Read Online Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye by Chelsea M. Campbell - Free Book Online Page A

sure what Connor Mills would or wouldn’t do, or how far he’d go. Maybe he meant to hurt me, not Oliver, and maybe he didn’t mean for him to hit that old tractor engine hiding under the hay down below the loft. But I’ve been keeping tabs on him ever since—if he thought he was getting rid of me, he was dead wrong—and I’ve never seen him show an ounce of remorse.
    “You could have been a dancer,” I say. “Big stage on Broadway, bright lights, the works. And now—”
    “And now I write those musicals. There’s no guarantee I was going to make it as a performer. I mean, there’s no guarantee now—there never is. And yeah, Harper, it sucks that this happened to me, but I’ve moved on. I’ve found something else, and what have you done?”
    “Don’t worry, I’m going to find something on him. One of these days, he’s going to slip up and I’m going to be there to expose him for the criminal he is.” Maybe Connor got away with what happened to Oliver—no proof that he was involved or that it wasn’t an accident, just our word against his, and his mother’s in the PTA so guess who everyone believed—but he’s going to pay eventually. If not for what happened that night in the barn, then for something else.
    “Don’t worry?! Harper, I’m not worried about getting back at Connor, I’m worried about you !”
    This startles me and I take a step back. “You’re the one in the chair, Oliver.”
    “I know, and I’m getting on with my life. I’m the one paralyzed from the waist down, but you’re the one who can’t move, the one who can’t get past this. Think about it, Harper. I’m the one who got hurt, but it’s you who can’t let go. It’s you who’s obsessed with revenge.”
    His words hit me like a sucker punch to the stomach.
    “Face it. You haven’t seen me since it happened. But how often do you see Connor?”
    “I’m not hanging out with him—I’m investigating him.” My voice shakes. I hope Danigail’s happy, because this is exactly why I didn’t want to talk to Oliver.
    “Wasn’t investigating him what got you in trouble in the first place?” He raises an eyebrow in disbelief. The disappointment on his face stings like lemon juice in a paper cut.
    “I’m not letting him get away with it.” I can’t forgive myself for Oliver ending up in that wheelchair because of me, because he was stupid enough to be my friend. Maybe he can move on, but I’m stuck looking for redemption. “Now,” I add, nodding to Austin and his notebook, “we’re here to talk to you about what happened last Friday to Veronica Jones. You were the first on the scene, right?”
    Oliver sighs. I get the feeling he’d been waiting a long time to tell me all that, like it had just been building and building inside him, and now that he’s said it, nothing’s changed. “Yeah,” he says. “I was the first one to get here after it happened. And it was pretty clear that Danigail finally made good on all her threats. She pushed Veronica off the stage.”
    “You saw her?” I ask, swallowing down a bad taste in the back of my mouth.
    “You don’t know her anymore, Harper. You don’t know what she’s—”
    “Did you see her do it?!”
    “I didn’t need to. This is who she is now. I’m sure of it.”
    Austin chews his lip. “How sure?”
    “I’d stake my career on it,” Oliver says, making a point to look me in the eyes, and his meaning isn’t lost on me. He’s never going to be a dancer on Broadway, because of me. I’ve lost him one career already, and he’s willing to bet all he’s got left that I’m wrong about Danigail.
    I shake my head. “You didn’t see what happened. You can’t be sure.”
    Oliver clucks his tongue. “My sister’s got you right where she wants you, doesn’t she? I thought you were all about justice, and here you are, falling for everything she says.”
    I turn my back on him, inhaling slowly. Things between him and Danigail are worse than I thought.