Daisy's Chain: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 5) (4 page)

Chapter 12

Grace’s legs felt
weak. She watched Daisy being dragged through the nightclub.

The vision faded
and Grace found herself back in her own kitchen. She collapsed onto a chair.
She put her head in her hands and waited for the dizzy feeling to go.

“I saw
everything.”

Grace looked up.
Mr Manville was sitting opposite her. His face looked even paler than before.
The black cloud that surrounded him had gone.

“I saw
everything.” He repeated in a level tone. “I saw what that low life did to my
daughter. I saw his odious friends egging him on. I saw that creature lead her
away.” He suddenly banged on the table. “How could that monster do that to my
little girl? Why wasn’t I there to protect her?”

Tears rolled down
Grace’s cheeks. “I could feel her confusion as the drink took effect. I could
feel her fear. Why would anyone do that to another person?”

Mr Manville stood
up and began to pace the kitchen, his fists were clenched at his side.

Grace wiped the
tears away. “What happened? Did Daisy tell you about… well, it was an attack,
wasn’t it? Did you tell the police?”

Mr Manville
stopped pacing. He had his back to Grace, she saw his shoulders slump.

He turned to face
her. Sadness dimmed his eyes, Grace’s heart felt heavier. He said, “We were due
to meet her the next day at university but she phoned and said she wasn’t well.
I actually joked about her having a hangover, I knew she wasn’t a big drinker.
I remember that she went quiet at that, she’d usually laugh too. I didn’t think
anything of it. We didn’t have time to meet before she went back to her studies
for her third year. She normally comes home during the holidays but she said
she’d stay with a friend and catch up on her work, I was so proud of her work
ethic. I can see now that she was avoiding us.”

“Didn’t she tell
anyone? Not even her friends? She can’t have kept that to herself.”

Mr Manville
shrugged. He sat back down at the table and looked down at his hands. “She’s
the type to do that, thinking she can deal with things herself, not wanting to
trouble anyone.”

Grace could tell
there was more to this story. “Did you ever find out about the attack?”

He looked up at
her and sighed. “Oh, Grace, I’m so ashamed. Try to understand, I didn’t know
about the attack.”

“What happened?”
Grace prompted.

“We hadn’t heard
from her in a while. She was due home at Christmas but then made up some excuse
about not coming home, I can’t even remember the excuse now. June said
something was wrong and insisted on us driving up to see her, to give her a
surprise. It was us who got the surprise.”

Grace’s stomach
flipped as she guessed what was coming next.

Mr Manville said,
“She opened the door and just as we were about to shout ‘Surprise!’ we saw it.
Her pregnant body. The wind was knocked right out of me. June couldn’t say
anything, she just stood there in shock. I’m ashamed to say that I lost my
temper. You might not believe me after the way I’ve acted today but I seldom
lost my temper, I was so calm. But the thought of my little girl standing there
with …”

He put his head
down and tried to calm himself.

“Did she try to
explain? Did it happen on the night that she was drugged?” Grace asked.

Mr Manville
looked up. “I never gave her chance to explain. She said it was a one night
stand, she didn’t know the father’s name. I was furious. After all we’d done
for her. Daisy came to us late in life, we gave her everything and more. I felt
so betrayed at what she’d done, like she’d thrown all our kindness back in our
faces.”

“Didn’t you find
out later? Didn’t you calm down?”

He shook his
head. “I was too hurt. I told her she was dead to us and to never contact us
again. I stormed away and ordered June to do the same.”

“You can’t have
left it like that? She’s your daughter, she needed your help.” Grace’s voice was
beginning to rise.

“I returned her
letters. I put the phone down on her. I forced June to do the same. After a
while she stopped trying to contact us. But there was one final letter.” He
stopped talking and blinked a few times. “June read the letter, it said we had
a grandson. Daisy said she was sorry for upsetting us and causing us shame. She
wanted to return something to me.” His voice broke as he said, “It was the
necklace.”

