Grace made to turn away. The woman said, “Are you sure you’ll be okay to drive? After what happened to your mum and dad?”
Grace spun around. “How did you know about that? How can you know? Have you seen them? Did they talk to you?”
The woman held her hands up. “No! Please calm down. The information flew into my head all of a sudden. I don’t know any more than that. But will you be okay to drive? It’s been a while hasn’t it? And I can feel your nervousness.”
Grace gave her a brave smile. “I’ll be fine, I have to be. We all have to move on.”
She turned quickly away and blinked back her tears. She didn’t have time to think about her parents. She had her grief under control, most of the time. Grace put everything out of her mind as she got into the van. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself.
Luckily there was no one around to see her stalling the van a few times, and no one to witness how slowly and carefully she drove along in front of the storage units.
There was a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead as she parked the van and got out. There was more than a light sheen half an hour later when she had packed the contents of two lockers into the back of the van.
As she predicted the woman did whoosh into the back of the van, it was when Grace threw a pair of darker pink curtains in. She made a mental note to remember which pair they were.
More steadying breaths were needed as Grace set off in the van towards the main road.
She entered the traffic muttering to herself, “Please don’t crash, please don’t crash.”
Everything went smoothly.
For a while. Until something shot up in front of her.
Grace screamed and slammed on the brakes.
Chapter 5
The ghost woman was inches from Grace’s face.
“Get off!” Grace cried out. “I can’t see!”
Loud beeps from angry motorists sounded out as they swerved past her.
The woman was oblivious to the mayhem she had caused. She said, “My name! I remember my name!”
Grace pulled the handbrake on and quickly checked the rear view mirror. She ignored the obscene hand sign from the man behind.
“Please could you move, you’re blocking my view,” Grace said as calmly as she could. Her heart was thudding, images of the fateful drive with her parents flashed into her mind, she thought she was going to crash the van.
The woman frowned and became aware of where she was. “Oh, am I in your way? I’m so sorry.”
“That’s okay, just don’t do that again. Why don’t you sit in the passenger seat?” Grace wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans, her heart rate was returning to normal.
“Will do,” the woman said. She moved out of Grace’s way and promptly disappeared.
Grace sighed. She started up the engine and set off. She hoped to goodness the woman wouldn’t suddenly appear again.
Five minutes later Grace gratefully pulled into the parking space behind the shop. Her legs felt wobbly as she got out.
But she’d done it, she’d driven again.
She felt the desperate need for a cup of tea but decided to unpack the van first. She wanted to be ready to go again if Frankie sent her a text.
There was no sign of the woman as Grace took everything into the shop. She placed the contents of both lockers at the back of the shop intending to sort them out later.
When the job was complete she made herself a cup of tea and sank on to a kitchen chair. The biscuit jar was close at hand so she helped herself to a few.
“A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!”
Grace looked over at an old woman who had appeared. She smiled and said, “Hi Pearl, it’s good to see you.”
Pearl was a ghost who was attached to the shop. Her hair was grey, short and curly. She wore a floral housecoat over a long blue dress. Her tights always looked wrinkled as if they were several sizes too big. Pearl had been the one who told Grace that she would be finding murder victims at the storage lockers. Pearl hadn’t told Grace too much about herself but she had mentioned that she could see ghosts when she was alive, and just like Grace, she used to help them.
Pearl grinned at her. “So, found any dead bodies? Any missing limbs? Decapitated heads? So annoying when the head isn’t attached to the body.”
“Nothing like that. I did find a ghost but she’s gone again. She can’t remember what happened to her.”
Pearl folded her arms and leant back in the chair. “Tell me everything.”
Grace did so.
Pearl stood up and said, “She might be stuck in those curtains, go and give them a good shake, shake her out.”
“I can’t do that! That’s so undignified.”
“We haven’t got time for dignity where murder’s concerned. Come on.”
Grace followed Pearl into the main area of the shop. Pearl stood by the curtains and held a hand out towards them. “Go on, we haven’t got all day.”
Grace bent down and grabbed a handful of the darker pink curtains. “Do you think she was murdered?”
“Probably strangled going by the pain in her neck. Put some effort into it, Grace.”
Grace lifted the curtains and waved them about.
To Grace’s astonishment the ghost woman appeared to fall out of them. She landed on the floor and began to sob. “Why did it happen? Why me?”
Pearl put her hands on her hips. “Great, a hysterical ghost. Shall I slap her?”
“No! I’ll talk to her.”
Grace moved forward and smiled at the ghost. She explained where they were.
The woman stopped sobbing. “This is a lovely shop.”
“Thanks, it used to belong to my parents.”
Pearl pushed in front of Grace. She pointed at the ghost and barked out, “Who are you? Where did you live? What did you do? And what can you remember about the night you died?”
The woman stared at Pearl, her mouth open.
“We need answers,” Pearl demanded.
Grace wanted to jump in and be more polite but she wanted answers too.
The woman closed her mouth and looked at the floor for a moment. She looked back up and clicked her fingers. “My name! I can remember it. It’s Mae Moonshine.”
