The Death Planner (Storage Ghost Murders Book 6) Read online

  Grace tried to sound confident as she said, “£100,000.”

  The woman blinked but didn’t say anything.

  Grace carried on, “The party is for a good friend, a very good friend. That figure was only my starting budget. I’ve heard good things from my friends about Ms Leigh and I would rather speak to her.”

  The woman swallowed and said, “Just a moment please.” She walked towards the office at the end of the room and tapped on the door. She shot Grace a curious look as if she was deciding whether to believe her or not. Grace gave her a gracious smile as if it was an everyday occurrence for her to be spending so much on a celebration.

  Jenny was floating around the room and muttering to herself, “These are my clients. These are my contacts.”

  The saleswoman returned to Grace a short time later and informed her that Ms Leigh would see her now. She led Grace towards the small office, the door was open. Grace thanked her and walked into the office. She stopped in her tracks when she came face-to-face with Letitia Leigh.

  She looked like Jenny. She had the same colour hair and it was cut in the same style as Jenny’s. She was wearing an updated version of Jenny’s business suit. Her facial features were larger but, from a short distance away, Grace almost thought she was seeing Jenny’s double.

  Letty held her hand out in greeting. Grace took it and immediately noticed Letty’s eyes. They were calculating eyes. They quickly scanned Grace as if calculating what her worth was. Grace knew immediately that she couldn’t trust this woman.

  Letty spoke, “Good morning, I’m Letitia Leigh. My colleague has informed me that you’re interested in our services. Please, do take a seat. Would you like a tea or coffee?”

  Grace wouldn’t normally turn down such an offer but she wasn’t intending on staying in this office long. There was something about Letty that was sending shivers down her spine. Grace refused the offer of refreshments and took a seat.

  Jenny moved to Letty’s side. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at her. Jenny looked at Grace, pointed at Letty and raised her eyebrows. When she finally spoke all she could manage was, “My hair! She’s stolen my hair!”

  Letty took her seat behind a large desk and laid her clasped hands on the desk. “What kind of event are you looking at, Ms …?”

  “Ms Abrahams. It’s a surprise party for a friend. I went to an amazing wedding a while back. It was in Manchester.” Grace gave a small chuckle and put one hand on her chest. “I do believe the wedding cost over a million pounds! Perhaps you’ve heard about it.”

  Letty’s smile didn’t falter. “No.”

  “Liar! You were there!” Jenny pointed an accusing finger at her.

  Grace carried on, “I think the wedding was organised by a big company in Manchester but there was one person in particular who was really helpful. She worked for that company. Now, what was her name?” Grace tapped her chin and made the pretence of thinking. “Ah! Jenny! That’s it. Her name was Jenny Lorrimer! Have you ever heard of her?”

  Letty’s smile now looked as if it was glued on. “No. That name doesn’t ring a bell.”

  Jenny folded her arms and stared at Letty.

  Grace wasn’t sure how much further she could push this line of questioning. Letty looked as if she was ready to throw Grace out. She carried on anyway. “Jenny gave me her business card at that wedding. I saw that she’d moved to Leeds soon after and set up her own business. I didn’t need her services but I kept an eye on her website in case my friends needed anyone. I looked up Jenny’s website yesterday for my own needs, but it wasn’t there anymore. But I came across your site. It looks remarkably similar to Jenny’s! Are you sure you don’t know her?”

  Letty’s smile finally dropped. She looked at her watch and said tightly, “I didn’t know her. I am very busy this morning.” She looked back at Grace and tried to resurrect her smile. Her smile was having none of it. “Can you tell me what event you’d like us to plan?”

  Grace hadn’t missed Letty using the past tense for Jenny. She had one more thing to try before she left. “Oh, yes. I’ve got the details in my bag.” Grace lifted her handbag on to the desk and began to take things out. Her hand shook slightly as she reached for Jenny’s headset. She placed it slowly on the desk and watched Letty’s reaction.

  The colour drained from Letty’s face as she looked at the headset. She raised a shaking hand and pointed at it. Her voice cracked as she said, “Where did you get that?”

