The Last Reading (Storage Ghost Murders Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 13

There
was a sudden hush in the hall, broken only by the agonised sobs coming from
Brenda. Grace gave an embarrassed smile and shrugged at the people that were
staring at her. She said, “She’s feeling my pain, sorry.”

A
woman nodded vigorously. “She’s really good that one. Enjoy your reading.”

Brenda’s
sobs abated. Grace handed her a tissue. Brenda wiped her eyes and tried to
smile at Grace.

“I’m
so sorry for that. Tell Mae I’m sorry.”

“She
can hear you. Do you want to tell me everything? Tell me why you need to say
sorry to Mae?”

Grace
shot a glance at the CD player. Was it recording? If Brenda was about to
confess to a murder shouldn’t she try and get a recorded confession? How? She
could hardly ask Brenda to press ‘Record’.

Brenda
took a deep sigh and rested her hands on the table. She had such a sad smile on
her face that Grace felt her previous dislike of her lessening.

Brenda
began. “I never agreed with Mae doing readings, I know now that I was jealous.
I had some insights to people too, I saw visions of their future but I kept it
to myself. I didn’t want people to befriend me just so they could get
information from me. Mae didn’t care, she said she wanted to help people. I
wasn’t that soft. The more popular she became, the more jealousy and resentment
I built up. Oh, I’m so ashamed. The insults I used to throw at her.”

Grace
repeated what Mae had just said. “Mae never hated you, no matter how bad things
got between you. She never stopped loving you.”

Brenda
waved a hand at Grace. “Stop, you’ll make me cry again. Things came to a head
when she gave a reading to Neil, my late husband. He said that she gave him
some business advice that he had to follow.”

“I
never!” Mae exploded.

“When
the business deals went wrong Neil blamed Mae, he said I was never to speak to
her again. Things got worse for Neil, he owed money everywhere, we ended up
going bankrupt. He committed suicide. He left a note. He blamed Mae for
everything, he said she’d even put a curse on him.”

Mae
shook her head vehemently. “His death wasn’t my fault.”

Brenda
looked directly at Grace. “The thing is, I knew it wasn’t Mae’s fault. I know
what she told him, I don’t know how. I must have linked into our twin
telepathy, it was quite strong when we were young. I knew Neil was lying but I
wanted things to go wrong for him so that I could blame Mae.” She looked away.
“Mae got the blame for his death, the rest of my family never spoke to her
again, even our parents. It was all my fault, I could have stopped it and told
everyone the truth. I wonder if I could even have stopped Neil from killing
himself.”

Grace
looked over at Mae and said, “Mae never told me about her family not speaking
to her.”

Mae
gave a shrug, Grace saw through the pretence of not caring.

Brenda
said, “No matter how much I wanted to I couldn’t bring myself to speak to Mae.
She’d see the truth as soon as she looked at me. Then she died and left me the
house.”

She
gave a mirthless laugh and waved a hand over the table. “I never thought I’d
end up like this. I had every intention of selling her house. I was there one
morning when this distraught woman came in. She was in tears and wanted a
reading immediately. I had a feeling that I could help her. I dressed up in
Mae’s clothes, even used her make-up and I took these tarot cards that I found
in the wardrobe. I did help the woman. I’m sure I wasn’t as good as Mae but the
woman was satisfied. She left the house smiling. It made me feel good, I hadn’t
felt like that for years.”

 “Mae’s
glad that you did that reading, she doesn’t mind about the clothes, she says
they look better on you.”

Brenda
gave her a genuine smile. “Thank you. I was going to stop but then more people
turned up. I told them Mae was dead and I was her twin sister. They didn’t
care, they wanted a reading. People like to get a bit of hope in desperate
times. I enjoyed the readings and the money came in useful!  I started doing
these church fairs a few months ago. I call myself June Moonshine, I hope Mae
doesn’t mind.”

“She
doesn’t, she says she’s very proud of you. There’s one thing I need to ask, if
you don’t mind, please don’t take offence.”

“Go
on.”

“Where
were you when Mae died?”

Brenda
frowned. “I was at my cleaning job. I’ve given that up now. Why are you asking?
It sounds like the sort of question you ask someone when ...” Brenda’s eyes
widened. “You don’t think Mae was murdered, do you?”

Grace
made shushing motions with her hands.

“You
do, don’t you? And you thought it was me?” Brenda stopped and nodded to
herself. “That’s a fair assumption. Who do you think did it?”

“I
don’t know. Can I come over to your house later to discuss it? You might be
able to give me more information about Mae’s contacts.”

