“Let me try,” Peggy offered. She was very gentle and absolutely no use. The rings stayed on my finger.
“I’ll do it,” Carol stepped forward and almost pulled my fingers off. But still, the rings didn’t move.
The man in the leather coat narrowed his eyes. Then he grinned. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a knife.
Peggy screamed. Carol ran behind the counter. I nearly had an embarrassing accident.
“I’ll just have to cut your finger off then, won’t I?” he sneered.
Someone else appeared in the shop.
It was Frank. He stood at the side of the man and said, “I know him! This is the man who leant me the money at the casino to have a ‘final bet’. I told him I didn’t want to gamble anymore but he insisted. And when I lost the money he came to the house and threatened me! He said if I didn’t pay he would hurt Peggy! I was so scared.”
I looked from Frank to the man. “You went to Frank’s house, didn’t you?”
The man rubbed his nose, “I might have.”
“And you threatened him. You threatened an old man,” I went on, my voice rising.
“So? He owed me money,” the man said.
Frank clutched his chest and cried out, “Kate! This is how I died! This man scared me so much that my heart stopped. He stood there and watched me die!”
Chapter 14
My eyes widened. I moved closer to the man. I didn’t care that he had a knife pointed at me.
“You killed Frank!” I prodded his chest. “You watched him die!”
The man looked at the floor and muttered, “He owed me money.”
He didn’t see Peggy’s face getting redder. He didn’t see how she quickly pushed up her coat sleeves. But he certainly felt the first hit of her handbag against his head.
“You killed my Frank!” Peggy screamed and she launched into a full attack on the man. The knife fell on the floor. I quickly kicked it under a nearby set of drawers. Frank was right about Peggy being like a firecracker.
Carol and I watched as Peggy laid into the man. She bashed him over and over with her bag. I was impressed with her energy. We were ready to help Peggy, if needed. It wasn’t a fair fight, the man didn’t stand a chance.
After a while Peggy got tired and stopped hitting the man. He took the opportunity to run towards the door and out of the shop.
As he went out he shouted, “I’m coming back for my money. And I won’t be on my own!”
I got Peggy a chair as she looked exhausted. Carol went into the kitchen to make us all strong tea.
“I right enjoyed that,” Peggy said. “Serves him right. I know he’ll be back though. I’m going to have to sell the rings. Can you try and take them off again?”
I pulled the rings, they came off easily. I handed them to Peggy. She put them in her handbag.
Frank was still in the shop. He was walking up and down and muttering to himself, “The paper! Where did I put it? I need the paper!”
Peggy said, “Is Frank here now? Did he tell you about that man?”
I nodded and told her that he was now going on about some paper.
“Does he want me to buy a newspaper?” Peggy asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
Frank was getting more irate. Then he stopped pacing and said, “Yes! That’s it!”
He walked behind the counter and the next thing we saw was my handbag hurtling through the air!
The bag landed in front of us. All the contents, including personal items spilled out. I quickly picked things up and tried to put them back in my bag.
Frank was practically jumping up and down. “The cards! Look inside the cards!” he yelled at me.
I’d forgotten about the cards that I’d put in my bag. I was going to give them back to Peggy anyway so I handed them over to her.
Peggy smiled, “Thank you. I didn’t want to throw them away. I was just so mad with Frank.”
“Look inside! Look inside!” Frank shouted in my ear.
“Ouch!” I said. “No need to shout, I’ll tell her.”
I told Peggy what Frank had said.
Her cheeks went red, “I’d rather do that at home. There are some private messages in here.”
Frank looked liked he was about to explode.
“Frank wants you to look now. There might be something important inside one of them,” I said.
I pulled a chair up next to Peggy whilst she went through the cards.
I waited patiently as she went through each card. There were no hidden papers stuck inside any of them. The hopeful look on Frank’s face died away.
Peggy read the last card.
Still nothing.
Peggy put the cards together and got ready to put them in her bag.
“What’s that?” I spotted some writing on the back of one of the cards.
Peggy turned it over. She read the words written in pencil, “Trinity Mutual Life Insurance.”
I pointed to some numbers. “That looks like a policy number. Did Frank have a life insurance policy?”
“I don’t know, he never mentioned anything,” Peggy said.
I looked up at Frank. He was grinning broadly.
“I remember now! I did have a policy. I took it out when we first got married. I wanted to make sure that Peggy would be okay if something happened to me.”
I told Peggy what Frank had said.
She grabbed my hand and smiled, “Oh! What good news!”
“What’s good news?” Carol said as she walked towards us with a tray of cups.
“It’s good news about Trinity Mutual Life Insurance,” I said.
Carol put the tray down on a table. “I don’t see how any news about that company can be good. They went out of business years ago.”
Chapter 15
Peggy went so pale that I thought she was going to faint. I put extra sugar in her tea and handed it to her. She sipped it slowly.
“I thought my money problems were over for a moment,” she said sadly. “I will have to sell my rings after all.”
I noticed that Frank had gone.
I told Carol to look after Peggy for a while. I stood up and walked into the back room. Something was bothering me. It was about that life insurance company. I’d heard something years back but I couldn’t quite remember what. I switched on the computer, and once it had warmed up, I did some research.
