Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Harper burst into the shop the moment Natalie unlocked the door the following morning. “Oh my God. I came the moment I heard the news.”
“Really?” Natalie frowned. “The Mudville gossips are slacking.” She would have thought the news of her interrogation by the New Haven Police Department would have reached Harper in minutes. Not the following day.
“Are they really taking Lionel’s body away?”
“Oh, that news. Uh, yeah. It looks that way.” Natalie nodded.
“When?”
“I’m not sure. I’m guessing soon.”
“I know I’m new to this ghost stuff, but if they take his body, won’t his ghost go too?”
“That’s how it’s worked so far.”
As soon as Albany Medical College approved it and Carson could arrange for the coroners to come get him, Lionel’s spirit would be headed to Morris, New York.
“Natalie, we have a contract. A deadline. How are we going to finish the book without Lionel?” Harper asked, looking panicked.
Natalie noticed Harper was using the word we a lot. It was Natalie’s name on that contract. But it made her feel a little better knowing Harper was there for her.
“So I’ve had some time to think about this.
” Specifically, all night long when Natalie couldn’t fall asleep.
“All the research is there for our reference. The book itself is basically written. The work we were doing was just Lionel being nit-picky. I think we can whip it into submission shape quick. We’ll just finish it on our own without him. ”
“Nit-picky? And there will be no whipping it into shape quick, as you say. Nothing shall be done to my book without me!” Lionel declared.
Once again a ghost had snuck up on her. Natalie really wished she could put a bell on these spirits.
One thing was certain. Lionel wasn’t happy with their plan.
The jangling of the bells above the shop door heralded another visitor.
“Natalie, are you here?” Alice, well under five feet tall, announced her support as she rushed between the maze of bookcases in the center of the shop.
The effect was that of a disembodied voice until Alice herself appeared.
“Oh, hey, Harp.” Alice greeted Harper then turned her attention back to Natalie. “Natalie, thank God. I heard all about it.”
Having learned from her interaction with Harper, Natalie wanted clarification. “What did you hear, Alice?”
“That the Feds—” Alice began.
“The police,” Natalie corrected.
“—charged you with murder—” Alice continued.
“Questioned me,” Natalie interjected.
“—and the only reason they didn’t haul you away in handcuffs is because Liam roughed them up until Carson had to pull them apart.”
Natalie didn’t have words. It was like playing a game of telephone, where the original message gets twisted beyond recognition through repetition.
“There’s the Mudville gossip mill at its best for you.
” Harper shook her head. “Alice, Liam wasn’t even involved.
I heard Natalie was so brilliant in her own defense—with words, not fists—that the police had to walk away.
They had no evidence to arrest her. At least that’s what Gabe and Millie told me. ”
“Closer but still not quite what happened,” Natalie commented. It seemed ghosts could be unreliable narrators just like the livings.
“Details don’t matter, Nat. Don’t you understand? It’s this that matters.” Alice fumbled with her cell phone, tapping the screen and grumbling, which kind of diluted the big reveal when she thrust her phone toward Natalie and Harper with the screen facing them.
Harper gasped. Natalie squinted to see what was gasp-worthy. She really needed to get her eyes checked. Finally she took the phone from Alice so she could see better, only to wish she hadn’t.
Someone had posted a screen shot of her shop’s Facebook page with the word MURDERER written across it.
Harper let out a sigh as the door flew open again and Jules rushed in.
“Natalie, the Facebook page!” Seconds later Jules skidded to a stop in front of them. “I just deleted a dozen comments saying you’re a murderer.”
“Jules. It’s not true,” Natalie told her.
Jules shook her head. “Nat, truth has nothing to do with it. If the public decides to cancel you, you’re done.”
“See. Told you,” Alice said with a nod.
“We have to issue a public statement,” Jules said.
“I don’t know,” Harper countered. “Sometimes it’s better to completely ignore the scandal. Let it die down. Commenting on it just fuels the fire. I’ve seen it happen in the author world.”
Alice shook her head. “Nope. I say you come to the Village meeting tonight and make a public statement in person proclaiming your innocence. That’ll shut everyone up.”
Harper raised a brow. “Will it? Have you been to a Village meeting?” Harper asked, the question dripping in sarcasm.
Lionel stepped into the middle of the discussion. “Why are you discussing Facebook of all things when the future of my book hangs in the balance? I want assurances from you that you will not submit that book to the editor without my final approval. Deadline or no—”
“Hey, I have news.” Liam entered from behind her, through the apartment, unwittingly interrupting Lionel’s lecture.
Natalie turned to face him, not sure she could handle anymore news. So far today, all of the news had been bad.
Maybe she was due for some good news. Hopefully…
“The coroner will be here later today to pick up the—” Liam paused when he realized the size of his audience. “Uh…the cadaver for the autopsy.”
With Liam’s announcement the room exploded in chatter.
“Today!” Lionel exclaimed. “That is not nearly enough time for me to give you instructions on how to proceed while I’m away.”
“I guess this means we’re finishing this book alone,” Harper said, which sent Lionel spinning out into another diatribe, demanding Natalie tell that romance author she was not to lay one hand on his book.
Meanwhile Alice scowled. “It’s a conspiracy, I tell you. This autopsy will reveal evidence that the Feds will use as an excuse to arrest Natalie. Mark my words. I’ve seen it before.”
“You have?” Jules asked Alice.
“Yup. On TV.” She nodded.
“Can we all remain calm, please? There’s no need for concern,” Natalie said loud enough to hopefully be heard over them.
It had been so noisy in the shop Natalie had somehow missed the bell announcing Carson’s entry, but there he stood, hat in hand again, looking at her.
“There might actually be a bit of a need for concern,” Carson said.
“Talk, Bekker,” Liam said, his tone low and intimidating.
Looking unperturbed by Liam’s thinly veiled machismo, Carson faced Natalie. “New Haven PD has new evidence.”
“What new evidence?” Natalie managed to ask past the lump in her throat.
“Screen shots of you in a public dispute with Lionel Graves on Facebook.”
“That Facebook group was private. Not public. And it was more of a spirited debate,” she defended.
“They’ve also been interviewing attendees of the panel you were on in Salem. Did you say you…” Carson glanced down at a page in his little book and read, “were afraid you might murder Professor Graves?”
“Uh, oh,” Harper whispered.