A Ghoul's Guide to Love and Murder by Victoria Laurie Read Free Book Online Page B

shoulders slumped and I looked at Heath, who was also listening. He pressed his lips together and shook his head.
    â€œWhen will he get a new sat phone?” Gil said next.There was a pause, then,
“What do you mean probably not for a week or two?”
    I reached over and laid a hand on Gil’s shoulder. It wouldn’t do us any good to upset poor Rachel, who was a young girl in her twenties and had no control over the situation.
    Gil looked up at me and took a deep breath. “Sorry,” he said to Rachel. “Just . . . if he gets ahold of you at all in the next twenty-four hours, I need to talk to him. It’s an emergency.”
    Gilley clicked off and turned to us. “You guys heard?”
    â€œWe did,” Heath said, sliding Gilley’s meal over to him. “I guess Gopher can’t help us, so, Gil, you’ve got no choice. You’ve got to call that producer back and tell him the deal with the dagger is off, and he can keep his money.”
    Gilley bit his lip, and for a moment I thought he might protest, which made me wonder exactly how much money the studio had put up for the dagger, but then Gil said, “Yeah. Okay. I’ll call him right now.”
    I gave Gil an encouraging pat on the back and went back to my dinner. I hadn’t realized how ravenous I’d been, and Heath chuckled at the way I was eating with gusto.
    Meanwhile, Gilley apparently got voice mail and left a message for someone named Bradley. It wasn’t a name I recognized, but I didn’t think much about it. The movie had so many names attached to it, there was no way I could keep them all straight.
    â€œHe’ll probably get back to me,” Gil said, putting his phone back on the charger.
    â€œHe’d better,” I heard Heath mutter.
    Gilley appeared pained, but I thought we needed to talk the issue through. “What do we do if we can’t get anyone to make the call and get the dagger out of that museum?” I asked them.
    Heath and Gilley were quiet for a moment, and then Gil said, “We could sabotage the exhibit. Shut it down so that no one can enter and get close to the dagger. That should keep it isolated long enough to have the loaner period expire, and then the museum has to give it back to us.”
    I frowned. “How? I mean, Heath and I have both been banned from the premises. What kind of damage could we do that wouldn’t get us sued or arrested and would ride out the next two weeks?”
    â€œI could mess with their computer network,” Gil said. He’s an incredibly skilled hacker, and he flexed his fingers and grinned slyly to show me that he welcomed the opportunity to work a hack on the museum.
    â€œWhat if it comes back to you?” I asked.
    He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m tinkering with a government agency, M.J. I’ll just mess with the sprinkler system.”
    â€œThe sprinkler system?” Heath said.
    Gilley chuckled slyly. “The museum has an extensive fire-prevention sprinkler system. I could make it rain, rain, rain.”
    â€œBut what about the other exhibits in the museum?”I said. “Gil, we can’t destroy or damage anything but the movie exhibit. If you mess with the sprinkler system, it has to be in that room only.”
    â€œI’ll look into it,” he promised.
    â€œGood. And remember—it can’t get back to us.”
    Just then Gil’s phone rang and we all jumped a little. He looked at the display, gasped, then ran off to my home office in the spare bedroom. Heath and I shared a look and a sigh. “Want some popcorn?” he said, getting up to take my plate and his to the sink.
    He and I were eating very healthy these days. We’d turned vegetarian a couple of years earlier, and now we were on a no-sugar kick. He’d been so good about it that I didn’t have the heart to tell him how very, very,
very
much I missed ice cream. And brownies.