Page 71 of Ghost of a Chance
“Yes.Well, we are trying to establish a few facts about Paul’s course of study at the time.Do you know if he had any particular attachment to this book?”Kirsty asked, taking it from her bag and placing it on the lab table.
“I’m not sure where you got this book,” the professor said.
“It was with his stuff when we cleaned out the apartment,” Jasper said.
“Well, this isn’t a textbook he would have been using.It would have been outdated long before you were in school.”
Sixteen
What was Professor Thompson talking about?“Is there any other reason he would have had this book?”
“None that I can think of.That book is from the early 1990s.”
“Are you sure?”Kirsty asked with an edge in her voice.
Professor Thompson gave her a look that said he was done with this conversation.Granted, she never did bother to look at the copyright date.“What book would he have been using?”
She jotted down the name of the new textbook.“Is there a chance he would have had this old one because it was cheaper?I did that for a few of my classes.”
“No.If he couldn’t afford the book I have some I keep on hand.I’ve never seen this book in my classroom.I wasn’t teaching until after it was discontinued,” he offered.“Is that all?”
“What was he working on at the time of his death?Jasper mentioned he’d come to the lab to study for a big exam the night he died.”
“I’d have to check my class notes, but you were in the class, Cotton, do you remember?”
“Uh, no.”Jasper looked dejected.She resisted the urge to reach over and comfort him.
“I’ll use your PR person’s email to send you the info when I find it.Anything else?”
“No.Thank you for your time,” she said.
“No problem.”The professor paused for a moment before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.“I have to say, I am interested in how you’re going to work physics into your next novel,” he said.
“Have you read them?”
“I read the first one.My daughter recommended it to me,” he said.
“I’m working on using physics to rule out how the ghost in my current manuscript is tied to an object,” she said.It was easier to talk about her theory as if it were fiction.
“Ah, there is so much we don’t know about matter and movement through time and space.You might want to check out chaos theory,” he said.“Of course that relies heavily on mathematics but it also deals with random and unpredictable behavior.I’m not saying that something like what you described is possible in the real world but in your fictional one where there are ghosts…maybe.”
“Maybe.Thanks for your time, and for reading my book.”
“You’re welcome.I enjoyed it,” he said.
They left the classroom and Jasper, who’d been quiet the entire time, continued to brood as they walked back to the car.It had started raining again but they were both prepared with their brightly colored ponchos this time.She pulled on the hood and thought about the book in her bag and how, according to the professor, there was no connection to Paul.
Where did that leave them?
She was going to have to do another séance or take the book to Aza.She had an appointment booked with her in two days.For right now that was all she could do.
Until then, she had to contend with Jasper and what this meant for him.
“I don’t think Paul is in this book,” she said once they were seated at a nearby diner that Jasper drove them to.
“Why not?”
“You heard the professor, this wasn’t even a book he was using.”Could it be someone else trapped in the book?But then why would they haunt Jasper?
