Daisy's Chain: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 5) (3 page)

Chapter 9

“Now what?” the
young man moaned.

“That last bag! I
need it!” Grace said.

“Are you having a
laugh? Why would you want a stinky old bag?”

“I have my
reasons,” Grace said. Let them think she was mad, she didn’t care. She walked
to the back of the van. Mr Manville was sitting on top of the last bag that had
been thrown in.

He pointed at it
and said, “This is it! I can see my jacket!”

The charity man
scratched his head. “I don’t know which one it was.”

Grace guided him
to the right one. With a lot of sighing the man climbed in and grabbed the bag.
He threw it at Grace.

Grace caught it.
Blimey, it really did stink. Mr Manville now stood at her side.

She paid the
charity men. One of them mumbled, “Should pay us more for this.”

Mr Manville
raised his fist at them. “You’re a charity! Act like one.”

Grace agreed but didn’t
say anything, she just wanted the men to go.

She waited until
the van had left the storage unit facility and then made her way to the main
road, Mr Manville at her side.

“Where’s your
car?” he asked.

“I haven’t got
one,” Grace said. Her dad was driving her car on the night her parents died.
Her car was ruined in the crash and she couldn’t face getting another yet. She
wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to drive again.

Grace walked to
the nearest bus stop. “There should be a bus soon. Can you tell me more about
your wife, and her possible problem?”

“No, not here,”
Mr Manville said. He clasped his hands behind his back and looked resolutely
forward.

Grace sighed. She
was beginning to wish she’d stayed at home.

The bus arrived.
Grace got on and gratefully sank into a seat.

She soon heard
sniffing around the bus. Her cheeks flooded with heat as she heard people
mumbling about the horrible smell on the bus.

Please don’t make
me get off, she prayed silently.

The mumbling got
louder as the bus drove on. Even the bus driver noticed.

Grace couldn’t
bear it any longer. She was only a few stops from home. She stood up and rang
the bell. The mumbling on the bus stopped, Grace could feel accusing eyes on
her as she walked to the front of the bus.

She jumped off
before the bus had properly stopped. She put her head down as the bus drove
off, she didn’t want to look at the people as the bus went past.

Mr Manville
walked at her side, still not saying a word.

Grace’s eyes
began to sting, tears threatened to appear. What was she doing? Trying to help
this ghost wasn’t proving rewarding at all. She should consider going back to
her teaching job.

She let herself
into her house, not caring if Mr Manville was following her.

Her sadness had
been replaced with anger. She flung her handbag down on the sofa and took the
plastic bag into the kitchen. She tipped the stinky contents onto the floor.
The smell whooshed up and into the back of her throat. Grace’s hand flew up to
her mouth. She swallowed down the rising bile.

Mr Manville waved
his hands near the floor, trying to scoop up the clothes. “Stop it! What are
you doing? Put them back!”

With one hand
covering her nose Grace said, “These are going straight in the wash.”

“I haven’t got
time to wait for a wash! Stop it right now!”

Grace ignored him
and started to load the items into the wash. She felt a sudden stiffening in
her arms. She looked back at Mr Manville. “Stop trying to control me! You
agreed not to do that. I won’t help you, I mean it!”

Mr Manville
sighed and collapsed onto the floor. “This is an urgent matter, I don’t want to
wait.”

“And I don’t want
to suffocate. It won’t take long to wash them.”

Mr Manville
looked at the clothes. “Hang on, these aren’t my clothes.”

“What?”

“This jacket is
but not the others.”

Grace looked at a
smart looking brown jacket. It had definitely seen better days. “Are you sure?”
she asked.

He nodded.

“Right.” Grace
scooped the rest of the clothes up and put them back in the bin liner. She went
outside and put the bag in the bin. She flung open the windows, squirted air
freshener around her house, and on the jacket, and then sat down at the kitchen
table. She indicated for Mr Manville to sit down too. He did so.

She said, “I’m a
patient person, Mr Manville, but I’m at the end of my tether, well, beyond my tether.
I want to know what’s going on. Now.”

Chapter 10

Mr Manville
didn’t speak.

“I’m waiting,”
Grace said. It wasn’t like her to be so assertive but she’d had enough. “You
mentioned your wife?”