“Pah!” Pearl burst out. “That’s not a real name, try again.”
The woman frowned and got to her feet. “It is my name, it might not be my real name but it’s the one I remember.”
Pearl looked Mae up and down. “Are you some sort of entertainer? Those are fancy clothes for everyday wear. Are you a gypsy? A lady of the night?”
Grace put her arm towards Pearl, it went right through her. “That’s enough questions for now. Mae might remember more later. Why don’t we try going into a vision?”
Mae frowned.
Grace explained. “When I’ve helped ghosts before we’ve both held an item that the ghost was attached to. We held it at the same time ...”
“Ghosts can’t hold things,” Pearl said with a tut.
“Well, not hold then, put their hands through the item. Anyway we’re taken into a vision, like a scene from the past. It’s a bit like going inside a television set, no one can see or hear us. Do you want to give it a try?”
“I suppose so, what should we hold?” Mae asked.
“The curtains?”
“I still don’t think they’re mine.”
“We’ll try anyway. Pearl, can you come with us?” Grace asked.
Pearl shook her head. She gave Grace a solemn look and said, “You can feel the emotions from ghosts, you can feel the pain that Mae has?”
Grace nodded. “I can deal with it.”
“But what about the pain someone experiences when they die? Are you prepared to feel that?”
Chapter 6
“I hadn’t thought about that.” Grace looked at Mae. “But I’ll have to do it. We’re still not sure if Mae was murdered.”
Mae let out a wail. “Oh! Something terrible happened to
me! I know that!”
Pearl leant closer to Grace and muttered, “Take her into the vision now before I slap her, she’s one of those dramatic types, I can tell.”
Grace grabbed the curtain, Mae stood at her side and did the same, her hand wavering on the top of the fabric. They waited.
“Is something supposed to happen?” Mae said.
Grace nodded. “Either we’re not meant to go into a vision or you’re not attached to these curtains.”
They waited another minute. Nothing happened.
“What do we do now?” Mae asked.
Grace was tempted to ask Pearl for help but she wanted to figure things out for herself. “Can you remember where you lived? Maybe you were attacked at home?”
Mae thought for a moment. “Yes, I can. Are you going round there? Shall I come with you?”
Grace shook her head. “We don’t know what you’re attached to and I don’t fancy lugging everything that we found in the locker with us.”
Also, she didn’t want Mae disappearing and reappearing in the van as she drove.
Grace wrote down the address.
Pearl put her hands behind her back and began to pace up and down. “If someone else lives there make an excuse to go in. If the house is empty, break in, watch out for nosy neighbours. Have a look in every room, look at photos, make notes. If there’s a diary bring it back.” She stopped pacing and looked at Mae. “Did you see the person who won the locker first? What did they look like? What were they looking for?”
“I ... I ...” Mae began.
“Too many questions, Pearl. Will Mae be safe if I leave her here with you? You won’t keep badgering her with questions?”
Pearl looked at Grace, then at Mae, and back to Grace. “Okay, I’ll leave her alone for now. Take a note of everything whilst you’re at the house. We’ll talk when you come back.”
Pearl promptly disappeared.
Grace told Mae that she shouldn’t be too long. “Erm...make yourself at home,” she added.
It didn’t take long to find Mae’s house. It was tucked down a quiet side street, a small semi-detached house.
Grace walked up the path that led to the front door. She was about to knock when she saw a note pinned to the inside of the bay window.
‘Customers – please come in via the back door. Wait in the kitchen, I’ll be with you as soon as possible.’
Grace paused, her hand still raised.
Mae never said what she did for a living. All sorts of images popped into Grace’s head. She shook her head quickly, embarrassed to have such images at the ready.
She knocked at the front door.
“You’re too late.”
Grace turned around to see who was talking. She didn’t want to have to deal with a nosy neighbour.
She instantly recognised the postal uniform of the man in front of her. He was friendly looking, smaller than her, his large postbag hanging heavily off his shoulder.
He nodded towards the window note. “You’re too late. Mae doesn’t work here any more.”
“Oh.” Grace didn’t know what else to say.
“I take it you’re here for a reading?”
Grace nodded.
The postman shook his head sadly. “Mae Moonshine was the best psychic I’d ever met. She had a real gift. She helped me out on many occasions, helped me sort things out in my life.”
Ah. A psychic.
“Where does Mae work now?” Grace asked.
The man pursed his lips together and looked away. When he turned back Grace saw the glint of tears in his eyes. “She passed away, six months ago. Sorry for being upset. I thought I was dealing with the grief, it sometimes comes back at me suddenly.”
“I’m sorry about Mae. I know how you feel about grief, it can be overwhelming.”
The postman nodded. “If you want to have a reading with someone I can recommend a few. Not as good as Mae, no one ever will be. I have some cards in my pocket.”
Grace didn’t want a reading but she thought it might be wise to know about Mae’s rivals. Maybe one of them was responsible for her death?
The man gave her a handful of business cards.
