Murder Vows (Storage Ghost Murders Book 4)

by Larkin, Gillian

  Grace said, “Can you tell me more about how she died? It looks like she died the same way that Archie did, and Archie was murdered.”

  Ruth’s hand flew to her mouth. “Murdered! You think my Lily was murdered?”

  Lily cart-wheeled her way over to Grace. She jumped up and said cheerfully, “I was murdered!”

  Chapter 31

  “Can I see where she died?” Grace asked.

  Ruth stood up. “Certainly, I haven’t changed her room since she died. I know I should, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”

  Lily danced down the hall and walked through a door. By the time Grace and Ruth entered the room Lily was bouncing on the bed.

  Ruth raised an eyebrow and said, “Is she jumping on the bed?”

  Grace nodded. “What time did you find Lily?”

  Ruth answered, “It was about midnight. It was a long day at the hotel, with the wedding, and the death of Archie Goodwin. Lily had been working that day, she’d helped Archie and his family with their belongings. She even took the bride’s wedding dress up to the honeymoon suite. I remember thinking at the time, ‘Lily, leave that dress alone!’ When the murder occurred I couldn’t find Lily for a while. There was so much going on, people crying ... the police and their questions. I didn’t see Lily leave the hotel. She sent me a text later saying that she was home, that was about nine o’clock. As soon as I came home I went to check on her.”

  Ruth looked down at the carpet, Grace could see she was trying to compose herself.

  Lily jumped off the bed. “Grace! I was like this. Watch!” Lily threw herself down and lay face-down on the carpet. She moved her head and grinned up at Grace.

  Grace said, “Lily’s just demonstrated her death-pose.”

  Ruth smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me. When I found her I checked her pulse. I knew she was dead but I phoned for an ambulance anyway. That’s what people do, isn’t it? You phone the emergency services and hope they’ll perform a miracle. I held Lily in my arMs Then I did something I’m ashamed of. My sensible side, some call it my cold-hearted side, came to the fore. I couldn’t let anyone see her wearing a wedding dress that she’d obviously stolen. Can you believe I was worried about the shame? I quickly changed her and hid the wedding dress in her wardrobe, along with the wedding shoes and perfume that she’d also stolen.”

  Lily jumped up and said, “I didn’t steal them, she gave them to me.”

  Grace repeated Lily’s comments. Ruth shook her head and continued, “They took her away, examined her, and said she had a weak heart. They said it had just given out. I argued with them, my Lily didn’t have a weak heart! They didn’t listen though.”

  “What did you do with the dress and other things?” Grace asked.

  “I threw them away, put them in the rubbish. I didn’t want anyone to find them, I didn’t want anyone to call Lily a thief.”

  Lily stamped her foot. “I’m not a thief! She gave them to me! She said I could have them!”

  Grace said, “Lily’s saying that she was given the things.”

  “But why? Why would someone do that?” Ruth asked.

  Grace thought about how Rob had got rid of Archie’s suitcase. Perhaps he’d organised for Jessie’s dress to be given away. But to a maid at the hotel? That didn’t sound right. And Lily kept referring to a ‘she’, Jessie?

  Grace said to Lily, “Who gave you the dress? What did she look like?”

  Lily’s lower lip trembled. “You don’t believe me! Mum doesn’t believe me!”

  Ruth flinched. “Oh! I felt something then. What’s going on? Is Lily okay?”

  Grace said, “She’s getting upset, she thinks we don’t believe her. She’s ... she’s gone.”

  “Gone? Gone forever?”

  “I don’t think so, I hope not. Sometimes ghosts need a bit of time on their own.” Grace looked around the room. “I don’t think there’s anything else I need to see. Thanks for talking to me.”

  “Do you really think Lily was murdered?”

  “I’m not sure, she’s connected somehow to Archie’s murder. Although, if she died from a weak heart I don’t see how that points to murder. I think Lily saw something, or heard something, that she wasn’t supposed to.”

  Ruth walked Grace back to the main room. “Can I do anything to help you? Do you need to have another look at the honeymoon suite? I can arrange that.”

