3 A Basis for Murder by Morgana Best Page B

nonchalant. "Who knows? It's just that my boss has sent me here to write a story on ghosts, but so far, I haven't found a single thing. I’ll be in trouble if I can't find something to write about. Like you said, there have been murders here over the years, and usually where there are murders, there is the presence of evil."
    "So you want to find evil spirits?" Ethan asked.
    I was little uneasy that he had hit upon the truth. "The readers like evil spirits; that sort of thing sells more magazines." I tried to keep my tone light.
    "And what will you do if you find an evil spirit?"
    I thought that a strange sort of question. "Well, I'll write about it, of course," I lied, convincingly, or so I hoped. I looked around and the curator had come up behind me, and was standing there, listening to the conversation.
    "I’ll be right back." With that, Ethan hurried out of the museum.
    "Why do you want to find an evil spirit?" The curator stepped closer to me and I instinctively stepped back.
    "For my article, as I've already told you," I said in the most even tone I could muster.
    "I don’t think you should go looking for trouble. If you go looking for trouble, trouble will find you." The curator shook his finger at me and moved away.
    Had I just been threatened? Or was he simply making conversation? I had no idea. At any rate, I thought it time to move on.
    I walked out to my car just as Ethan was walking back away from his car, which was parked next to mine under the big tree. "Misty," he called, "I have the photos I took the day you found the body. I'm sure there's nothing interesting about them, but come and see for yourself."
    I thanked Ethan and hurried over to his car, where he spread out the photographs on the hood.
    He was right; there was nothing interesting about them, not unless you were interested in shrubs and bushes and tiny, little frogs. Oh, and snakes. Ethan was particularly excited about the photos of the brownish colored snake. "See," he said, waving the photo under my nose. "It looks like an Inland Taipan. It can’t be, I suppose, as they’re not known to be this far east, but I'm sending these photos to a snake expert. The Inland Taipan is the most venomous snake in the world," he added gleefully.
    I could see Ethan expected some sort of reaction from me, but all I could say was, "Oh."
    Ethan showed me lots of photos of frogs, and then a black and white banded snake, and all the while, I was trying to think up an excuse to get away. I had to find out something about the evil entity, and fast, or S17 would likely soon fire me. I had made no progress whatsoever.
     
    * * *
     
    Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
    (Jeff Valdez)
    Chapter Thirteen .
     
    I left Ethan and his appalling close-up photos of snakes, and made my way once more to the small and ancient cemetery at the edge of town. While I had visited it recently with Melissa, I knew Melissa did not have an affinity for such places, so we hadn’t stayed long. I was excited to be able to take my time amongst the crumbling headstones, and also glad for the opportunity to use my new, infrared, digital thermometer which I had bought second hand on eBay.
    I pulled my car to the side of the dusty road, parking next to the old sign, and left the window down as I was parked in the direct sun, and the day was quite warm. I made my way to the old, worn, iron gates that were fallen open. While most modern cemeteries had paved roadways that wound amongst the graves, this one was far too old enough to have any such luxury. I climbed out and reached behind my seat, pulling up a soft gray case with a black strap. I slid the strap over one shoulder and shut my door.
    As I walked, I pulled the digital infrared thermometer from the gray case and flicked it on. I stood just outside the iron bars and swept the thermometer across my body, keeping an eye on the digital readout screen just above the handle. There was nothing to