Grace thanked him. “Can I ask, if it’s not too upsetting, how did she die? Was it here?”
“No, it was at St Mark’s Church. They hold psychic fairs every month, Saturday and Sunday. There’s one on at the moment, you could go there.”
“Thank you.” Grace wanted to question him further. How could she broach the topic of how Mae died? What would he think if she asked that?
The postman took some letters out of his sack and pushed them through the letter box. “It’s funny, but she’s still getting post. And, according to her next door neighbour, the back door is still left unlocked. Isn’t that weird?”
He shot a loving glance at the house, his eyes moving upwards.
He yelled and his hands flew to his chest. Grace looked up to where he was looking.
He gave a nervous laugh. “I thought I just saw Mae at the window. Aren’t I silly? Mind you, it would be something that Mae would do, come back and haunt her own house!”
The postman said goodbye, pulled his heavy bag further up his shoulder and walked away.
It was a big bag for such a small man.
Grace turned her attention back to Mae.
Had the postman seen Mae’s ghost?
Had she followed Grace here?
Was the back door really unlocked?
Grace smiled to herself and headed down the side of the house towards the back door.
Chapter 7
Grace swallowed the guilt she felt about entering Mae’s house. She wasn’t exactly breaking and entering was she? Just entering. And there was a note on the front window inviting her in.
She nodded and decided that was the argument she would use if the police suddenly turned up and caught her.
Mae’s kitchen was lovely, if old fashioned. It was decorated in pale shades of yellow and blue. There was a large round table in the middle of the room with what looked like a list of prices. Grace picked it up, her eyebrows raised. That’s a lot to charge for a tarot card reading. And what was reiki healing?
Grace put the list back down and continued to look around the kitchen. It felt wrong to be looking in someone else’s house, but it sort of felt good too, as if she’d given herself licence to be nosy.
She remembered all the ‘Murder, She Wrote’ programmes that she’d enjoyed watching. What would Jessica Fletcher do? The remark that the postman made about the post not being cancelled came to mind. Was a member of Mae’s family collecting it? Was someone living here?
Grace realised with a start that she hadn’t asked Mae if she had a husband or children. What if there was someone upstairs right now? She suddenly felt like Goldilocks.
“Who the hell are you?”
Grace spun round. A grim faced woman glared at her, hands on her hips. She was dressed in various shades of beige.
“Well? Don’t stand there looking gormless. Who are you and what are you doing in here?”
Grace quickly thought of a story. “I had an appointment booked with Mae Moonshine, I booked it last year, I could only make the appointment this month. Where is she?”
The woman spat at her. “Liar! I heard you talking to that nosy postman, I heard him tell you that Mae was dead. Who are you? One of those morbid people who like looking at homes where dead people lived? It’s bad enough that you might be one of those idiots who falls for all that fortune telling rubbish. Well? Explain yourself!”
Grace looked closer at the woman, there was something familiar about her. She took a chance and said, “You look like Mae, are you related?”
“How do you know what Mae looks like? Looked like?” the woman snapped.
Grace took another chance. “I saw a picture of her online.”
The woman’s lip curled. “Yes, that sounds like Mae, putting herself out there for the whole world to see. That’s not even her real name,
it’s Sandra Drake, not as glamorous is it? If you must know I’m her sister. Was there anything else? You know where the door is.”
Grace knew there was no point asking her any more questions. She gave the woman a bright smile and quickly walked out of the back door. Something was bugging her about the woman’s face.
It was when she was driving back to the shop that she realised what it was.
“The lipstick! It was the same colour as Mae’s!”
It had looked totally out of place on her. Why was she wearing it?
Chapter 8
Grace had many questions for Mae when she returned to the shop.
Mae was wandering around the shop looking at various items. Pearl was nowhere in sight.
Mae smiled at Grace when she came in. “My memory’s returning a bit more. How did you get on? Was my house a crime scene? I was imagining a white outline of my body drawn somewhere, like you see on those police shows.”
Mae chuckled, Grace was glad to see her looking more cheerful.
Grace opened her mouth to speak.
Pearl appeared right in front of her and said, “Not a word yet, I’m not ready.”
The old woman settled herself down on one of the chairs that had been in the same locker as Mae. “Right, you can start. I want every tiny detail.”
“There isn’t much to tell. I met the postman and then I met Mae’s sister.”
“Brenda? Oh! How is she? Does she look well?” Mae asked.
“Well,” Grace began.
Mae burst out laughing. “Does she still look as if she’s stepped in something disgusting? Her mouth used to pucker up so much that it looked like..”
“A cat’s arse.” Pearl finished for her. “I’ve met that type before, they love being miserable. Tell us more, Grace.”
“Brenda wasn’t friendly, she threw me out before I had a good look around. I didn’t know you were a psychic, Mae.”
Mae gave a bashful nod.
“Psychic! Why didn’t you say so!” Pearl burst out. “Hang on, in that case, why don’t you just tell us who killed you? Didn’t you foresee it in your tea leaves or crystal ball?”
The Last Reading (Storage Ghost Murders Book 1) Page 2