Daisy's Chain: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 5) (6 page)

Chapter 19

The next day
Grace went to the shop. Frankie raised an eyebrow when he saw her.

“I wasn’t
expecting you today, I thought you’d still be getting rid of that rubbish that
you bought yesterday.”

“I did get rid of
it,” Grace said. She came around the counter and put her handbag down.

“Are you
staying?” Frankie asked.

Grace sighed. “I
don’t know what I’m doing with my life.”

Frankie held his
hands up. “I haven’t got time for a heart to heart, are you staying or not?”

Grace nodded. “I
can do. Have you got somewhere to go?”

“Big Bob’s going
to an antique fair. I know I said we should concentrate on household goods for
the shop but I thought I’d go along for the ride, see if I can spot any
bargains.”

Grace noted his
eager expression. “You liked looking at antiques with Dad, didn’t you?”

Frankie grinned.
“I did, something about the history side of things excited me. A love of
history must run in the family. Which reminds me, when are you going back to
your teaching job?”

Grace sighed
again. “I don’t know, I got a letter from the school this morning wanting to
know the same thing. What should I do?”

“Again, I haven’t
got time. We can talk later. Do you want to look after the shop whilst I go
out? I can close it up if you don’t want to. It won’t be busy.”

“I’ll stay, it
looks like it could do with a dust.”

Frankie laughed
and grabbed his jacket. “You and your cleaning! A bit of dirt won’t kill you.”

Grace shook her
head. Frankie tried using that argument several times when Mum ordered him to
have a bath in his younger years.

Frankie dashed
out from the counter. “See you later, alligator.”

Grace sighed
again as the door shut behind him. She suddenly smiled. She was starting to
sound like a balloon going down. She couldn’t help feeling frustrated, she just
wanted someone to talk to, someone to help her figure out what she was doing
with her life.

“You can talk to
me.”

Grace turned
around. “Pearl! I can see you! At last!”

The old woman
grinned. “Nice to have someone so pleased to see me. How are you, Grace?”

Grace smiled at
the old woman, she was pleased to see her. She was just as Grace had imagined,
small and grey haired. She wore a floral housecoat over a long dress. Grace
glanced down at her legs, her tights were wrinkled as if they were a few sizes
too big.

Pearl said, “Now
you’ve looked me up and down do you want to tell me why you’ve got a face as
miserable as a wet Sunday?”

“I want to know
about you! How long you’ve been here, did you live in this shop, did you know
Mum and Dad, when did you die, how did you die?”

“Whoa! Stop with
the verbal diarrhoea! Never mind about me, I’ll tell you what you need to know
when you need to know it, okay?”

Grace nodded.
She’d already been told by previous ghosts that Pearl liked to swear. She
didn’t want to be on the receiving end of an outburst.

Pearl’s wrinkled
face wrinkled even more. “No need to be afraid of me, Grace. I know I’ve had
words with some of your ghost friends but I’m only protecting you. That’s what
I’m here for.”

“To protect me?
Against what?”

Pearl waved a
hand dismissively. “We’ll get to that later. Right, tell me what’s going on.
Something to do with that school job of yours? Lock the door, we don’t want any
busybodies getting in the way.”

“But I told
Frankie…”

Pearl folded her
arms. “Don’t even mention that boy to me. The things he watches on his computer
upstairs! Your hair would be as grey and curly as mine if you saw what he was
looking at! Mind you, those programmes have taught me a few things too. Lock
the door, I want your full attention.”

Grace did as she
was told. She was beginning to think that Pearl was not someone who you argued
with.

Pearl listened as
Grace told her about her teaching job. Grace wasn’t sure she wanted to go back,
she didn’t think she could give her all as a teacher anymore, it wouldn’t be
fair to the students.

“Why can’t you
give your all?” Pearl asked.

Grace gave a
little laugh. “I know it sounds silly but I like helping ghosts. It’s probably
selfish but I feel wonderful when I’ve helped them. I wish I could talk to
someone about it, discuss the ghosts’ problems with them.”

“You can talk to
me. I’ve seen how you are with those ghosts, they’re lucky to have found you.
Although, they should have sorted out their problems whilst they were alive!
People waste so much time on the unimportant!”

Grace waited for
Pearl to calm down. “I know, but sometimes life gets in the way, things don’t
run smoothly. I really like helping them but can I do that for a living? I need
to pay my bills.”

