Page 46 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

Making the bed with one hand left it messy, but at least the plastic bins beneath the bed were hidden by the newly straightened dust ruffle sticking out below the comforter.

Meanwhile, she had no idea what was happening out in the shop. Liam could be in handcuffs by now for all she knew.

After one more glance back at the bed so she could be satisfied she’d done the best she could with the limited resources she had, she headed toward the door between the apartment and the store. Stopping only to grab the bottle of ibuprofen from the kitchen cabinet as she passed.

Clearing the doorway she skidded to a stop when she saw Liam.

He stood where she’d left him, alone, his brows raised as he took in her appearance.

She probably was a sight. Her left hand clutched her right shoulder as the giant box store-sized ibuprofen bottle dangled precariously from the fingers of her right hand as her arm hung at her side, limp, painful and nearly useless.

“Where’s Carson?” she asked, low in case he was lurking somewhere.

“He left.”

“He left? He wasn’t here about the… you know?” She wasn’t about to mention Liam’s crime aloud. So she tipped her head back toward where the urn was hidden.

“No. Not at all.”

“Then what did he want?”

“To see if Harper was here.”

Uh, oh.

The one thing that was possibly as bad as Carson being here to arrest Liam for stealing hospital equipment from an oncology lab, was Carson here looking for Harper.

“Why was he looking for Harper?” she asked.

Liam drew in a breath. “He didn’t say. But I doubt it’s good.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“A restraining order?” Natalie’s eyes widened as she stared at Harper’s tear-stained face. “That’s why Carson was looking for you this morning?”

Harper nodded with a sniffle. “Apparently some woman I don’t even know said she’s afraid for her life.”

“Why?”

“Because I supposedly wrote about her in my book…”

“Did you?” Natalie asked.

“No! And then she went on to cite some random incident I barely remember happening. She said I fought with her husband at a village meeting.”

“Did you?” Natalie repeated her prior question.

Harper wobbled her head. “Not really. If it’s the incident I think she’s talking about I was annoyed her husband was laying into Stone about getting a notice he needed to keep their lawn mowed. The man went on and on about it. Honestly, he could have mowed the damn lawn twice over in the time he took to come to the meeting and bitch to the board about it. So I told him to just mow his damn lawn. It wasn’t a fight. I didn’t yell at him. It was a five-word comment. Nothing more. But his wife told the sheriff everyone who’s ever had words with me, as she put it, is either dying or dead.”

“Well, that’s not true. Margaret Trout is alive and well,” Natalie said, leaving out the words for now.

She wasn’t sure if her observance was helpful or not as Harper let out a huge breath. “Who knows. Maybe I deserve everything that’s happened. The restraining order. The lawsuit. Half the town hating me. Actively avoiding me. If I could take it all back, I would. Believe me. After the events of these past few weeks, I’ve never regretted something more than I do writing those dumb books.”

The slump of Harper’s shoulders, the defeat in her voice, had Natalie stepping forward and wrapping her arms around her friend.

“I’m so sorry.” She pulled back to address Harper face-to-face. “You know what you need? A bottle of wine and a nice long marathon binge watch of something stupid on TV while snuggling on the sofa under a blanket with your man. Where is Stone anyway?”

Harper let out a snort. “That’s the other thing. Stone was out in the field on the tractor and I was at the farm stand grabbing some vegetables when I got served. When he came in and heard about it, he completely lost it. He took off in the truck for the sheriff’s office. He’s pissed at Carson for serving the order to me in front of all the customers at his family’s farm market. I can’t blame him for being angry. You should have seen the looks I got from everyone who watched me get officially served with a restraining order. It was humiliating for me. But it could cost his family their livelihood.”