Tick Tock (Storage Ghosts) (3 page)

The
bald headed girl suddenly noticed Grace. She called out to the others and
pointed straight at her. The other children moved to the front of the unit and
stared at her.

Grace
discreetly put her hand up at the side of her head and gave them a little wave.
The children jumped up and down with joy. “She can see us!” a small boy said.

The
children waved back and broke into smiles, showing crooked and missing teeth.

When
Grace had seen ghosts before in these units they had needed help. Did these
children need help?

She
was pushed out of the way by the other bidders.

The
bidding began. Should she bid? What would they do with these old machines? She
could give them to a museum. Where was Frankie? She’d need to speak to him, try
to convince him to buy this locker.

Grace
searched the crowd. Where was he? She looked over at Sylvester Sylver, Frankie
wasn’t at his side.

She
stepped backwards so that she could scan the crowd better.

“Whoa!”
she fell over someone who was crouched down behind her.

She
collapsed onto the gravel floor and turned to glare at the person who had been
stupid enough to trip her up. It was Frankie. He was crouched down next to a
closed locker.

He
grimaced at Grace. “Watch where you’re going, you nearly pushed me over then.”

Grace
hurriedly got to her feet and glared down at him. “You tripped me up! What are
you doing? Are you peeping in that locker? You’ll get thrown out.”

“Sylvester
would never throw me out,” Frankie said with a confident air. “I can hear
something in this locker. Listen.”

Grace
threw a look over her shoulder. No one was paying them any attention. She
hunkered down next to Frankie and turned her head towards the locker door. Her
eyebrows raised when she heard something.

Frankie
nodded and said, “Can you hear it too?”

“That
ticking sound? I can? What do you think it is?”

Frankie
pressed his lips together and gave her a serious look. “I think it might be a
bomb.”

Chapter 6

“A
bomb!” Grace screeched. She straightened up and took a step backwards.

“Shh!”
Frankie waved a hand at her. “A bomb, or a loud clock. People have set bombs
before in storage units, they set them to go off when the doors are opened.”

“Why?
Why would anyone do that?”

“There
are some nasty people in the world. I’ll have to let Sylvester know about
this.”

They
heard Sylvester shout, “Going ... going ... gone!”

“No!
I wanted to bid on that unit,” Grace turned on her heel and ran back to the
unit with the ghost children. A man with round glasses was just reaching up to
pull the door down.

Grace
stopped at his side. “Have you bought this?”

The
man gave her a suspicious look. “I have. Move out of the way.”

Grace
looked into the unit. The children looked back at her. What could she do?

“Do
you need my help?” she asked. This was directed at the children but the
bespectacled man assumed it was for him. “No, now shift.”

The
children quickly grabbed hands and formed a circle. They smiled at Grace and
shook their heads. Grace gasped as the children began to glow. A pure white
light covered them, it shone brightly and then went out. The children disappeared
with the light. Grace smiled as she heard the echoes of their laughter dying
away.

The
door was slammed down in front of her, narrowly missing her feet. The man
smirked and secured his unit with a padlock. “I told you to move.”

Grace
didn’t care, seeing the children disappear in that glow of light had lightened
her heart. A calmness descended on her, and for a few seconds, her troubles
seemed to actually melt away.

She
was brought back to earth with a jolt as Sylvester Sylver yelled out, “Everyone
back up! We have a situation! Keep calm! There is no need to panic!”

People
didn’t panic, and they didn’t move back.

“What’s
going on? What’s in that locker? Let’s have a look.”

Two
burly security guards stepped forward, their beefy arms outstretched. “Move
back,” they ordered. The crowd reluctantly did so. Grace looked over to where
the commotion was coming from.

Just
as she thought. It was Frankie. He was bending down at the ticking locker.
Sylvester was crouched down at his side, listening as Frankie explained
something.

Big
Bob appeared at Grace’s side. He said, “What’s going on?”

Grace
quietly replied, “Frankie heard a ticking coming from inside the locker, he
thinks it might be a bomb. What will they do now? Call the bomb squad out?”

Big
Bob grinned. “This isn’t America, Grace.”

“They
can’t just open it, can they? Who would be stupid enough to do ...” she trailed
off. Frankie had his hand on the locker door, he gave a firm nod to Sylvester
Sylver. The older man placed a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. Then he stood up and
quickly walked away.

The
gravity of what was about to happen hit Grace. “Frankie! No!”

Too
late.

Frankie
pulled up the metal door. Grace squeezed her eyes shut. She opened them again
when there was no boom.

She
saw her idiot of a brother giving the crowd a thumbs up sign. He got a cheer.
He almost burst with pride when Sylvester gave him a huge man hug.

Frankie
swaggered over to Grace and Big Bob. Grace whacked him on the arm. “What did
you do that for! You idiot! You could have been blown to bits!”

Frankie
folded his arms and gave her a smug smile. “I knew it wasn’t a bomb.”

“You
didn’t! Why did Sylvester walk away when you opened it?” Grace said, her voice
still angry.

“For
the drama of course. Now everyone will want to see what’s in that locker. It’s
up for auction today.”

Big
Bob shook his head. “Was this all a stunt? Something cooked up between you and
your new best friend?”

“No,
I really did think it was a bomb at first. I still did when Sylvester had a
listen. But then I recognised it. Come on, Grace, get that angry look off your
face, it’s giving you wrinkles. Come and have a look at the unit, I think
you’ll see something that you recognise.”

Grace
wanted to be angry at him, but she wanted to see what was in the unit too.
“Okay,” she said with a disgruntled shrug.

