Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Natalie was shaking with anger through the entirety of the short walk from her shop to Liam’s lab across the train tracks.
She stomped past Tim the train track ghost, even as the gruesome sight of poor Tim had Lionel stumbling in obvious horror. She did enjoy seeing the pompous fool almost fall on his stupid ghost face at the sight though.
She entered the lab with a loud slam of the heavy metal door and a scowl.
“Something wrong?” Liam asked, calm, unfazed even in the face of Natalie’s impending hissy fit.
He did however swat at the side of his head as Gabe, standing next to him, stuck his finger in his ear.
She’d lecture Gabe on his bad behavior some other time. If the extent of Gabe’s torture was giving Liam a wet willy, it could wait. She had something bigger to deal with.
“Your new cadaver…” she began.
Lionel Graves emitted a sound of disgust. “Can we not come up with a better way of referring to my mortal remains?”
At the same time, Gabe blew out a lip-flapping breath. “The new cadaver that you really didn’t need. Did you, big guy? Seriously. With that whole fridge full of brains? And you said you’d ordered a brain. Just a brain. So why oh why did you get another whole cadaver?”
“Gabe. Please, stop,” Natalie begged. Without Millie there, Liam couldn’t hear Gabe’s complaints anyway.
“Nat, I’m serious. I think he has hoarder tendencies. You need to plan an intervention before there are brains and bodies stacked up all over the place.”
Natalie glared at him. “Gabe!”
“Fine. I’ll leave you to your boyfriend’s new toy.” Clearly insulted, Gabe spun and strode directly through the thick metal door of the lab.
Natalie sighed. She’d have to repair things with Gabe later. Right now, she had her hands full with the professor.
“My cadaver?” Liam prompted, leaning against the counter behind him.
“How did you get him? It. Him? Whatever.” She’d just realized that the steel table draped in clear plastic between them most likely contained the professor’s remains and that knowledge had her stumbling on her words.
With a cringe, she kept her gaze averted and focused on Liam, who was a much more pleasant sight with his arms crossed and his muscles bulging.
“Nat, you know how this works. The donor program just delivered it from Albany.”
“Delivered,” Lionel spat. “Like a pizza. Or a box from . Lovely.”
Of all the cadavers, in all the labs, in all the world, Lionel Graves ended up in this one.
Natalie did her best to yank herself out of her growing chasm of helplessness and misery and asked, “What information do you get from Albany?”
“Very little. You know this too from when Gabe arrived.”
“Yes, but the police had declared Gabe a John Doe,” Natalie reminded, desperate to solve this mystery and get this pompous fool out of her sight. Ideally, out of this lab and far away from her town too.
“It doesn’t matter that Gabe was unidentified at the time. I’m not supplied with the donor’s name, even when they aren’t John Does. I only get age, a very brief health history if one is available and cause of death.”
“Wait. Cause of death? That’s good. That’s what I need. What was this one’s cause of death?” she asked, hope burning bright.
Liam sighed and moved to his desk where he picked up a folder. He opened it and Lionel, proving he had even less patience than he had tact, swooped over. As he bobbed left and right and tried to see the file, Lionel passed through Liam’s shoulder.
“Oh, bugger. This being non-corporeal is for the birds,” Lionel griped. “Please ask the hulking brute to read the blasted thing aloud.”
At the same time, Liam leveled a stare on Natalie. “There’s a ghost standing right next to me, right now, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to guess my new cadaver came attached to a spirit and this is the reason for all your many questions.”
“Correct.”
“Brilliant deduction.” Lionel rolled his eyes.
Somehow maintaining her composure in the face of Lionel’s steady stream of insults, Natalie said, “He just wants to know how he died. He doesn’t remember.”
Liam raised his gaze from the file to stare at her.
“Huh…interesting. Just like how Gabe didn’t remember the moment of his death.
Or Millie. That’s actually pretty fascinating.
How the brain blocks the details of a person’s final moments from memory.
” Liam got that far away look in his eyes she’d come to recognize.
She was losing him. Or at least his attention. She needed to get it back.
Snapping her fingers, she said, “Liam. Cause of death?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He glanced down at the file and frowned.
“You’re frowning. Why are you frowning?” she asked, stepping closer, but not too close because Lionel was in the way.
“Inconclusive,” Liam read.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means inconclusive,” Liam repeated.
“Quite the brain-trust we have here. I’m so happy my fate is in the hands of you two geniuses.”
“For God’s sake, please shut up,” she said directly to Lionel, who was proving to be as much of a pain in the ass in death as he was in life.
She turned and saw Liam’s raised brows at her outburst. Yes, she was usually more polite to the ghosts, but Liam had no idea what he’d done. He’d had her arch enemy delivered practically right to her doorstep.
Frustrated, she said, “Liam, let’s pretend for a moment that I’m not a doctor. Please explain why they’d declare the death inconclusive.”
“Okay. Looking at this from the perspective of the medical examiner, I see an elderly man...”
