A Deadly Lesson (Storage Ghost Murders Book 5) Read Free Page A

an eyebrow at Abbie.
    Abbie
laughed, “My friend, Ethan, bought it for me. It’s all about overcoming your
fears about driving. There’s tips on how to remember the legal stuff like
speeds and signs. It’s got lots of good reviews. I’d only got halfway through
it. You can read it if you like.”
    Grace
examined the back cover. The writer was making some outlandish claims. She said
to Abbie, “I need to make sure you’re attached to this book.”
    Grace
walked swiftly into the shop and right up to the front exit door of the shop.
Abbie floated behind her. Grace smiled and nodded. “You are attached to this.
You stay here and have a look around our shop. I’ll bring the rest of the books
in.” Grace placed the driving book on the shop counter.
    By
the time she’d returned with the last book Abbie was sitting on a top shelf at
the side of the shop. She waved down to Grace and said, “I can fly! This is
awesome!”
    Abbie
gracefully held her arms out and swooped down to Grace. Grace grinned and said,
“I wish I could do that. What do you think of our shop? Mum and Dad set it up
as an antiques shop but Frankie and I fill it with things that we find at
storage lockers. The shelves are a bit empty at the moment, I’m sure Frankie
will bring some good things back later. In the meantime, I’ll put some of these
books on the shelves and you can tell me all about yourself.”
    “I
wish I could help you with the books,” Abbie said.
    “You
can help by telling me about the night you died.” Grace looked closer at Abbie.
“If that’s all right?”
    Abbie
nodded. Grace noticed her feet were inches off the ground.
    Grace
pulled a box of books closer to a shelf at the front of the shop. She started
to place the books on the shelf, and Abbie started to talk.
    “I
died on the night of my eighteenth birthday. I had a party at The Old Highway Man
pub. Do you know where that is?”
    Grace
nodded. “I’ve been a few times, it’s lovely.”
    “All
my friends were there. It was our last year at school, we were all turning
eighteen that year. Everyone was making plans to go to university. Not me
though, I was going to take a gap year! Oh! You should see the places I was
going to visit. I had it all planned out. I was going with my best friend,
Brooke. She was even more excited than me!”
    “Was
Brooke at the party? And that other friend you mentioned earlier, Ethan?”
    Abbie
turned her head away from Grace and said sadly, “Yes, they were both there.”
She turned back to Grace and gave her a wobbly smile. “And Mum and Dad were
there. And my sister, Julianne, she’s ten years older than me. And her
boyfriend.” Abbie began to giggle. “She gets so mad when anyone calls him her
boyfriend. She keeps saying that he’s her fiancé! But Carlos has never asked
her to marry him, it’s so funny!”
    Grace
made a mental note of the people at the party. She hadn’t missed the sadness in
Abbie’s voice as she spoke about her friends, Brooke and Ethan. What was going
on there?
    Grace
pulled another box over. She said, “You told me that you’d been run over, when
did that happen? Was it after the party?”
    Abbie
floated over to Grace’s other side, her brow wrinkled. She said, “I think it
was during the party. I got some bad news, or did I hear some bad news? I can’t
remember but it made me sad and I wanted to get away for a while. I went
outside and was going to cross the road. There’s a bit of grass opposite the
pub, it’s got a bench on it. I was going to sit down for a bit. I remember
stepping off the path and ...”
    Grace
paused and looked at Abbie. Abbie’s face had gone as white as a sheet, her eyes
were wide with terror. She pointed a shaking finger to something behind Grace.

 
 
    Chapter 5

 
    “What’s
she staring at!” a voice shot out.
    Grace
turned around to face Pearl, the resident ghost of the shop. She was shorter
than Grace with grey curly hair, she wore a floral housecoat over a long