Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

It had to be two weeks later, maybe closer to three. Gabe had been acting almost normal since the council meeting. He was there daily at the shop bright and early every day. Often returning late in the evening to keep her company as she closed up—like he had tonight.

That's the way things had been between them since the ghost council meeting. Or, more likely, since Gabe had witnessed her succumb to the peer pressure levied upon her by Alice Mudd and Harper and agreed to apply to be on that Paranormal Channel show about ghosts.

That meant one of two things in her mind. One, Gabe actually believed she'd get on the cast of Ghost House and thought that would force her to confess her ghost powers to everyone like he'd always wanted. Or two, he was really bored and lonely because Millie was still away on her annual October visit to her family in Sharon Springs.

For his sake Natalie hoped it was the latter because if Gabe's renewed attentiveness to their friendship was because of the promise of that PNC show, it was bound to be short lived.

There was no way in hell she was going to get chosen to be in the cast. And even if she were by some miracle cast, her two sole goals for being on that show would be to first, expose Madame Letisha as a fraud ghost medium while second, not exposing herself as the real deal.

Either way, Gabe was bound to be disappointed if the show was his only reason for forgiving her for not keeping her promise to confess those many months ago.

All she knew was that with Liam working so many hours at the cadaver lab dissecting brains—just the thought made her shiver—she was happy to have her happy-go-lucky, sometimes annoying friend back in her life. She'd just have to enjoy Gabe coming around for however long it lasted.

"Heard any ghost horses lately?" Gabe asked cockily as he moved to lean against the wall but straightened again before he did.

Finally, a year after being murdered, he was remembering he was dead and could pass—or fall—right through walls. She'd seen that happen too many times to count.

Although since he was being a smart-ass teasing her about the ghost horse, she wouldn't have minded seeing it happen one more time. It would serve him right.

Exactly why did she like having him around so much again?

She shot him a narrow-eyed glare as she put a stack of new releases she'd just unboxed on the front book table. "No, I haven't. And how come that was the first animal ghost I'd ever seen anyway?"

"How do you know it's the first?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you see a cat or a dog, how do you know they're not ghosts? You thought I was a living when you first met me."

"Well, I know Taco and Mr. Darcy are alive because everyone else sees them. And that annoying crow who hangs out on the roof and terrorizes all my customers too."

"Yes, but what about all the other animals you see around town?"

"I guess I never thought about it."

Maybe that squirrel who amazingly made it across the road right in front of cars but never got hit was actually roadkill turned ghost. It was a mind-blowing concept. She'd never look at another animal the same again.

"But to your point," Gabe began in what she'd come to recognize as his professor tone. "I do believe animal spirits trapped here in… whatever this is, are rare."

She wondered why that was and was about to question his comment when a dark blur zipped across the ceiling.

"Jeezus!" She dropped to the ground, taking shelter under the book table.

When she found Gabe squatting next to her she said, "You saw that too, right?"

"Yes. It's a freaking bat."

"Why are you hiding? It'll just pass right through you. It can't bite you or get tangled in your hair." Both possibilities were lifelong fears of hers. A nightmare coming to life.

"Just because it can pass through me doesn't mean I want it too. Ick ." He gave a little shudder.

"At least you saw it. Liam told me I was imagining things the other morning."

"You are most definitely not imagining that." Gabe moved enough that he could peer out from under their cover, glancing up from beneath the brim of his hat to watch the bat circle the shop.

"What am I going to do? I can't have a bat in my shop. It's a danger to the customers. If any even come inside now. After they see that thing swooping around the ceiling it'll be a ghost town in here—no offense."

"None taken. And I guess you call animal control or— Oh. Um, Nat. I don't think you have to worry about the customers seeing the bat."

"Why not? Did it get out?" She tried to see without sacrificing any bit of her shelter and exposing herself to the creature.

Was there a hole somewhere in the ceiling? Did it fly outside through the same mysterious spot that the cat kept using to get in and out of the shop?

"It just flew right through the front window," Gabe answered, standing up. "It's a frigging ghost bat."

Wide-eyed she remembered the bat in the bedroom weeks ago. Getting whacked by the ceiling fan must have been too much for him. It had to have died of internal injuries and then—of all the rotten luck—it decided to haunt her building.

"A ghost bat," she repeated.

Crap. That was going to be impossible to get rid of. There was no ghost animal control, though now she wished there were. But at least it explained why Liam didn't see it that morning and she did. And, one more plus, the customers wouldn't be able to see it.

"A ghost bat, and that means he can hit me in the head and won't pass through me, which would be even more unpleasant." Gabe reached down to help her up, then remembering that wouldn't work with her being alive and him dead, he withdrew his hand. With a huff, he said, "Sorry."

"It's okay. Thanks, anyway," she said as she used the table to help her stand.

She'd gotten to her feet just as Alice Mudd crashed against the front door startling them both. Jeez. How many more scares would she have to endure in one night?

