A Sweet Murder by Gillian Larkin Read Free Book Online Page B

asked.
    “ Some of them were eating sweets on the dance floor, must have
needed them to boost their energy. I still had some of those banana
fizzles you gave me earlier but they didn’t do much for my energy
levels. Have we got any bacon?”
    “ What did the sweets look like?” Grace asked. Something wasn’t
right here.
    Frankie shrugged
and yawned again, treating Grace to a full view of his tonsils. He
smacked his lips together and said, “I don’t know, they were black
like liquorice.”
    Something was
nagging in Grace’s brain but she couldn’t catch the
thought.
    “ I’ll make my own breakfast then,” Frankie said. He heaved
himself off the table and slouched towards the kitchen.
    Grace didn’t
have time to think about the black sweets as a group of elderly
people entered the shop.
    It wasn’t until
4 p.m. that Frankie returned to the shop. He looked brighter and
cleaner. Grace had a surreptitious sniff, he smelt better
too.
    “ You’ll be all right on your own, won’t you?” Frankie said. He
headed towards the shop door.
    “ I’ve been on my own all day. Where are you going? On another
date?”
    “ No,
I have to limit my dates, it’s not fair for my women to have so
much of me all at once. I thought I told you about my meeting with
Sylvester.”
    “ You
didn’t. Where is your meeting?”
    “ At
the storage auction site we went to yesterday, the one where we got
the chair. Sylvester’s agreed it with the office manager for me to
have a look there, to get a feel for how the storage business
works. I’m going to do a blog about it.”
    Keeping the
excitement out of her voice Grace said, “Can I come with you? I’ve
been stuck in here all day, we haven’t had a customer for the last
hour.”
    She held her
breath as Frankie considered her request. It would be wonderful if
she could find out who had rented Connie’s storage unit. And why
they had stopped paying for it.
    “ Okay, you can come along but don’t get in the way. And leave
the vending machine alone this time, I think you’ve had enough. How
many sweets have you got through today? There’s rubbish all over
the floor.”
    Grace looked
down in surprise. She’d been aware of enjoying one or two sweets
but there were about forty wrappers on the floor. Her cheeks felt
warm as she picked the wrappers up and put them in the
bin.
    Frankie tutted.
“Honestly Grace, you should look after yourself better.”
    Grace kept a
tight hold on her willpower and her handbag as they drove to the
storage unit. She could almost hear the sweets inside her bag
singing enticingly to her.
    The manager was
sitting behind the desk as they entered the office that they had
been in the previous day. He gave them a cheerful smile. “Sylvester
told me you’d be stopping by today. He’s a great guy, isn’t he? We
always have a bigger crowd when he’s the auctioneer. I’ve got some
paperwork out for you to look at, it shows the forms that people
have to fill in. People can do it online too, I’ve left the screen
on the computer open at that page.”
    “ Thanks so much, I appreciate it,” Frankie said.
    The office
manager stood up. “I’ll leave you alone for a while, I always make
a check of the units at this time, make sure they’re all secure.
Will you be all right on your own? There’s some fresh coffee over
there. I won’t be long.”
    He gave them
another jolly smile and ambled out of the office.
    Frankie sat down
at the desk, Grace pulled a chair over to him. She said, “He’s very
trusting, we could be anybody.”
    Frankie gave her
a look. “We’re friends of Sylvester, of course he can trust us. Do
you have to sit so close, you’re nearly on my knee! Shift
up!”
    “ I
was just looking at the paperwork. Do you think we could find out
who rented that unit with the chair in?”
    “ Why?”
    Grace thought
quickly. “Then you can post a photo of the chair and let your
readers know about your visit to the sweet shop. It’ll give your
post a