Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was nearly closing time when the bell above the door sounded.
Natalie braced herself for whatever annoying customer had chosen to slide in five minutes to six when all she wanted to do was lock the door, take off her bra, and collapse on the sofa.
It had already been a long and eventful day. Time for it to be over.
She breathed a sigh of relief she saw her last-minute customer was Harper.
“Hello. Twice in one day. I’m happy to see you, but please tell me it’s not because something else happened.”
“Nothing bad. I just decided you were right. I need a bottle of wine, or two, and a night on the sofa with Stone. And since you are my favorite wine purveyor in the village...”
“I’m the only wine purveyor in the village but thank you.” Natalie laughed. “It’s nice to see you in a better mood.”
“Well, I’m trying to think positively. Dee is confident we’ll come out all right in the ridiculous lawsuit.
Margaret is home and even if she won’t talk about what happened, at least she isn’t blaming me.
Alice is doing better, according to you and Liam.
And screw that woman and her restraining order.
I don’t want to be within a hundred yards of her anyway.
I’ve turned over a new leaf. I’m going to stop worrying.
And I’m going to stop writing about Mudville and any of the people in it. Anyone I know at all, really.”
“No.” Natalie gasped with shock.
“Yes.” Harper nodded.
“Then what will you write about?”
“I have no idea. I was hoping something will come to me during the hours and hours of binge-watching I have planned.”
“Okay. That sounds promising.”
“I can only hope,” Harper said as her cell vibrated with a text.
She glanced down at the phone in her hand. “It’s Stone. He wants to know where I am.”
“Maybe he’s on that sofa waiting for you,” Natalie suggested as Harper tapped in a reply.
The response came immediately.
Harper frowned. “He says don’t move. He’ll be here in a minute.”
“Hmm. I wonder what’s up. He’s not into wine.”
Harper laughed. “No. Not at all. But I am into wine, so let me grab a couple of bottles before he gets here.”
It was good to see Harper laugh. It had been a long time since she’d looked relaxed enough to enjoy anything. Unfortunately, after that ominous text from Stone, Natalie had a feeling Harper’s good mood was about to end.
All it took was one look at Stone’s expression as he rushed into the shop for Natalie to know her guess was right.
She’d just put the two bottles of wine in a bag for Harper when Stone reached the counter and said in a burst, “They found one of your pens at the site of Alice’s crash.”
“What?”
“Those pens you have with your name on them. The village crew was clearing the storm drains and they were at the spot where Alice crashed when they found your pen.”
“I buy those pens by the thousand to give away at book signings and events. Half the people in this town probably have those pens. Is the sheriff seriously trying to pin Alice’s accident on me too? Why in the world would I want to harm Alice?”
“No one is going to pin anything on you, because the guys gave the pen to me.”
“So now you, the mayor, are withholding evidence from the sheriff? That’s great. That’s going to look really good in the local paper and on WBNG news when it comes out.”
“It’s not going to come out,” Stone argued. “The crew are loyal. The sheriff will never know what they found or that I have it.”
Harper, eyes glistening, shook her head. “Stone—”
“Okay, you two. Listen. It doesn’t matter even if the sheriff had the pen. He can’t pin this on you. You were here, with me and Liam and Agnes when Red came to tell us Alice had crashed. Remember? You have an airtight alibi.”
She nodded, still looking shaky. “You’re right.
“And aside from that, when Alice wakes up she’ll tell everyone exactly what caused her accident.”
“See? That’s why I didn’t turn the pen in as evidence. You have an alibi. I knew you obviously had nothing to do with it,” Stone said.
“Alibi?” Liam walked in through the back door. “What’s happened that Harper had nothing to do with? Has there been another attack?”
“No. Nothing new. The village crew found one of Harper’s pens at the site of Alice’s accident. But it’s probably just that Alice had the pen on her when she fell,” Natalie said.
Liam pressed his lips together. “Or…” he began.
Natalie didn’t like the sound of that or…
“Or what?” she asked.
He drew in a breath. “What if the entity has the power not just to frighten Alice into crashes, but also to plant evidence at the scene?”
“No. It couldn’t…” She shook her head. “Could it?”
So far, none of the ghosts she’d come in contact with could move things in the physical world.
Liam wobbled his head to one side. “What if it not only causes fear, but it feeds on it? And every attack strengthens its power.”
“The batteries,” Natalie remembered. “The entity drained the power from all of our batteries the morning Alice was attacked.”
“Yup.” Liam nodded.
“Jeezus.” Stone ran his hand over his face. “I guess I’m out of the loop, but what entity are we talking about?”
“The brain ghost,” Natalie said.
Liam nodded and repeated, “The brain ghost.”
“The brain ghost?” Stone frowned as he glanced between them.
“You didn’t tell Stone our latest theory?” Natalie asked Harper.
Harper shook her head. “I didn’t want to worry him. And he’s not exactly what you’d call a true believer anyway.”
“Someone tell me now, please,” Stone said through gritted teeth.
Natalie explained they were now convinced, pretty much beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Liam’s new brain came with a ghost. One clever and evil enough to cause havoc in Harper’s life for its own amusement, effectively targeting specific victims to frame her for all the bad things that had been happening to the residents of Mudville recently.
Stone shook his head. “I never thought I’d ever say these words, but how the hell do we fight an evil brain ghost?”
“I might have already figured that out.” Liam began.
Stone glanced around, like he might see the brain ghost lurking, before he said, “This is… a lot.”
“It is a lot,” Natalie agreed. “But it’s what we’re dealing with.”
“It’s unbelievable, is what it is,” Stone said.
Harper leaned toward Natalie. “See. Non-believer.”
“I didn’t say I don’t believe it. But to think a brain could do any of that. Although, I recently discovered ghosts are real and Natalie can speak to them, so who am I to judge?” Stone glanced at Liam. “So when do we implement this idea of yours?”
“Already done,” Liam said.
“It is?” Natalie asked, whipping around to stare at Liam.
“It is.” He nodded.
“And how will we know if it worked?” Stone asked.
“We wait.”