Hope's Peak (Harper and Lane #1)(29)

Harper walks into Captain Morelli’s office to find John Dudley sitting there.

“Oh,” she says. “It’s you.”

The corner of Dudley’s mouth lifts in what could be classified as a smile. “Last time I checked.”

She takes a seat. “Morelli running late? We were just following him from the ME’s office.”

Dudley shrugs. “Not my turn to babysit.”

They wait, the silence between them stretching out. Harper can’t stand it any longer and says something—anything—just to break it. “Hey, John? I know we don’t always see eye to eye. But you’ve been a big help on this case. Getting hold of those white supremacists.”

“Thanks. I suppose we clash sometimes. It happens. I don’t take it personally.”

It’s one of several occasions on which Dudley has surprised her. She always considered him a dick. Now she’s not so sure.

Maybe I was just a bitch for thinking it without giving the guy a chance.

“That’s good to hear,” she says.

Harper looks at the clock on the wall, ticking away, and when she turns back to him, he has a smile on his face. It should look cute, perhaps. But there’s something about it that doesn’t fit with the rest of him, as if smiling doesn’t come naturally to a man like John Dudley.

Shortly after she transferred to Hope’s Peak, Dudley made a play for Harper. They were in a car, heading to rendezvous with Stu at a crime scene. He asked her what she did outside of work. When Harper said she didn’t get out too much, he asked her if she wanted to go for a drink sometime, and before she could answer, he had his hand on her knee. Harper froze for a moment as she wrestled with what to do next. She gently lifted his hand from her leg and, in the politest terms, told Dudley she was not interested. Thank you anyway.

He didn’t take it very well—and the atmosphere between them has been frosty ever since, particularly since he caught wind that she and Stu were “seeing” each other . . .

Morelli and Stu walk in. The captain goes straight to his desk, oblivious to any atmosphere lurking between the two detectives. Stu senses it right away. He looks at Dudley, then Harper.

She gives him a look: Don’t say anything. Sit your ass down.

Thankfully, as Morelli starts to question them regarding aspects of the case, Stu does just that. He sits between Harper and Dudley.

Once the general details of their investigation are out of the way, Morelli looks at Dudley.

“If you’d give us a minute, Detective.”

“Huh?”

Morelli indicates the door to his office, his hand held out, palm up. “If you would, John.”

“Oh.” Dudley stands, looks at Harper and Raley, then leaves. The door clicks shut behind him.

Captain Morelli pops a candy in his mouth and rolls it around. “I’ve gotta do a press conference on live TV. I’m trying to hold those bloodsuckers off, but you two know how these things are. They’re par for the course.”

“Yes sir,” Stu says.

“So, at some point, I’m going to be telling the country we have a killer here in Hope’s Peak,” Morelli says. “How are you doing with those files? Are they much use?”

“Yes and no,” Harper tells him. “Raley has made a list of everyone who helped cover this up.”

“Yeah?”

Harper thinks back to her conversation with the captain at the ME’s office. “As I said earlier today, there’s going to be a lot of fallout from this. More than for the murders themselves, I expect.”

“One of the big names is that of Hal Crenna. He’s a former captain of police who worked his way up from the bottom. Now he’s about to become mayor of Hope’s Peak,” Stu says. “At least, it’s looking that way.”

Morelli nods. “I know Hal.”

“Back in the day, Crenna falsified two of the reports in those files you gave us. That revelation would put his career aspirations on permanent hold,” Stu says.

“You don’t have to tell me that, Detective,” Morelli snaps. “But like I said earlier to your partner here, the main focus has to be stopping these murders. Then, and only then, can we deal with the corruption in the department. If that means I have to step away from this position, then so be it.”

Harper leans forward, hands clasped between her knees. “Sir, neither of us believes you’re dirty. But there’s been a big cover-up here, and I’m not sure why. There’s protecting the town, but this goes beyond that. I think someone knew the identity of the killer, and that’s why the deaths of these girls had to be swept under the rug.”

“Well, I know one thing,” Morelli says, crunching through the candy. “Right now, in the eyes of the public, we’re chasing our tails here. We are unable to protect the citizens of this town from a sexual predator and murderer.”

“All the more reason to do a press conference, sir,” Harper tells him. “Get the word out there. If we get some exposure, it might stay the killer’s hand long enough for us to catch him.”

Morelli looks at her. “The operable word here being ‘might.’”



Leaving the captain’s office, Harper feels a hand on her arm.

Stu steers her to the left, to one of the supply closets. He yanks the pull cord, the single bulb illuminating the dingy confines of the tiny room, and shuts the door.