Alice kind of bounced off it, realized it was locked since it was just after six, then began to use her fist to pound on the door.

"Hang on, Alice." So much for getting out of there anytime soon. She knew she should have waited to put those books on the front table until the morning.

Natalie flipped the deadbolt and Alice burst in like a whirlwind saying, "You're on."

"On what?" she asked.

"On the show. You got cast!"

The show? As in Ghost House ? Natalie frowned. "How do you know?"

Did they post the cast online already?

"They mailed you," Alice said.

Natalie frowned deeper as she, for the first time since Alice's grand entrance, noticed the envelopes clutched in the old woman's hand. "Did you open my mail?"

"No, the post lady just handed it to me right outside." Alice thrust the stack of junk mail and bills at her. "The acceptances came in the other kind of mail."

Other kind of mail? Like by Fed Ex?

Confused, she was about to inquire what other kind of mail Alice meant when Harper skidded to a stop and pushed open the front door.

Harper pinned Alice with her gaze. "Did you already tell her? And how did you get here faster than me?"

"Battery-power, baby. My new electric trike goes twenty miles per hour," Alice bragged.

"You both know I got on the show?" Natalie asked. "How?"

Harper cringed. "I'm so sorry, Nat, but once I saw my acceptance I couldn't stand it. I had to check yours. So I logged into the shop's email account to see if you got accepted too. And you did! Go check your email."

Ah, that other kind of mail.

Natalie guessed this was what she got for giving Harper the log-in to the business email account when she'd watched the shop with Jules so she and Liam could get away together.

She was still trying to digest all the information coming at her in rapid fire over the course of less than five minutes. She was on the show. Harper was on the show.

Natalie turned to Alice. "Alice? What about you?"

They'd all applied together. Then, it had seemed like on a lark. Now, not so much.

"I'm in! I texted Harper as soon as I saw I got on. We're gonna be stars! Ooo, have that hottie boyfriend of yours check his mail too."

Natalie shook her head. "No. Remember, Alice, Liam didn't apply."

Harper's aunt Agnes had refused too, along with Stone.

Turns out it was a good thing they hadn't sent in an audition video or they might have been chosen too. Although Natalie couldn't figure out what the producers were looking for in their cast members because she, Harper and Alice couldn't be more different. Although maybe that was exactly the point. What a rag tag group they made.

Natalie shook her head. "I can't believe the three of us made it."

She saw Gabe's satisfied expression as he watched the interaction and, hoping he'd just fall through the wall so she didn't have to see his smug face, angled herself away from him to focus on Harper and Alice.

"I know! It's amazing," Harper agreed with a lot more excitement than Natalie had shown.

"It had to be the videos I submitted for all of us," Alice said.

Natalie turned to Alice. "I thought we all submitted our own videos. I know I did."

"Yup. I saw and they all stunk. That's why I had to fix it."

"Alice," Natalie began, her tone low with suspicion. "What did you do?"

"Give your computer the boot and I'll show you," Alice said, heading toward the cash register where Natalie's shop computer lived on the counter. "The whole casts' audition videos are on the website."

Natalie followed Alice and booted up—or gave it the boot as Alice had said—the computer she'd already shut down.

Just fifteen minutes ago she'd been so excited to be done with her workday. Now she was filled with dread as the screen came to life and she punched in the URL both she and the browser window remembered from her many visits over the past two weeks or so.

And there she was. Listed among those selected for the cast was her picture next to Harper, Alice and— crap —Liam.

"Alice! You submitted for Liam?" Natalie asked in shock.

"We needed Hottie McDoc to round out the video. I'm telling you, the video is why we all got on. You gotta tell a story. See? Watch."

Natalie watched in horror as Alice's arthritis riddled finger hit the mouse and the video attached to Liam's photo began to play.

"How did you get all those pictures of him?" Natalie asked.

Including his service photo from when he'd been in the Army.

"It's the age of the internet, Natalie. Everything is online. Keep up," Alice said, pale blue eyes still trained on the video, set to music and with narration, still playing on the computer screen.

It had to have been created by cobbling together still photos, cell phone video and even what looked like doorbell camera footage but the damn thing looked professionally made.

When it ended, Natalie turned to Alice. "How did you do this?"

"I sweet talked that hot young Morgan boy," Alice said proudly.

"Stone's brother Boone?" Harper asked.

Alice nodded. "Yeah, he got his wife to make it."

"Sarah runs a marketing firm," Harper explained to Natalie.

"Anyway, she's a whiz with this stuff," Alice continued. "She put all of you in the video I submitted with my application and made one for your hottie. It got us on the show, didn't it?"

For better or worse, it certainly had.

That worse part came to fruition pretty fast as the back door banged.

"I'm on fucking Ghost House ?" Liam bellowed from her apartment in the back of the building. "Natalie! Where are you? What did you do?"

"Oh, good. He got the mail." Alice grinned.