Read Online The Last Reading (Storage Ghost Murders Book 1) by Gillian Larkin - Free Book Online Page A

spend every night at home, letting that day’s insults get
to him.”
    “People
can be cruel, did things get better for him?” Grace asked.
    “They
did, or seemed to. He didn’t have another reading but when he dropped some
packages off I managed to have a chat with him. He said he’d started a lottery
club at work. He organised it and went round each department introducing
himself. He said there was always talk of setting up a lottery club but no one
could be bothered to do it. His colleagues appreciated Tom undertaking it.”
    “Did
they win anything?”
    Mae
sighed. “Something terrible happened, and it’s all my fault. Tom said how great
it would be if there was a lucky ticket and they won a good amount, everyone
would treat him like a hero. I agreed and then I foolishly said I should use my
crystal pendulum to see which numbers would come up that week.”
    “You
can do that?” Grace asked, her eyebrows raising.
    “That’s
just what Tom said. I regretted the remark straight away, I don’t use my
pendulum for things like that. Tom didn’t believe it could work. Being the
stubborn woman I am I said I would prove it. Oh, what a foolish thing to do!”
    “Did
it work? Hang on, I don’t understand, how does the pendulum work?”
    “I
wrote out all the lottery numbers on separate bits of paper and put them on a
table. I tuned into the pendulum’s power and then held it over each number. If
it swung one way it meant the number wouldn’t come up, and, well, you can guess
the rest. I saw the glint in Tom’s eyes, it was a glint of greed so I purposely
didn’t give him all the winning numbers. I forced the pendulum to swing over a
certain number when it shouldn’t have done.
    “When
I saw him the next week he was beaming like a Cheshire cat. Five of the numbers
that I gave him did come up and everyone in the lottery syndicate won £1000.
You can imagine how pleased they were, they thought Tom was their lucky charm.
He wanted me to predict the numbers again but I refused. He gave me a cold
look, which I hadn’t seen before and walked away. I thought that was the end of
it but a few days later he came to me in tears. I was taken aback and asked him
what the matter was. He said someone at work had a seriously ill child and
needed money to send them to a doctor in America.”
    Grace
said, “You believed him?”
    Mae
nodded. “He was very convincing. I didn’t think he’d lie. I did another
pendulum swing, still not going for the full numbers, some instinct warned me
not to. He came back the week after saying that the total individual win was
£2000 and everyone was over the moon. I did ask about the poorly child but he
quickly changed the subject and asked for more lucky numbers. I had a sudden
clear vision of him at work, his colleagues were still making fun of him behind
his back, they were using him to get money.”
    “Did
you tell him this?”
    “I
did. He flew into a rage and said I was lying. He was outside at this time but
he pushed me to one side and ran into my house. I found him in the living room
going through my drawers. Oh, Grace! You should have heard the language he was
using. I was shocked. I ordered him to get out but he kept looking, he was
looking for the pendulum, he wanted to do the predicting himself. I told him it
wouldn’t work but he was like a man possessed.”
    Mae
paused and looked down at her lap.
    “What
happened next?” Grace asked.
    Mae
looked up. “I’m so ashamed but I had to do it. I grabbed a glass paperweight
and hit him on the back with it. I didn’t want to kill him, obviously, I wanted
to stop him. He fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. I picked him up, it
was like lifting a child, and I threw him outside. I told him I was going to
report him to the Post Office. His face was full of hate. Despite his size he
looked quite scary. He actually spat when he said, ‘You’ll regret this’.”
    “How
awful, he doesn’t look the type at all to do that. Did