  “No, that’s okay, thank you.” Grace looked closer at Ruth. “Are you okay? How are you coping since Lily died. Oh! No, that’s a stupid question, sorry.”

  Ruth gave her a little smile. “I don’t mind you asking that, no one ever asks me how I am. I don’t blame them! I know I’m a bad-tempered grouch, I know what people say about Old Raspberry. I’ve forgotten how to smile since Lily died, I miss her so much. I’ve thought about leaving the hotel many times but whenever I’m there I remember the times that Lily worked there. She was such a monkey! She used to sneak into wedding receptions when they got to the dancing stage, she used to dance at the back of the room! I didn’t have the heart to tell her off.”

  “You’re lucky to have had a daughter like that, you sound as if you were close. I was close to my mum.”

  Ruth handed Grace a tissue from her pocket. Grace took it and said, “Sorry, I didn’t realise I was crying. Thank you.” She wiped her eyes. “I’ll give you my number. If you think of anything that might help, anything that you remember about that day, please ring me.”

  Grace wrote down her number. Ruth said, “Thanks, and thank you for coming round. I feel a bit lighter knowing that Lily’s still around.”

  Grace looked around the room. “I can’t see her, but I can hear that humming of hers!”

  Ruth laughed. “That’s my Lily!” Her smile dropped. “If you do find out that Lily was murdered, please, find the killer.”

  “I will,” Grace promised. She meant it, she was determined to find the murderer.

  Chapter 32

  Grace slept in the next morning, that wasn’t like her at all. She dashed through the door of the shop at 10 a.m. She skidded to a halt.

  “Frankie! What’s happened? Why are the shelves empty? Have we been robbed? Did they hurt you? Frankie! Speak to me!”

  Frankie was leaning against the wall near the till. He looked pale and shell-shocked. His mouth opened in an effort to speak, nothing came out.

  Grace raced to his side and grabbed his arm. “Frankie, speak slowly. Tell me what happened.”

  Frankie closed his mouth and swallowed. He blinked a few times and then focused on Grace. “They came back, they came back with reinforcements. Grace, it was awful! They attacked me!”

  “Who? Start from the beginning. Do you need a drink?”

  Frankie nodded. Grace moved to the shop door and locked it. There was no point in having the shop open if they didn’t have any stock to sell.

  Grace took Frankie to the kitchen, sat him down and soon pressed a cup of extra-sweet tea in to his hands. Frankie took a few sips, the colour slowly returned to his cheeks. He put the cup down and looked at Grace. “It was my fault, I forgot to remove the message from my website, the one about the sale. I didn’t think anything about it, we didn’t have many customers yesterday but those pensioners ...” Frankie gulped. He took a deep breath and began again. “Those pensioners that came round the other day, do you remember them? There were loads of them going through our shop.”

  Grace nodded. “I remember. Did they come back?”

  Frankie’s eyes widened. “They came back all right, they came back with their friends. There was even a coach-load of them! I didn’t know there was that many old codgers still alive in the world! They banged on the shop door at nine this morning. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw their wrinkly faces pressed up against the windows. I opened the door then ...”

  Frankie looked down at his tea, he shivered as if he was reliving the event.

  “Go on,” Grace urged. “I take it they bought something.”

  Fr
ankie’s head snapped up. “Something! They bought everything. They swarmed into the shop like a plague of locusts. They were all over the shelves, behind the till, even in here! They were shouting and swearing! Fighting over vases! It was awful, I never want to see anything like that again. I had to man the till. The grumpy old sods kept asking me for even more of a discount! I was scared for my life. I tried to phone you but some wrinkly-faced witch snatched my phone and threw it over my head somewhere.”

  Grace didn’t know whether to laugh or to sympathise. She looked at Frankie’s face, reached over and patted his hand. “It’s all over now. Sorry I wasn’t here to help. We must have made a lot of money, everything in the shop has gone.”

  “I don’t care about the shop, I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. If we ever open up again I’m going to ban anyone over the age of forty.”

  “Drink your tea, you’ll soon feel better. Have you taken the notice off your site yet?”

  Frankie jumped up in alarm. “No! They’ll come back! They’ll try to buy the kitchen! I have to go!”

