Page 51 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

Almost…

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Okay, so Rick, you had no new reports of sightings or attacks from the ghost patrols. Correct?” Natalie asked.

Rick nodded. “Yuppers, doll. All’s quiet on the cemetery front.”

“Harriet, what’s happening with Doug?”

“He’s still being a total pain in the you know what. But I do think he’s softening. He’s gotten used to me following him around. He even looks for me now when he leaves the house. I see him do it.”

That did seem much less confrontational on the part of Doug’s ghost than before.

“I wonder what he’d do if he looked for you and didn’t see you,” Gabe said suggestively.

“You mean, would he be disappointed? That is an interesting tactic. I’ll give that a try. Hide from him. See if he looks agitated that I’m not there. See if he’s relieved the next time I am there. I’ll report back my findings next meeting.”

Harriet had been in the psych field during life and had obviously retained her fascination with the human mind in her afterlife.

“Is there any news about Alice?” Millie, always the sweetheart, asked quietly from her seat next to Gabe.

“I’ll ask Liam to call and check in with his friend at the hospital and get a more recent update, but last he heard, if she remained stable, they were going to bring her out of the coma.”

The room was filled with murmurs of varying levels of relief and joy over that news from all the ghosts save Tim, who couldn’t speak but nodded and banged his single hand on the arm of the chair in his version of applause.

She drew in a breath and glanced around the room at what she’d come to think of as her ghosts.

But they were so much more than that. They were her partners. Her friends.

Her family.

She’d come to love each and every one of them. In fact it was hard to remember a time when they weren’t in her life, even if that was only a few years ago.

And now even though they had been infiltrated by that evil entity, by all accounts they’d fought and won that battle.

The lead pig was working.

Mudville was saved. The world was saved.

Did that mean her dream of living a normal life—at least as normal a life as a person who saw ghosts could—might actually come to fruition?

If so, she was ready to start that life right now.

It was six-thirty. The shop had been closed for half an hour. The meeting was ready to be wrapped up and the ghosts sent off to their various assignments. Liam should have finished his work for the day. He should be waiting for her in the apartment.

Time to go see her man.

“All right. Good meeting. Good news. I think we can call this meeting and the case of the evil brain a wrap.”

“Wait, so you’re convinced? You really think containing the brain worked?” Gabe asked.

“I really do,” she said with a smile.

The lights flickered just a bit, dimming then coming back to life. Natalie stared at the bulb nearest her with a frown.

“Old wiring,” Rick commented, standing up from the chair he’d lounged in. “You’re lucky this old knob and tube works at all and you didn’t have to rewire the whole damn building.”

“That would have cost her a pretty penny,” Gabe agreed. “Do you know what union electricians get paid nowadays?”