A Sweet Murder (12 page)

Frankie opened
his arms and grinned at Grace. He smiled and said, “Let’s not fall
out, life is too short. You have a day off and I’ll look after the
shop. I’ve loads of energy!”

Frankie
subjected her to a wet kiss on the forehead before winking at her
and then running out of the room. They heard him bounding down the
steps.

“
Well!” Connie said. “I never would have thought that he’d be
daft enough to get involved with drugs.”

Grace’s head
snapped to the side. “For all we know your darling Della could have
sold these to him!”

“
Grace! There’s no need to talk to Connie like that,” Pearl
said. There was a slight pause then she added, “Although I was
thinking the same thing. Let’s have a look at those
sweets.”

Grace opened the
bag as if expecting a bomb to go off. She picked up a black sweet.
“It looks like a liquorice twist but it’s fatter. Look, there’s a
red seam running through the middle, I wonder if that’s the herb
part of it.”

“
Herb, my arse! It’s probably cannabis, or crack cocaine,”
Pearl said. “What have you spotted now? Speak up!”

Grace closed her
hand around the sweet and looked away from Connie. She said,
“There’s a letter stamped on the side of it. It’s a letter
‘F’.”

Connie’s voice
sounded full of sadness as she said, “F for Flamingo.”

Chapter 25

“
This might have nothing to do with Della, it could be anyone
at the factory, anyone could get access to the ingredients,” Connie
said, a hopeful note in her voice.

Pearl looked at
Grace and said, “You know what you have to do, don’t
you?”

Grace nodded.
“I’ll have to go to the nightclub myself. I haven’t been to one for
years, I don’t even know what people wear in those places.”
“Very little, going by what I’ve seen on the news,” Pearl added. “I
don’t want to see you dressed like that, Grace, make sure your
dress covers your dignity.”

“
I
can’t go to the nightclub until tonight so I may as well question
Vincent, Lucinda and Della. I can show them the recipe book, see
how they react.”

“
See
if you can come back later and tell me how you got on,” Pearl said.
“But if I don’t see you before you go to the nightclub promise me
you’ll take care, don’t let anyone take advantage of
you.”

Grace said
goodbye to the old ghosts and headed down the stairs. She had the
recipe book and Frankie’s sweets in her handbag. She decided to go
out of the back door, she didn’t want Frankie asking for his dodgy
sweets back. She picked up the van keys and went out through the
kitchen. She headed towards the van. She almost dropped the keys as
someone said, “Well, this is a turn-up for the books. What’s going
on?”

“
Connie!” Grace’s hand flew to her chest. “You must be
attached to the recipe book, not the chair.”

Connie looked
around the yard.“Is that a good thing? Does that mean I can come
with you?”

“
It
does. Perhaps you can help me too.” Grace opened the driver’s door
and climbed in. Connie floated through the passenger door and sat
down. She smiled. “That was strange feeling. Where are we going
first?”

Grace took her
phone out. “I think I’ll try to see Lucinda first. If she’s out on
the road we might be able to meet up somewhere.”

Grace had to
speak to Lucinda’s answering service. She left a vague message but
said she needed to speak to Lucinda urgently, that it concerned the
family business.

“
Let’s go and see Vincent at the factory,” Grace suggested.
She suddenly winced and looked at Connie. “Are you eating lemon
sherbets? I don’t like those, never have. I think they must be the
only sweet that I don’t like.”

“
Sorry, I’d forgotten that you could now taste my sweets. Let
me see what else I’ve got in my pocket. Chocolate
toffees?”

Grace nodded.
Two seconds later the buttery taste filled her mouth. It was all
well and good tasting Connie’s sweets - but was she gaining the
calories too? Grace hoped not, she’d had to put on her Christmas
trousers this morning, the ones she saved for the huge Christmas
meal that Frankie insisted on cooking for her. Grace smiled, he
used to insist on cooking that meal for Mum and Dad when they were
alive, they all used to put on their special trousers in readiness
for Frankie’s feast.