  “Oh, didn’t I say? I buy storage lockers. It was inside one of them. It caught my eye for some reason.” Grace clicked her fingers. “I know what it was! I saw that lovely girl, Jenny, wearing one of these at that wedding. I’ve kept this in my bag to remind myself to organise a party for my friend.” Grace lifted the headset up and held it out to Letty. “Do you ever use things like this? Would you like a closer look?”

  Grace may have well been holding out a poisonous snake to Letty for she jumped out of her chair and raced towards the door. The door was flung open and Letty ran through it as if the hounds of hell were on her heels.

  Jenny looked towards Grace and shrugged. Grace waited a moment for Letty to return.

  She never returned and Grace was asked politely, but firmly, to leave the premises by the same young woman who had first greeted her. She was informed that Letitia Leigh would not be able to help her with her event.

  Chapter 21

  Jenny didn’t want to leave the building. She swooped around the room and called out, “You come back here, Letty! Come back here and face the music, you coward!”

  Grace left the building and Jenny had no choice but to follow her. As they walked down the street Jenny said, “You have to go back! You have to confront her!”

  Grace hissed from the corner of her mouth, “I can hardly pin her to the floor until she confesses!”

  “You could try,” Jenny added.

  Grace gave a small shake of her head and whispered, “There’s something else we can do.”

  Grace returned home and started up her laptop. Jenny sat at her side on the sofa and said, “What are you looking for now?”

  Grace explained, “I helped a ghost a while back, he was called Archie.” She paused. “Funnily enough, he was killed at a wedding too, his own wedding. Anyway, he ran a security business and he showed me how to access certain security systems that hotels have.”

  Jenny laughed. “Do you mean hack? You’re going to hack into these systems?”

  Grace smiled too. “I prefer to use the word ‘access’. It sounds friendlier. Once I’m in the system I can check the CCTV footage. Right, it’s the King James’ Hotel on the 19th of June 2010. Let’s have a look.”

  Grace looked through a few pages as she tried to locate the hotel’s security system. She frowned and turned to Jenny. “They’re using a different system, I can’t get into it.”

  “Now what?”

  Grace thought for a moment. “We need to link Letty to the hotel. It was a wedding, people would have been taking photos. Ha!” She held up a hand. “Where would you post wedding photos?”

  “Facebook, and Twitter. Are those still going? Or is there something new online?”

  “No, it’s mainly those two. Can you remember the name of the couple who were getting married?”

  “Their names are in my files. Have a look in there.”

  Grace’s face screwed up. “Your files are in the cleaning cupboard at the shop. I don’t really want to go there today. Do you think you could try and remember?”

  Jenny closed her eyes and rested back on the sofa. Grace decided it would be a good time to make a cup of tea. She stood up and left Jenny to her thoughts.

  Grace made her way to the kitchen and switched the kettle on. She took her phone from her pocket and reluctantly looked at the messages that she’d been avoiding. There were three messages from Frankie. Grace took a deep breath before she read them. She was half expecting Frankie to inform her that he’d moved out of the shop and was now living with B
eth.

  Grace read the messages. She smiled. There was no mention of Beth at all. Frankie had sent her messages about what food and supplies he needed. Grace sent him a reply informing him that she wasn’t an online delivery service and he could buy his own soap, shampoo and bread.

  A few minutes later, Grace went back to the living room with a cup of tea in one hand and a banana in the other. Jenny’s eyes were still closed. Grace sat down and tucked into her banana.

  She’d just finished the last mouthful when Jenny sat bolt upright and declared, “Edward Howes and Isobel Brown!”

  “Are you sure?” Grace said. She placed the banana skin in the bin at her side.

  Jenny nodded. “I can see their invitations clearly. They were a lovely couple to deal with. Some couples make ridiculous demands but Edward and Isobel didn’t. I think there was a request for a certain kind of food because one of the guests had an allergy, I think. But other than that, I remember them being good customers.”

  Grace turned to her laptop again. “That’s great, thank you. It should be easy enough to find them. There could even be video footage too.” Grace jumped as a cold feeling shot through her arm.