Mr Manville
shifted in his seat, he didn’t meet Grace’s eyes. “I think it’s something to do
with a letter. I hope she’s made the right decision, she should have, she knew
my thoughts about the situation.”

Grace frowned.
“You’re not making any sense, I don’t think you’re telling me the full story.
When I’ve helped ghosts before we’ve held the item that they were attached to
at the same time. Then we were taken into a sort of vision, it showed the
people involved in the problem. Why don’t we hold your jacket at the same time
and see what happens?”

“I’m not sure,” Mr
Manville began.

Grace picked the
jacket up and held it towards him. “Touch it,” she ordered.

He moved his hand
above the jacket, held it there for a second, and then lowered it onto the
jacket, his hand sinking slightly through the material.

Grace waited. She
looked around the kitchen.

“Is something
supposed to happen?” Mr Manville asked.

“Yes, it can’t be
your jacket that we’re supposed to hold. Perhaps it’s something inside?”

“No!” Mr Manville
reached out and tried to grab the jacket. His hand passed through it as if
passing through water.

Grace ignored his
cries of protest as she went through his pockets. Her hand closed over
something small. She pulled it out and held it up.

It was a small heart
shaped pendant on a chain. Grace held it up by the delicate gold chain, it
swayed in the air. Grace and Mr Manville seemed transfixed by it.

Mr Manville made
a sudden lurch and tried to grab it, his hand went through it.

The kitchen began
to fade.

Grace knew what
was happening, she held the chain tighter.

Mr Manville’s
eyes widened as he took in his new surroundings. “What’s happening? Is this the
vision thing you spoke about?”

“It is, do you
recognise it?”

He nodded and sat
back in the chair. “It’s my house. Can anyone see us?”

“No, it’s like
we’re watching a movie, although I can smell food. Looks like some sort of
party.”

Mr Manville
pointed to a banner which read, ‘Happy 16th Birthday!’

A young girl was
sitting at a table full of party food. There was a pile of presents in front of
her. The girl was laughing, her eyes shining with excitement. Happy people
surrounded the table, chattering and laughing. A man handed a small box to the
girl.

Grace stood up
and walked closer to the party table. She pointed at the man who had just
handed over the present. “Is that you? You look so young, was this a long time
ago?”

Mr Manville
joined her. “It was 8 years ago. That’s my daughter, Daisy, on her birthday.”
He paused and sighed. “It was a good day.”

The Daisy in the
vision opened the little box. She gasped in delight when she saw the gold chain
and pendant, the one that Grace was still holding.

Daisy jumped up
and threw her arms around her dad. “I love it! I’ll never take it off!”

“Are you sure
that’s you?” Grace asked. “You’re smiling.”

Mr Manville gave her
a sad smile and said, “I used to smile a lot when Daisy was around.”

A sadness gripped
Grace’s heart. She was afraid to ask but she had to know the answer. “Is Daisy
still alive?”

He gave a brusque
nod. “This vision isn’t helping. Can we move on?”

Grace said, “The
vision’s already fading, we’re moving on. Oh! Is that Daisy getting her exam
results? You look so proud. And I see she’s still wearing the necklace.”

Mr Manville
merely grunted.

The vision faded
to be replaced with a new one.

Grace laughed.
“This must be university, I recognise the student room. There she is,
unpacking, still wearing the pendant. And look at you over there! Crying! My
mum and dad were just the same. Is that your wife, June?”

Mr Manville’s
look softened. “It is, you can see how much she looks like Daisy. I cried more
than June that day, she never let me forget it.”

Grace couldn’t
imagine this gruff man crying.

The vision faded
once more.

Grace’s scalp
prickled as a new vision appeared. Something terrible was going to happen, she
could feel it.

Mr Manville must
have felt it too because he bellowed out, “No!”

His rage was so
fierce that Grace dropped the necklace. The vision shattered as if it was made
of glass.

Grace picked the necklace
up. “Wait, we have to see what happens.”

“Never!” Mr
Manville shimmered, the black cloud grew bigger, it covered his whole body.

He disappeared.

Chapter 11

Grace waved her
fist in the air. “Come back, you coward! We have to stay in the vision!”

Mr Manville
didn’t come back.

