Murder Vows (Storage Ghost Murders Book 4) (15 page)

“What
song?” Grace asked fearfully.

“I’ll
start us off. There’s a dance too!”

“Great,”
Grace mumbled.

Lily
began to sing and move her hands. Grace’s eyes widened. “That song? You had to
pick that song?”

Lily
waved her arms and moved from side to side, singing at the top of her voice.
Grace sighed. What was that expression? ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’? Grace
cleared her throat.

Within
thirty seconds of singing, and dancing to ‘Y.M.C.A.’ Grace was enjoying
herself. Lily was so enthusiastic it was hard not to go along with her. Grace
stamped up and down the path with Lily, singing louder and louder.

Lily
suddenly stopped. She tapped Grace on the arm that was currently forming a ‘Y’
and said, “Mum’s watching us.”

Grace
froze. She didn’t dare look at Ms Berry. She was sure there would be laser-like
beams of hatred shooting out of her eyes. Grace slowly lowered her arms and
turned to the open door.

Tears
were streaming down Ms Berry’s face. She opened the door wider and said, “You’d
better come in.”

“I
told you! Come on!” Lily bounded in to the house.

Ms
Berry led Grace to a cosy living room. There were photographs of Lily
everywhere.

Grace
sat on a sofa, Ms Berry sat next to her.

Ms
Berry spoke, “Can you really see her?”

Grace
nodded. “She’s here now. She’s jumping up and down on your armchair. She’s got
a lot of energy.”

Ms
Berry smiled. “She certainly has, sorry, did. Did she tell you that was our
code song? We used to joke about becoming ghosts, I never thought it would
happen. Can you see many ghosts?”

“Enough.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

Ms
Berry waved her concern away. “These are happy tears. It does you good to cry
now and again. It’s Grace, isn’t it? I’m Ruth. Start at the beginning, tell me
why you’re here.”

Grace
decided to tell Ruth everything. It was a relief to talk to someone about
seeing ghosts, someone who was alive. She told Ruth about Archie and his
murder, and about Lily wearing Jessie’s dress.

“Lily
keeps appearing to me and I don’t know why. And I’ve no idea why she’s wearing
that dress,” Grace said.

“I
do. She died wearing that dress,” Ruth said. “If that wasn’t enough of a
surprise to you, listen to this, she died the same day that Archie did. I came
home from that dreadful day at the hotel to find my beautiful baby lying dead
on her bedroom floor.”

Ruth’s
voice cracked and more tears trickled down her cheeks. Grace passed her a
tissue, she seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

Ruth
dried her eyes. “Is Lily still here? What’s she doing?”

Grace
replied, “She’s doing a handstand against the wall, and showing her Mickey
Mouse knickers.”

Ruth
burst out laughing. “She could never keep still. Let me tell you about her.
Lily was the light of my life. Such a happy child, always singing and dancing,
wanting to have fun all the time. Which is wonderful when you’re a child but
not ideal when you’re an adult trying to hold on to a job. She couldn’t keep
her attention on anything for more than five minutes. She was fired from five
jobs before I managed to get her a job at the hotel. I couldn’t help but be mad
with her. Anyway, I got to see more of her at the hotel, and I could keep my
eye on her.” Ruth paused, a sadness appeared in her eyes. “Lily used to borrow
things from the guests’ rooms I’d be forever finding things in her room, she
was like a magpie going after shiny things. More than once I found her trying
on wedding dresses and gowns in the guests’ rooms I had to cover for her, I
returned the stolen items I knew she’d get in to real trouble one day. I didn’t
think she’d end up dead.”

Grace
said, “Can you tell me more about how she died? It looks like she died the same
way that Archie did, and Archie was murdered.”

Ruth’s
hand flew to her mouth. “Murdered! You think my Lily was murdered?”

Lily
cart-wheeled her way over to Grace. She jumped up and said cheerfully, “I was
murdered!”

Chapter 31

“Can
I see where she died?” Grace asked.