Pearl nodded.
“You can do it for a living. You can work here with your brother. I can help
you look out for good storage units. Don’t look at me like that! I know all
about the storage unit business, I watch the same programmes as Frankie.”

“But how will you
help me? Will you come with me?”

“Questions!
Questions! What did I tell you about questions? Now, tell me about this last
ghost you helped, this problem was different from the others. And, don’t ask me
why just yet, there was a reason it was different.”

Chapter 20

Grace told Pearl
all about Mr Manville and Daisy. Pearl was a good listener, she nodded and
didn’t interrupt.

When Grace had
finished Pearl said, “Do you know what was different about this situation?”

Grace thought for
a moment. Then anger reared up in her. “That man at the nightclub! That vile
man and his friends! How could they get away with it? They’re probably still
doing it now. Oh! It makes my blood boil! I wish I could find him.”

“And would you
hit him on the head with your favourite tea pot?” Pearl teased.

Heat flushed into
Grace’s cheeks. “I’d forgotten you were there for that. In fact, I think you
might have been responsible.”

“Details, we’re
not talking about me. What about that … so and so, Eddie Tominski? How did you
feel when you knew he’d murdered your parents? No, that’s a stupid question, I
know how you felt. But what would you do if you discovered a murderer? Would
you try and help? Or let the police sort it out?”

Grace wanted to
know why Pearl was asking all these questions but she was too afraid to ask.
She thought for a moment and then answered truthfully. “I’d get involved. I
can’t stand back and let people get away with things.”

“Many people can.
Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m asking you all these questions?”

Grace gave a
sheepish smile. “I daren’t.”

“Get some
backbone, Grace, you’re going to need it. When I was alive I was like you, I
could see ghosts. And I helped them. But the ghosts I helped were different,
they’d been murdered and I helped find out who had murdered them. The things I
saw! And the pieces of scum I met! But I was like you, I had to help.”

Grace didn’t like
where the conversation was heading. Pearl looked at her and waited. Grace
didn’t want to speak.

Pearl said, “We
can stare at each other all day like a pair of stuffed dummies or you can ask
me what you’re already thinking.”

Grace swallowed.
“Are you telling me that I need to help ghosts who have been murdered?”

“Yes. Next
question. You can ask questions now.”

“But why me?”

“Because you’re
kind, helpful and you can see dead people. Next?”

“Where will I
find them? The murdered people?”

“In the storage
units. You’ll find the murder weapons, bloodied clothes and other delightful
items. You’ll be busy.”

Grace frowned.
“But I haven’t seen any murdered ghosts yet. Are you sure they’ll be in the
storage units?”

Pearl put a
ghostly hand on Grace’s arm. Instead of feeling the usual chill when a ghost
touched her, Grace felt a warmth. It felt good. Pearl said, “The ghosts are
there, you didn’t see them because it wasn’t time for you to see them yet. Some
of them followed you home, some are still in this shop. You can get to them
later.”

Grace looked
around the shop expecting to see deformed ghosts with knives sticking out of
them.

She said, “I’m
not sure, Pearl, I don’t think I’m strong enough. How could I help them? Can’t
I just tell the police about them? Can’t the ghosts tell me who murdered them?”

“They don’t know,
or they forget at the moment of death. Grace, it has to be you. You have the
gift, just like I had. I’ll help you. I can’t leave the shop but we can talk,
work out clues and stuff like that. Wouldn’t it be nice to talk to me about
this ghost business?”

Grace nodded. She
had no one else to talk to about ghosts.

Pearl shouted
out, making her jump. “Stop keeping your thoughts to yourself! Tell me what
you’re thinking. Remember how good it felt to help all those other ghosts?
Think how much better you’ll feel helping poor sods who’ve been murdered? You
might stop other people being murdered. It’s your duty!”

Grace flinched.
That little woman had a big voice. “But …” she began.

“Buts are for
losers!” Pearl declared. “You can do this, Grace, I believe in you.”

Grace was just
about to sigh but then caught Pearl’s look. Could she do this? Could she help
people who’d been murdered?

Grace nodded at
Pearl and said, “When do I start?”

A note from the author

Just like Frankie in this story 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.

I hope you enjoyed this first story. If
you did could you post a quick review? Thank you, I read all my reviews and I
really do appreciate them.

The first book is Jacob’s Coins (it’s
free):

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The second book in this series is Lost
And Found:

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The third book is Tick Tock:

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The fourth book is The Write Dream:

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You can see all my books at:

www.gillianlarkin.co.uk

You can email me at:

[email protected]

Best wishes

Gillian