Jacob's Coins: A Cozy Ghost Mystery (Storage Ghost Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

bidding.”
    Grace
raised her eyebrows at him. “Bidding? I thought we were just looking.”
    Frankie
shoved his hands in his pockets and said, “Well, there might be a cheap locker,
one that has stuff for the shop, you never know.”
    “But
how are you going to bid? You don’t have any money,” Grace pointed out.
    Frankie
kicked at some loose stones on the ground. “I’ve got a bit, I sold my bike.”
Grace’s hand flew to her mouth. “Frankie, no! Not your motorbike! It’s your
pride and joy.”
    Frankie
met her look, he raised his chin and said, “Pride and joy doesn’t pay the
bills. I didn’t have a choice.”
    Grace
put her hand on his arm, “I’m sorry you had to do that. I’ve still got a bit of
money in savings, you should have come to me.”
    Frankie
gave her a brave smile. “I can look after myself, I’d never take your money,
you need it. Besides, if we get a good locker I might make lots of money and
get myself an even better bike.”
    Grace
matched his smile. “Well, you’d better get a good locker then.”
    A
loud shout made them both jump.
    “Oi!
You two! You shouldn’t be here!”
    They
turned towards where the voice was coming from.
    Frankie
gulped. “Is that a bear or a man?”
    “I
don’t know but he’s heading our way, I don’t like the look on his face,” Grace
said. She looked towards where their van was parked. Should they make a run for
it?
     

Chapter 10
     
    The
bear-like man strode towards them so quickly that any thoughts of escape were
useless.
    He
bore down on them and blocked out the sun. His thick eyebrows moved downwards
as he studied them.
    He
suddenly smiled. “I thought it was you two, it’s Frankie and Grace isn’t it?”
    Frankie
nodded.
    The
man grabbed Frankie’s hand and shook it. “I knew your dad, he was a great
fella. We used to go to antique auctions together. Did he ever mention me?
Bob’s my name, but everyone calls me Big Bob, for obvious reasons.”
    “Big
Bob? Yes! Dad told us about you,” Frankie said. “He said you had a good eye for
antiques.”
    Big
Bob released Frankie’s hand. “Yes, I do. My mum said it’s a gift. What are you
doing here? I thought you were carrying on your dad’s business.”
    Frankie
shrugged and said, “There’s not much money in antiques, I thought I’d look into
something else.”
    Big
Bob studied Frankie for a second. In a quieter voice he said, “I was sorry to
hear about your mum and dad. It was a great loss. And I don’t believe for a
second what the papers said about him.”
    Grace
spoke, “Thank you, that means a lot.”
    Big
Bob smiled at her. “I’m glad you’re out of danger, from the photos in the paper
it looked like you were lucky to be alive.”
    Grace
nodded, she didn’t feel lucky. There had been more than one dark day when she’d
wished that she’d died in the car accident too.
    Big
Bob said, “You’re right about there not being much money in antiques, there is
still some but you have to find the right items. That’s why I come here, I
stock up on things that I know will sell,  it’s not always antiques, but I have
found the odd valuable item now and again. It’s like going on a treasure hunt.”
    Big
Bob reached into his pocket and took out a card, he handed it to Frankie. “Have
a look at my website, you’ll see the sort of things I sell. Call round to the
shop too, I do a lot of business online but I get plenty of customers in the
shop too. I can always give you a bit of business advice, if you’d like it?”
    Frankie
shrugged again. “I think we’ll be all right.”
    A
frustrated sigh escaped from Grace. Why was he being so difficult? Man pride or
something just as stupid. She said to Big Bob, “That’s really kind of you, we
appreciate it. How long have you been coming to these storage lockers?”
    Big
Bob let out a loud bark of laughter. “About a year. You wouldn’t believe the
mistakes I made at first! I thought I knew what I was doing. I wasted a lot