Ruth
stood up. “Certainly, I haven’t changed her room since she died. I know I
should, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”

Lily
danced down the hall and walked through a door. By the time Grace and Ruth
entered the room Lily was bouncing on the bed.

Ruth
raised an eyebrow and said, “Is she jumping on the bed?”

Grace
nodded. “What time did you find Lily?”

Ruth
answered, “It was about midnight. It was a long day at the hotel, with the
wedding, and the death of Archie Goodwin. Lily had been working that day, she’d
helped Archie and his family with their belongings. She even took the bride’s
wedding dress up to the honeymoon suite. I remember thinking at the time,
‘Lily, leave that dress alone!’ When the murder occurred I couldn’t find Lily
for a while. There was so much going on, people crying ... the police and their
questions. I didn’t see Lily leave the hotel. She sent me a text later saying
that she was home, that was about nine o’clock. As soon as I came home I went
to check on her.”

Ruth
looked down at the carpet, Grace could see she was trying to compose herself.

Lily
jumped off the bed. “Grace! I was like this. Watch!” Lily threw herself down
and lay face-down on the carpet. She moved her head and grinned up at Grace.

Grace
said, “Lily’s just demonstrated her death-pose.”

Ruth
smiled. “That doesn’t surprise me. When I found her I checked her pulse. I knew
she was dead but I phoned for an ambulance anyway. That’s what people do, isn’t
it? You phone the emergency services and hope they’ll perform a miracle. I held
Lily in my arMs Then I did something I’m ashamed of. My sensible side, some
call it my cold-hearted side, came to the fore. I couldn’t let anyone see her
wearing a wedding dress that she’d obviously stolen. Can you believe I was
worried about the shame? I quickly changed her and hid the wedding dress in her
wardrobe, along with the wedding shoes and perfume that she’d also stolen.”

Lily
jumped up and said, “I didn’t steal them, she gave them to me.”

Grace
repeated Lily’s comments. Ruth shook her head and continued, “They took her
away, examined her, and said she had a weak heart. They said it had just given
out. I argued with them, my Lily didn’t have a weak heart! They didn’t listen
though.”

“What
did you do with the dress and other things?” Grace asked.

“I
threw them away, put them in the rubbish. I didn’t want anyone to find them, I
didn’t want anyone to call Lily a thief.”

Lily
stamped her foot. “I’m not a thief! She gave them to me! She said I could have
them!”

Grace
said, “Lily’s saying that she was given the things.”

“But
why? Why would someone do that?” Ruth asked.

Grace
thought about how Rob had got rid of Archie’s suitcase. Perhaps he’d organised
for Jessie’s dress to be given away. But to a maid at the hotel? That didn’t
sound right. And Lily kept referring to a ‘she’, Jessie?

Grace
said to Lily, “Who gave you the dress? What did she look like?”

Lily’s
lower lip trembled. “You don’t believe me! Mum doesn’t believe me!”

Ruth
flinched. “Oh! I felt something then. What’s going on? Is Lily okay?”

Grace
said, “She’s getting upset, she thinks we don’t believe her. She’s ... she’s
gone.”

“Gone?
Gone forever?”

“I
don’t think so, I hope not. Sometimes ghosts need a bit of time on their own.”
Grace looked around the room. “I don’t think there’s anything else I need to
see. Thanks for talking to me.”

“Do
you really think Lily was murdered?”

“I’m
not sure, she’s connected somehow to Archie’s murder. Although, if she died
from a weak heart I don’t see how that points to murder. I think Lily saw
something, or heard something, that she wasn’t supposed to.”

Ruth
walked Grace back to the main room. “Can I do anything to help you? Do you need
to have another look at the honeymoon suite? I can arrange that.”

“No,
that’s okay, thank you.” Grace looked closer at Ruth. “Are you okay? How are
you coping since Lily died. Oh! No, that’s a stupid question, sorry.”

