Page 57 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

There were the expected grumbles among those gathered.

“Whether you believe in my ability or you still doubt it,” she said, raising her voice louder to be heard over the murmurs. “You can’t deny the evidence that there is something out of the ordinary happening here in Mudville. I believe it all stems from the arrival of a new spirit and it’s a bad one. It attacked me. Put me in the hospital.”

“Almost killed you, you mean,” Liam added low in that deep voice that on any other occasion made her think naughty thoughts about all the things she’d like to do with him.

She continued, “Yes. It did almost kill me. And it’s my belief it’s the same entity that attacked Margaret Trout and the same thing that caused the heart attack that killed Doug.”

“And it attacked Alice,” Agnes announced, loud and clear.

It attacked Alice? This was news to Natalie but she couldn’t ask for more over the loud cross chatter.

Stone pounded on the table. “Quiet down. Quiet. Let’s have some order, please.”

When the room quieted, Agnes continued. “Sorry, Natalie, for interrupting, but Alice came out of her coma while you were in the hospital. She called me right before I left for tonight’s meeting. Alice is sure it was the brain ghost that ran her off the road and caused her trike accident.”

Again the room erupted in disorder.

Snippets of the comments reached Natalie up front.

“Brain ghost?”

“Ridiculous! I’ve never heard of such nonsense.”

“Crazy as an old loon, that Alice. Just like that book seller.”

Natalie felt her blood pressure rise as her pulse pounded over the ignorant insults from the closed-minded public.

Good thing Liam didn’t know what was happening inside her body or he’d be wheeling her right out of there. She’d be hooked up to a heart monitor before she could say, worry wart.

The ruckus caused Stone to have to call for quiet again.

When he finally achieved his goal and the din lessoned, Margaret Trout stood, slowly, gingerly, as if she hadn’t quite recovered from her attack yet.

In fact, Margaret looked how Natalie felt. Beaten up, from the inside.

“It attacked me too. Twice. The same thing I saw jump in front of my car before I crashed into the phone pole by the post office is what assaulted me on the sidewalk in front of the library. Natalie Chase is not lying. There is something here in this village and it’s bad. We have to do something before it hurts someone else.” Margaret, Natalie’s sudden and unexpected ally, turned to speak directly to her. “I believe you. Tell us what to do.”

Her biggest doubter, possibly her largest critic, believed her.

It felt like a momentous occasion. Natalie’s eyes clouded with the mist caused by Margaret’s words. Margaret Trout believed her. The way she looked now, she would follow wherever Natalie led to fight this evil entity.

There was one problem.

Natalie had no clue what the hell to do to fight and defeat the brain ghost.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Well that was interesting,” Liam said as he helped Natalie into the Jeep he’d pulled up to the curb while the meeting inside continued on. “Who knew a village board meeting could get so… vocal.”

That was one word for it. She had a few more of her own. Contentious. Insulting. Infuriating. Natalie couldn’t pinpoint just one reaction to what she’d just endured. But she had to remember, it had only been a very few who remained dissenters. The majority of those there were on her side. Even Margaret Trout.

Before they’d left, she’d invited anyone who wanted to brainstorm plans to combat the brain ghost to come to the shop tomorrow morning at nine a.m. before she opened at ten.

And Liam had, in a way that was somehow both cordial and menacing at the same time, like a bouncer at a high-end club, politely uninvited anyone who had nothing to contribute but complaints saying he’d be happy to personally show them the way out.

He’d finished with, “You know who you are.”

Judging by the expressions she’d seen on one of the most notorious loudmouths, they did know who they were and she wouldn’t be seeing them tomorrow. Thank goodness for Liam’s protective side.