Daisy's Chain: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

nearly comatose Daisy. He leered at her body and said,
“I’ll take care of you.”
    Daisy was led
away. Her eyes flickered up and for a moment it looked like she was aware of
what was going on.
    Grace felt
Daisy’s last emotion - utter terror.
     

Chapter 12
     
    Grace’s legs felt
weak. She watched Daisy being dragged through the nightclub.
    The vision faded
and Grace found herself back in her own kitchen. She collapsed onto a chair.
She put her head in her hands and waited for the dizzy feeling to go.
    “I saw
everything.”
    Grace looked up.
Mr Manville was sitting opposite her. His face looked even paler than before.
The black cloud that surrounded him had gone.
    “I saw
everything.” He repeated in a level tone. “I saw what that low life did to my
daughter. I saw his odious friends egging him on. I saw that creature lead her
away.” He suddenly banged on the table. “How could that monster do that to my
little girl? Why wasn’t I there to protect her?”
    Tears rolled down
Grace’s cheeks. “I could feel her confusion as the drink took effect. I could
feel her fear. Why would anyone do that to another person?”
    Mr Manville stood
up and began to pace the kitchen, his fists were clenched at his side.
    Grace wiped the
tears away. “What happened? Did Daisy tell you about… well, it was an attack,
wasn’t it? Did you tell the police?”
    Mr Manville
stopped pacing. He had his back to Grace, she saw his shoulders slump.
    He turned to face
her. Sadness dimmed his eyes, Grace’s heart felt heavier. He said, “We were due
to meet her the next day at university but she phoned and said she wasn’t well.
I actually joked about her having a hangover, I knew she wasn’t a big drinker.
I remember that she went quiet at that, she’d usually laugh too. I didn’t think
anything of it. We didn’t have time to meet before she went back to her studies
for her third year. She normally comes home during the holidays but she said
she’d stay with a friend and catch up on her work, I was so proud of her work
ethic. I can see now that she was avoiding us.”
    “Didn’t she tell
anyone? Not even her friends? She can’t have kept that to herself.”
    Mr Manville
shrugged. He sat back down at the table and looked down at his hands. “She’s
the type to do that, thinking she can deal with things herself, not wanting to
trouble anyone.”
    Grace could tell
there was more to this story. “Did you ever find out about the attack?”
    He looked up at
her and sighed. “Oh, Grace, I’m so ashamed. Try to understand, I didn’t know
about the attack.”
    “What happened?”
Grace prompted.
    “We hadn’t heard
from her in a while. She was due home at Christmas but then made up some excuse
about not coming home, I can’t even remember the excuse now. June said
something was wrong and insisted on us driving up to see her, to give her a
surprise. It was us who got the surprise.”
    Grace’s stomach
flipped as she guessed what was coming next.
    Mr Manville said,
“She opened the door and just as we were about to shout ‘Surprise!’ we saw it.
Her pregnant body. The wind was knocked right out of me. June couldn’t say
anything, she just stood there in shock. I’m ashamed to say that I lost my
temper. You might not believe me after the way I’ve acted today but I seldom
lost my temper, I was so calm. But the thought of my little girl standing there
with …”
    He put his head
down and tried to calm himself.
    “Did she try to
explain? Did it happen on the night that she was drugged?” Grace asked.
    Mr Manville
looked up. “I never gave her chance to explain. She said it was a one night
stand, she didn’t know the father’s name. I was furious. After all we’d done
for her. Daisy came to us late in life, we gave her everything and more. I felt
so betrayed at what she’d done, like she’d thrown all our kindness back in our
faces.”
    “Didn’t you find
out later? Didn’t you calm down?”
    He shook his
head.