Free The Last Reading (Storage Ghost Murders Book 1) by Gillian Larkin

fallen, she’s doing a
reading for me. I’m glad you came round, Grace, I’ve got a lot of questions for
you.”
    Mae
stood at Grace’s side, a grim expression on her face. “Do whatever he says,
he’s got a gun.”
     

Chapter 22
     
    Tom
pushed the gun harder into Grace’s back and pushed her towards the sofa.
    “Sit,”
he ordered. He pointed the gun at Brenda and walked around to face her. “Keep
your hand steady, you can’t give me an accurate reading with your hands shaking
like that.”
    Brenda
looked over her shoulder at Grace, tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry to
get you involved.”
    Tom
sneered. “She got herself involved. She was there at the auction, bidding
against me. I followed you back to that shop of yours. That got me wondering
what you wanted with the items in the unit. Then you turned up here asking for
Mae. I knew her regulars, you weren’t one of them. You were looking for the
pendulum, weren’t you? What did you want with it?”
    Grace
shook her head. “I don’t know anything about a pendulum. I bid on that locker
because I liked the curtains.”
    “Liar!”
Tom spat waving his gun at her. “It doesn’t matter now, I’ve got the pendulum.
Get on with it Brenda, it can’t be that hard.”
    Mae
stood in front of Brenda and saw what she was doing. Mae said, “There are
pieces of paper with numbers on placed on the floor, they look like lottery
numbers. The childhood memory box is at Brenda’s side, she must have taken it
down from the wardrobe.”
    Brenda
began to cry. “I can’t do it, I don’t know how to.”
    Grace
said, “Was it worth murdering Mae for? Pushing her down the steps like that?”
    Brenda
cried out, “You killed my sister?”
    Tom
shrugged. “I was in a bad mood that day. Why didn’t she just do another reading
for me? It only took her ten minutes, it was hardly work for her. I needed her
to do it, my friends at work thought I’d lost my magic touch, there was talk of
someone else doing the lottery. I couldn’t let that happen, that’s the only
reason anyone ever spoke to me. It was her own fault, selfish cow.”
    “Why
did you kill Autumn Rose? What did she do wrong to you?”
    Tom
smirked. “Well worked out. I did consider asking her for the winning lottery
numbers but she never gave me chance. She started wittering on about a book I
needed to buy and to see a doctor before I bought a certain type of medicine. I
could tell she was a fake. The way she kept moving that eye shaped necklace
gave her away, she made sure it was always facing forwards. I soon worked out
that it was some sort of recording device. I had great pleasure ripping that
from her neck.”
    “Did
you really have to kill her?” Grace asked.
    Tom’s
eyes glazed for a moment. Then his mouth corners turned upwards. He let out a
laugh. “I actually enjoyed it! It made me feel powerful, it made me feel ...
tall. Anyway, she deserved it, she was a fake. I tried getting readings with
other fortune tellers but they wouldn’t help me, they’re all fake. Except her.”
He indicated towards the trembling Brenda. “Stop shaking and get on with it.”
    “You
can’t keep us at gunpoint forever. This is madness, you won’t get away with
it,” Grace said.
    Tom
nodded. “I will. I’ve got away with two murders.”
    Grace
said, “How did you know about the storage unit? Why were you looking in there?”
    He
sighed and said, “Is this the part where I have to tell you how my plan played
out? This isn’t Scooby Doo.”
    “Did
you hear something when Mae fell down the stairs? Like something falling out?”
Grace asked.
    Tom’s
eyes narrowed. “I did hear something, I thought it was the pendulum. I had a
quick look in Mae’s clothes but couldn’t find it. I had to run before anyone
found me. When I thought about it later I thought it could have rolled into
those old curtains. How do you know about things falling out?”
    Grace
didn’t comment on that. “And the unit? Did you