Grace started
crying. It was too sad, too much to bear, that poor girl.

Chapter 13

No one spoke for
a while. Grace was lost in her own thoughts, she presumed Mr Manville was too.

Finally, she
said, “There must be something we can do. You mentioned your wife when we first
met, you said she had to make a decision. Can you remember what it is? Has it
something to do with Daisy?”

Mr Manville
looked towards the window. “I can remember now but you won’t want to hear it. I
don’t even want to say it, not now that I know what happened to Daisy.”

“If I’m going to
help you have to tell me everything, no matter how painful.”

He brought his
attention back to Grace. “Okay, but try to bear in mind how angry I was. I felt
that Daisy had betrayed me and my anger overtook me, it made me unreasonable, I
wouldn’t listen to anyone. I told you that Daisy tried to contact us several
times. I wouldn’t allow June to talk to her. June was heartbroken but I didn’t
care. I told June that if she spoke to Daisy that would mean that she was
betraying me too. I was awful to her but being the lovely woman that she is she
listened to me and did as I asked, well, ordered.”

“You sound an
awful man,” Grace said with a small smile.

“I was awful, I
am awful. I can’t remember how and when I died, and I don’t know how long I was
in that locker. All I know is that I felt overwhelming rage that I was no
longer alive to control June. I knew that she’d weaken when I’d gone, I knew
that she would contact Daisy. I had this feeling that Daisy had sent a letter
to June recently, maybe after my death. June hadn’t replied yet, she was torn
about what to do. That was the decision she was trying to make.”

“And you wanted
me to find June and convince her not to contact Daisy? You wanted me to became
part of your hate campaign?” Grace’s voice rose again. She knew there was
something untrustworthy about this man.

Mr Manville
looked down at the table. In a quiet voice he said, “I’m more ashamed than
you’d ever know. You can’t hate me more than I hate myself. I allowed anger to
take over me, to cloud my judgment. Haven’t you ever been so overcome with
emotion that you do things out of character?”

He looked up at
her. Grace was tempted to say no just to make him feel worse. But she couldn’t.
She said, “When my parents died I was overcome with grief, I wouldn’t talk to
anyone, not even my brother. I was ready to give up on life, I was ready to
die.”

“See, we all do
things that we regret. Mine is much, much worse than yours, I admit that. But
can’t you help me, Grace? Can’t you try to make things right between Daisy and
June? You could go and talk to June.”

“Is that what you
want? Truthfully? I don’t want to get there and you use force to make me do something
I don’t want to.”

“I promise. I want
to make amends. Can we go now? I want everything to be sorted out as quickly as
possible.”

Grace stood up.
She thought about Daisy in the nightclub. “I’ll do all that I can. Does June
live far away?”

Mr Manville stood
up. He had a hopeful smile on his face. “It’s only a short bus ride away. Oh!
To think that June and Daisy could meet up again! June could be a proper
grandma, and Daisy could come home! I wonder if she stayed at university? I’ll
bet she’s got a great job, she always was a clever girl.”

Grace looked at
Mr Manville for a moment. “You look younger. When we met there was a dark cloud
round you, it’s gone now. It must have been your anger. I didn’t know anger
could do that.”

“Anger changed my
life. Come on, there’s a bus every ten minutes. Or there used to be.”

Grace grabbed her
coat and bag and headed for the door. She was just about to go out when she
remembered something. She ran into the kitchen and picked up the necklace and
the jacket. She gave the jacket a quick sniff. There was still a slight whiff
but not as bad as before.

She smiled. She
didn’t care if the jacket stank, people could tut as loud as they wanted on the
bus! She was going to help Daisy. It felt good to be doing something useful.

Chapter 14

The bus soon
arrived and took them to the other side of town. Grace had never been to this
side before and needed to follow Mr Manville’s directions.

