“Unless they were a psychic,” Mae said with a comical wiggle of her eyebrows. “Or someone could have, what’s the expression? Hacked? Hacked into Autumn Rose’s computer and cancelled any payments for the unit. The murderer might have been following her.”
“Oh, very clever. The murderer got the unit, couldn’t find the tarot cards and left the unit. I got the abandoned unit. Mae! What if someone was watching me? They would have seen me go to your house, they might assume that I’d found the cards. I did have a feeling that I was being followed yesterday. What if the murderer is watching us now?”
The two women slowly turned their heads towards the living room window. Grace half expected a crazed looking mad person to be staring right back at her.
There was no one there.
“Did anyone see you at my house?” Mae asked.
“I saw Brenda but we’ve ruled her out. I mustn’t forget to go and see her later. And there was ...”
She was interrupted by a beeping noise.
“Sorry, that’s my phone.” Grace picked up her handbag and rummaged about for her phone. It was for ever falling out of the little phone sized pocket on the inside of her bag. Her hand shuffled between tissues, mints and make-up. She couldn’t quite feel her phone. “Sorry,” she said again to Mae. She tipped the contents on to the sofa.
“Ah.” She picked up her phone. “It’s from Frankie, wanting to know if I’m okay and if I’m working at the shop tomorrow. I’ll send him a quick reply otherwise he’ll text me again in a minute.”
Grace did so and started to put everything back in her bag.
Mae chuckled. “I saw you collect the business card from the reiki table but I didn’t know you had so many cards from the other psychics. How many readings are you planning on having?”
Grace looked at the cards. “Oh, your postman gave them to me. That’s who else saw me at your house. Mae, what’s wrong?”
“The postman, was he a little chap with a big postbag? Cheerful and talkative?”
“Yes, he told me about the fair at the church.”
Mae squeezed her eyes shut and began to shake her head. “No, no, no!”
Mae disappeared.
Chapter 20
“Mae!” Grace called out. “Mae! Come back!”
Why had she disappeared? What was the problem with the postman?
Mae reappeared. “I’m so sorry, Grace. It was the shock, I’d forgotten about Tom, he’s the postman. How was he when you spoke to him?”
“Happy and helpful. What has he done?”
Mae gave a little shake of her head. “He’s a short man with a short temper. I didn’t see that side of him at first. He was always friendly, stopping for a chat whenever our paths crossed. He was interested in my work and asked if he could have a reading. Of course I said yes. I remember the reading, it was so sad. Because of his size he was constantly picked on at school. It got even worse when he started work. He pretended that it didn’t bother him but I could see that it did. I told him to just be himself, try and get out more, make more friends. He used to spend every night at home, letting that day’s insults get to him.”
“People can be cruel, did things get better for him?” Grace asked.
“They did, or seemed to. He didn’t have another reading but when he dropped some packages off I managed to have a chat with him. He said he’d started a lottery club at work. He organised it and went round each department introducing himself. He said there was always talk of setting up a lottery club but no one could be bothered to do it. His colleagues appreciated Tom undertaking it.”
“Did they win anything?”
Mae sighed. “Something terrible happened, and it’s all my fault. Tom said how great it would be if there was a lucky ticket and they won a good amount, everyone would treat him like a hero. I agreed and then I foolishly said I should use my crystal pendulum to see which numbers would come up that week.”
“You can do that?” Grace asked, her eyebrows raising.
“That’s just what Tom said. I regretted the remark straight away, I don’t use my pendulum for things like that. Tom didn’t believe it could work. Being the stubborn woman I am I said I would prove it. Oh, what a foolish thing to do!”
“Did it work? Hang on, I don’t understand, how does the pendulum work?”
“I wrote out all the lottery numbers on separate bits of paper and put them on a table. I tuned into the pendulum’s power and then held it over each number. If it swung one way it meant the number wouldn’t come up, and, well, you can guess the rest. I saw the glint in Tom’s eyes, it was a glint of greed so I purposely didn’t give him all the winning numbers. I forced the pendulum to swing over a certain number when it shouldn’t have done.
