Priya walked over to Xander and pulled him to the door.

“Now comes the hard part,” she whispered.

“What are we going to do?” he asked.

“We have to make sure the police won’t search for them,” Priya said.

Chapter Twelve

With her headlamp lighting the way, Priya navigated their route back to the morgue. Xander followed, panting for breath as he clung to the straps of his backpack.

She skidded to a stop at an intersection. She signaled Xander to duck. Ahead, light spilled from the hallway leading to the obstacle course of furniture.

“We’re too late,” Priya whispered.

They squeezed themselves flat against the wall and listened.

“Okay, now are you sure this is the hallway?” a female voice asked.

Li’s voice answered, “I’m not sure, officer. Everything looks the same.”

Priya snapped off her headlamp, lowered herself to all fours and crawled over to peer around the corner. Xander snapped off his light and followed.

Down the hall Li, Omar and two officers stood in front of the chairs blocking the double doors.

“And you say you heard the people down this way?” the officer asked.

Li answered, “Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s where they were.”

“Tell me again why you two were in the hospital.”

“Well, it’s kind of a weird story,” Omar said. “We heard this place was haunted. And we wanted to check it out. It’s part of a game we play.”

Another officer laughed. He sounded like a tuba. “I can’t believe they’re still telling stories about George Wickerman Hospital.”

“Do you know what they did?” Omar asked. “They say the doctors experimented on TB patients.”

The tuba cop shook his head. “Kid, you heard wrong. Trust me. My uncle used to work here. There were no experiments. There are ghosts, but not from any experiments.”

“Really?” Omar asked.

The female officer grunted. “Hawkes, stop pulling the kid’s leg. Stay here. I’m going to check out the basement.”

“Watch out for the ghosts, Perkins,” Hawkes said as his partner moved between the chairs.

Priya turned to Xander. “We have to stop her from going to the morgue or she’ll find Quest’s camp.”

“I have an idea,” said Xander, pulling the portable speaker out of his backpack and turning it on. “Find a room to hide in.”

Priya crawled across the hall while Xander thumbed through his phone screen until he found the app he needed—Sound FX.

“Psst,” Priya hissed.

He glanced up. Priya waved and pointed at the door beside her. Xander gave her a thumbs-up. He peered around the corner and slithered across the floor, hoping the officers wouldn’t spot him. When he was halfway across, a voice on the speaker announced, “Your speaker is now connected.”

“Hold up, Perkins! You hear that?” Hawkes asked.

Xander shoved the speaker behind him and scrambled toward Priya.

“Hide,” he hissed.

She slipped into the room with Xander close on her heels. Footsteps thudded behind them as the door swung closed.

Xander frantically scrolled through the sound-effect options in the app and stabbed at one titled “Ghostly voices.”