Ruth
gave her a little smile. “I don’t mind you asking that, no one ever asks me how
I am. I don’t blame them! I know I’m a bad-tempered grouch, I know what people
say about Old Raspberry. I’ve forgotten how to smile since Lily died, I miss
her so much. I’ve thought about leaving the hotel many times but whenever I’m
there I remember the times that Lily worked there. She was such a monkey! She
used to sneak into wedding receptions when they got to the dancing stage, she
used to dance at the back of the room! I didn’t have the heart to tell her
off.”

“You’re
lucky to have had a daughter like that, you sound as if you were close. I was
close to my mum.”

Ruth
handed Grace a tissue from her pocket. Grace took it and said, “Sorry, I didn’t
realise I was crying. Thank you.” She wiped her eyes. “I’ll give you my number.
If you think of anything that might help, anything that you remember about that
day, please ring me.”

Grace
wrote down her number. Ruth said, “Thanks, and thank you for coming round. I
feel a bit lighter knowing that Lily’s still around.”

Grace
looked around the room. “I can’t see her, but I can hear that humming of hers!”

Ruth
laughed. “That’s my Lily!” Her smile dropped. “If you do find out that Lily was
murdered, please, find the killer.”

“I
will,” Grace promised. She meant it, she was determined to find the murderer.

Chapter 32

Grace
slept in the next morning, that wasn’t like her at all. She dashed through the
door of the shop at 10 a.m. She skidded to a halt.

“Frankie!
What’s happened? Why are the shelves empty? Have we been robbed? Did they hurt
you? Frankie! Speak to me!”

Frankie
was leaning against the wall near the till. He looked pale and shell-shocked.
His mouth opened in an effort to speak, nothing came out.

Grace
raced to his side and grabbed his arm. “Frankie, speak slowly. Tell me what
happened.”

Frankie
closed his mouth and swallowed. He blinked a few times and then focused on
Grace. “They came back, they came back with reinforcements. Grace, it was
awful! They attacked me!”

“Who?
Start from the beginning. Do you need a drink?”

Frankie
nodded. Grace moved to the shop door and locked it. There was no point in
having the shop open if they didn’t have any stock to sell.

Grace
took Frankie to the kitchen, sat him down and soon pressed a cup of extra-sweet
tea in to his hands. Frankie took a few sips, the colour slowly returned to his
cheeks. He put the cup down and looked at Grace. “It was my fault, I forgot to
remove the message from my website, the one about the sale. I didn’t think
anything about it, we didn’t have many customers yesterday but those pensioners
...” Frankie gulped. He took a deep breath and began again. “Those pensioners
that came round the other day, do you remember them? There were loads of them
going through our shop.”

Grace
nodded. “I remember. Did they come back?”

Frankie’s
eyes widened. “They came back all right, they came back with their friends.
There was even a coach-load of them! I didn’t know there was that many old
codgers still alive in the world! They banged on the shop door at nine this
morning. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw their wrinkly faces pressed
up against the windows. I opened the door then ...”

Frankie
looked down at his tea, he shivered as if he was reliving the event.

“Go
on,” Grace urged. “I take it they bought something.”

Frankie’s
head snapped up. “Something! They bought everything. They swarmed into the shop
like a plague of locusts. They were all over the shelves, behind the till, even
in here! They were shouting and swearing! Fighting over vases! It was awful, I
never want to see anything like that again. I had to man the till. The grumpy
old sods kept asking me for even more of a discount! I was scared for my life.
I tried to phone you but some wrinkly-faced witch snatched my phone and threw
it over my head somewhere.”

Grace
didn’t know whether to laugh or to sympathise. She looked at Frankie’s face,
reached over and patted his hand. “It’s all over now. Sorry I wasn’t here to
help. We must have made a lot of money, everything in the shop has gone.”

“I
don’t care about the shop, I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my
life. If we ever open up again I’m going to ban anyone over the age of forty.”

“Drink
your tea, you’ll soon feel better. Have you taken the notice off your site
yet?”