Page 41 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

He drew in a visible breath. At least, visible to Natalie and the other spirits in the room. Finally, he said, “Check your cell phone, Nat. Tell your guy, too.”

Wondering what was up, Natalie pulled her cell out of her pocket and hit the side button to wake it. Except it wouldn’t wake.

She glanced up at Liam and said, “Check your phone.”

He did, then raised his gaze to her and said, “Totally dead.”

Rick let out a breath. “Something has drained those batteries.”

Something. Something, like the thing that attacked Margaret. Something, like the thing in the lab Liam felt but they couldn’t seem to find.

“It’s gathering energy,” Rick continued.

“Gathering energy for what?” Natalie asked with a feeling of doom.

Rick shook his head. “I don’t know, but I doubt it’s good.”

“Natalie,” Harper said, pulling her attention off Rick’s ominous prediction. “We can only hear half the conversation but it’s not comforting.”

She didn’t want to scare them. But she didn’t want to hide things either. She’d spent too long already hiding things. She was just carefully choosing her words when the bell above the door jangled and then Red came rushing into the meeting room.

“Why is no one answering their cell phones?” she demanded after a visual sweep of the livings in the room. Before Natalie could tell her, Red continued, “Alice was in an accident. She’s in a coma.”

Natalie felt the air leave her lungs. Alice could be a challenge sometimes, but Natalie loved that old bird. She couldn’t imagine life in Mudville without her.

“What kind of accident?” Agnes asked, rising from her seat. “She doesn’t even drive anymore. She sold her car.”

“She flipped her trike and hit her head when she landed. The driver of a passing car saw it happen, stopped and called 9-1-1. Cash heard the EMS call come through the fire department and called me.”

“Fuck,” Rick mumbled, then glanced up at Natalie. “Nat, what if it’s all related? Everything. Whatever killed Doug that he’s still terrified of, even in death. What caused Margaret Trout’s heart attack.”

“And what made her drive her car off the road and into the phone pole,” Millie added.

“What whispered to you in the lab when you thought it was me,” Gabe continued. “What Liam sensed last night that scared him.”

“And what drained all your batteries,” Rick finished the lengthy and horrifying list, every item of which hit Natalie like a punch in the gut.

“Is Alice going to—” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

Liam reached out and squeezed her hand, then, in doctor mode, asked Red, “Which hospital?”

“They airlifted her to Albany.”

Airlifted. Natalie felt sick to her stomach.

Liam shot Natalie a sideways glance. “It’s okay. They’re better equipped for emergencies there. That’s all. I’ll get on the shop’s landline and call Albany. Try to get a doctor to give me more information. Okay?”

She nodded. It was all she could manage.

Last night she’d been laughing and joking with Gabe about possible mice in the lab while laying out a plan she was sure would get Doug and Margaret to talk. Today she wasn’t laughing anymore. And she definitely wasn’t sure of anything.

Alice was in a coma. She could die.

Was Rick correct? Was all of it related?

But what kind of evil, manipulative entity could pull off something like this? It was calculated. It was complex. It was like nothing she’d come across in Mudville before.

That’s when it became perfectly clear to her. She’d never encountered this kind of spirit here before because it wasn’t here before.