Tick Tock (Storage Ghosts) (5 page)

Grace
put her hand to her forehead, she could feel a headache starting. She said,
“Eddie is trying to take our shop away, it belongs to me and my brother.”

Clare
nodded vigorously. “A shop, yes, of course. And your parents owed him money,
didn’t they? And they died before the debt could be paid off? Yes, that’s how
he works. Then he starts to hound you for money. Puts the loan up, gives you
some nonsense about interest? Yes, yes, that’s what he does.”

Grace
held her hand up. “Please slow down, I can’t keep up. I don’t understand what
you’re saying.”

Clare
frowned at Grace’s lack of understanding. “I can’t make it any clearer. Eddie
Tominski killed my mum and dad, and he killed yours.” Once again, Clare waved
her arm around the walls. “And he’s killed many more! We’ve got to stop him!”

Grace
still didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand. “If you think that why
don’t you tell the police?”

“The
police!” Clare exploded. “I tried, many times. They never listen. They’re all
in his pockets. He’s paid them all off.”

Grace’s
head began to pound. “Are you saying that Eddie lent money to our parents, and
when they couldn’t pay him back he murdered them and took their businesses?”

“No!
You’re not listening! He planned to take the businesses first. He picked people
who would never be able to pay him back. People he could trick. It’s all here,
all the reports of people who have died.”

Grace
said, “I’m sorry, Clare, but you’ll have to start from the beginning.”

“Do
you believe me? I don’t want to waste my time if you’re going to dismiss me like
everyone else.”

Grace
looked her straight in the eye and said, “I do believe you, and I want to help
you.”

Chapter 11

Grace
took all the information in and tried to make sense of it on the bus ride back
to the shop. In between trying to make sense of Clare’s ramblings, Grace kept
trying Frankie’s phone. It was still going to answer phone. Grace’s unease
grew.

Inside
the shop Tom peered at her and said, “Let me get this straight. Eddie Tominski
targets business owners who are in financial trouble. He then lends them money
but soon increases the interest rates so that they find it hard to pay him
back.”

Grace
nodded. “That must have been what happened to you, can you remember anything
about it?”

“I
do remember owing him money, and that the interest rates went sky high. But I
really don’t believe the part about him killing people to get their businesses.
Why doesn’t he take the businesses as part of the loan?”

An
image of Eddie’s evil face came to Grace. She said, “Perhaps he likes killing
people.”

Lynne
shivered and moved closer to Tom. “I never liked that man. I rue the day that
we ever got involved with him.”

Tom
didn’t look convinced. “But how does he kill people? I’m still fuzzy about how
we died. Did you ask Clare about it?”

“I
did. She told me that you’d fallen down the cellar steps of your home. Both of
you.”

Lynne
folded her arms. “I told you, Tom, we needed a handrail on those steps, but you
never listened.”

Grace
carefully said, “Apparently, you were both drunk at the time.”

There
was a heavy silence as Tom and Lynne stared at Grace.

Finally
Tom spluttered, “But we don’t drink! We have a small glass of sherry at
Christmas, but that’s it.”

“We
did have a glass of champagne at Laura’s wedding,” Lynne added.

“We’re
not drinkers at all, that’s outrageous!” Tom paced up and down. “Clare must
have got it wrong.”

“She
didn’t. You were examined, after your deaths, and large amounts of alcohol were
found in your stomachs. The same thing happened with my parents, they didn’t
drink but alcohol was found in them too. Can’t you remember anything about the
night you died? Did Eddie Tominski call round to see you? Did he force alcohol
on you?”

Tom
stopped pacing, his brow furrowed as he thought. “I have a vague memory of
something. If only we could go back in time.”

“We
might be able to,” Grace said. “I told you that I’d started seeing ghosts after
my parents’ accident, and that I’d helped some ghosts that I’d met in other
storage units.”

“Yes,
you said,” Tom nodded.

“Well,
when I touched something that belonged to the ghost at the same time they did
we were taken into a vision of the past, we were shown something that helped us
with the ghost’s problem.”

“A
vision! I like the sound of that!” Lynne said with glee. “We’d be like time
travellers. Could we meet our younger selves and tell them to watch out for
Eddie?”

“It
doesn’t work like that. We can only observe, it’s like we’re going into a
television screen. We need something from that night when you think Eddie may
have called round. What were you working on?”

Tom
held his finger up. “A watch! That watch that’s on my desk. I was working on
the mechanism inside. Do you really think it would work?”

Grace
shrugged and gave them a small smile. “We can try. I’d like to find out exactly
what happened to you, for Clare’s sake. She’s become a bit obsessed with your
deaths.”

Tom
and Lynne nodded sadly. Lynne said, “We know. She needs to move on with her
life.”

Grace
didn’t want to get into a conversation about how hard it was to get over your
parents’ death. She said, “Let’s give this a go. Is that the watch on your
table, Tom?”

“It
is,” Tom said. He took his wife’s arm and steered her over to the watch. They
put their hands on top of it and waited for Grace.

Please
work, please work. Grace walked towards the watch and carefully placed her hand
on top of the two ghostly ones. A chill went up her arm.

“Now
what?” Lynne said. “Are we going to zoom through time and space?”

Tom
tutted. “You’ve been watching too much TV. I don’t see how this can work.”

Grace
quietly said, “It has worked, look around you.”

Lynne
gasped. “We’re in our house! Look, Tom, there we are. You at your table and me
looking at you. Look at my hair! I knew that style didn’t suit me.”

Tom’s
eyes widened. “I don’t believe it. Do we have to stay here touching this watch?
Will the vision fade if we move?”

