Ruth’s smile grew. “I think I can feel her. I feel warm down that side. How’s Jessie?”
Grace stood up. Thankfully, Jessie did look a normal colour. She found Sylvia’s bag and tipped everything on to the bed. Archie pointed and said, “Sedatives. She must have given some to Jessie. Grace, look, there’s another bottle of perfume, it’s just like the one that I saw before. She was planning to kill Jessie with it.”
“Thank goodness she didn’t spray Ruth with it.” Grace looked down at Sylvia. She’d passed out, her hand was pressed over her left side. “I think I might have broken one of her ribs.”
“Good,” Archie said. “She deserves everything that’s coming to her.”
Grace cocked her head. “I can hear sirens. Jessie! Hold on, help is coming.”
A minute later many uniformed people burst in to the room. Grace quickly explained what was going on. A young-looking policeman said, “These are serious allegations. You’ll have to come down to the station.”
“I will do, but can I go to the hospital first? I want to make sure Jessie and Ruth are okay.”
The policeman relented although he took another five minutes to get all her details.
It was a long wait at the hospital for Grace. Ruth came out of a side ward first, her eyes a lot less red. Lily was skipping at her side. Ruth gave Grace a hug and said thank you. “I’m going down to the police station to make a statement about my Lily. I know there’s no evidence left but I’ll do what I can. Is Lily still here? I feel as if she is, I feel lighter and happier somehow.”
Grace said, “She is. Oh, hang on, she wants to tell me something.” Grace listened, then smiled. “She said that you have to smile more, laugh more and dance more. She’s going to be right at your side.”
Ruth laughed. “I’ll do that. The next time I hear ‘Y.M.C.A.’ playing at the hotel I’ll shimmy in and do my stuff! I can just imagine the looks on everyone’s faces. They’ll think ‘Old Raspberry’ has lost the plot! Grace, thank you again. If you ever need to book an over-priced hotel room come to me and I’ll give you a good discount.”
Ruth gave her another hug and walked away, a spring in her step and her daughter at her side. Lily looked back over her shoulder and winked.
Grace had to wait another three hours to see Jessie. The nurse let her in even though Jessie was still groggy.
Jessie was lying down when Grace gingerly entered the room. Archie was sitting on a chair to the left of her, Grace sat in the chair to the right.
Jessie said, “I don’t understand what’s going on? Why am I here? And why do I feel so light-headed. The last thing I remember is being at Dad’s house, Sylvia was making me a cup of tea. It tasted funny but I drank it anyway.”
Grace said, “You don’t need to worry about anything yet. I can explain everything later.” That wasn’t a conversation that Grace was looking forward to. She’d have to think of a way to tell Jessie what happened without mentioning ghosts.
Jessie said, “Sylvia was acting weird with me. She said she’d been to see Dad and he had a message for me. He’d said I wasn’t to worry about the perfume, he knew what I’d done and that I was obviously worried about getting caught. He said he’d take care of me, protect me, just like he’d always done. I told Sylvia that I didn’t know what Dad was talking about. Her face went all twisted and she said she knew what Gordon was talking about. I can’t remember much more after that. I had a dream that I was back at the hotel, in the honeymoon suite. I thought I saw Archie.”
Grace reached into her handbag and took out the hammer necklace. She lifted it up and looked at Archie. He nodded and said, “It’s time.”
Grace passed the necklace to Jessie and said, “This belongs to you. Don’t argue! It was made for you.”
Jessie clasped the necklace, a tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. She mumbled, “Thank you, Grace, and thank you for coming to see me.” She held the necklace up and smiled, “I feel like Archie is near.”
You don’t know how near, Grace thought as she stood up.
Archie said, “Grace, I can’t thank you enough. You are an amazing person. I’m going to stay with Jessie for a while, make sure she’s okay.”
Grace gave him a slight nod. She smiled at Jessie and said, “I’ll come back tomorrow. You get some rest.”
The young policeman was waiting for her outside the hospital.
“Ready?” he asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Grace replied. She wondered what time she’d actually get home.
Chapter 38
It was another two hours before the police allowed her to go. Grace returned to the shop. She felt guilty about leaving Frankie alone after his ordeal with the pensioners.
She needn’t have worried. She found him on his bed with his laptop open.
“Sorry I’ve been gone so long,” she said.
Frankie looked up in surprise. “What? Did you go out somewhere?”
Grace nodded. “What are you looking at? Something decent I hope.”
He nodded eagerly. “We’re going to have a busy weekend! I’ve put us down for all the storage auctions in the area. I think we’ll have to hire a bigger van. We’ll soon have the shop bursting at the seams”
Grace indicated towards the shelves at the other side of the room. “Don’t we have items over there that we can sell. This is a stockroom, I’m assuming that those are stock items”
Frankie paused in his tapping, he looked at Grace. He said quietly, “We can’t sell those items Mum and Dad bought them. Most of it is rubbish, you know what Mum was like, she bought anything that was shiny. But it’s the only things we have left that they bought.”
Grace nodded. In a soft voice she said, “Okay, we’ll never sell them, we’ll keep them here. Do you want a cup of tea?”
Frankie was back to his typing. “I thought you’d never ask. Make me a toasted cheese sandwich whilst your there, extra pickle. And don’t burn it this time.”
Grace shook her head slightly. He went from one extreme to the other. She went down to the kitchen. She was glad to see Pearl there. She filled her in on all the events. “Do you think Lily will stay with her mum forever? Is that what some ghosts do?”
“They do, they make their own choices. You’ve done a good job but you look knackered.”
Grace stifled a yawn. “I could sleep all weekend but Frankie’s lined up some auctions for us. I could miss some of them, I’m sure he won’t mind.”
Pearl put her hand on Grace’s arm. In a serious voice she said, “You have to go to the auctions. Someone needs your help. This next case isn’t going to be an easy one.”
Grace looked into the old woman’s face. She was glad she had Pearl in her life.
“Get that soppy look off your face! Are you going to the auctions or not?” Pearl snapped.
Grace laughed. “Of course I’m going!”
A note from the author
I love watching storage auction programmes. I’ve never been to one but I’d love to visit one of the big ones in America, I’m sure I’d be useless at bidding though – I’d be too excited.
When I watch the shows I always wonder where the items have come from, and who they belonged to. I wondered what would happen if some of the items had ghosts attached. I reached a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore and I knew I had to write some stories down, I was inspired by the variety of items that have been discovered in storage lockers. Also, I am a big fan of ‘cozy’ murder mysteries and I wanted to combine items found in a locker with a murder!
I hope you enjoyed this story. If you did could you post a quick review? Thank you, I read all my reviews and I really do appreciate them.
Grace’s first murder mystery is ‘The Last Reading’. It’s free on Amazon :
Amazon Com
Amazon UK
Grace’s adventures with ghosts that weren’t murdered are available as a box set, there are 5 short stories in the set:
Amazon Com
Amazon UK
> To get a free pdf copy of ‘A Different Shade Of Death’, sign up to my newsletter at:
www.gillianlarkin.co.uk
You can email me at:
[email protected]
Best wishes
STORAGE GHOST MURDER – MURDER VOWS
By
GILLIAN LARKIN
KINDLE EDITION
www.gillianlarkin.co.uk
Front cover image by www.coverkicks.com
Copyright 2015 by Gillian Larkin
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, electronically or mechanically without permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person living or death is purely coincidental.
Murder Vows (Storage Ghost Murders Book 4) Page 13
