Page 56 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

Her charm assault didn’t work. He continued to frown at her. “You should have had an MRI and a CT scan. An EKG. An echocardiogram⁠—”

“Liam, come on. We know what caused my collapse.” Even if she couldn’t tell the doctors in Cooperstown the truth without ending up in the psych ward. “It was the brain ghost. Not some stroke or heart attack or whatever.”

“Natalie, the brain ghost might have been the cause of your collapse, but without the necessary tests we don’t know the effects the attack had on your body. It could have resulted in a seizure or a stroke or damage to your heart.”

“Am I acting like I had a stroke or a seizure? No. Now that I’m out of that hospital I feel fine. I can think. I can breathe. I can even walk, not that you’ll let me.” She raised a brow pointedly at Liam, who’d only agreed to let her go to the public meeting of the village board that night if she agreed to attend in a wheelchair.

“Just because you can walk, doesn’t mean you should walk,” he said and reached down to release the brakes on the wheels.

She let out a sigh. “Fine. Just push me inside. I don’t want to miss the time set aside for public comments on the agenda.”

“…I find her nearly dead on the train tracks twenty-four hours ago and she’s concerned about agendas…” Liam grumbling under his breath was a familiar comfort to her as he wheeled her toward the glass door.

Someone seated in the front row saw them coming and jumped up to open the door.

Inside, she glanced around.

Stone was there presiding over the meeting as mayor, of course. Along with the four elected trustees and the village clerk.

There were well over a dozen Mudville residents seated facing the board. Among them Harper, Agnes, Mary Brimley, Dee Flanders and, surprisingly, Margaret Trout, whose eyes widened when she saw Natalie in the wheelchair.

What Natalie didn’t see were any of the ghosts.

Harper had texted and assured her she’d passed the word on to Gabe and Millie about Natalie’s plan to attend the meeting tonight. Harper said she’d asked Gabe to rally the rest of the ghosts and get them to the meeting too—they needed all hands on deck for this situation—but Natalie didn’t see even one ghost here now.

Were they all out on patrol?

They shouldn’t be. As far as she knew, they rotated on a preassigned shift schedule. Spirits were surprisingly organized, considering they couldn’t write anything down. That made it even more odd that not one had shown up here.

Natalie glanced up at Liam.

He’d pushed her chair to the end of the front row and parked it next to Harper. He squatted down next to her now and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t see any ghosts,” she whispered the words low.

No use riling up the non-believers, or those who believed but didn’t like the reality of sharing their village with spirits of the dead.

She continued, “Why aren’t any of them here? Is something going on we don’t know about?”

Liam shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

Her mind spun with possibilities. Were the ghosts all currently locked in an epic battle against the evil entity while she sat here waiting for her turn to speak?

Natalie turned to Harper, about to ask if she knew where Gabe was, when she heard Stone say in his official mayoral voice, “Any public comments?”

She’d have to ask about Gabe later, because that was her cue. Natalie raised her hand.

Stone tipped his head in her direction. “Natalie, go ahead.”

She moved to rise from the wheelchair, which sent Doctor Liam into overprotective boyfriend mode. “No. Sit. I’ll move you around.”

He pushed her forward then angled the wheelchair so she could address both the members of the board seated in the front and the attendees opposite them.

“Mr. Mayor, esteemed trustees, ladies and gentlemen. You all know me. Know how I earn a living…”

“Is she doing Quint’s speech from Jaws?” one trustee mumbled to another.

Natalie ignored the comment and continued, “and you’ve no doubt heard that I can see spirits.”