I found some interesting information but I didn’t know if it would help Peggy.
I went back into the shop and over to the counter. Carol came over to join me.
She whispered, “I can’t look after her for much longer. You know I’m not good with emotions.”
I told Carol what I’d discovered. Her eyes lit up and she said, “ I know where to look.”
Carol picked up Frank’s papers and was soon looking at bank statements.
Her eyes scanned the documents. Her finger pointed to some numbers.
“That might be what we’re looking for,” she said. She checked some more statements and nodded.
I took the statements over to Peggy. I sat next to her.
“I think we might have good news after all. That life insurance company was taken over by a bank. We’ve checked Frank’s statements and it seems he’s been paying premiums for a life policy,” I said.
Peggy asked, “Which bank? Do you think the policy might be worth something?”
I told her the name of the bank.
“That one over the road? Really? What do we do now?” Peggy asked. Tears were forming in her old eyes. I think she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry again.
I stood up and helped Peggy to her feet.
“We’re going over right now to find out,” I said. I called over to Carol, “And you’re coming with us.”
“Why?” Carol scowled.
“They might start talking about terms and conditions and you’re good at arguing with people,” I said.
Carol stood up straighter, “Yes, that’s true. And yo
u’re useless at that. I’ll get my coat.”
“By the way,” I said to Peggy, “I’m going to phone the police later about that man who threatened you. We’ve got his knife as evidence.”
We locked the shop up and took the short walk over the road to the bank.
Chapter 16
Later that night I was alone in my house. Emily was staying over at her dad’s so I opened a bottle of wine.
I sat down on the settee and put my glass of wine on the table at the side. I wasn’t alone for long.
“Hello, Kate, love,” Rose said. She was sitting next to me. “How did your first ghost helping job go? I tried to follow you around but I’m still getting used to this being dead lark. I can’t control where I go.”
I told Rose all about Frank and Peggy.
“And do you think you’ll be able to help any more ghosts? Don’t worry if you can’t. I’ll sort something out,” Rose said.
I thought about the huge smile on Peggy’s face when we found out that the policy was valid and that it was worth thousands. More than enough to pay off Frank’s debts, and much more left over for Peggy so that she never had to worry about money again.
“I didn’t think the bank were going to help us,” I told Rose. “They went on about needing proof of ID and the death certificate. I’m glad we took Carol with us, she really shouted at them and demanded to see the manger.”
Rose laughed, “She’s a grumpy bugger but she’s got a good heart. It’s hidden deeply away though. It took me years to find it!”
“When we were in the bank, and we found out about the money, Frank appeared. He was so pleased that he started to glow, like a white outline at first, then all over. Does that happen when people are ready to move on to that better place that you told me about?” I asked.
“Yes. It means that Frank didn’t need any more help.” Rose said. “Anyway, you haven’t answered my question. Will you help more ghosts?”
I thought about the very best part of my day. When we knew for sure that the money situation had been sorted out, and after Frank had said a loving goodbye to Peggy, Peggy had turned to me and said, “Thank you for all you’ve done. If it wasn’t for you I would have lost my precious rings forever.”
Then she took the rings out of her handbag and put them proudly on her finger.
I still had a warm happy feeling in my tummy about that.
I smiled at Rose and said, “Yes, I’ll help. But I’ve no idea what I’m doing.”
“You’ll learn as you go along. That’s what I did. And I’ll try to appear whenever I can,” Rose promised.
“Don’t you want to move on? To that better place?” I asked.
Rose frowned and said, “I’m not supposed to move on just yet. I need to stay here and protect you.”
“Protect me against what?” I exclaimed.
Rose waved her hand dismissively, “Maybe protect isn’t the right word. Guide is a better word. Forget I said protect.”
I picked up my glass and took a big drink. I’m not sure I could forget.
“There are plenty of ghosts waiting for your help. You could help someone tomorrow,” Rose suggested.
I put my glass down, “I can’t tomorrow, I’m going to a funeral.”
Rose smiled, “I love a good funeral. I might come along. Whose is it? Anyone I know?”
I sighed. The warm feeling in my tummy had gone. “It’s your funeral,” I said gently.
Rose stopped smiling, “Then I’ll definitely be there.”
About the author
I live in a town in the north of England. On the high street are about 7 charity shops. They always have lovely window displays enticing you to enter. Quite often I have looked at the things in the windows and wondered who they belonged to, and why they have given them away. I also wondered what would happen if there were ghosts attached to some items. For a while I thought about the possible stories – and then I eventually wrote them down!
I set the stories in a second hand shop, rather than a charity shop, as it would give characters the opportunity to sell items they don’t want, or need, anymore.
I still look in the charity shop windows, it’s amazing the things that people donate.
The second book in this series is ‘The Lost Baby’:
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The third book is ‘The Last Laugh’:
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Kind regards
Gillian
SECOND HAND GHOSTS
THE FINAL BET
By
GILLIAN LARKIN
KINDLE EDITION
Published by Gillian Larkin on Kindle
Copyright 2013 by Gillian Larkin
Cover illustration by VectorStock.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, electronically or mechanical without permission from the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
About the author
Copyright
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