“I
think it’s safe to move,” Grace said. She removed her hand, Lynne and Tom did
the same. The vision remained.

“Now
what do we do?” Lynne whispered.

“We
wait. You don’t have to whisper, they can’t see or hear us,” Grace said.

They
didn’t have to wait long. There was a knock at the door. The Lynne in the
vision went to answer it.

She
returned with Eddie Tominski.

Even
the past version of Eddie Tominski sent Grace’s heart racing. The shark smile
on his face made shivers of fear shoot down her back.

Something
awful was about to happen. Grace didn’t want to watch but she knew she had to.

Chapter 12

In
the vision Tom stood up to greet Eddie. It was easy to see that Tom’s smile was
forced.

Eddie’s
smile widened as if he wanted to eat Tom. He held a basket in his hands, it was
covered in cellophane with a bow at the front.

Eddie
offered the basket to Tom and said, “I think it’s time we sorted out this loan
business, don’t you? It’s obvious that you’re struggling with the payments.”

Tom
took the basket as if it was an unexploded bomb. He gingerly put it down on a
table. He looked back at Eddie and said, “We can’t pay you any more money,
Eddie. We’re struggling with the payments already. We’ll probably have to sell
the house.”

There
was a sob from the vision Lynne. She came to stand next to her husband. There
were tears in her eyes as she said, “Please, Tom, don’t say that, I can’t bear
it.”

Eddie
gave an exaggerated sigh and said, “You knew about the terms when you signed
the loan agreement. So many people don’t read the small print.”

Tom
gave a bitter laugh. “I never thought I’d be one of those people. What are you
here for, Eddie?”

Eddie
held his arms wide and said, “This is your lucky day. I’m a very busy man and I
don’t have time to chase up all these debts that people owe me. I’ve decided to
let you off.”

“What?
What do you mean?” Tom said, suspicion growing on his face.

Eddie
gave a benevolent smile. Grace could see how false it was.

“You
don’t owe me any more money. I appreciate that you’ve paid as much as you can.
I can see that I’m not going to get much more from you.”

“What’s
the catch?” Tom asked.

Eddie
laughed. “No catch. I’ve got other loans to collect on, I don’t need yours. As
a gesture of my sincerity I’ve brought you this basket of luxury goods. I hope
you’ll accept it.”

Lynne
burst out, “Do you really mean it? Is our loan paid off? We don’t have to sell
the house? Or our business?”

Eddie
gave them a jovial smile as if he was a modern day Santa. “That’s exactly what
I’m saying.” He gave a cough. “Sorry about that, I haven’t had a cup of tea
since this morning, I’m parched.”

“Oh!
Where are my manners!” Lynne said. “I’ll put the kettle on.”

Eddie
indicated towards the basket that he’d brought. “There’s some special tea in
there, very expensive. Why don’t you use that? Then I’ll know you’ve accepted
my offer.”

Lynne
picked the basket up and headed towards the kitchen.

Tom
invited Eddie to sit down, all the time giving him a hard look. Tom said, “What
about the loan papers?”

Eddie
leant back on the sofa and waved his hand. “I’ll shred them when I get back to
my office. It’s a lovely home you’ve got here. How’s the business going? Is
there much money in the watch repair and clock business? Have you thought of
turning it into one of those pound bargain shops? You’ve got a great position
on the high street, you’d make a fortune.”

“We’re
doing okay,” Tom said curtly.

The
ghost Tom said to Grace, “I’m starting to remember what happened. I knew that I
didn’t trust him, I didn’t believe him about writing the loan off. He was up to
something.”

Grace
nodded, there was an evil vibe coming from Eddie, he looked too smug.

Lynne
returned with a tray of tea things. “That expensive tea has an unusual smell.”

Eddie
smiled and said, “It’s supposed to. Wait til you taste it, it’s to die for.”

Grace’s
breath caught in her throat. What was he up to?

The
ghostly couple watched their former selves as they sipped at their teas.

Ghost
Lynne said, “Eddie isn’t touching his tea, I never noticed at the time.”

Ghost
Tom said, “He’s put something in the tea, some sort of poison. I didn’t like
the taste at the time but I was too polite to say so.”

Eddie’s
smile grew as he watched Lynne and Tom sip their drinks. He said, “Oh, I nearly
forgot.”

He
took out the slim red book that recorded his debts. He opened it up. Grace
quickly walked around the room so that she could see the names in the books.
Some had lines drawn through them. Her pace quickened as she recognised some of
the names from the newspaper clippings that Clare had pinned on her walls. The
ones that reported how local business people had died in ‘accidents’.

Eddie
took a pen out and made a great show of crossing out Lynne and Tom’s names.
Underneath he wrote, ‘Loan repaid’.

Grace
looked at the vision Lynne and Tom. They had glazed looks on their faces, their
eyes were drooping. What was in that tea?

Eddie
suddenly stood up and said, “My gran used to have a house like this. It had a
cellar. I loved going down there. Does yours have a cellar?”

Tom
gave an unsteady nod.

“Could
I see it? It would take me back to my childhood,” Eddie said. He clasped his
hands together like an eager child.

Lynne
got to her feet and wobbled. “Oops, I think I stood up too quickly.”

Tom
stood up and caught her arm. “My head feels strange, I must be coming down with
something.”

“The
cellar?” Eddie prompted.

The
ghost Tom and Lynne followed the people in the vision. Grace joined them.

They
watched in horror as Eddie joyfully pushed the couple down the cellar steps.

Then
he collected all evidence of the tea including the cups, tucked the basket
under his arm and left the house, whistling as he went.

The
vision faded. They were back in the shop.

Tears
ran down Grace’s face. “He did murder you.”

Chapter 13