Free A Deadly Lesson (Storage Ghost Murders Book 5) by Gillian Larkin

of a car name is Fred anyway?”
    Grace
couldn’t resist. “Maybe I should call it Frankie Junior.”
    Frankie
pointed his phone at her and said, “Stop that right now.” He looked back at the
phone. “Big Bob says he’s not giving his bank details over a text, he doesn’t
trust texts. He’ll stop by the shop tomorrow.”
    “Fair
enough,” Grace replied. A memory of her dad came to mind. He could never get to
grips with the Internet, he claimed that someone was spying on him. Mum loved
the Internet and ordered things constantly. Grace smiled, it was comforting to
have such memories of them. She looked over at Abbie. The poor girl looked so
sad. It must be awful to find out what people really thought about you.
    Grace
stayed at the shop with Frankie for the rest of the day. Whenever she was on
her own, she took the opportunity of calling out for Pearl.
    Abbie
said, “I don’t think she’s coming back.”
    “She
will, she has to,” Grace said, sounding more confident than she felt. She
couldn’t bear the thought of Pearl disappearing from her life.
    Abbie
didn’t speak on the drive home. Grace was grateful as she needed to concentrate
on driving through heavy traffic. She smiled as they pulled up outside her
house. She turned to Abbie and said, “I didn’t even break into a sweat on the
drive home, I must be getting better.”
    Abbie
didn’t return her smile. She was looking at something over Grace’s shoulder.
She said, “I think someone’s trying to break into your house.”
    Grace
whipped herself around and peered through the car window and in to the
darkness.
    A
figure was creeping along the side of her house. It stopped near the back door
and reached towards the handle.
    “I
don’t think so,” Grace said through clenched teeth.
    Abbie
cried out, “Call the police! Don’t go out there! They might hurt you!”
    “I’ve
been taking self-defence classes, I know how to injure someone. Come on.”
    “What
are you going to do? Give them a karate kick? Poke them in the eye?”
    Grace
grabbed her bag and took a quick look inside. She held it up and said, “I’m
going to whack them with this.”

 

Chapter 17

 
    Grace
grabbed her bag tightly and silently crept up on the figure that was now
running their hands over her kitchen window.
    Thwack!
    The
figure cried out in pain and slumped to the ground. A woman screamed behind
Grace. “Carlos! Are you all right? Oh, my darling!”
    Grace
was pushed to one side as the woman ran forwards and threw herself on the
groaning man.
    Carlos?
As in Julianne and Carlos? Grace looked at Abbie. Abbie grinned and said, “Yep,
you’ve just whacked my sister’s boyfriend on the head. I wouldn’t like to be
you right now, Julianne’s got a right temper on her.”
    Blue
eyes turned towards Grace. Even in the darkness, Grace could see the hate in
them.
    “What
have you done to him?” Julianne spat. “You could have killed him! I’ve a good
mind to call the police!”
    Carlos
began to get unsteadily to his feet. He rubbed his head and glared at Grace. In
a thick Spanish accent he said, “Call the police, get her arrested.”
    Indignation
shot through Grace. “Yes! Call the police! Then you can explain what you were
doing creeping around my home! I saw you trying the door!”
    Julianne’s
expression changed. She forced a smile and said, “Your home? You must be Grace
Abrahams. I’m Julianne, and this is Carlos. We run Last Hope Repossessions. We
have an appointment with you.” She held out her hand.
    Grace
reluctantly took it. Was this how they did business? Her already low opinion
sunk even further. She said, “You’d better come in. Then you can explain what
you were doing out here.”
    Julianne
gave an overly jolly laugh. “Just business! If we’re going to buy a property we
need to know what the security is like.”
    Grace
said, “I haven’t said anything about selling my house.” She unlocked the
kitchen door and invited them in.
    Julianne
gave