Free Daisy's Chain: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 5) by Gillian Larkin Page A

parents
had died in a car accident recently. Grace was in the car at the time and was
almost killed. It was a few months after that when she started seeing ghosts.
She saw shadows at first and thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She
saw her first fully formed ghost when Frankie dragged her along to their very
first storage locker auction.
    Grace now smiled
as she recalled that ghost, a young man called Jacob. She’d helped him with a
problem he’d had. And Jacob had helped her, he’d led her to some valuable gold
coins.
    Since then she
had assisted other ghosts. It had helped to take her mind off the constant
grief that she felt for her parents.
    But there was one
ghost that she couldn’t see, this old woman in their shop. Other ghosts had
seen her, and they had heard her. It appears that Pearl uses language worthy of
an X rated gangster movie. The only time that Grace had seen her was through
videos shot on Frankie’s phone, and through a CCTV system that Frankie had
installed.
    Grace looked at
Pearl now on Frankie’s phone. The old woman must have known she was being
filmed. In the video Frankie was talking about the items on the shelves, Pearl
held out her arms to demonstrate each object, as if she was on a games show.
She’d even hitched up her long dress to show off her tight clad legs. Grace
wasn’t sure whether the tights were wrinkled or if it was Pearl’s legs. As the
video went on Pearl got bored and started to make exaggerated yawning motions.
Then she started making obscene gestures with her hands.
    Grace burst out
laughing. She put a hand over her mouth to stop the noise. She shouldn’t be
laughing but it was funny to see an old lady doing that. And, from what she’d
gathered from other ghosts, Pearl was here to look out for Grace. It felt comforting,
if somewhat weird.
    The phone was
snatched away. Frankie said, “What’s so funny? That’s a professional video, I
haven’t had any complaints from my followers.”
    Grace tried to
collect herself. “I wasn’t laughing as in laughing, I was laughing because …
I’m so happy for you.”
    Frankie gave her
a searching look. Grace gave him a bright smile hoping she wasn’t overdoing it.
    “Okay,” Frankie
said, “I believe you. It’s nice to see you smiling. You don’t look as haggard
today, have you been sleeping better?”
    “Haggard? I don’t
look haggard! But yes, I have been sleeping better.”
    Frankie nodded
and put his phone away. “Are you still coming to the auction? You don’t have
to, I don’t mind going on my own.”
    “I like going. Is
it far away?”
    “No, but go to
the toilet first. You know what you old women are like, first your eyesight
goes, then your bladder.”
    Frankie swiftly
moved out of the way as Grace swung her hand towards him. He was too quick,
she’d get him next time.
    She froze. Was
that a cackle she heard from behind her? Pearl?
    She hoped so. She
really wanted to talk to her, find out more about her.
    Grace paid a
quick visit to the toilet and grabbed her things. She was in a happy mood as
Frankie started up the van. There was a time when she thought she’d never be
happy again, she was in a pit of black despair and was unwilling to climb out
following her parents’ deaths.
    She knew the
reason why she felt happier, she liked helping the ghosts that she met, it made
her feel useful.
    Was she going to
meet a new ghost today? She hoped so.
    A few hours later
Grace was wishing that she’d stayed at home.
     

Chapter 3
     
    As soon as they
pulled into the storage unit facility Grace could hear something.
    “Frankie, can you
hear that? Like a banging noise. Is there some construction going on?”
    Frankie shrugged
and switched off the engine. “I can’t hear anything. Now, Grace, listen
carefully, it could be chaos out there today.”
    “Why?”
    Frankie held his
arms open as if it was self explanatory. “Me, of course. There are probably
fans of mine out there, people who’ve been