“When I saw him the next week he was beaming like a Cheshire cat. Five of the numbers that I gave him did come up and everyone in the lottery syndicate won £1000. You can imagine how pleased they were, they thought Tom was their lucky charm. He wanted me to predict the numbers again but I refused. He gave me a cold look, which I hadn’t seen before and walked away. I thought that was the end of it but a few days later he came to me in tears. I was taken aback and asked him what the matter was. He said someone at work had a seriously ill child and needed money to send them to a doctor in America.”
Grace said, “You believed him?”
Mae nodded. “He was very convincing. I didn’t think he’d lie. I did another pendulum swing, still not going for the full numbers, some instinct warned me not to. He came back the week after saying that the total individual win was £2000 and everyone was over the moon. I did ask about the poorly child but he quickly changed the subject and asked for more lucky numbers. I had a sudden clear vision of him at work, his colleagues were still making fun of him behind his back, they were using him to get money.”
“Did you tell him this?”
“I did. He flew into a rage and said I was lying. He was outside at this time but he pushed me to one side and ran into my house. I found him in the living room going through my drawers. Oh, Grace! You should have heard the language he was using. I was shocked. I ordered him to get out but he kept looking, he was looking for the pendulum, he wanted to do the predicting himself. I told him it wouldn’t work but he was like a man possessed.”
Mae paused and looked down at her lap.
“What happened next?” Grace asked.
Mae looked up. “I’m so ashamed but I had to do it. I grabbed a glass paperweight and hit him on the back with it. I didn’t want to kill him, obviously, I wanted to stop him. He fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. I picked him up, it was like lifting a child, and I threw him outside. I told him I was going to report him to the Post Office. His face was full of hate. Despite his size he looked quite scary. He actually spat when he said, ‘You’ll regret this’.”
“How awful, he doesn’t look the type at all to do that. Did you tell the Post Office? Why is he still working as a postman?”
Mae gave Grace a grim look. “I didn’t have time, I had to go to the church, it was the day of the psychic fair. It was the day that I died.”
Grace gave a low nod and said, “I think we’ve just found our murderer.”
Chapter 21
Mae and Grace sat in silence for a while, both lost in their thoughts.
Grace frowned and said, “Do you think he was at the fair?”
“He must have been although I don’t remember seeing him. I probably wouldn’t have recognised him without his uniform. He could have been the one bringing me cups of tea knowing that I’d have to pay a visit to the toilet eventually.”
Grace said, “He’s not a big man but it doesn’t take a lot of strength to push someone down the stairs. He must have been looking for the pendulum when he started rummaging through your clothes.”
“That makes sense. He must have been the one buying the locker, maybe he thought the pendulum had rolled out when I fell.”
“He was taking a bit of a gamble with that, he paid
a lot of money on the chance of the pendulum being there. No wonder I couldn’t see him at the auction, he’s too small to stand out from the crowd. Where is your pendulum?” Grace suddenly gasped. “Don’t tell me you were buried with it? Is Tom mad enough to dig your grave up?”
Mae gave a small laugh. “He’s mad enough but I hid the pendulum before I went to the fair. I had a feeling that he wouldn’t be above breaking into my house when I was out. Do you remember that box of childhood memories that I mentioned earlier, when we were talking to Brenda?”
Grace nodded. “The one on top of your wardrobe? Is that where it is?”
“It is. I told Tom it wouldn’t do him any good to use the pendulum but ... you should have seen the crazy look on his face. I didn’t think he was capable of murder though.”
“Do you suppose he murdered Autumn Rose too? He could have been annoyed with her, maybe he demanded winning lottery ticket numbers and she refused? Maybe she just told him things that she’d found on the Internet about him. He told me he’d been waiting months to see her, it could have enraged him again when he didn’t get the information he wanted. Oh! Do you remember Shirley talking in the cafe? She said something about annoying customers, ones that had even turned up to her house. That could be Tom too.”