  Jenny had her hand on Grace’s arm, her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “Oh, Grace! That lovely couple! I must have ruined their wedding day!”

  “You didn’t ask to be murdered, I’m sure they would have understood. Would you mind moving your arm please? I feel like I’m getting frostbite.”

  “Sorry.” Jenny moved closer to Grace and looked at the screen.

  Grace now felt like she was sitting near a cold breeze but didn’t feel she could ask Jenny to move again. She tapped away at the screen and soon found something. “Look, this profile page doesn’t belong to the bride or groom but, going by the amount of photos, it must belong to a friend of theirs.”

  Grace scrolled down the page, and the next few pages. She could see the bride and groom in the distance but whoever had taken the photos had concentrated more on the guests at the wedding.

  Jenny’s hand shot out. “There! Look! I can see Letty, she’s dressed as a waitress. The sneaky cow!”

  Grace zoomed in on the image. They saw a smiling Letty handing out cards to people as they walked past the bar area. Her hair was blonde in the photos and she had placed a false beauty mark on her cheek. But it was definitely her.

  Grace looked at some other photos. “Letty was certainly busy that night. I think I can see you in this picture. You’ve got your back to the camera but I can see your headset.”

  Jenny gave her a sad smile. “People made comments about it being old-fashioned but I didn’t care.” She looked down at her lap. “Perhaps if I hadn’t have been wearing it that night I wouldn’t have been murdered.”

  Grace pressed her lips together. She wasn’t going to point out that the murderer would have found another way to kill her. She decided to change the subject. “Shall we see if we can find Giles anywhere? Elsa said he’d booked a room for them that night. He might have turned up at the wedding to talk to her.”

  Jenny looked up from her lap. “I’d almost forgotten about him! Yes, let’s have a look and then you can track him down and confront him!”

  “One step at a time.” Grace looked through the images again. She saw a few photos with Elsa on them.

  Jenny smiled. “Look how happy she looks. She loved being at these weddings. She was helping out with the food at this one. As well as organising all the flowers of course! I wouldn’t dare ask anyone else to deal with that.”

  Grace paused over a photo. “Look at this. Elsa’s talking to a man. You can’t see his face properly but look at his body language. He’s got his hand on the small of Elsa’s back. That’s rather an intimate gesture. Elsa’s smiling at him, but she’s smiling in all the photos so it’s hard to tell if this smile is different. Hang on a moment.” Grace zoomed in on the man’s hand. “It’s Giles. That’s the same ring that I saw on Elsa’s visitor the other night. He was there at the wedding.”

  “Which means he could be a suspect,” Jenny announced. “Why would he want to kill me?”

  Grace wasn’t listening. “Jenny, look at this photo. Elsa is talking to Letty. Letty is handing her something but I don’t think it’s a business card.” Grace clicked on the enlarge button. “Letty is handing Elsa a folded piece of paper. There must be some sort of message on it.”

  Jenny gasped and her hands flew to her chest. “The couple! The couple that I saw in my vision! It was Letty and Elsa. That’s why I was so upset. I saw them talking to each other! Letty shouldn’t have been there, and she certainly shouldn’t have been talking to my sister! What were they talking about? We have to find out.”

  Grace nodded. “I think we need to have another talk with Elsa. And I may have to tell her why you’ve appeared to me.” Grace closed the page down. Just as it closed a phrase caught her eye. Grace started to open the page again but her phone rang.

  It was a frantic-sounding Frankie. “Grace! You have to come down to the shop now! It’s an emergency! Quick!”

  He rang off before Grace could reply. Grace stood up and, trying to ignore her suddenly racing heart, said to Jenny, “Elsa will have to wait a while longer.”

  Chapter 22

  Grace raced through the shop door and came to a breathless halt in front of Frankie who was standing behind the shop counter. She took a moment to catch her breath. “I got here as fast as I could! What’s wrong? What’s the emergency?” Her eyes narrowed as she took in Frankie’s calm demeanour. “Is there really an emergency? Or is this one of your jokes?”

