Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
“What?” One word was all Natalie could manage as Alice, in her biker gang cut, sent flashes of reflected colored light around the meeting room walls and ceiling while making the announcement.
“Old lady Trout? Is dead?” Harper said, her tone rising into manic territory.
“She hates me. Hated. Past tense because now she’s dead.
And of course I argued with her too. Just this morning while I was waiting in line at Honey Buns.
She came at me, insisting loudly that I was the reason she swerved and crashed her car and that I got my fiancé the mayor to get the sheriff to drop the charges.
I had to defend myself and Stone, of course, so I argued with her.
It got pretty heated, right there in front of the line of customers.
” Harper buried her face in her hands. “That’s it.
I’m going to prison. Probably for the rest of my life. ”
“Maybe they’ll let Stone have conjugal visits?” Rick suggested, his version of being helpful.
Grateful Harper couldn’t hear Rick’s comment, Natalie took it upon herself to question Alice further. The woman had been known to get things wrong.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
Alice nodded. “Yup. No doubt about it. She was laid out on the sidewalk. Dead. Then the ambulance came, tossed a sheet over her and loaded her up.”
“Oh my God.” Natalie whipped out her cell phone and typed a message to Liam. All caps because the situation felt like it warranted it.
Natalie
MARGARET TROUT IS DEAD!!!
Hot Doc
I’ll be right over
Jeez. Not even a single exclamation point from Liam in the face of yet another death? She and her boyfriend really couldn’t be more different. It was mind boggling they were still together.
There was a lot of chatter in the meeting room. Among the spirits the conversation included guesses of how fast Carson would arrive to arrest Harper, which included one bet.
Natalie was just considering what ghosts had to bet with, certainly not money, when Liam walked into the meeting room.
“She’s not dead,” he announced without saying hello.
“Yes, she is,” Alice countered.
Drawing in a breath Liam repeated, “No. She’s not. She almost was, but she’s not.”
Alice swung her head from side to side. “Nope. They shocked her but her eyes were still closed when they put her in the ambulance. Definitely dead.”
Liam drew in and let out a breath slowly. “Real life isn’t like what you see on television.”
“Pfft. No kidding. You should try watching a medical show with him,” Natalie grumbled.
Liam cut her a sideways glance, then returned his attention to Alice.
“In those shows, they apply the paddles, the body jolts, the character gasps, their eyes fly open, and they immediately ask, ‘What happened?’. In reality, recovering from sudden cardiac arrest is a much slower and rougher process. Margaret will likely be unconscious for a while. But she was most definitely alive when they put her in that ambulance.”
Alice crossed her arms over her bedazzled vest, looking defiant enough to be in a biker gang as she challenged Liam. “How do you know?”
“I saw Cash on my way over here. He told me. He’s a volunteer firefighter. All the members of the department can hear the ambulance calls come through.”
Harper nodded. “Oh, yeah. Cash’s phone is always going off. Drives Red crazy, but I’m very glad of it because now we know she’s not dead. So what happened to her? You said cardiac arrest?”
“The hospital will run all the necessary tests, but that was the EMT’s best guess. It was likely a massive coronary,” Liam answered.
“Like Doug,” Harper said looking a little shell shocked.
Liam nodded. “Possibly. Again, we don’t have details. All I know is that her heart stopped, but they got it started again.”
“Like you did with me,” Natalie breathed softly, but close enough Liam heard and cut his gaze to her.
He nodded. “Like you.”
“Do you think…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t want to.
“That she’ll be able to see ghosts when she wakes up, just like you did?” Liam asked, proving they were thinking the same thing.
Natalie nodded.
“I don’t know, but I’m dying to find out.
” He seemed far too excited about the prospect as he continued, “Because if she can’t, that could indicate it wasn’t your heart stopping that brought this on, but the electrical jolt that caused your heart to stop.
Perhaps the shock rewired your brain, making it more receptive. ”
She could see his brain working on his next research paper already. Leave it to Liam to turn this situation into a science experiment.
Meanwhile, Natalie wasn’t sure how she felt about sharing this ability with Margaret Trout of all people. What was this strange feeling? Jealousy? After thinking of her gift as a curse since obtaining it, maybe she didn’t hate her ability so much after all.
But that was a problem for another time.
Mary Brimley came striding into the meeting room from the shop. “Have you heard about Margaret?” she asked, immediately.
Dammit. How many people had come in the front door of the shop so far? And Natalie could swear she didn’t hear the bell once.
How many more were out there who didn’t come into the meeting room? She needed a louder bell on the front door, since having quieter meetings and less drama was probably out of the question.
Standing, Natalie left Mary Brimley with Harper and Liam to deal with and went out to the shop area. Sure enough, there was a customer holding two bottles of wine and studying the book display by the cash register as she waited.
By the time Natalie finished checking out the customer and moved to stand in the meeting room doorway, where she would stay so she didn’t miss any more customers, Mary Brimley was deep into her telling of the story.
“It’s just luck for her that I was out walking the dogs at that exact moment…
I like to take them on a nice long walk after my morning show ends but before I have breakfast. I was almost to the library…
I walk west on Main Street first on that side of the street, then I cross and walk east on the way home on the other side of the street to give the dogs a little variety.
Anyway, I saw Margaret Trout collapse on the sidewalk in front of the library lawn not twenty feet in front of me.
At that point I assumed she’d just tripped and fallen.
I had the dogs and I couldn’t drop the leashes, they could have run off, but also after my surgery I can’t lift anything heavy, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to pick her up myself, but I did have my cell phone.
So I called 9-1-1 and an EMT got there in under a minute after I called.
We really do have wonderful volunteers. He was so fast. But it was a good thing for Margaret’s sake that I was there to call. It probably saved her life—”
“Actually,” Liam said, interrupting the flow of words.
“Cash said one of the ambulance crew happened to be pulling into the parking lot before your call even went out, Mary. He saw Margaret collapsed on the sidewalk. When he determined she wasn’t breathing and had no pulse he began administering CPR.
Meanwhile, one of the Village work crew driving by saw what was happening, so he jumped out of the truck and ran inside the building to get the defibrillator they keep there.
That’s what brought Margaret back. By then the ambulance that Alice saw had arrived.
They took Margaret, alive but unconscious, to Binghamton General. ”
“Oh, interesting.” Mary nodded. “The dogs were going absolutely crazy with all the excitement so I had to take them home. By the time I came back out, the ambulance was leaving.”
As Alice and Mary continued the play-by-play of the morning’s events, Gabe dropped his hold on Millie’s hand so only Natalie would be able to hear him.
“So let’s recap,” Gabe began. “Old Lady Trout is alive but she had a deadly heart attack, just like Doug, and also after arguing with Harper, just like Doug.”
“An argument which is one of the main points in Doug’s widow’s lawsuit,” Harriet reminded them.
Yup. That about covered it.
Rick swung his head from side to side. “Harper is so screwed.”
Even Tim nodded in agreement. And the worst part was Natalie couldn’t argue with any of them.