2 A Different Shade Of Death Read Free Page A

been influenced by ghosts before but she hadn’t known it happen to Frankie.
Could he see ghosts too? Was he too afraid or embarrassed to tell her?
    The
man was still smirking. Grace was beginning to really dislike him. He said, “I
influenced him. It’s easy to influence the weak minded. I put the idea in his
head that if he’s going to be a successful business man then he needs to dress
like one. My clothes are ideal for him, and he got them at a bargain price.
These are quality clothes.”
    Quality?
That’s the word that Frankie kept using.
    Grace’s
eyes narrowed. “Are you influencing him now?”
    The
man gave a shrug. “I might be. He needs my help, the sooner we get this
shambles of a business sorted out, the better.”
    Grace
held her hands up. “No. It doesn’t work like that. You’re not here to help us.
We don’t need any help, we’re doing just fine on our own. As far as I know I’m
the one that can see ghosts, not Frankie,  and I’m the one who can help them.”
    The
man snorted. “Help? I don’t need help from you. You’re as stupid looking as
your brother. It’s obvious you need my help. We’ll start with the accounts. I
presume you have account books, go and get them.”
    “No.”
    The
man stiffened. “No one tells me ‘no’. Go and do it. Now.”
    “No,”
Grace repeated. She folded her arms again. She wasn’t going to hep this ghost.
If he had been murdered he wasn’t showing any signs of it. She wasn’t sure why
he was here, and she didn’t want to find out.
    The
man’s hand flew to his forehead, just as Frankie’s had done earlier. And
Pearl’s. He winced and bent over.
    Grace’s
arms dropped to her side, she moved closer to him. “What is it? Are you in pain?”
    He
looked up, his mouth opened and closed, no words came out.
    “He
is in pain. He’s feeling the same things that I felt earlier.” Pearl appeared
in front of Grace.
    “What’s
going on, Pearl? Why is he here? Why is he in pain? And why is he affecting you
and Frankie?”
    Pearl
shook her head. “I don’t know all the answers but I do know that this man was
murdered and that me and Frankie are experiencing his symptoms.”
    The
man gasped for breath.
    “What
can we do? I have to do something! Pearl!”
    “Calm
down. Look, he’s getting his breath back. Let him talk.”
    “How
can he get his breath back? He’s a ghost.”
    The
man straightened up, his breathing sounded shallow.
    Pearl
said, “He’s reliving his last few days, I’ve seen this before. You have to help
him, Grace.”
    “But
how? And why? He’s not a nice man,” Grace said. She felt a pang of guilt
admitting it but it was true, he was obnoxious.
    In
a soft voice Pearl said, “For some reason your Frankie is experiencing the same
symptoms, if this man’s murderer isn’t brought to justice this ghost will
continue to relive his death over and over again.”
    Grace
felt a trickle of fear slide down her back. She looked at the man and then at
Pearl. “Does that mean that Frankie will keep experiencing these symptoms? Will
he be in pain?”
    Pearl
nodded. “Grace, Frankie could die.”
     

Chapter 6
     
    When
Grace looked back at the man he seemed to have recovered. He gave Grace a
confused look and said, “Where am I? What am I doing here?”
    Grace
took a deep breath to steady her nerves. In a steely voice she said, “You
forced my brother to buy your clothes, you forced your way into our shop and
now you’re trying to tell us how to run our business! And whatever killed you
is now trying to kill my brother!”
    The
man’s forehead wrinkled. “I’m a bit confused. Where are we? Who are you?”
    Pearl
said to Grace, “You need to calm down. I know you’re annoyed, and worried about
Frankie but this ghost isn’t the cause, we need to find out who murdered him. We
need to find out more about him.”
    Grace
said, “Can’t we just throw him and his clothes out of the shop?”
    “We
could, but that means whoever murdered