  Frankie turned towards the stairs. He paused and cocked his head to one side. “Have they gone yet?”

  “Who?”

  “That woman and her big friend, you know, that woman who was giving us a quote for upstairs. Did you say that man was her fiancé?”

  “Jessie? Is she here?” Grace made her way to Frankie’s side.

  Frankie nodded. “I can’t hear anything upstairs. They came here just before nine. She said she needed to have another look upstairs, that man went with her. I was going to take them a cup of tea but they were having an argument, so I left them to it.”

  “What time did they leave?” Grace asked.

  Frankie shook his head. “I don’t know, I was under attack. The site! Grace stop nattering, I’ve got to take that notice down!”

  Frankie thudded upstairs.

  “Hmm, I wonder what they were arguing about,” Grace mumbled to herself.

  “We know exactly what they were arguing about! Just wait ‘til you hear this!”

  Pearl appeared at Grace’s side, her hands on her hips. Archie appeared at Grace’s other side, looking less ready to impart what he’d heard.

  “You’d better sit down, Grace, this could take a while,” Pearl instructed.

  Grace did so, Archie and Pearl sat at either side of her.

  Pearl began, “Your brother’s right. Jessie turned up this morning. It was obvious she didn’t want that gorilla with her. When she came in she was looking around the shop, I think she might have been looking for you.”

  “I wonder why,” Grace mused.

  Pearl glared at her. “Don’t interrupt. And you,” she pointed at Archie. “You speak when I tell you too. And stop smiling! I’m serious. I’m only little but I can still wallop you!”

  Grace said, “Pearl, I’m listening, you don’t need to threaten Archie.”

  Pearl suddenly grinned, “I can’t help it, I like controlling him, I wish I could keep him. Anyway, Jessie went upstairs to the stockroom, the big lump followed her. Jessie told him to go away but he said he wasn’t leaving her, she was in shock and he wanted to be there for her. Jessie went on about her dad, saying there was no way he was guilty. She was going to find out the truth, find out why Gordon was lying. Then that brute got hold of her arm.”

  Archie’s fist clenched. “I wish I could hit him. Why can’t I hurt him? You hear stories about ghosts hurting people.”

  “It’s not in your nature,” Pearl patted his hand. “Now, shut up, I’m telling Grace what happened. That brute grabbed Jessie and said Gordon did do it. He said that he’d been working on the doors underneath the honeymoon suite balcony when Archie died. Jessie said she knew that because he called her out to help him at some point. Rob then said she was only there for a while, he stayed there all day. He said that nobody broke in to the room, not from outside as Gordon had claimed. Rob knew that Gordon was lying the minute he gave his statement to the police.”

  Grace looked from Pearl to Archie. “So, does that mean that Gordon killed Archie and then staged a break-in? And Rob knew about this? Why didn’t Rob say anything?”

  Pearl continued, “That’s exactly what Jessie asked. There was a silence and I could see the cogs working in her brain. She pointed at Rob and accused him of blackmailing Gordon. Rob asked why would he do that. Jessie replied that he’d got Gordon to say nice things about him, to get Jessie to go out with him. Rob denied that, he thought Jessie wanted to go out with him of her own accord. Then it was Rob’s turn for the cogs to turn. He shouted at Jessie and said the only reason she was marrying him was because he was going to put his money into Gordon’s firm. There was a lot of shouting and swearing going on. That Jessie knows a few good ones, I’ll have to remember them!”

  Pearl chuckled. Grace looked at her expectantly. Pearl said, “What? Oh, the rest of the conversation? They shouted, Rob stormed out. Jessie swore a bit more and then she went out.”

  Archie said, “You left out the best part. The wedding’s off, between Jessie and Archie.”

  Grace nodded. “That is good news. But their argument hasn’t given us much more information. If we’re to believe Rob, then it wasn’t him who killed Archie, it was Gordon.”

  They were all silent. Grace spoke first, “No, I don’t believe it was Gordon, but I think we’re getting nearer to the truth.”

  Chapter 33

  Pearl said, “Tell us what you found out at Lily’s house. Did her mum slam the door in your face?”

