“How did you get him? It. Him? Whatever.” She’d just realized that the steel table draped in clear plastic between them most likely contained the professor’s remains and that knowledge had her stumbling on her words.
With a cringe, she kept her gaze averted and focused on Liam, who was a much more pleasant sight with his arms crossed and his muscles bulging.
“Nat, you know how this works. The donor program just delivered it from Albany.”
“Delivered,” Lionel spat. “Like a pizza. Or a box from Amazon. Lovely.”
Of all the cadavers, in all the labs, in all the world, Lionel Graves ended up in this one.
Natalie did her best to yank herself out of her growing chasm of helplessness and misery and asked, “What information do you get from Albany?”
“Very little. You know this too from when Gabe arrived.”
“Yes, but the police had declared Gabe a John Doe,” Natalie reminded, desperate to solve this mystery and get this pompous fool out of her sight. Ideally, out of this lab and far away from her town too.
“It doesn’t matter that Gabe was unidentified at the time. I’m not supplied with the donor’s name, even when they aren’t John Does. I only get age, a very brief health history if one is available and cause of death.”
“Wait. Cause of death? That’s good. That’s what I need. What was this one’s cause of death?” she asked, hope burning bright.
Liam sighed and moved to his desk where he picked up a folder. He opened it and Lionel, proving he had even less patience than he had tact, swooped over. As he bobbed left and right and tried to see the file, Lionel passed through Liam’s shoulder.
“Oh, bugger. This being non-corporeal is for the birds,” Lionel griped. “Please ask the hulking brute to read the blasted thing aloud.”
At the same time, Liam leveled a stare on Natalie. “There’s a ghost standing right next to me, right now, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to guess my new cadaver came attached to a spirit and this is the reason for all your many questions.”
“Correct.”
“Brilliant deduction.” Lionel rolled his eyes.
Somehow maintaining her composure in the face of Lionel’s steady stream of insults, Natalie said, “He just wants to know how he died. He doesn’t remember.”
Liam raised his gaze from the file to stare at her. “Huh…interesting. Just like how Gabe didn’t remember the moment of his death. Or Millie. That’s actually pretty fascinating. How the brain blocks the details of a person’s final moments from memory.” Liam got that far away look in his eyes she’d come to recognize.
She was losing him. Or at least his attention. She needed to get it back.
Snapping her fingers, she said, “Liam. Cause of death?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He glanced down at the file and frowned.
“You’re frowning. Why are you frowning?” she asked, stepping closer, but not too close because Lionel was in the way.
“Inconclusive,” Liam read.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means inconclusive,” Liam repeated.
“Quite the brain-trust we have here. I’m so happy my fate is in the hands of you two geniuses.”
“For God’s sake, please shut up,” she said directly to Lionel, who was proving to be as much of a pain in the ass in death as he was in life.
She turned and saw Liam’s raised brows at her outburst. Yes, she was usually more polite to the ghosts, but Liam had no idea what he’d done. He’d had her arch enemy delivered practically right to her doorstep.
Frustrated, she said, “Liam, let’s pretend for a moment that I’m not a doctor. Please explain why they’d declare the death inconclusive.”
