Free 2 A Different Shade Of Death by Gillian Larkin Page A

There’s a Jim working at Heathville, Ted was shouting at him. Oh!”
    Grace
stood up and walked to the other side of the room. She turned around and held
her finger up. “Ted said something to Jim earlier about not being used to working,
and Emily said her James had to get a job for the first time after their money
troubles started. I wonder if James and Jim are the same person. Jim could have
been with Ted when they found out about Amy. He was most likely there when
Charlie first moved in. Ted said that everyone thought Charlie was to blame for
losing Heathville. Jim must have hated what he thought Charlie had done to his
mum. And now ... now he knows that Amy is the one who caused Emily to lose the
house.”
    Grace
stopped. A feeling of fear trickled down her back. “Jim, or James, must be
planning to kill Amy.”
     

Chapter 21
     
    “Are
you sure?” Pearl asked.
    “It
all makes sense, or sort of sense. I never thought of him as a suspect. I have
to go to Heathville and warn Amy. Will you be okay if I go?”
    Pearl
nodded. “There’s nothing you can do for Frankie. If this James, or Jim, is
planning another murder you have to stop him. I’ll do what I can for this young
chap.”
    Grace
said, “Are you going to absorb his pain again? Is it safe for you to do that?”
    Pearl
looked back at Frankie. “I’ll do what I have to do, you go and warn Amy. Grace,
be careful and remember the condom.”
    “What?”
    “The
protective condom that you need to imagine around yourself, it should protect
you from any harm.”
    “Right.”
Grace wasn’t going to think about a condom. “I’ll take Frankie’s van.” She
paused and took a final look at Frankie. She couldn’t lose him, he was the only
family that she had left.
    Grace
drove Frankie’s van to Heathville. Ted was coming out of the door as she ran up
the path.
    “Is
Amy in?” Grace asked.
    Ted
grunted. “She is, somewhere. We’re finished for the day. Watch yourself with
Amy, don’t let her sweet talk you into taking a loan out.”
    “I
won’t.”
    Ted
left the house, followed by a couple of workmen. Grace looked at the men, Jim
wasn’t with them. She tried to recall his face from earlier in the day. She
couldn’t quite bring his features to mind. Did he look like the boy in the
photos at Emily’s house? She just wasn’t sure.
    The
door closed behind Grace making her jump. Why was she so nervous?
    She
went in to the room that she’d been in earlier with Amy. There was no one
there. Out of curiosity Grace walked over to a piece of furniture that was
covered up. She lifted the sheet. Definitely an antique. Was this a piece that
used to belong to Emily?  A piece that she had been tricked out of to try and
pay off her debts? One that Amy had now moved back into the house?
    Grace
jumped again as a creak overhead sounded out. She called out, “Amy? It’s Grace,
from the shop. Are you here?”
    Grace
walked out of the room. Should she go upstairs? Her gaze was drawn to the
library. That room had something to do with Charlie’s death. And what was it on
the original house plans that she’d seen earlier? Something was bugging her.
    She
called out Amy’s name again but didn’t receive a reply. She took hesitant steps
towards the library, pushed the door open and stepped inside.
    It
was a spacious room with floor to ceiling windows at the opposite side to the
door. Bookshelves decorated two sides of the room complete with old looking
books.
    Grace’s
eyes flicked to the left and towards the bookcase there. Something looked odd.
    That
was it!
    The
original plans showed another room behind the library. Grace remembered that
the door to that room was to the left of the library, right where she was
looking now.
    She
moved further into the room and towards the bookshelf where the door should be.
The bookshelf looked slightly off kilter.
    Grace
peered closer. Was it really? It was! A secret door disguised as a bookshelf.
Grace smiled, it was just like from