“Sounds like he’s working his way through all the psychics. Grace, you have to do something, he might kill again.”
Grace considered this. “I wonder if he did try to break into your house after you died. I’ll ask Brenda when I see her.” She looked at her watch. “We may as well go now. I’ll tell Brenda everything we know. She might have spotted Tom at the fair, she might have seen something that we missed.”
“Good idea. We could warn her as well, Tom might be looking at her as his next victim.”
Grace stood up. “You’re right, let’s get going.”
A short while later Grace walked swiftly down the path of Mae’s house, the one that now belonged to Brenda.
She stopped in surprise. “The back door’s wide open. It’s not warm enough for that.”
Mae said, “Perhaps she’s with a client and they forgot to close the door when they came in.”
Grace stepped carefully through the door. There was an eerie silence, the hairs on her arm started to lift.
Mae followed her in and paused. “I can feel it too, something’s wrong.”
They heard a quiet mumble of voices coming from the living room. Grace walked towards it.
The door was ajar. Grace peeped through. She could see Brenda kneeling on the floor, her back was towards her. Grace heard a sob coming from Brenda.
Without thinking Grace barged into the room. “Brenda, are you all right? Have you fallen?”
Something small prodded into Grace’s back. She looked over her shoulder, and down.
Tom smiled at her, it wasn’t a friendly smile. “Brenda hasn’t fallen, she’s doing a reading for me. I’m glad you came round, Grace, I’ve got a lot of questions for you.”
Mae stood at Grace’s side, a grim expression on her face. “Do whatever he says, he’s got a gun.”
Chapter 22
Tom pushed the gun harder into Grace’s back and pushed her towards the sofa.
“Sit,” he ordered. He pointed the gun at Brenda and walked around to face her. “Keep your hand steady, you can’t give me an accurate reading with your hands shaking like that.”
Brenda looked over her shoulder at Grace, tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry to get you involved.”
Tom sneered. “She got herself involved. She was there at the auction, bidding against me. I followed you back to that shop of yours. That got me wondering what you wanted with the items in the unit. Then you turned up here asking for Mae. I knew her regulars, you weren’t one of them. You were looking for the pendulum, weren’t you? What did you want with it?”
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know anything about a pendulum. I bid on that locker because I liked the curtains.”
“Liar!” Tom spat waving his gun at her. “It doesn’t matter now, I’ve got the pendulum. Get on with it Brenda, it can’t be that hard.”
Mae stood in front of Brenda and saw what she was doing. Mae said, “There are pieces of paper with numbers on placed on the floor, they look like lottery numbers. The childhood memory box is at Brenda’s side, she must have taken it down from the wardrobe.”
Brenda began to cry. “I can’t do it, I don’t know how to.”
Grace said, “Was it worth murdering Mae for? Pushing her down the steps like that?”
Brenda cried out, “You killed my sister?”
Tom shrugged. “I was in a bad mood that day. Why didn’t she just do another reading for me? It only took her ten minutes, it was hardly work for her. I needed her to do it, my friends at work thought I’d lost my magic touch, there was talk of someone else doing the lottery. I couldn’t let that happen, that’s the only reason anyone ever spoke to me. It was her own fault, selfish cow.”
“Why did you kill Autumn Rose? What did she do wrong to you?”
Tom smirked. “Well worked out. I did consider asking her for the winning lottery numbers but she never gave me chance. She started wittering on about a book I needed to buy and to see a doctor before I bought a certain type of medicine. I could tell she was a fake. The way she kept moving that eye shaped necklace gave her away, she made sure it was always facing forwards. I soon worked out that it was some sort of recording device. I had great pleasure ripping that from her neck.”
“Did you really have to kill her?” Grace asked.
Tom’s eyes glazed for a moment. Then his mouth corners turned upwards. He let out a laugh. “I actually enjoyed it! It made me feel powerful, it made me feel ... tall. Anyway, she deserved it, she was a fake. I tried getting readings with other fortune tellers but they wouldn’t help me, they’re all fake. Except her.” He indicated towards the trembling Brenda. “Stop shaking and get on with it.”