  “She did,” Grace began. She told them about her visit, about how Lily had died and the items that Ruth Berry had found in Lily’s room.

  Archie frowned. “Perfume? But Jessie didn’t wear perfume. Lily must have taken the perfume from someone else’s room.”

  “It was her perfume!” Lily flashed into view, her hands were clenched to her chest. “It was in her room, with her dress and her shoes! Why won’t anyone believe me?” Her bottom lip jutted out, she folded her arms and turned her back on everyone.

  Grace remembered something. “Archie, when we were at the hotel you said you remembered something on the dressing table that caught your attention. Could it have been a bottle of perfume? It could have caught your attention because it was an unusual thing for Jessie to have.”

  “Aha!” Pearl cried out. “It was poisoned perfume. You found it in the honeymoon suite, thought, ‘What the heck? My Jessie doesn’t wear this stuff’, then you squirted it on yourself and down you went, dead as a doornail.”

  Archie shook his head slowly. Then he stopped. His mouth dropped open.

  “It’s all coming back to him now!” Pearl declared.

  “Archie, is that what happened?” Grace asked.

  Archie rubbed his forehead and grimaced. “It did. Oh, that memory hurts. No wonder I’ve been blocking it out. Pearl’s right, I did see a bottle of perfume on the dressing table, an expensive-looking one. I’d gone in to the room intending to lie down, I walked over to the French doors to draw the curtains. I saw the perfume and was immediately intrigued. Was Jessie going to wear perfume on our special night? I picked the bottle up and looked at the label, it wasn’t a scent I recognised. Being curious I thought I’d have a quick sniff. I squirted some in the air but couldn’t make out any fragrance. So, I squirted a good deal on my sleeve. Then I took a big inhale and ...”

  “Fell to the floor, dead as a dodo,” Pearl finished for him.

  “Yes, but I didn’t die immediately, I recall being suddenly unable to breathe and I knew it had something to do with the perfume. I knew I’d been murdered.”

  “Murdered by Jessie’s perfume,” Grace said. “She was outside with Rob whilst this was going on. Gordon came into the room and found you on the floor. He must have seen the perfume bottle at your side, he must have thought that Jessie murdered you. That’s why he tried to make it look like a break-in.”

  Archie shook his head. “I don’t believe Jessie would do that.
Why is Gordon confessing to the murder now?”

  Grace said, “Jessie’s been going through a hard time recently, she’s broken down in front of me a few times. Gordon may have been concerned that she was going to admit to your murder. He’s protecting her.”

  Pearl added, “And, meanwhile, Rob thinks Gordon did the deed and, whether he admits it or not, has been using that information to blackmail Gordon in some way.”

  “But Gordon has seen how upset Jessie is becoming about marrying Rob so he confesses, knowing that Rob can’t blackmail him any more,” Grace concluded. “That does make more sense, but I don’t think Jessie did it. I’ve only met her a few times but I can see how much she loves Archie. Why would she do it? And what happened to the perfume bottle?”

  Lily spun round. “I told you! I found it, I tried to give it back to that lady but she said I could have it!”

  “Where did you find it?” Grace asked gently, she didn’t want Lily to disappear again.

  “In a cleaning trolley, we have bins on them. I saw a cleaning trolley near the honeymoon suite. It was when the police were on their way, I heard their sirens. I thought Mum would be mad if she saw this cleaning trolley so I moved it. The perfume was sticking out. I didn’t know it was perfume ‘til I unwrapped it.”

  “Unwrapped it?” Grace asked.

  Lily nodded. She reached down the front of her dress and pulled something out. “It was wrapped in this.”

  “My handkerchief!” Archie declared. “That’s where it went!”

  Grace nodded. “Gordon must have wrapped the perfume bottle up in it, he must have put it in that cleaning trolley. Lily, why didn’t you give it to the police?”

  “It didn’t belong to them, that older lady put it in the room. I saw her when I was hiding. I tried to give it back to her but she said I could keep it, she told me to take it home.”

  Grace put her elbows on the table and rested her face in her hands. She closed her eyes. She’d missed something so obvious. Or rather, someone so obvious.