“Elderly. Humph. I’m healthy as a horse,” Lionel mumbled.
“…who had been diagnosed with and was currently being medicated for hypertension…”
“Which was controlled perfectly. 110 over 80 last check-up, thank you very much. I’ll have you know I walked five miles every day. See if he can beat that.”
“…Given the combination of those factors, the advanced age, the chronic hypertension, I’d guess the medical examiner assumed it was natural causes and saw no need for an autopsy.
It was likely a cardiac event, but without an autopsy to determine the exact cause, inconclusive was the logical choice for the donor program paperwork. ”
“Had I realized the shoddy work ethic in the medical examiner community I would have demanded an autopsy in my last will and testament. Apparently it was not enough that I was leaving my body to science so my brain could be studied for posterity.” Lionel scowled.
“A lot of good that did if my brain is to be studied by the likes of this quack.”
Lionel’s little rant explained one thing—why his body was delivered to Liam’s lab. Liam’s current field of study was brains. He’d recently put in a request specifically for a brain to study.
But the rest of the rant, the insults, were too much. Liam was damn good at his job. Even if he weren’t, she wasn’t about to let this man insult her brilliant boyfriend.
“Besides being published in medical journals, Liam has won awards and grants for his studies,” Natalie informed Lionel, hand on her hip as she prepared for an argument.
“Are you giving the cadaver my credentials?” Liam asked.
“Yes. He’s questioning your abilities. No one puts down my man and his lab skills.”
“Aw, thank you, baby. But to be fair, his brain is going to be less helpful to me for my study than I’d hoped.”
“What does that mean?” Lionel sputtered. “Does he know I’m an official member of Mensa? Did they not list my IQ in that folder of his?”
“He’d like you to know he’s very smart,” Natalie passed along.
“That’s an understatement,” Lionel grumbled.
“Intelligence isn’t the concern. I was hoping for some nice long-term cerebral damage.
But from the looks of him, he didn’t have a career in the military working in ordinance disposal or something equally useful to me.
” Liam sighed. “Perhaps I’ll find something once I cut him open and get in there. ”
That statement seemed to render the professor speechless, which wasn’t a bad thing.
The problem was, Lionel’s shock didn’t last very long as he emitted yet another insulted humph.
“My apparent lack of useful brain damage aside, this supposed doctor and that unnamed inept medical examiner are both operating as if I was on death’s door.
Like my passing should be of no surprise to anyone.
That is not the case at all. You know that, Miss Chase.
You saw me. Did I look about to keel over and expire in Salem? ”
“No. You were at the height of your game as far as I can see,” Natalie agreed. If his game was being rude and insulting.
“Thank you,” he said with a definitive nod. “Now, there must be something else in those records. Some clue to explain my untimely demise.”
Drawing in a breath, Natalie glanced up at Liam. “Is there nothing else mentioned in the file?”
“Nope.” Liam shook his head.
That spurred another huff from the ghost unhappily glaring at him. “So this was a complete dead end. No pun intended. What are you going to do now?” he demanded of Natalie.
What was she going to do? She’d like to remind him she didn’t have to do anything.
Still, she knew from experience this spirit could and would make her life miserable until she helped him. Or at least tried to.
Turning to face Lionel, she said, “I guess we’ll just have to find out more on our own.”
“Yes. Good. How? What is your plan?” Lionel asked.
What was this? The man who had all the answers had none now and wanted advice from her? If she had more energy she’d rub that in a bit. As it was, this spirit had sapped her nearly dry.
“Well…” she began, trying to come up with a plan on the fly. “I guess, as you said, you are kind of famous. I mean, in certain circles, I suppose. There should be some press about your death.”
“Yes! You must scour the professional journals and all of the newspapers for reports of my death.”
“Wait, what do you mean famous?” Liam asked over Lionel, drawing her attention back to him. “Who is this guy?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that. Your new cadaver is Lionel Graves.”
Liam frowned. “Why is that name so familiar?”
“The event in Salem… The professor on the panel—”
“Who was a dick to you?” Eyes widening, Liam finished her sentence.
He’d heard her rant about it enough that he should be able to grasp the full ramifications of Lionel being here, now, and only able to communicate with her.
“Correct.” Natalie nodded. “My nemesis is your new cadaver and Mudville’s newest spirit.”
“Nemesis… Really? I must say I am enjoying this. I don’t believe I’ve ever been anyone’s nemesis before. That is quite entertaining,” Lionel said, looking pleased and oh so smug.
“Entertaining? Seriously? You’re dead,” she spat, annoyed she’d pleased him.
“Yes. And again, very astute of you to notice,” he sniped back.
Liam, watching her argue with thin air, closed the folder and tossed it back on his desk. “This is going to be fun.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s going to be a blast,” she agreed, matching Liam’s tone.
As Lionel grinned, displaying crooked yellowing teeth, Natalie had to wonder if the man didn’t understand sarcasm.