Connie spoke,
“You look happy.”

“
Just thinking about my family. Is there a shorter way to the
factory or should I use the main road?” Grace asked as she pulled
out into the traffic.

“
The
main road is fine. You can tell me about your family, if you don’t
mind. It’s better than me turning grey with worry every five
minutes.”

Grace was happy
to talk about her family as they drove along. It made her feel warm
and she loved to talk about Mum and Dad. Connie nodded and said, “I
think they came to the shop once! Your mum told me your name and I
remember thinking what a lovely name you had. I remember your
brother now too. Well! Isn’t that funny? We’ve met before. Oh look,
we’re here already.”

Grace pulled
into the main car park and soon found a space. She turned the
engine off and said to Connie, “I won’t be able to talk to you in
front of other people. When I’ve helped other ghosts and needed to
tell them something I’ve typed a text on my phone and shown it to
them. I might do that with you, if that’s okay.”

“
Of
course. Let’s get going. I wonder if the factory has
changed.”

Connie whooshed
through the door and towards the factory. She never got a chance to
see if the factory had changed.

“
I’m
sorry but Mr Vincent isn’t in today, he’s working from home,” the
receptionist informed them.

“
Are
you sure,” Grace asked slowly, giving Connie a chance to whip
around to the other side of the desk. Grace tried to look casual as
Connie floated through the receptionist’s body and peered at the
book in front of her. Connie looked over at Grace and said, “He’s
definitely at home. Let’s go.”

Grace declined
to leave a message. It was lovely having Connie with her but she
moved at a fast pace, was this how she had been in
business?

Following
instructions from Connie they arrived at Vincent’s home twenty
minutes later. Grace stopped the van and stared at the house in
front of her. In her stunned state all she could manage to mutter
was, “Are you kidding?”

Chapter 26

“
It’s quite impressive, isn’t it? Alfred had it built when the
business took off,” Connie said.

Grace looked
from left to right. “It’s like a mansion! I wasn’t expecting this.”
A brass plaque on the wall caught her eye. “Is it really called
‘Flamingo Hall’?”

“
It
is,” Connie said proudly. “Are you going to drive in?”

Grace looked at
the driveway, it was made of actual gravel, not tarmac or block
paving. She said, “I don’t want to mess it up. What if I leave
flakes of rust on it?”

Connie waved a
hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about that, someone will clean it
up. Drive up to the door. It looks like Vincent’s at home, and
Mirabelle too.”

Grace drove
cautiously along the gravel drive. She stopped a respectful
distance from two expensive cars. As she switched off the engine
she was beginning to regret her Christmas trousers. But what else
could she wear? She didn’t own any evening dresses.

As if reading
her mind Connie said, “You look fine as you are. Come on, hurry up.
I can’t wait to see Vincent and Mirabelle. I wonder what she’s
wearing today, she always looks so glamorous. Vincent did well
marrying her, probably married above himself but I shouldn’t really
say that.”

Grace walked up
the stone steps to the huge front doors. She felt like she was in
an episode of Downton Abbey. The feeling increased as a butler
answered the door, a polite and professional smile on his
face.

Grace blinked a
few times. Was she imagining him? No, he was still there, in his
butler’s uniform. She realised he was waiting for her to
speak.

“
I
wanted to speak to Vincent, erm, Mr Vincent Flamingo,” Grace
managed to say. She almost felt like curtseying.

The butler
nodded and said, “And whom shall I say is calling?”

“
Grace, Miss Grace Abrahams. Thank you.”

“
Please come in, I’ll see if Mr Vincent can see
you.”

The door was
held open, Grace stepped inside. She pressed her lips together to
stop her mouth hanging open in awe. She waited until the butler had
walked down to the hall and into a room and then she had a good
stare around.

She hissed to
Connie, “You could have warned me, I would have worn better shoes!”
She looked down at her feet. “Should I take my shoes off? Is that
what people do?”

