The Death Planner (Storage Ghost Murders Book 6) (9 page)

Chapter
21

Jenny
didn’t want to leave the building. She swooped around the room and called out,
“You come back here, Letty! Come back here and face the music, you coward!”

Grace
left the building and Jenny had no choice but to follow her. As they walked
down the street Jenny said, “You have to go back! You have to confront her!”

Grace
hissed from the corner of her mouth, “I can hardly pin her to the floor until
she confesses!”

“You
could try,” Jenny added.

Grace
gave a small shake of her head and whispered, “There’s something else we can
do.”

Grace
returned home and started up her laptop. Jenny sat at her side on the sofa and
said, “What are you looking for now?”

Grace
explained, “I helped a ghost a while back, he was called Archie.” She paused.
“Funnily enough, he was killed at a wedding too, his own wedding. Anyway, he
ran a security business and he showed me how to access certain security systems
that hotels have.”

Jenny
laughed. “Do you mean hack? You’re going to hack into these systems?”

Grace
smiled too. “I prefer to use the word ‘access’. It sounds friendlier. Once I’m
in the system I can check the CCTV footage. Right, it’s the King James’ Hotel
on the 19th of June 2010. Let’s have a look.”

Grace
looked through a few pages as she tried to locate the hotel’s security system.
She frowned and turned to Jenny. “They’re using a different system, I can’t get
into it.”

“Now
what?”

Grace
thought for a moment. “We need to link Letty to the hotel. It was a wedding,
people would have been taking photos. Ha!” She held up a hand. “Where would you
post wedding photos?”

“Facebook,
and Twitter. Are those still going? Or is there something new online?”

“No,
it’s mainly those two. Can you remember the name of the couple who were getting
married?”

“Their
names are in my files. Have a look in there.”

Grace’s
face screwed up. “Your files are in the cleaning cupboard at the shop. I don’t
really want to go there today. Do you think you could try and remember?”

Jenny
closed her eyes and rested back on the sofa. Grace decided it would be a good
time to make a cup of tea. She stood up and left Jenny to her thoughts.

Grace
made her way to the kitchen and switched the kettle on. She took her phone from
her pocket and reluctantly looked at the messages that she’d been avoiding.
There were three messages from Frankie. Grace took a deep breath before she
read them. She was half expecting Frankie to inform her that he’d moved out of
the shop and was now living with Beth.

Grace
read the messages. She smiled. There was no mention of Beth at all. Frankie had
sent her messages about what food and supplies he needed. Grace sent him a
reply informing him that she wasn’t an online delivery service and he could buy
his own soap, shampoo and bread.

A
few minutes later, Grace went back to the living room with a cup of tea in one
hand and a banana in the other. Jenny’s eyes were still closed. Grace sat down
and tucked into her banana.

She’d
just finished the last mouthful when Jenny sat bolt upright and declared,
“Edward Howes and Isobel Brown!”

“Are
you sure?” Grace said. She placed the banana skin in the bin at her side.

Jenny
nodded. “I can see their invitations clearly. They were a lovely couple to deal
with. Some couples make ridiculous demands but Edward and Isobel didn’t. I think
there was a request for a certain kind of food because one of the guests had an
allergy, I think. But other than that, I remember them being good customers.”

Grace
turned to her laptop again. “That’s great, thank you. It should be easy enough
to find them. There could even be video footage too.” Grace jumped as a cold
feeling shot through her arm.

Jenny
had her hand on Grace’s arm, her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “Oh, Grace!
That lovely couple! I must have ruined their wedding day!”

“You
didn’t ask to be murdered, I’m sure they would have understood. Would you mind
moving your arm please? I feel like I’m getting frostbite.”

“Sorry.”
Jenny moved closer to Grace and looked at the screen.

Grace
now felt like she was sitting near a cold breeze but didn’t feel she could ask
Jenny to move again. She tapped away at the screen and soon found something.
“Look, this profile page doesn’t belong to the bride or groom but, going by the
amount of photos, it must belong to a friend of theirs.”

Grace
scrolled down the page, and the next few pages. She could see the bride and
groom in the distance but whoever had taken the photos had concentrated more on
the guests at the wedding.

Jenny’s
hand shot out. “There! Look! I can see Letty, she’s dressed as a waitress. The
sneaky cow!”

Grace
zoomed in on the image. They saw a smiling Letty handing out cards to people as
they walked past the bar area. Her hair was blonde in the photos and she had
placed a false beauty mark on her cheek. But it was definitely her.