They walked down
a few tree lined streets. Grace had a quick look around her before she spoke,
she didn’t want anyone to see her apparently talking to herself. “This is a
lovely area.”

Mr Manville
nodded. “When we thought we couldn’t have children June and I decided to focus
on our careers. We paid off the mortgage before we were 40.”

“That’s good. I
think I’ll be paying mine off when I’m 60,” Grace said.

“We were planning
to go around the world, even planning early retirement. Then June fell
pregnant. It was a miracle. We couldn’t believe our luck. And Daisy was so good
tempered as a child, we never had any problems. Good as gold, worked hard at
school. She was going to be a doctor, she knew that from a young age. The times
me and June had to be bandaged up! Daisy loved practising on us. She must be a
doctor now, or on her way to qualifying.”

Grace slowed her
step. “Don’t forget about the baby, she’d have to pay someone to look after
him.”

Mr Manville
stopped, his eyes widened. “It should have been us looking after him! We should
have moved closer to her and supported her! What if she had to leave
university? Quick, we need to speak to June as soon as possible!”

He moved down the
road, his feet several inches off the pavement. Grace was taken back for a
moment, she’d seen a ghost do that before, glide through the air. She forgot
that they were dead and didn’t need to move like she did.

She broke into a
jog and went after Mr Manville. She turned down a cul-de-sac and ran right
through him.

“What’s wrong?
Why have you stopped?” she asked.

He was looking
straight forward. “Our house, look at our house, it’s up for sale.”

Grace looked over
at where the For Sale sign was. It was in the garden of a well maintained
detached house. There were no curtains at the windows.

“Do you think
June’s moved to be closer to Daisy? Maybe that letter that Daisy sent after my
death was sent sooner than I thought. Maybe June answered and they made
friends? That’s what’s happened, it must have.”

“Maybe, but why
did you feel the need to contact June if she’d already moved? And you don’t
know for certain that Daisy sent a letter,” Grace said. She didn’t want to put
a damper on his happiness but something wasn’t adding up.

Grace walked
closer to the house, hoping to find the answer there. Could June really have
made it up with Daisy? Was everything settled? If so, why was Mr Manville
hanging around? Had his anger been that strong that he still wanted to cause
problems?

“It’s a lovely
house!” a voice called out.

“It’s Marjory,”
Mr Manville muttered. “Our neighbour. Warm hearted but knows everyone’s
business. Don’t talk to her, you’ll be here for hours.”

Grace ignored his
advice. A nosy neighbour was just what she needed. “Hello there, yes it is
lovely. How long has it been on the market?”

“About 4 months.
There haven’t been many buyers, lots of time wasters, you know how some people
are,” Marjory said. “Did you want to have a look inside? You could contact the
estate agent, they’ve got a number on that board, and their website whatsit.”

Grace pretended
to look interested. “I think I might. Is this a quiet area? I don’t like areas
where people come and go all the time. I want to settle down somewhere. Have
the previous owners lived here long?”

Marjory laughed.
“Donkeys years! June and Dan lived here for over 20 years. They were a lovely
couple, well, she was.”

Grace heard a
grumble behind her from Mr Manville. She ignored him. “Where have they gone
now? Somewhere nearby?”

Marjory folded
her arms and moved closer. She pursed her lips and shook her head sadly. “He
died two years ago. I shouldn’t say this but it was a relief. He used to be
nice but he’d turned into this awful person, always shouting, always angry. It
was like he was walking round in a big ugly cloud of meanness.”

Grace looked over
her shoulder. Mr Manville looked suitably ashamed.

Marjory carried
on. “It took June ages to get over his death. I insisted on getting rid of his
clothes. They were mostly decent, I know charities are always looking for good
quality clothes. Apart from this hideous jacket he wore. I don’t know why June
didn’t throw it out years ago, she said it was special. I put it in a charity
bag anyway.”

“What happened to
June? Where did she move to?”