Connie had a
proud smile on her face. “Mirabelle has done an excellent job on
this place, she has such good taste.”

The butler
returned, a polite smile still on his face. Grace wondered if he
practised in the mirror. He said, “Mr Vincent would be delighted to
see you. If you’d like to follow me? Can I take your
...?”

The butler
paused and looked Grace up and down. Oh, how she wished she had a
pair of elegant leather gloves to give him. He looked so expectant
that Grace gave him what was dangling from her hand.

“
Thank you, these are the keys to your vehicle I presume? And
this figure on the keyring, I believe it’s Homer Simpson, is that
right?”

Grace’s cheeks
felt warm. “They belong to my brother.”

“
He
obviously has good taste,” the butler said, a twinkle in his eye.
“This way, please.”

Connie was still
looking around the entrance hall. Grace noticed that the
strawberries on her dress seemed even redder.

The butler
turned slightly to his left, towards a door. The door suddenly
sprung open and a vision in gold swept out, almost knocking the
butler off his feet.

“
Mirabelle,” Connie sighed.

Mirabelle turned
back towards the room she had stormed out of and pointed a finger
towards it. Fury flashed from her beautiful eyes as she cried out,
“That’s it! No more! You get this sorted and you get it sorted
soon! If you think I’m losing everything because of your stupid
sisters you can think again!”

Mirabelle turned
on her gold high heels and flounced past Grace, her gold dress
seemed to flutter in outrage behind her. Mirabelle’s nose was so
high in the air that she didn’t notice Grace. She headed towards
the double staircase and clipped up the stairs. Grace’s nose
wrinkled. Mirabelle wore expensive perfume. A warm memory washed
over Grace. Her and Mum had visited Harrods in London a few years
ago and everywhere they went in the store the same expensive
perfume lingered in the air. Grace offered to buy Mum some but
she’d laughed and said she preferred her usual, the one that she
got from Ivy in Leeds Market.

The butler gave
an embarrassed cough. “Sorry about that. Mr Vincent is in
here.”

Vincent was
sitting on the edge of the sofa, his head in his hands. Grace felt
a rush of sympathy for him. But then she remembered he was a
possible murder suspect so she reigned her sympathy in.

“
Miss Grace Abrahams,” the butler announced.

Vincent looked
up. He immediately smiled and stood up, his hand outstretched. “How
lovely to see you again. You wouldn’t believe how furious Della was
yesterday over the chaos you caused, it made my day!”

Grace took his
warm hand and shook it. “So sorry again about that, I hope it
wasn’t too much of a mess.”

“
Don’t think anything of it. Please, sit down. Would you like
tea and cake? Do you like liquorice cake? We love liquorice in our
family, especially Della.”

Grace sat down
on the opposite sofa. “I’ve never had liquorice cake before, I’d
love to try it.”

Vincent gave a
nod to the butler who immediately slid out of the room as if he
were on wheels.

Vincent sat down
and said, “To what do I owe the honour? I hope you haven’t brought
that T-shirt back, it was a gift.”

“
No,
thank you for that yesterday. It’s a bit of a delicate matter.”
Grace decided to get straight to the point. “I’ve got something
that belongs to your family.” She pulled the recipe book out of her
handbag and handed it over.

Vincent didn’t
take it, he just stared at it. When he finally spoke his voice was
cold, “Where did you get that from, and what do you want from
me?”

Chapter 27

Grace didn’t
know what to think. “I found it, inside a chair. I told you
yesterday that my brother and I go to storage auctions.”

Vincent nodded
curtly.

Grace carried
on, “We saw some shop furniture in one of the lockers. My brother
saw a chair and said it reminded him of something.” She paused. She
could see that Vincent wasn’t in the mood for long explanations.
“Anyway, I discovered the chair used to belong to your family,
there are pictures of it in your factory. I found this inside the
chair. It looks important and I want you to have it back.
Please.”