Grace
looked at some other photos. “Letty was certainly busy that night. I think I
can see you in this picture. You’ve got your back to the camera but I can see
your headset.”

Jenny
gave her a sad smile. “People made comments about it being old-fashioned but I
didn’t care.” She looked down at her lap. “Perhaps if I hadn’t have been
wearing it that night I wouldn’t have been murdered.”

Grace
pressed her lips together. She wasn’t going to point out that the murderer
would have found another way to kill her. She decided to change the subject.
“Shall we see if we can find Giles anywhere? Elsa said he’d booked a room for
them that night. He might have turned up at the wedding to talk to her.”

Jenny
looked up from her lap. “I’d almost forgotten about him! Yes, let’s have a look
and then you can track him down and confront him!”

“One
step at a time.” Grace looked through the images again. She saw a few photos
with Elsa on them.

Jenny
smiled. “Look how happy she looks. She loved being at these weddings. She was
helping out with the food at this one. As well as organising all the flowers of
course! I wouldn’t dare ask anyone else to deal with that.”

Grace
paused over a photo. “Look at this. Elsa’s talking to a man. You can’t see his
face properly but look at his body language. He’s got his hand on the small of
Elsa’s back. That’s rather an intimate gesture. Elsa’s smiling at him, but
she’s smiling in all the photos so it’s hard to tell if this smile is
different. Hang on a moment.” Grace zoomed in on the man’s hand. “It’s Giles. That’s
the same ring that I saw on Elsa’s visitor the other night. He was there at the
wedding.”

“Which
means he could be a suspect,” Jenny announced. “Why would he want to kill me?”

Grace
wasn’t listening. “Jenny, look at this photo. Elsa is talking to Letty. Letty
is handing her something but I don’t think it’s a business card.” Grace clicked
on the enlarge button. “Letty is handing Elsa a folded piece of paper. There
must be some sort of message on it.”

Jenny
gasped and her hands flew to her chest. “The couple! The couple that I saw in my
vision! It was Letty and Elsa. That’s why I was so upset. I saw them talking to
each other! Letty shouldn’t have been there, and she certainly shouldn’t have
been talking to my sister! What were they talking about? We have to find out.”

Grace
nodded. “I think we need to have another talk with Elsa. And I may have to tell
her why you’ve appeared to me.” Grace closed the page down. Just as it closed a
phrase caught her eye. Grace started to open the page again but her phone rang.

It
was a frantic-sounding Frankie. “Grace! You have to come down to the shop now!
It’s an emergency! Quick!”

He
rang off before Grace could reply. Grace stood up and, trying to ignore her
suddenly racing heart, said to Jenny, “Elsa will have to wait a while longer.”

Chapter
22

Grace
raced through the shop door and came to a breathless halt in front of Frankie
who was standing behind the shop counter. She took a moment to catch her
breath. “I got here as fast as I could! What’s wrong? What’s the emergency?”
Her eyes narrowed as she took in Frankie’s calm demeanour. “Is there really an
emergency? Or is this one of your jokes?”

Frankie
gave her a broad smile. “It is an emergency. Well, not so much an emergency as
a life-changing moment.” He cocked his head. “Is that the right expression?”

Grace
came round to his side of the counter and shoved him. “Tell me now!”

Frankie
held his hands up. “Calm down, you’ll scare the customers.”

Grace
quickly scanned the shop. The only customer was Mrs Smith at the far end of the
shop, and Grace knew from past experience that the elderly lady was partly
deaf.

Frankie
stood up straighter and held his head high. “I’m thinking of asking Beth to
marry me.”

Time
seemed to stand still for Grace. There was a funny whooshing sound in her ears
and her vision started to blur. The ground tilted to one side, she stumbled and
grabbed hold of the counter.

Frankie
was at her side in a moment. “Grace! Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen
a ghost!” His words sounded far away and muffled.

The
actual ghost in the room came to Grace’s other side. She didn’t seem concerned
over Grace’s health at all. Jenny’s eyes shone and she said, “A wedding! What a
celebration! There’s so much to plan. The food, the guests! Oh! What wonderful
news! I have so much work to do!” She clutched her clipboard tighter and
floated upwards.

Grace
took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Frankie led her to a nearby chair
and sat her down. “Grace, speak to me.”

Grace
waved a hand at him as if trying to say she was alright. Frankie knelt at her
side, concern etched on his face.

Grace
finally managed to speak. “I’m sorry about that, Frankie. It was the shock,
that’s all.”

