Cadaver lab 2, p.2
Cadaver Lab 2, page 2
He moved to pat Liam on the back even though, one, Liam couldn’t see or hear him and two, Gabe’s hand passed right through.
“Don’t worry, big guy. I’ll have her home at a decent hour.” Gabe’s condescending comment went unheard by Liam, who gave an involuntary shudder from the chill of Gabe’s ghostly fingers on his shoulder.
Natalie restrained herself from commenting to either one. The sooner she separated the two men—or rather the man and the ghost—the better.
“We’d better get going. Don’t wanna be late. See you soon.” She kissed Liam’s pout then added, “Love you.”
“Yeah. Love you too,” he mumbled then spun toward the back rooms of the old depot that served as her apartment.
“Aw. He’s such a romantic.” Gabe clutched his hands to his heart then wiped one eye dramatically. “It brings a tear to my eye.”
“Oh, shut up,” she mumbled as she slipped the straps of the canvas bag holding two bottles of wine onto her shoulder.
She unlocked the door so she could get out as Gabe slid easily through the window next to her, saying, “Hey, he started it.”
“Well, you should be the bigger man and end it,” she said as they turned side-by-side toward Main Street.
“I’m happy to be the bigger man.” Gabe smirked. “Make sure you tell Liam that. You know, that I’m the bigger man. He should like that.”
At that Gabe devolved into a bout of laughter that had him clutching his stomach.
He might not have started the ridiculous rivalry between them, that was all Liam’s weird jealousy, but Gabe certainly enjoyed it. A bit too much.
“If you can control yourself from mocking Liam for a few minutes, maybe you can tell me what you found out about the bone.”
A woman coming out of the pharmacy turned to frown at Natalie, who no doubt appeared to be talking to herself.
Tapping her ear, Natalie mouthed, “Bluetooth.”
Gabe sent her an indulgent glance at her ruse, and then said, “I haven’t found out anything.”
Natalie turned her head to glare at him. “Did you at least ask?”
A man across the street frowned at her, probably thinking she was looking at him.
“Of course, I asked.” Gabe scowled. “I interviewed every single ghost I could find in town and put out feelers for any outside the village who might know something. So far, nothing. I even tried to ask the guy who got hit by the train. And he has no jaw so that was real fun.”
“And? Did he know anything?” she asked hopefully.
Train track guy was perfectly positioned to be a witness. It seemed like he spent most of his time at the probable location of his death, right behind the train depot literally on the tracks. If anyone saw anything, it would be him.
Gabe leveled a less than patient glare on her. “He has no jaw, so he wasn’t real talkative.”
Natalie scowled, more at Gabe’s attitude than the lack of information, although that was annoying too.
“Okay, fine. Thank you for trying.” It was time to bring the horrifying jawless ghost portion of the conversation to a close.
This walking and talking plan hadn’t been a good one anyway. She was beginning to look unhinged, seemingly talking to herself to anyone who passed her and the invisible Gabe.
Lesson learned. She’d wait to have any future fact gathering conversations with Gabe in private.
Besides their walk had come to an end. The home where Harper lived with her great aunt Agnes came into view.
“That’s it up ahead,” she said. “Harper and Agnes’s house.”
“The Queen Anne Victorian?” Gabe asked.
She sent him a brief sideways glance. “Architect nerd?”
“No. Historian, thank you very much,” he defended.
“The house is beautiful. Have you ever been inside?” she asked him.
“Hell, no.” He shook his head with finality.
“No?” She figured he’d been everywhere.
If she were a ghost, she’d be snooping in all the houses. Especially an architectural gem as beautiful as Harper’s.
Gabe shook his head with a seriousness that belied the casual conversation. “Nuh-uh. We ghosts all avoid that one.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“It used to be a funeral home.”
Natalie discounted that with a flick of her wrist. “Years ago maybe but not now. I’ve been inside. It’s just a house. Nothing to worry about. In fact, it’s the one place in town I didn’t see any ghosts while I was visiting.”
“Yup.” He nodded. “And that’s why. You know any livings who enjoy hanging out in a funeral parlor?”
“Well, no, but—”
“There you go,” he said. “Trust me. Funeral homes are no picnic for the dead either.”
She rolled her eyes. “So silly. But wait, you are coming inside with me now, right?”
“Yes.” Gabe rolled his eyes. “I promised I would and I will.”
“Good.” She needed back up to listen to all the LADS conversations and see if anyone knew anything.
If there was one thing these women could do, it was talk. Or, more accurately, gossip. But if that gossip led to identifying the bone she’d rest a lot easier tonight.
A bang of the metal knocker on one of the two giant double glass and wood-paneled front doors had Harper appearing in seconds. “Hello. Come in. Make yourself comfortable. We’re just finishing setting up.”
“Then you might need these,” Natalie said, handing over the bag of wine once they were through the second set of doors that enclosed the front vestibule.
“Perfect. Thank you. I’ll put these on the bar.”
“Bar? I like this party already.” Stepping into the front hall ahead of Natalie, Gabe twisted to take in the twenty-foot ceilings and the grand staircase.
