Chapter 16
Julian Adams was a very attractive man. In that quiet, unassuming intelligent way that Miranda had always liked.
He had dark brown hair with a hint of red, and dark blue eyes.
He reminded her of some of the men in PAVAD like Mia’s husband Evan or J.T.
Thompkins. Quiet competence, mostly. Julian was about six-two, and built along the same lean lines as the big dark shadow lurking at her shoulder.
Allan Knight was so confusing sometimes.
Knight was actually hovering over her today. She almost thought he might have been worried about her or something. There may just be a heart inside that scaly exterior after all.
Julian Adams had quiet eyes—that was an expression her grandmother used.
Miranda understood what that meant. Julian seemed very calm.
He led them into his office—he was a real estate investor.
Which…surprising, considering the area. “I’m sorry about the mess.
I am renovating again. This office is just too small.
But I got the building for a great price when the previous owner relocated to Texas six months ago, and I have offices in other parts of the state.
How can I help you today? Are you here about my dad? ”
“Actually, we’re here about Harper Wycoff.
Do you have a few moments to talk with us?
We understand you were the last one to speak with her that day.
” They weren’t going to ask about his father.
Not yet. Dani was still hunting down information about all the players back then.
They would discuss possible connections once Dani had more for them to go on.
Unless Julian volunteered that information, anyway.
“Of course.” He had paled. Interesting. “Harper was a good friend. For years.”
“How did you meet her?”
“Like most people around here. We started off in school together. Buckbert would have two or three grades in one room. It just worked that way. We weren’t always close friends, but in a small class like that—well, we knew each other well.
When she came back after college—she transferred to the small campus a few counties over for a semester to take some specific classes—we just started hanging around each other again. And then she met Tyler.”
“Tyler Cahalan?” That was the name of the boyfriend Harper had been involved with. She’d been on her way to see him that night. Or so everyone thought.
They still had questions.
“Yes. He is my closest friend. We met in college. Business majors. He runs commercial storage properties from Austin to OKC. I’ll occasionally help him out with finding new properties to check out.
Once they met, it was full on head-over-heels.
He…had plans. Going to pop the question as soon as she graduated with her nursing degree.
Said he was going to grab her before she got away or met a fancy, rich doctor or something.
He is…hurting now. I’m not sure how to help him.
” And that was genuine concern in his expression.
He was worried about his friend—hurting for him.
“We understand you were the last one to talk to Harper that day,” Knight said. “Can you tell us about that?”
“I don’t know what else to tell. I have already told Hagan everything I can remember.
I’m not sure she believed me, though. Thought maybe I knew more than I was telling her, and just didn’t know it or something.
But I really want to help. I know Hagan…
well, Sheriff Johnson can be a bit of a jerk.
And he is old school. Not too fond of women in law enforcement, or business, or…
just anywhere outside of the home. My own mother despised that man for years.
For how he…handled what happened to my dad.
My mom always felt he should have done more.
She moved to Lubbock a few years after my parents divorced.
They divorced when I was fifteen. I stayed with my dad to finish school here, and Ramey went back and forth between them, but…
we all still spent time together. As much as we could.
My parents did remain friends. But…Sheriff Johnson—I tried to talk to him about Harper but, well…
he believes Harper did drugs. And that was all he was going to say.
Don’t want to put him out, actually expect him to do his job or anything like that. It might strain him far too much.”
There was definitely some bitterness toward a certain county sheriff.
Well, Miranda agreed there. From what she had seen, Johnson, a deputy back then when Kevin Adams was killed, had done the bare minimum.
What she didn’t understand was why. She and Knight had disagreed every time they tried to figure out Johnson’s why.
She said stupid. Knight thought it boiled down to more like lazy.
Miranda had read over Julian’s statement on the way over.
He had claimed Harper had stopped by to say hello, and had stayed long enough to eat take-out lunch with him on his front porch while he was repairing the decking, before leaving several hours before her time of death.
He said she’d seemed preoccupied, but not upset.
She’d never come inside his house—he owned a two-building complex near the edge of Buckbert.
That fact had been confirmed by the neighbor across the street—an elderly doctor who had made it clear he had delivered both Julian and Harper, and had sworn that girl did not go inside that night.
Julian’s next-door neighbor, his tenant, had also confirmed Harper hadn’t gone inside.
That woman, in her late twenties, with two children, had made it clear Julian wasn’t the type to lie—or fool around with his best friend’s girlfriend.
Unless there was something they didn’t know yet, Julian’s alibi was strong.
But his statement was entirely unhelpful for telling them why Harper was at the ball field in the first place.
“We’re just making sure nothing was missed,” Miranda said, smiling slightly at the man. He was a few years younger than she was, and it was obvious he felt a bit intimidated. Probably by the big glowering man-creature behind her. Sometimes, Knight just didn’t know how powerful he actually was.
She was entirely glad the man had never decided to go the super-villain route. He’d be unstoppable if he did.
“I wish I had more to give you. I wish I had told her I’d drive her to OKC. I wish—I just wish I could have done something different that day. But it was almost four, and she wanted to get going.”
“Was there anything that stood out about that day to you?” Knight asked. “Anything that was unusual?”
This was a question every investigator had asked a million times. But sometimes, the simple questions were the most effective. Miranda was more interested in figuring out Julian and how he’d really felt about Harper. She didn’t see any sign in the man that he was physically attracted to her at all.
He’d shown more passion when he’d said Hagan Lindhour’s name than Harper Wycoff’s. If she had to make a guess—he and Harper really had been friends, but he had a far more physical attraction to their favorite Helery County deputy.
Miranda wondered if Hagan was aware of that attraction?
“Just…she was really quiet. More down than she usually was. I just…she had said she was arguing with someone earlier. Someone we both know, knew, I mean. From around town and school, I think. She never told me who, though.”
“Did she say what about?”
He shook his head. “Not really. She just said it really made her sad sometimes. What had happened.”
“When?”
“To my father. It was the first time Harper ever said anything about my father. And it was weird. Harper never talked about him. Or that time. Like she had a block or something. She never talked about her sister Hila, either. But she was hurting. I wish I had done something to make it better. Now…I’ll never get a chance, will I? With either of them.”
“What happened to her wasn’t your fault, Julian,” Miranda said, gently. “It was the fault of whoever killed her, and no one else.”
But…how much consolation were those words to someone who had lost a loved one?
Not much consolation at all.