Grace’s heart was
racing, she knew there was something they had to see, something to do with
Daisy. Maybe it would explain why Mr Manville was so full of hate.

Grace waited for
a few minutes, she kept shouting out but there was no response.

She picked up the
necklace. Could she go back into the vision on her own? She’d never tried that
before.

There was only
one way to find out.

Feeling the need
to close her eyes, Grace stood still and held the necklace tightly. She thought
about the scene they had visited last, thought about the sounds and the almost
overpowering heat.

She started to
feel warmer, music began to thud in her ears. She opened her eyes.

She was back in
the vision, back in the nightclub. It was full of young people, some dancing,
some chatting in groups, most of them drinking.

Grace’s clothes
began to stick to her as she moved through the crowd. How could they bear the
heat? Ah. They don’t wear many clothes. Did she ever dress like that? Was she
ever that young?

Grace spotted
Daisy standing at the bar. Daisy was smiling and touching the heart shaped
pendant hanging around her neck. Grace moved closer. It was weird just walking
through people, being invisible.

She stood close
to Daisy. A young man approached Daisy and looked her up and down. He smiled at
her, his smile resembling a wolf’s. Grace’s scalp prickled again. She didn’t
like this man. She moved closer to hear their conversation.

The young man
said, “Hey there, this sounds cheesy, but you’re the most beautiful girl here
tonight. You’ve got an amazing smile, you look so happy.”

“Thanks,” Daisy
said shyly. “I’ve had some good news today, I passed my second year at
university. I can’t wait to tell my dad.”

The man nodded.
“Brains as well as beauty. This calls for a celebration, let me get you a
drink.”

Daisy looked
unsure. “I don’t drink much, I was going to have water. And my friends will
worry where I am.”

The man leant
closer to Daisy and said, “Just one drink, then you can go back to your
friends.”

Daisy still
didn’t look convinced.

The man
dramatically clutched his heart and wailed, “Don’t turn me down! I can feel my
heart breaking already. Surely you won’t refuse me one drink? It’s bad manners
to refuse drinks. Look, there’s a table over there. I’ll bring us both a drink,
we can chat for ten minutes and then you can decide whether to chat some more -
or go back to your friends. What do you say?”

“Well …” Daisy
began.

The man looked
serious. “Okay, here’s the truth. See that group of lads over there?”

Daisy looked over
to where he was pointing, so did Grace. She saw the group raise their drinks as
one towards them. They looked like a pack of wolves waiting for the kill.
Grace’s mouth went dry. She wished she could reach out and whisk Daisy away.

The man
continued, “My friends said I would never be able to get you to talk to me, let
alone have a drink with me. I’m usually shy around girls, especially someone as
beautiful as you. Please, one drink, then I’ll leave you alone.”

The man tried to
look earnest. Grace wasn’t fooled. Unfortunately, Daisy was.

Grace watched in
mounting horror as Daisy took a seat near the bar. The nasty young man bought
two drinks. He discreetly took a small bottle from his pocket and, making sure
no one was looking, he dropped some sort of liquid into Daisy’s drink. He took
the drinks over to Daisy.

Grace tried
calling out but no one could hear her. She swiped her hands through the air. Nothing
she did could stop what was happening.

Daisy took a
drink. She grimaced and looked down at her glass. The young man smiled and took
a big gulp of his drink. Daisy drunk some more.

Grace felt her
head begin to swim. The drink was definitely drugged. Grace put her hand to her
head, the room started to spin. She looked at Daisy, she had her hand to her
head too. Grace watched as the man lifted Daisy’s glass and forced the liquid
down her throat.

Why didn’t anyone
stop him? Why couldn’t anyone see what he was doing?

Daisy’s eyes
began to close, her head flopped to one side. The young man smirked. He turned
to his group of friends and gave them a thumbs up. Grace heard their cheers, it
was the sound of triumph.

Grace’s vision
was blurring but she could still see what was happening. She saw the young man
put his arms around the nearly comatose Daisy. He leered at her body and said,
“I’ll take care of you.”

Daisy was led
away. Her eyes flickered up and for a moment it looked like she was aware of
what was going on.

Grace felt
Daisy’s last emotion - utter terror.