Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
“So let me get this straight,” Gabe began, in a tone that let Natalie know he was annoyed. “You text Harper to have her get me out of my bed where I was about to watch a brand-new episode of Ghosts with my girlfriend, to come to a deserted lab for… what?”
He looked pointedly around at the obviously empty lab.
“First of all, I know for a fact Harper pays for the expensive package of Paramount+ so you and Millie can stream Ghosts anytime you want, commercial free, so stop complaining. Second…” Natalie shook her head.
“If you’d seen Liam, Gabe. How spooked he was.
There was something here with him. And it scared the hell out of him. ”
“Poor baby.” Gabe pouted.
“Stop. Given that we now believe that Doug was scared to death, and Margaret nearly so, I think we have to take any lead seriously.”
“Okay, so let’s give big guy the benefit of the doubt.
Let’s say there really was something here tonight trying to scare him.
That doesn’t mean he was in any danger. Hear me out here.
What if it was Doug’s ghost? He’s pissed that you and Liam are badgering him, trying to get Harper off the hook in a lawsuit that could set up his widow financially for the rest of her life.
So he decides to enact a little revenge.
Try to scare Liam. Maybe you’re next. But what can Doug do to you? ”
“Nothing?” she asked.
“Exactly. Nothing. I can check with the ghost patrol and see if they lost track of Doug for long enough tonight it would have allowed him the time to come here and spook Liam. Until then, it seems he’s given up for the night. There’s nothing here, Nat.”
Gabe could be right. It could have been Doug here tonight with Liam. He certainly had motive to be mad at them both. But that theory didn’t explain everything else. Something had scared Doug, in life and in death. Had scared Margaret too.
Either way, whether Gabe was right or wrong, Natalie had to admit that after a thorough search of the lab, there didn’t appear to be anything there now.
She let out a breath. “I’m sorry. You’re right. There’s nothing here. You can go back to Millie… after you walk me back home,” she added quickly.
She was willing to play ghost hunter, she was uniquely qualified for the position, but she wasn’t willing to face a possible evil entity outside, alone, and in the dark when everything felt a hundred times spookier.
“Sure.”
When she glanced up, Gabe looked suddenly downright chipper. Narrowing her eyes, she asked, “What has you looking so happy?”
The smile Gabe had barely been controlling burst through. “Just thinking about the big guy. Where was he when you left him? Curled up in the fetal position with his little security blanket under the covers so the big bad ghost can’t get him?”
“Stop. It’s not funny. There’s something out there that could be literally killing people and it could have been here tonight with Liam.”
Gabe let out a breath. “Nat, this isn’t your first ghost rodeo. Do you really believe that?”
She remembered the exact feeling when she encountered that dark spirit in her hotel room in Utica. How her heart pounded until she thought she’d black out. How she couldn’t seem to get air into her lungs to breathe. How she ran from it like her life depended on it.
And that wasn’t even a malevolent spirit. Just a deeply disturbed and unhappy one. He never wanted to hurt her. Just to move on.
What could a spirit who intended harm do? If her theory was correct, she already had that answer. It could kill.
“Yes, Gabe. I really do. And you should too. There’s something loose in Mudville. And if we don’t find it and soon, who else will be harmed?”
“Okay, Nat. We’ll keep at it. But can we be done with the lab for tonight? There’s obviously nothing here and spending the night in the lab with my corpse that your boyfriend dismembered isn’t my idea of fun.”
Gabe was never going to let any of them forget that his cadaver had been one of Liam’s first science experiments. Although at this point she’d gladly take one annoyed snarky ghost who couldn’t let go of the past over this thing, whatever it was.
But Gabe was right. Time to go.
“We can be done for tonight. But tomorrow—”
“I’ll get the ghosts on the case while you’re in the shop.”
Natalie nodded, moving to pull open the door. “And I’ll put Alice and her biker gang on it. Who knows. Maybe they’ll find something.”
Gabe walked out into the dark before her. And as she glanced back into the brightly lit lab before she flipped off the light switch, was that a flash of motion? In the back by Liam’s big industrial brain freezer?
She froze and stared at the spot as a chill ran down her spine, but there was nothing.
“What’s up?” Gabe asked from where he stood waiting for her outside.
She shook her head. It must have been her imagination. Liam being spooked had gotten into her head. “Nothing, I guess. I just thought I saw something.”
Gabe let out a snort. “Probably that damn mouse again.”
“Probably,” she agreed, then flipped off the lights and slammed the door closed.