Natalie didn’t correct Gabe that this was a meeting, not a party, although sometimes it was hard to tell in Mudville. But she did have to admit that with the big double living room and dining room spaces open to each other, this place probably did make a hell of a funeral home.
Gabe let out a long low whistle. “Okay, I take it back. Maybe I am an architecture nerd. This place is amazing. Look at the woodwork and the craftsmanship on this staircase.”
“Beautiful,” Natalie agreed softly.
They were both still staring up at the wide staircase that revealed the second floor when a young woman dressed for a fancy party—if that party were a roaring twenties-themed costume party—peeked over the edge and stared back at them.
Natalie’s eyes widened along with her mouth on a gasp.
“Uh, Gabe…”
“I see her.” Gabe leapt onto the bottom step of the staircase.
That’s when the ghost’s eyes widened and with a tiny eep she turned and ran.
Natalie’s gaze followed Gabe as he took the stairs two at a time.
“There goes your rule about funeral parlors and ghosts,” she accused softly so Harper wouldn’t hear from the kitchen where she’d disappeared with the wine.
“It’s more of a theory than a rule,” he defended from the turn on the staircase’s second landing just as Harper flounced back in.
“Did you say something?” Harper asked.
“Yeah, I was just saying the house is beautiful. One day I’d love a tour.”
“We have a few minutes before the LADS arrive. Come on.” Grabbing the newel post, Harper started upstairs and Natalie happily followed.
Chapter Three
The text from Liam arrived on Natalie’s cell just as Harper led the way up the grand staircase. The same staircase that Gabe had sprinted up in pursuit of the ghost they’d both seen on the second floor.
Hot Doc
How’s it going?
Natalie typed in a quick reply.
Found something!
About the bone?
Not yet. Found a ghost!
An eye roll emoji was all she got back from him.
Admittedly there had been lots of ghosts in her life since that day last year when her heart stopped and Liam had restarted it, somehow linking her with the spirit world.
But after Gabe’s lecture about how the local ghost community avoided Harper’s house because of its history, the presence of this new ghost seemed significant somehow.
Since Natalie figured she’d better take advantage of Gabe being inside Harper and Agnes’s house-slash-former funeral home while she had it, soothing her disgruntled boyfriend was just going to have to wait. If there were more ghosts here Gabe could talk to about the bone, tonight was the night to do it just in case she never convinced him to come back again.
And it would look suspicious if she kept finding excuses to visit the private floors of Harper’s aunt’s home so she could talk to the ghosts herself.
“The stained-glass windows are all original, but some of the ceiling fixtures are modern replacements,” Harper said over her shoulder as she reached the top of the staircase on the second floor.
“Gorgeous.” And it was, even if Natalie’s mind was not currently on stained glass or light fixtures.
“There are three main bedrooms on this floor, all three with fireplaces. There’s also one smaller bedroom in the back of the house by the servants’ stairs that go from the kitchen to the attic. That bedroom I suspect was for staff, if it was a bedroom at all originally. There have definitely been renovations over the years. We can see that. But aside from Alice Mudd’s memory, we have to go by the structural clues and some old paperwork the last owners gave Aunt Agnes.”
“Mmm. Fascinating.” Natalie nodded while keeping her eyes peeled for where Gabe and the female spirit had gotten to.
She followed Harper into the bedroom at the top of the stairs.
“This is my favorite room. Not just because it’s connected to the bathroom with the clawfoot tub but because of this.” Harper swung a double set of tall wooden shutters wide.
Distracted by the female ghost swooping out of the room with Gabe in close pursuit, Natalie had to force her attention to what Harper had just revealed—a tall glass door that led to a small balcony off the bedroom. Once she did, she drew in a breath.
“This is amazing.”
And it truly was. The entrance to the Romeo and Juliet balcony was framed by shutters worthy of Ebenezer Scrooge’s house in A Christmas Carol. The door was topped with a stained-glass transom window.
“The bedroom on the opposite side of the house has a similar balcony—” The doorbell sounded below, interrupting Harper. “Oh. Sounds like the LADS are here.”
Harper turned toward the doorway through which they’d entered and Natalie knew her tour had come to an end.
Even though the mystery of the elusive ghost was like an itch that needed to be scratched, she followed Harper back downstairs.
Once they’d all gotten refreshments and had been seated, the Ladies Amateur Detective Society meeting went about as Natalie expected it would.
The conversation consisted of lots of women talking over each other, which only got louder as their glasses were refilled.
Finally, there was a lull in the din and Natalie was able to voice her question. “Alice, can you think of anyone who might have buried that bone in the yard of the train station?”
“Well, I can tell you that a year ago I would have guessed it was Ted Simpson buried there by his widow, but of course we found him in the pig pen on the farm. Intact as far as I can remember. The sheriff and the coroner can confirm for you if Ted was missing a bone, I suppose. Besides that, I can’t think of another soul who would have the misfortune of being dumped by the train tracks.”
“Maybe it’s a hobo. He could have died riding the rails and his fellow hobos gave him a decent burial when the train stopped,” Mary Brimley suggested.
