The professor stood just inside the apartment’s back door glaring at her through narrowed eyes.
Liam flung the back door open, sending the old wooden door swinging through the ghost.
“Lionel’s back. The county coroner just dropped him off,” Liam announced, a bit breathless like he’d sprinted over from the lab to deliver the news.
Natalie drew in a breath, her gaze shooting from Lionel, so angry he honestly looked a little scary, to Liam standing just next to him.
“Thanks, babe. But I know.” Natalie tipped her head toward where the ghost was huffing and puffing even though, technically, she didn’t think ghosts could actually breathe.
Harper’s eyes widened. “Lionel’s here?”
Natalie nodded. “Mm-hm. And he doesn’t look happy.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Natalie and Harper sat in silence, waiting as Lionel read the words on the screen of Harper’s laptop.
Aside from the occasional grunt, there were no words spoken. Lionel would indicate to Natalie with a flick of his wrist when he wanted her to forward the screen to the next page.
Since she couldn’t see Lionel, Harper sat by watching Natalie advance the file, page after page, until she finally drew in a sharp breath. “You know, if you just put it on read aloud, it will advance the page on its own. He can just read along. You can adjust the speed…”
“Silence!” Lionel roared, then flick waited for Natalie to change the page one more time.
“He’s not fond of that idea,” she whispered to Harper, earning her a glare from Lionel.
Harper shook her head and took out her cell phone.
Natalie couldn’t blame her. Watching Lionel read this book—the book they’d spent the last week engrossed in, the book she’d hoped to never look at again even though Harper warned there’d still be edits from the publisher—was about as exciting as watching paint dry.
At least the professor was a quick reader. This might only take him the rest of the afternoon, maybe through dinner, to finish reading it. Ugh…
“If you’re going to continue to huff and sigh and grunt then go ahead and put on the computer voice like the amateur over there who dared to write my book suggested.”
Thank God. Ignoring the insult to Harper, Natalie jumped up. “How do I put it on read aloud?” she asked.
Harper perked up at the question too, guessing it meant a reprieve for them both, for at least the next few hours.
She jumped up and said, “I’ll do it.”
As Lionel remained in the kitchen, listening to the computer voice read to him, they quietly snuck out the back door.
“Where are we going to go?” Harper asked.
“The lab. I want to ask Liam what the coroner said about the autopsy. Once he gets over the trauma of us finishing his book, he’s going to go back to obsessing over his death. I figure I’d better be ready.”
Harper nodded. “Good plan.”
After texting Jules to say she was running over to Liam’s lab, Natalie pulled on her coat and gloves. It was a short walk between the depot and the lab, but it was also January in upstate New York.
She and Harper, both now dressed for winter weather, headed out the back door leaving Lionel and the talking computer behind.
After she stepped gingerly over a patch of ice, then over the actual tracks, Harper glanced at Natalie. “Now that we’re alone... Wait, we are alone, right?”
“Yes. Well, Train Track Tim is over there but otherwise, yes.” Natalie lifted one hand in a wave. Farther down the tracks, Tim did the same with his single mangled arm before continuing his daily walk along the path where he’d died.
Harper’s eyes widened before she shook her head. “I don’t want to know. Anyway, tell me the truth. How angry was Lionel?”
“Kinda scary angry.”