She
followed him over to the unit. Other people were now looking in the locker.
Grace didn’t need to move any closer. She could hear the ticking sound. She
suddenly grinned and looked at Frankie. “It can’t be!”

Frankie
returned her grin. “It is! It’s the tiger clock.”

“Ha!
I can’t believe it. Do you think it’s the same one?” Grace asked.

“He
always said there was only one, hand made by him,” Frankie said.

Big
Bob spoke, “Would one of you giddy kippers like to let me know what you’re
talking about?”

Frankie
explained, “It’s the tiger clock. Mr Opendale made it himself.  He used to have
a shop near ours, a while ago, lived there with his wife and daughter. I can’t
remember their names. He made the most amazing clocks. The tiger one makes a
normal tick tock noise but Mr Opendale put something in that makes a small
growling noise every ten seconds. Listen, can you hear it?”

The
three of them moved closer, Big Bob put his head to one side. His frown
disappeared. “I heard it! Well! I’ve never heard anything like that before.
Let’s have a closer look inside, I wonder if the items inside belonged to your Opendale
friends.”

Grace’s
breath caught. A scene from the past almost made her heart stop. “The items did
belong to them.”

The
locker contained a table with matching chairs, a comfy armchair and several
small items of furniture. There was a working table with small tools placed on
the top. The ghost of Mr Opendale was sitting at the table, he was working
intently on a watch. Mrs Opendale was sitting in the arm chair, she was gazing
fondly at her husband.

“Grace!
Are you alright? You’ve gone very white,” Frankie said.

Grace
held onto his arm. “It’s just seeing these things again. It is the tiger clock,
it’s propped up near the door. Frankie, we have to buy this, no matter how much
it costs.”

Frankie
wrinkled his nose, “It doesn’t look very valuable. Are you sure?”

Grace
tried to smile. “Please. It’s a link to our past. The Opendales were friends of
Mum and Dad’s.”

“Okay.
Stop leaning on my arm, you’re not exactly as light as a feather,” Frankie
complained.

Grace
moved her arm and took some steadying breaths. A feeling of absolute dread had
washed over her as she saw the friendly faces of the Opendales. It wasn’t to do
directly with the friendly faced couple. It was the fact that Grace knew
without doubt that they could help her find out what had happened to her
parents on the night of their deaths.

Chapter 7

The
bidding began on the locker. Grace held her breath as the bids went higher.
Frankie casually kept placing higher bids. The other bidders started to slow
down.

“Please,
please, please,” Grace muttered to herself like a mantra.

“Any
more bids? Anyone offer me £800? No?” Sylvester called out. “Okay, final call.
Going ... going ... gone! To the brave young man on my right!”

Grace
hoped the brave young man was Frankie. She looked over at him, he nodded and
gave her a big cheesy smile. “We’ve got the tiger clock!” he said.

He
walked over to the locker and swiftly secured it with his own padlock. Grace
was disappointed, she wanted to talk to the Opendales. Mind you, she couldn’t
talk to them in front of everyone else. She’d look like she was talking to the
walls.

There
were two more units to sell. Neither Frankie or Big Bob were bothered about
them.

They
headed back to the Opendale unit that Frankie had bought. He said to Grace,
“You can help us load things into the van, you always seem to get out of the
hard work. We have to settle up at the office first.”

“
I don’t mind,” Grace said. She couldn’t wait to get back to the unit.

She
never got the chance.

“Hey,
Grace, I’ve just heard some disturbing news,” Sylvester Sylver said once they were
inside the office. “Someone told me that you’d been attacked in the bathroom,
is that true?”

“I
wasn’t hurt,” Grace said.

“That
doesn’t matter, young lady. I can’t have my loyal customers being accosted
whilst I’m in charge. Please, take a seat round here and tell me all about it.”

Grace
shot a look at Frankie and Big Bob. Frankie had a soppy look on his face as he
gazed at Sylvester. When was he going to get over his infatuation?

 Big
Bob spoke, “Thanks for your concern, Sylvester, it’s a family matter, it’s
sorted out. That piece of lowlife won’t be going anywhere near Grace again.”

“I’m
glad to hear that. I haven’t known Frankie and Grace long but I feel like we’re
good friends, almost family ourselves!” Sylvester gave them a warm smile.

Grace
flicked a glance at Frankie. Was he actually drooling? He was so embarrassing.

Sylvester
pulled out a chair and said, “I insist that you rest. You must be shaken up.
Let me make you a cup of coffee. I think I’ve got some cookies stashed away
some where.”

“Thank
you, but I need to help unpack our locker,” Grace said.

Frankie
said, rather too loudly, “Nonsense, you stay here. I’ll do all the packing.
After the shock you’ve had you need to recover your strength, don’t you think
so, Sylvester?”

Sylvester
looked at Frankie in admiration. “I totally agree, that’s very thoughtful.
Let’s get the paperwork sorted then I’ll look after Grace while you pack.”

Frankie
smiled back. Then he shot Grace a quick look as if to warn her not to get too
friendly with his friend. He used to give her that look when he got any new
toys. Grace held her laughter in and gratefully took the offered seat.

She
spent the next thirty minutes drinking coffee, eating cookies and listening to
the riveting tales that Sylvester told her. She had no idea that the storage
auction business could be full of such danger, or scandal. For the second time
that day she felt her troubles fade away.

All
too soon they were saying goodbye to the silver haired auctioneer. They drove
the one hundred miles back to their shop.

There
was a nasty surprise waiting for them.

Frankie
leapt out of the cabin before the truck had fully stopped. He ran over to the
shop and slammed his hand against the boards that had been placed across the
shop’s windows.