As Natalie wondered how many hobos had actually ridden the rails through Mudville and if train track ghost was one of them, some of the others in the room threw out more theories.
“What about war? Perhaps it’s a soldier who died in battle,” Dee Flanders, the local attorney who’d handled Natalie’s real estate closing, suggested.
“Or who had a leg amputated by a war surgeon,” Margaret Trout added.
“As far as local battles, the settlements at Sidney and Mudville were both completely destroyed during the American Revolution.” Alice informed them with such an authoritative tone Natalie had to wonder if she’d taught school in her younger years.
“Could it be Native American?” Agnes asked.
“Or one of the workers who helped lay the original tracks,” Mary suggested.
The group continued and Harper recorded it all in her notebook, scribbling fast to keep up.
The LADS theories were all over the place and Natalie began to realize her best hope—possibly her only hope—was Gabe and the ghost community.
That was still her opinion later as she and Gabe walked down Main Street toward the train station.
“So?” he asked. “What did you learn?”
“That you should never gather a bunch of women with free-flowing alcohol and no organization and expect to get any definitive answers. You?” Natalie asked.
“I learned that Harper’s basement is spooky and I’m never going back down there again, the attic is amazing, there are way too many rooms to search in that house and that woman we spotted, besides being fast on her feet, does not want to talk. Not to me and I’m sure definitely not to you.”
Pushing aside the horrifying fact that the basement was too scary even for a ghost, she focused on the girl. “Why do you think she’s so spooked? No pun intended.”
Gabe shrugged. “No idea. I’m going to ask around the boneyard and see if anyone knows anything about her.”
“Ooo, good idea.”
He cocked up a brow and shot her a sideways glance from beneath the brim of his ever-present hat. “Don’t get too excited. If she’s spent the last hundred years in that house there might be nothing to dig up on her—also no pun intended.”
Her lips twitched at their witty repartee. “Touché.”
They’d reached the train station and she turned to face Gabe, her keys in her hand. “Thank you for your help and for going with me tonight, in spite of your funeral home aversion.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll keep asking around. And, uh, maybe I’ll swing by Harper’s house again sometime soon. See if our old girl is in more of a mood to talk when there’s not a bunch of people around.”
Natalie drew back. “You’d be willing to do that?”
Gabe shrugged. “Sure. You know, in the interest of research.”
Suspicious over his sudden change of heart about avoiding the former funeral home, Natalie studied Gabe through narrowed eyes.
“In the interest of research,” she repeated.
“Yup.” He nodded. “You want answers about the bone, or not?”
Who was she to say no to help when she needed it? Especially from her ghost bestie.
“All right,” she agreed. “And now, I need to go. Liam is waiting.”
Gabe’s eyes lit with mischief. “Say hello for me.”
She’d do nothing of the sort. “Good night, Gabe.”
“G’night, Nat.” With a smirk Gabe sauntered away in the direction of the cemetery.
Natalie turned to unlock the back door of the train station that served as both her work and her home—and apparently also the burial ground for at least one bone.
The county was probably going to start digging up the yard any day now to see if there were more bones. Even with how pitifully unkept it was, having what little grass she had dug up in search of more body parts would suck.
That concern fled when two hands gripped her arms from behind. Then all she could do was scream.
Chapter Four
Her scream bounced off the door she faced until her assailant spun her toward him, cussing as he did.
“Jeezus, Natalie. It’s me. Why are you screaming?” Liam asked.
“Why are you grabbing me?” she shot back slapping at his chest.
“I was being romantic.” He scowled.
“Romantic! How is scaring the bejesus out of me in the dark romantic?”
“The guys in those romance books you love are always grabbing the heroine.”
And he knew that how? She narrowed her eyes. “Have you been reading the books on my nightstand?”
“No. Of course not.”
As he avoided eye contact, she didn’t believe him but moved on to her next question. “What are you doing outside anyway?”
“The burglar alarm went off in the lab. I had to go check on it.”
Her eyes widened. First bones in the backyard and now intruders in the cadaver lab?
“Was there anything wrong?” She sucked in a breath. “Oh my God. No one stole the bodies, did they?”
“I couldn’t find anything wrong. And why would anyone steal the cadavers?”
She shrugged, trying to look casual and not panicked at the thought that if someone stole Gabe’s body and left town, his spirit would most likely follow.
“Stranger things have happened. You shouldn’t have gone inside alone. There could have been someone in there. They could have attacked you.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “I was in the Army. I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.”
She remembered that trained warrior side of Liam coming out last year against Gabe’s murderer. He’d likely saved both of their lives that day. That didn’t mean someone couldn’t get the jump on him when he wasn’t expecting it. That had happened last year too.
“Still, you could have gotten hurt,” she said.
There were too many things for her to worry about lately. It was exhausting. When would everything be calm? Normal.
“Thank you for your concern, but it was probably a mouse or something that set off the motion detector.”
“Do you have mice in the lab?” she asked, cringing as she wondered if they’d nibble on the bodies. Eww.
