you know Hazel?”
“We’ve been friends for decades. She supplies the art for a few local apartment complexes I own.”
“Sunny didn’t call you from the station? I assumed she contacted you with the call she was offered.”
“You assumed wrong.”
Mental note: Sunny had daddy issues.
“I thought you lived in Dallas?” I asked.
“I do. I’m here on business. Got a project going on south of town. A new resort going up. Is this a game of twenty questions, Detective?”
Just then?—
“Mr. Harper.”
I turned to see Chief McCord’s puffed chest striding out the front door.
Thelastperson I wanted to see.
The chief breezed past me. The two men, friendly apparently, shook hands and I couldn’t help but notice the resemblance. Two gruff men pushing sixty, desperately clinging onto their thinning hair while replacing dreams of six-pack abs with Budweiser and Netflix. Both single, awhile based on the lack of tan lines on Harper’s left finger. One, plenty in the bank, the other, plenty in his ex-wife’s banks. Yep. Two peas in a mid-life-crisis pod.
Arlo addressed the chief. “I want to know everything that happened here tonight, and then I want it cleared up immediately. I don’t need this nonsense tarnishing the Harper name.”
Nonsense?
“I understand, sir,” the chief replied.
Sir.
“Why wasn’t I called immediately, McCord?” Arlo asked.
