Lost And Found: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 2) (7 page)

Chapter 19

Grace
didn’t know she could run so fast. She raced out of the train station and
towards the shop. She’d tried calling Frankie but his phone had gone straight
to voice mail.

She
burst through the shop doors and came to a halt. She wasn’t prepared for the
sight that met her.

Two
huge man were standing behind the counter with Frankie. One of them held
Frankie’s arms back whilst the other laid into him with vicious punches.

Grace
screamed. “Get off him! Leave him alone!”

The
punching man looked over at her, flicked his eyes up and down her body and,
with a leer, he said, “We’re teaching him a lesson. If you don’t leave I’ll be
happy to teach you one.”

Frankie
mumbled through swollen lips, “Grace, go, please.”

The
two men laughed, the one holding Frankie said, “This is what you get if you
mess with Eddie Tominski. You should have just let us measure up, that’s all we
wanted to do. And now your poor sister has to witness this.”

Heat
flushed through Grace.

Grace
couldn’t say what happened to her later. Some people say a red mist descends
when they’re beyond angry, and that they’re not aware of what they are doing.
It wasn’t like that for Grace. It was like all the fury and humiliation over
her parents’ death and the terrible publicity after, fuelled a fire within her.
The pure evilness of Eddie Tominski made the fire stronger.

Grace
dropped her bag and instinctively reached for the big tea pot that had been in
the shop forever. She knew it was heavy but it felt light in her hands. She
walked purposely around the counter, raised the tea pot and whacked the punching
man on the back of his shoulders with it. He dropped to the floor with an
anguished cry. Grace started on the second man. He put his arms up to stop her
but Grace had a burning hatred that gave her strength. She managed to land
several tea pot blows on the surprised man.

Frankie
told her later that she looked like some sort of devil, her hair was wild and
there was a crazed look on her face.

The
man on the floor got to his feet. He rubbed his shoulder and glared down at
Grace. He reached towards her. Grace swung the pot again, it connected with his
cheek with a stomach-churning crunch.

“She’s
mad! Call your loony sister off!” he yelled.

Grace’s
nostrils flared and she calmly said, “Leave our shop. Now.”

There
was a coldness in her voice that registered with the men. One of them said,
“She’s a nutter, she’ll kill us with that pot if we stay here. Come on, I’m not
putting up with this aggro. Wait till Eddie hears about this.”

The
man with the damaged cheek stared at Frankie and said, “You’ll pay for this,
you can’t hide behind your sister’s skirts.”

The
man made to leave. The anger began to seep out of Grace and she noticed that
the tea pot was beginning to feel heavy. She held her stance until the men left
the shop. She placed the tea pot on the counter and looked closer at Frankie.

“What
happened to you? Why were those men attacking you?” Grace asked.

Frankie
stared at her with wide eyes. “What the hell just happened? You turned in to
some sort of raving banshee! You nearly killed those men! With a tea pot!”

Grace
gave a little shrug. “I got angry, that’s all. I didn’t kill them, I didn’t aim
for their heads did I?”

“Well
that’s a relief, you just maimed them, and possibly broke someone’s cheek!”

Grace
gave another shrug as if it was a small matter. The reality of what she’d just
done was starting to scare her. Why had she acted like that? It was like
someone else had taken over her body. She shook her head a little, she’d think
about that later. She said, “Tell me what happened.”

“Those
two idiots came round to measure up the shop for shelves and stuff. They said
Eddie had sent them and that he wanted the shop ready by Friday.”

“He
can’t just take it!” Grace said. “We’ll have to put something on your face,
you’ve got some bruising, your lips look awful.”

“Never
mind about that, I can take care of myself. I tried to stop them and that’s
when they decided to ‘teach me a lesson’. I think they were intending to do that
anyway. I’m glad you weren’t here.”

Grace
sighed and leaned against the counter. “What are we going to do, Frankie? He’s
going to get the shop, isn’t he? We can’t pay him back.”

Frankie
nodded and said, “I know. We need a miracle.”

Grace
suddenly stood up straight. “We might have a miracle, right here, under this
counter.”

She
looked under the counter. “Frankie, where are those old cameras?”

Frankie
gave her a proud smile. “I sold them.”

Grace
gave him a careful look, she kept her voice steady as she said, “How much did
you get?”

“£50!
Can you believe it? For those old things?”

Frankie
looked so happy about his sale that Grace didn’t have the heart to tell him the
real value. She still had the photos to sell. But how long would that take? And
how much would they sell for?

Frankie’s
phone beeped. He took it out of his pocket, his smile vanished when he read it.

“It’s
from Eddie, isn’t it?” Grace said.

Frankie
nodded and tried to put the phone back in his pocket.

“Tell
me what it says,” Grace said.

Frankie
got unsteadily to his feet and cast a slow look around the shop, his shoulders
sagged as if someone had just placed a boulder there.

Grace
took his phone and looked at the message.

‘Tick
tock, time’s up. See you soon. XXX’

Grace
joined Frankie’s surveillance of the shop. She said, “He’s won, he’s going to
take the shop. We’ve lost everything now. We can’t sink any lower.”

She
was wrong.

A
note from the author

Just
like Frankie in this story I love watching storage auction programmes. I’ve
never been to one but I’d love to visit one of the big ones in America, I’m
sure I’d be useless at bidding though – I’d be too excited.

When
I watch the shows I always wonder where the items have come from, and who they
belonged to. I wondered what would happen if some of the items had ghosts
attached. I reached a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore and I knew I had
to write some stories down, I was inspired by the variety of items that have
been discovered in storage lockers.

I
hope you enjoyed this second story. If you did could you post a quick review?
Thank you, I read all my reviews and I really do appreciate them.

Here
is the link to the first story – Jacob’s Coins:

Amazon Com

Amazon
UK

Find
out what happened to Grace’s parents in the third story, Tick Tock:

Amazon Com

Amazon UK

You
can get a free pdf copy of ‘A Different Shade Of Death’ when you sign up to my
newsletter at:

www.gillianlarkin.co.uk

You
can email me at:

[email protected]

Best
wishes

Gillian