Page 72 of Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder

Stone, not a fan of any paranormal activity, nodded. “All right. Do what you gotta do.”

There had to be over fifty people packed in the room. Maybe more. In a village with a population of about a thousand, for an unofficial meeting called on just hours’ notice, that was pretty amazing.

More amazing was that Mudville had come together and, at least the ones in the room, had actually agreed not only with the plan, but with each other.

So there was only one worry left for Natalie. Was it going to be enough? Or was it all too little too late?

And was Liam, in the Jeep alone with the brain for however long it took to drive to Dean in Virginia, going to be the next victim?

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“I’m still worried,” Natalie said as Liam stood, as usual, in the kitchen filling a travel mug with coffee.

The difference was this wasn’t morning and he wasn’t on his way to the lab to work for the day.

It was late afternoon. The autumn sun was low on the horizon, heading rapidly toward sunset as Liam was about to head to Virginia.

The other difference from the usual was he’d brewed this coffee using water he’d boiled on the gas cooktop to pour over the grinds since no electric meant no electric coffee maker.

Mudville had survived without electricity since seven-thirty the night before. But they expected the power to be restored shortly. They could only get away with having the entire village knocked out from the supposed wind damage for so long.

With more than an eight-hour drive to Dean’s base ahead of him, Liam intended to leave before the power got restored and gave the entity a chance to gather more energy.

“You? Worried? What else is new?” he asked, a teasing lilt in his sarcastic comments. “Babe, if you weren’t worried about something, I’d be worried.”

“I’m serious. It could attack you while you’re alone in the car. Let me come with you.”

“No.” His single word had the sound of finality.

“Stubborn,” she mumbled.

“Ha! Look who’s talking.”

“It’s still too strong to be trusted,” she pointed out.

Yes, there had been basically no batteries and no electricity for it to draw from for twenty-four hours now.

Yes, they’d taken the extra precaution of putting the vessel in a faraday bag, inside a lead-lined box, inside the lab freezer. But Natalie still felt its presence all the way over in her building. Weaker but still there.

“It’ll be fine,” Liam said for what had to be the dozenth time over the past twenty-four hours.

It was a toss-up who was more stubborn. The brain ghost or Liam.

All Natalie knew was this thing wasn’t going to give up. Neither would Liam, which left one option open to her. She’d have to trick him. Trick them both. And she knew just how to do it.

“All right. If you say so. But you have to do something for me first, before you go. You know, in case evil brain ghost kills you and you never come home.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “What do you need?”

“I really need the case of wine on the top shelf of the storeroom, but I felt a little dizzy today when I tried to climb the ladder⁠—”

Liam let out a string of obscenities. “Natalie, you shouldn’t be on a damn ladder at all. You were just in the hospital. And you definitely shouldn’t be putting heavy cases of wine on shelves that require a ladder.”

He continued to grumble as he left the room, heading toward the storeroom in the shop, but Natalie didn’t wait around. She shot out the back door and took off at a sprint toward the lab.

She had only moments to implement a plan that could possibly save Liam’s life.

Opening the heavy metal door of the lab, she felt it immediately, like a weight pressing her down. The brain ghost. It was there and it was angry.