A Deadly Lesson (Storage Ghost Murders Book 5) by Gillian Larkin Read Free Book Online

needed.
    Grace
helped Frankie in the shop for the next few hours. At lunchtime he offered to
get their dinner. Without waiting for her order, Frankie nipped out of the shop
door.
    The
shop was completely empty. Grace called out Pearl’s name. There was no reply.
She turned to Abbie and said, “Have you seen her anywhere? She might not be
visible to me at the moment, that’s happened before.”
    Abbie
shook her head. “I could look for her.” She promptly disappeared.
    Grace
was totally alone. She took the opportunity to start undertaking some research.
She’d start with Julianne’s company. What was it called again? Last Hope
Repossession? That was it.
    Grace
opened the shop laptop and typed the name into the search box. The first
results were the company itself proclaiming their services. There was a picture
of Julianne and Carlos, along with some other professional-looking people in
suits. They all had caring looks on their faces. Grace cynically wondered how
many times that photo had been taken before their expressions looked caring
enough. She mentally chided herself. She shouldn’t form opinions so easily.
    Grace
studied Julianne’s image. She was a curvy girl with shoulder-length blonde hair.
She looked nothing like Abbie, but she wouldn’t, would she? Grace wondered what
the story was behind Julianne and her adoption. Had Julianne ever searched for
her real parents? Could that have something to do with Abbie’s death?
    Grace
then looked at Carlos. He was certainly handsome with his dark complexion and
black hair. She enlarged the image. There was something in his eyes, something
cold and calculating. She shivered. She wasn’t looking forward to meeting him
in the flesh but she knew that was something she’d have to do soon.
    She
looked at the next few pages. There were many reviews about the company, all of
them glowing and full of praise. Grace frowned when she saw a few names that
didn’t have   comments underneath, a
note had been added to state the comment had been removed. Why? Had the
customer left a less than favourable review?
    It
seemed that the company helped people who were behind with their mortgage
payments, those people that were about to have their homes repossessed. Last
Hope Repossession claimed that they would pay the home owner a ‘fair price’ for
their house. The company would then allow the customer to stay in their homes,
they would pay the company a monthly rental amount that would be considerably
less than their mortgage payments.
    “Hmm,”
Grace muttered to herself. Last Hope Repossession were making themselves sound
like a benevolent charity. She was sure there was something dodgy going on, she
could feel it in her water, as Pearl would say.
    Grace
looked through more pages. She couldn’t find one single negative comment about
the company. She found many more comments that had been removed though. How had
they been removed? And by whom?
    Grace
typed in another word and found a reputable well-known consumer company. She
found a heading, ‘Mortgage Help’ and scrolled down to the help part. There was
a section where people could ask questions. Grace typed in a question stating
that she was about to have her house repossessed but had been approached by
Last Hope Repossession. She enquired about their suitability.
    Let’s
see what happened with that.
    “I
didn’t know Julianne had changed jobs.”
    Grace
jumped and clutched her chest. “Crikey! Try not to sneak up on me, Abbie!”
    Abbie
grinned. “Sorry.” She pointed to the screen. “Julianne must have started that
company after I died. She used to work at a bank with Dad, on the mortgage side
of things. She was always talking to Dad about mortgage rates. Boring! Have you
checked on Brooke yet? I bet she’s been travelling the world! I bet she’s
married to some rich footballer!”
    Grace
got some information from Abbie about Brooke, and after a few searches, they
found her.
    “Oh.
She works in her dad’s travel