  Frankie gave her a broad smile. “It is an emergency. Well, not so much an emergency as a life-changing moment.” He cocked his head. “Is that the right expression?”

  Grace came round to his side of the counter and shoved him. “Tell me now!”

  Frankie held his hands up. “Calm down, you’ll scare the customers.”

  Grace quickly scanned the shop. The only customer was Mrs Smith at the far end of the shop, and Grace knew from past experience that the elderly lady was partly deaf.

  Frankie stood up straighter and held his head high. “I’m thinking of asking Beth to marry me.”

  Time seemed to stand still for Grace. There was a funny whooshing sound in her ears and her vision started to blur. The ground tilted to one side, she stumbled and grabbed hold of the counter.

  Frankie was at her side in a moment. “Grace! Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” His words sounded far away and muffled.

  The actual ghost in the room came to Grace’s other side. She didn’t seem concerned over Grace’s health at all. Jenny’s eyes shone and she said, “A wedding! What a celebration! There’s so much to plan. The food, the guests! Oh! What wonderful news! I have so much work to do!” She clutched her clipboard tighter and floated upwards.

  Grace took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Frankie led her to a nearby chair and sat her down. “Grace, speak to me.”

  Grace waved a hand at him as if trying to say she was alright. Frankie knelt at her side, concern etched on his face.

  Grace finally managed to speak. “I’m sorry about that, Frankie. It was the shock, that’s all.”

  “I know. I was shocked myself when the idea came to me.” He laughed. “You know what I’m like around women - so many women and not enough time.” His smile faded. “But there’s something about Beth. I feel like I’ve been waiting for her all my life. I don’t want to waste any more time. I know you’ve only met her once but you do like her, don’t you?”

  A sudden malicious thought came to Grace. “What if I didn’t like her? Would you still marry her?”

  Frankie’s face fell. “I … I’d have to think about it.”

  The malicious feelings just as suddenly disappeared. Grace looked at her brother and said softly, “I do like her, Frankie, she seems lovely. But it doesn’t matter what I think, if you feel it’s the right thing to do, then you go ahead and do it.”


  Relief washed over Frankie’s face. “I’m so glad you said that. I’m not going to sell the shop or anything. I’ll probably have to move out but I’ll never move away from you, Grace. You don’t get off that easy.”

  Grace smiled at him. He did look happy. He deserved to be happy. She was feeling jealous, that’s all. She patted him on the arm. “I’m truly happy for you. When are you going to ask her? And where?”

  Frankie waved his arm around the shop. “I’m going to ask her here. She’s nipped out for some lunch for us, she knows a specialist shop down the road that does organic food. Whatever that is.”

  “You can’t ask her here! It’s not very romantic, is it?” Grace tried to stand up. “Why don’t you take her out somewhere? To the park, or go for a drive, or something like that. I’ll look after the shop.”

  Frankie pushed her back into her seat. “This place is perfect. I feel closer to Mum and Dad here. I feel like they’re watching over us. Don’t you ever feel like someone is watching over us?”

  Grace nodded, unable to speak. Pearl had just appeared behind Frankie and was looking at him fondly. That was unusual for Pearl as she normally looked at Frankie with a mixture of disgust and annoyance.

  Frankie carried on, “And you’re not looking after the shop again. I told you yesterday that you were having the day off. Beth would kill me if I made you work again!”

  Grace gave him a grateful smile. Speaking of someone killing someone else … She did have her own work to do. She said to Frankie, “Why did you want me to come here? You could have asked her, and then told me later.”

  “Because I wanted you to be the first to know. I know you’re my sister but you’re also my friend. I thought you knew that.”

  Pearl’s voice was choked as she waved a hand through Frankie and declared, “Why don’t you tell her that more often, you idiot-boy!”

  Grace’s words refused to come out again. She blinked away a tear and patted Frankie’s arm again.

  He gave her a little shove and grinned. “Stop blubbering. You know how awful you look when you start crying.” He pulled her to her feet with a loud grunt. “Bloody hell, Grace! Lay off the cakes will you!”