“You can’t keep us at gunpoint forever. This is madness, you won’t get away with it,” Grace said.
Tom nodded. “I will. I’ve got away with two murders.”
Grace said, “How did you know about the storage unit? Why were you looking in there?”
He sighed and said, “Is this the part where I have to tell you how my plan played out? This isn’t Scooby Doo.”
“Did you hear something when Mae fell down the stairs? Like something falling out?” Grace asked.
Tom’s eyes narrowed. “I did hear something, I thought it was the pendulum. I had a quick look in Mae’s clothes but couldn’t find it. I had to run before anyone found me. When I thought about it later I thought it could have rolled into those old curtains. How do you know about things falling out?”
Grace didn’t comment on that. “And the unit? Did you follow Autumn Rose when she took them away?”
“Might have.”
“But how did the unit come up for sale? Autumn Rose must have stopped paying the rental fee for some reason. Ha! I bet you intercepted her post, found a letter from the storage unit and got in touch with them on Autumn Rose’s behalf! You then said you couldn’t afford to pay for the unit anymore. That’s it, isn’t it?”
Tom gave Grace a cold look. “What are you? Some sort of psychic? Or just a freak? If your psychic powers are so good tell me what’s going to happen next.” He pulled out a slip of paper. “These are last weeks’ winning numbers. Brenda is working out what they are. If she gets them right I know she’s got the same talent as Mae.”
Grace swallowed. “And if she gets them wrong?”
Tom held the gun out in an obvious gesture. “Then I shoot her.”
Chapter 23
Mae and Brenda let out a scream at the same time.
Grace forced herself to remain calm. A plan was formulating in her mind. Was she brave enough to do it?
She had to.
She held up a hand and said, “I’ll do it, I’m the one with the real talent.”
“Wh
at? You haven’t any talent, you just got lucky with all that stuff about the unit,” Tom said.
Grace let out a big dramatic sigh. “Okay, you’ve forced my hand. Sorry, Auntie Brenda, I knew we were trying to keep it a secret.”
Tom frowned. “Auntie Brenda? What are you trying to say?”
“I’m Mae’s secret daughter. She gave me away when I was a baby. You were right about the pendulum, I was after it. Me and Auntie Brenda made contact a few years ago. You weren’t the only one that Mae did a pendulum reading for, she was really accurate with it and word about the pendulum spread. I’ve got friends in the fortune telling business, I had a client lined up for that pendulum ready to pay a good price. I didn’t owe my mum any favours, not after what she did for me.”
Grace paused. Had she gone too far? She thought her story sounded ridiculous and far-fetched. From the looks on Mae and Brenda’s faces they thought the same.
Tom waved his gun at her. “I knew it! I knew you were up to something. I knew that Mae and Brenda had fallen out and now I know why, it’s because she gave you up! Typical! So selfish. Get round here and do a reading. You might have a bit of Mae’s talent, we’ll soon find out.”
Grace stood up and then helped Brenda to her feet. Brenda tried to protest but Grace firmly and gently pushed her down on to the sofa.
Grace knelt down and confidently picked up the purple coloured pendulum. She shot a look at Mae hoping she’d understand.
Grace carefully went over every number. She forced the pendulum to circle when it came to a correct number.
It was easy with Mae calling out the right numbers, she read them from the paper that Tom was holding.
Tom’s eyes got wider and wider. In a voice full of awe he said, “Amazing! Even better than Mae.” He paused for a moment. “I’ll have to keep you locked up somewhere. Not sure where though. Get up, I’ve got some plastic ties in my bag.”
Grace didn’t move. She closed her eyes and said, “I can see next week’s numbers in my mind, clear as day, I don’t need the pendulum. Quick! They’re fading! Get a pen!”
The Last Reading (Storage Ghost Murders Book 1) Page 6