A
huge cheer went up followed by loud applause.

“What’s
that?” Grace asked looking behind her.

Brenda
folded her arms and gave a tut of disgust. “That’s Autumn Rose. The new star.
She sits at Mae’s table now. I don’t like her, and I don’t trust her.”

Chapter 14

Grace
told Brenda that she would see her later that evening. She left the table and
walked over to where the noise was coming from.

Mae
had beaten her to it. She was standing at her old table, arms tightly folded, a
look of disgust on her face. She looked like Brenda.

Mae
nodded towards a young woman who was slowly approaching the table. “Look at
her! Acting like some sort of celebrity!”

Grace
looked closer at the young woman. She had long blond hair draped over her
shoulders. Her see-through blouse showed a bright purple bra. Her jeans looked
as if they’d been sprayed on along with her fake tan. Perfect white teeth
showed as the woman nodded  graciously at a line of people waiting by her
table. Some of the people were fanning themselves with church programmes as if
seeing this woman in the flesh was too much.

“Autumn
Rose! I love you!” a hysterical voice cried out.

Autumn
Rose nodded and said, “That love is returned a thousand fold to you, my
friend.”

Grace
could have sworn that the line of people actually swooned as one.

It
was quite a show.

Mae
wasn’t happy. “Look at her, sitting at my table, using my cloth. And why is she
showing everyone her bosom? Ought to cover herself up, this isn’t a nightclub.”

Grace
held in a smile. Mae was starting to sound like Pearl.

A 
burly security man appeared and told the line to move back. Then he pulled a
chair out for Autumn Rose. She smiled at him, touched his arm and said, “Thank
you, my friend, I appreciate your services.” She sat down, still smiling
regally.

The
security guard gave a gruff cough and muttered, “It’s all right. Are you ready
for the first one?”

Autumn
Rose pulled more silken hair over her shoulders. She took a deep breath and
nodded.

Grace
noticed the necklace that she was wearing. It was oval with a black circle in
the middle, it looked like an eye. Grace shivered, she didn’t like jewellery
like that.

The
person at the front of the queue stepped forward reverently, an eager look on
her face.

Autumn
Rose treated her to a full toothed smile, it was very Hollywood.  “My friend,
do sit down.” Autumn Rose looked at a list an the side on the table. “Are you
Lindsey Littlewood?”

The
woman nodded and sat down.

Autumn
Rose gave her a wise smile. “I’ve been waiting for you, Lindsey. I’ve got a lot
to tell you. First, that holiday that you’ve been planning to Greece?”

Lindsey
gasped. “How did you know about that? I haven’t even told my boyfriend yet.”

The
queue had moved closer, some people were leaning in with their heads to one
side.

It’s
hardly private, Grace thought. She wouldn’t want everyone knowing her business.

Autumn
Rose seemed to be thinking the same thing. She gestured to the security guard
and waved an open hand to the queue.

The
guard strode forward. “Everyone back, you’ll get your turn. Miss Rose needs
space. Move back or I’ll throw you out!”

The
queue immediately moved back.

Grace
heard Mae tutting. “Outrageous! Treating people like that. And why isn’t she
using any cards? There’s something fishy going on here.”

The
guard grabbed Grace’s arm. “No pushing in, get to the back.”

“I
wasn’t pushing in!” Grace protested.

The
guard didn’t listen, he was on a mission. He pulled Grace towards the back of
the queue.

“No!”
Grace called out. “Get your hands off me! I’m not here to see Autumn Rose.”

There
was a sudden hush – again. Grace didn’t care. She wasn’t going to be shoved
around.

The
guard let go. He had the decency to look embarrassed. “Sorry, I’m just doing my
job.”

He
walked swiftly back towards Autumn Rose’s table.

“You
told him!”

Grace
looked at the queue. Who had said that? That boy? Hang on, wasn’t that the
postman that she’d seen at Mae’s house yesterday? She almost didn’t recognise
him out of his uniform.

He
gave her a little wave. “It’s me, the postman. You decided to come, it’s great,
isn’t it?”

Grace
took a careful step closer to him. She didn’t want the queue to think she was
pushing in. She said, “What’s going on? What’s the deal with Autumn Rose? How
long have you been queuing here?”

The
postman’s smile grew bigger. “She’s amazing. I’ve heard so much about her. I’ve
been queuing here since the doors opened but I’ve been on the waiting list for
5 months!”

“Waiting
list? I thought you just turned up.”

