Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“Do you think what Gabe said was true?” Natalie asked a few minutes later, right after Gabe and Millie had run home to make sure Harper hadn’t been taken away in handcuffs and they wouldn’t need to call the lawyer.
“Do I think what was true?” Liam asked.
“About you having a brain ghost.”
“Brain ghost? Is that a new term you’ve coined?”
“Yes. I had to since you’ve gotten an awfully lot of brains delivered lately. Ever since you got that grant. Hence, brain ghosts.”
They’d had some real winners in the ghost department thanks to Liam’s lab. She really couldn’t blame Gabe for getting angry over any new additions to the cadaver lab supply of research material because of the potential ghostly presence that could come with any of them.
“I know it seems like most of the brains you have in your freezer don’t have a spirit attached… but some have,” she reminded Liam.
“Yes, Natalie. I know. I remember quite well the all-nighters I had to pull so I could finish all I needed to on that one specimen and send it back to Albany. All because Gabe didn’t like the ghost it came with.”
“Liking him wasn’t the issue. The guy had been a boxer with rage issues in life and that didn’t change in death. He was picking fights with everyone.”
Liam cocked up a dark brow high. “Not to speak ill of the dead, or of your ghost bestie, but you can’t tell me a few spirits didn’t provoke him into a fight.”
“I know what you’re insinuating and you’re wrong.”
“You’re trying to tell me that Gabe, or even Rick, didn’t make some smart-ass remark to get themselves punched in the face?” Liam asked.
She opened her mouth to protest and found she couldn’t in good conscience.
After a pause, she began again with a different tactic. “The boxer even tried to start something with Train Track Tim. And he has no jaw and only one arm, so you can’t tell me that he deserved it.”
Liam tipped his head to the side. “All right. I’ll give you that one. And please remember I got rid of the problematic brain, and its brain ghost, as fast as humanly possible while still getting the research information I needed out of it first. So no one should be complaining.”
“That’s not the point…” Crud. What was the point? Natalie was still having trouble thinking.
Damn peyote.
Oh yeah. She remembered. “Do you think this most recent brain came with a ghost who is hiding?”
It was too much of a coincidence that Natalie heard something on the day it arrived and Gabe saw something just days after and now Liam thought he’d heard something too.
“I don’t know, Nat. You’re the ghost whisperer. Not me.”
“And you’re the one bringing a revolving door of new spirits into this village with your cadaver lab, Mr. Research Man, so let’s not be calling people names, huh?”
“I wasn’t—” He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you, Natalie. I wouldn’t know how to find out if there is a new ghost hiding in the lab. I mean short of your ghost friends posting a guard twenty-four/seven in the lab to try and catch a glimpse of him, how do we catch him?”
“Or her,” Natalie added, remembering she was a feminist. Equal opportunity and all that. Even in the case of creepy ghosts.
“No, actually. If this potential new ghost is from the most recent brain delivered, it’s male. The paperwork doesn’t give specifics, no name, but it provides the sex and age of the donor.”
“Oh.” Oh well. She’d tried. “But at least we know we’re looking for a male. You know, for when we set up the watch.”
“The watch? Wait, I was only kidding. You’re not really going to post ghosts in my lab, are you?”
“Why not? I think it’s an excellent idea.
” Natalie began pacing across the narrow space in the kitchen.
“Our own neighborhood ghost watch. We should have thought of it years ago. And not just in the lab. They could patrol the entire village. We have to. It might be the only way to save Harper now she has a bull’s eye on her back and people are trying to blame her for everything from heart attacks to fender benders.
” She spun to face Liam. “You know what this means, don’t you? ”
“I hate to even venture a guess.”
“It’s time to call a meeting of the ghost council.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Sure. Of course. Why not invite the Ladies Amateur Detective Society too, while you’re at it?”
“Yes.” Her eyes widened and she reached for the cell phone in her pocket. “Good idea, baby.”
“That’s me. Full of good ideas.” Liam sighed. “Since you seem to be doing better, I guess I’ll be in the lab... awaiting the new ghost watch… and trying to avoid whatever might be hiding in there.”
“Okay. Have a good day,” Natalie responded, only half listening as she typed a message into the LADS group text.
The ghost council and the LADS had to meet. They had things to do. Harper to save. Ghosts to hunt—
A loud knock on the door at the front of the shop interrupted her text.
Glancing at the time on the microwave she saw 10:05 displayed. Five minutes past the time she should have unlocked the door.
Oh, yeah. She’d forgotten one more thing she had to do today. She had a shop to run.