“Oh, my dear,”
Marjory put a hand on Grace’s arm. “June died 5 months ago.”

Chapter 15

Grace’s heart
missed a beat. She looked at Mr Manville, he shimmered as if he was losing his
form.

Marjory took
advantage of Grace’s silence. “The poor woman, I didn’t realise that she was so
distraught after losing her husband. I’d have been glad to get rid of him! The
doctor who examined her said it was her heart, he said it was weak. I didn’t
know  that, she never said. I bet it was that husband of hers, I heard them
arguing, he was always telling her what to do.”

Grace
interrupted. “But you said he wasn’t always like that, do you know why he
changed?”

Marjory pressed
her lips together and gave Grace a knowing nod. “I know exactly what caused him
to change. It was his daughter, Daisy. I saw her at her mum’s funeral. She
didn’t want to talk much but she did eventually speak to me. She told me that
she’d had a baby out of wedlock and her dad never forgave her. Can you believe that?
Disowning your daughter for that! It’s so old fashioned, but then they did have
Daisy late in life, they were set in their ways.”

“Does Daisy live
nearby?” Grace asked hopefully.

“She wouldn’t
give me her exact address, she said she lived over on the Clover Estate.”

“The Clover
Estate!” Mr Manville burst out. “She can’t live there, it’s the roughest part
of town, even the buses won’t drive through it.”

“Do you think
Daisy will come back to live here?” Grace asked.

Marjory shook her
head. “She said she feels too ashamed, she feels she’s let her parents down. I
tried to tell her that she hasn’t but she wouldn’t listen. There’s loads of
post for her in the house, lots of legal looking stuff. I don’t know how to get
in touch with her.”

Grace sighed. “It
all sounds very sad.”

Mr Manville said
urgently, “Come on, we need to go to the Clover Estate. We have to find her.”

Grace said to
Marjory, “Thanks for your help. I’d better go.”

Marjory’s hand
flew to her mouth. “Oh! I’ve put you off with my chatter! Don’t go, the estate
agent has already caught me putting one couple off. Would you like to look
inside? I’ve got a spare key, no one’s asked for it back yet.”

Grace thought
about the post inside the house, maybe there was a letter from Daisy with her
address on. She said, “I’d love to, thank you, that’s very kind.”

“No problem at
all,” Marjory said with a smile.

Mr Manville said,
“I bet she’s been in every day, the nosy bat.”

Grace gave him a
look and then turned her back on him as she followed Marjory into the house.
She noticed that Mr Manville was looking solid again, as solid as a ghost could
look.

They went in
through the kitchen door. “I can see all the furnishings are still here, where
are the curtains?”

Marjory folded
her arms tightly and gave Grace a defensive look. “I took them, June always
said I could, if anything should happen to her. I knew she wouldn’t mind.”

Mr Manville
tutted. “Sounds like my June alright.”

Marjory took
Grace on a tour around the house. Mr Manville muttered to himself as Marjory pointed
out the features of the house.

When they got to
the dining room Grace noticed a pile of official looking letters on a table.
She’d also noticed a more personal almost hidden behind a carriage clock on the
mantelpiece. She nodded towards the letter, hoping Mr Manville would take the
hint. He walked closer to it. In a quiet voice he said, “That’s Daisy’s
handwriting.”

Grace began to
cough. Marjory stepped forward and patted her heavily on the back. Grace
coughed louder and spluttered out the words, “Water! Please!”

It was mean trick
but Grace was past caring, she wanted to find Daisy. As soon as Marjory left
the dining room Grace swiped the official looking letters, and Daisy’s, and
shoved them in her bag. She resumed her coughing as Marjory came back, glass in
hand.

Grace took a slow
slip and tried to work out how to leave the house quickly. She emptied the
glass and gave it to Marjory. “Thank you.”

Marjory didn’t
return Grace’s smile. In a stern voice she said, “Who are you and what have you
done with those letters?”