The
postman took a sharp intake of breath. “Not for Autumn Rose. You go on her
waiting list, you have to put your full name and address on her list, she won’t
let just anyone talk to her.”

Grace’s
eyes narrowed. Something wasn’t adding up. She said, “How much does she
charge?”

“It’s
only £50 and you get a full ten minutes,” the postman said this with pride as
if he was getting a bargain.

“Blimey,”
Grace muttered. She had another question for him but something out of the
corner of her eye distracted her.

She
turned her head to see Mae waving wildly.

Grace
walked over to her and gave her a questioning look.

Mae
said, “I knew there was something funny going on. You won’t believe this!”

Chapter 15

Realising
they couldn’t talk in front of everyone, Grace headed towards a door that had a
stair sign on it. Mae followed her.

Grace
pushed the door open and walked through. She came to an abrupt stop, the door
swung closed behind her.

“Grace,
what is it? Your face has gone a funny colour.”

Grace
pointed at the floor in front of her. “This is where you died. I didn’t
realise, I think I pushed it to the back of my mind.”

Mae
nodded. “That’s in the past now. Oh look, they’ve got new curtains, very
fancy.”

Grace
couldn’t take her eyes away from the area that she’d seen in the vision. The
image of Mae’s crumpled body came afresh to her mind. Her eyes smarted, she
quickly blinked. She felt a coldness on her arm, Mae was resting her hand there
and smiling gently at her.

“Grace,
wait until you hear this. When Autumn Rose was giving her reading, or whatever
it was that she was doing, I went closer to her body. I think I almost went
inside.”

Grace
wrinkled her nose.

“I
know. But anyway I could hear a voice.”

“What
kind of voice? A voice in her head from some sort of spirit guide?”

Mae
shook her head. “I could hear the voice coming from an earpiece stuck inside
her ear! It’s hidden by her hair. I knew something funny was going on.”

“What
was the voice saying? Was it male or female?”

“Male.
He was giving Autumn Rose details about the person in front of her. Telling her
about the person’s friends, who was going on holiday, who had fallen out with
each other. She told that Lindsey woman to book that holiday she’d been
considering, Autumn Rose somehow knew that Lindsey had been looking at one. How
would someone know all that from a name? I noticed she had a list of customers
on her table.”

Grace
thought for a moment. Something the postman had told her came to mind. “People
have to sign up, they give details about themselves. What if Autumn Rose and
this man who is talking to her looked these people up online before today?
There’s so much online about everyone these days. I wonder if that’s what
they’re doing?”

“But
how would they know what holiday someone had been looking at? I don’t understand
all this Internet stuff. Why do people have the urge to tell everyone what they
had for lunch.”

Grace
said, “I watched a programme where someone hacked into someone’s computer just
from their email, they could read all their messages without the original
person knowing. They could even see what pages the person had been browsing, I
don’t really understand it myself. I wonder if that eye necklace that Autumn
Rose wears contains a hidden camera? They could make sure they’ve got the right
person.”

Mae
waved her hand. “I don’t think they can make cameras that small. Can they? Your
face has gone a funny colour again.”

Grace’s
chest felt tighter. She didn’t want to voice her thoughts but she had to. “What
if Autumn Rose was the one that killed you?”

“But
why would she?”

“To
get your table, get your customers?” Grace suggested.

Mae
frowned, “Do you really think she would?”

“She’s
charging £50 for ten minutes with each customer, she’s making a fortune.
Without telling anyone’s real fortune.”

Mae
shook her head. “I just don’t know. Can you question her?”

“I
can’t get anywhere near her. I wonder where her accomplice is? Maybe he’s
somewhere in this church. We could find him and maybe get closer,” Grace said
hopefully.

Mae
said, “We’ve nothing else to go on. There’s a cafe upstairs, it overlooks the
hall, we can spy on everyone.”

“And
I can get a cup of tea,” Grace said.

“They
do a lovely coffee and walnut cake here,” Mae said. She sighed. “That’s
something I miss about having passed over.”

Grace
smiled at her. “I will have a piece of cake on your behalf.”

Mae
laughed. “Your kindness knows no bounds! The cafe’s just up the stairs, on the
left. Watch these steps, they can be slippery. One of these days someone will
break ...”

Mae
stopped talking and stared at Grace. “I was just about to say break their
necks!” Mae burst out laughing. Grace couldn’t help but join in. It took her
mind off Autumn Rose and her possible murderous side.

Despite
the light moment Grace still felt a chill as she walked up the steps.