“I
know. I was shocked myself when the idea came to me.” He laughed. “You know
what I’m like around women - so many women and not enough time.” His smile
faded. “But there’s something about Beth. I feel like I’ve been waiting for her
all my life. I don’t want to waste any more time. I know you’ve only met her
once but you do like her, don’t you?”

A
sudden malicious thought came to Grace. “What if I didn’t like her? Would you
still marry her?”

Frankie’s
face fell. “I … I’d have to think about it.”

The
malicious feelings just as suddenly disappeared. Grace looked at her brother
and said softly, “I do like her, Frankie, she seems lovely. But it doesn’t
matter what I think, if you feel it’s the right thing to do, then you go ahead
and do it.”

Relief
washed over Frankie’s face. “I’m so glad you said that. I’m not going to sell
the shop or anything. I’ll probably have to move out but I’ll never move away
from you, Grace. You don’t get off that easy.”

Grace
smiled at him. He did look happy. He deserved to be happy. She was feeling
jealous, that’s all. She patted him on the arm. “I’m truly happy for you. When
are you going to ask her? And where?”

Frankie
waved his arm around the shop. “I’m going to ask her here. She’s nipped out for
some lunch for us, she knows a specialist shop down the road that does organic
food. Whatever that is.”

“You
can’t ask her here! It’s not very romantic, is it?” Grace tried to stand up.
“Why don’t you take her out somewhere? To the park, or go for a drive, or
something like that. I’ll look after the shop.”

Frankie
pushed her back into her seat. “This place is perfect. I feel closer to Mum and
Dad here. I feel like they’re watching over us. Don’t you ever feel like
someone is watching over us?”

Grace
nodded, unable to speak. Pearl had just appeared behind Frankie and was looking
at him fondly. That was unusual for Pearl as she normally looked at Frankie
with a mixture of disgust and annoyance.

Frankie
carried on, “And you’re not looking after the shop again. I told you yesterday
that you were having the day off. Beth would kill me if I made you work again!”

Grace
gave him a grateful smile. Speaking of someone killing someone else … She did
have her own work to do. She said to Frankie, “Why did you want me to come
 
here? You could have asked her, and then
told me later.”

“Because
I wanted you to be the first to know. I know you’re my sister but you’re also
my friend. I thought you knew that.”

Pearl’s
voice was choked as she waved a hand through Frankie and declared, “Why don’t
you tell her that more often, you idiot-boy!”

Grace’s
words refused to come out again. She blinked away a tear and patted Frankie’s
arm again.

He
gave her a little shove and grinned. “Stop blubbering. You know how awful you
look when you start crying.” He pulled her to her feet with a loud grunt.
“Bloody hell, Grace! Lay off the cakes will you!”

Grace
wiped her tears away. “Are you going to ask her straight away? You’d better get
rid of Mrs Smith before you do.”

Frankie
looked over at the old lady and waved at her. “She can stay. I doubt she’ll
hear us.” He patted his pocket. “Do you want to see the ring?”

Grace’s
eyes widened. “You’ve got a ring? Already?”

Frankie
gave her a sheepish look. “I bought it the same day that I met Beth. It was
just a hunch.”

“I
hope you didn’t buy it from the same jewellers where she works!”

“Give
me some credit, I’m not totally stupid.”

Pearl
made a humph kind of noise and folded her arms.

Frankie
said, “Although, when I was in her shop, I did ask Beth what sort of ring she’d
like if she ever got married.”

Grace
couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Grace,
one more thing before you go,” Frankie said.

“Yes?”

“Put
the kettle on. Ta.” Frankie winked at her and moved back to the counter where
Mrs Smith was waving a vase at him.

Grace
would normally have told him where to put the kettle but she wanted to speak to
Pearl. Once in the kitchen, Grace turned to Pearl and prepared to bring her up
to date.

Pearl
held her hand up to silence Grace. She looked up towards the ceiling. “What the
hell is that young woman doing?”

Grace
looked up. Jenny was flying round and round the ceiling, muttering something
over and over to herself.

Pearl
cupped her hand to the side of her mouth and yelled, “Oi! Stop doing that! Get
yourself down here! Right now!”

Jenny
flew down and stopped inches away from the ground. She was writing frantically
on her clipboard. There was a manic look in her eyes as she recited, “Wedding!
Food! Guests! Wedding! Food! Guests!”

“Jenny,
calm down,” Grace said.

Jenny
moved even closer. Her hand was a blur as she continued to write. “Wedding!
Food! Guests! Wedding! Food!” She shimmered and a blood-curdling scream erupted
from her.

Pearl
dashed forward and flung her arms around Jenny. They both disappeared.