Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

The drink wasn’t spilled, the airbag hadn’t deployed, the hood wasn’t wrapped around the tree and the seat was too far back. This had all the markings of a faked car accident.

11

“Can anyone come with me to Tivercana?” I asked as I stepped back into the café. Effie was on the phone taking orders and the only other woman behind the counter looked to her for approval. Effie nodded.

The woman removed her apron and walked with me to the café exit and out onto the sand. “I’m Rosie, we haven’t met,” she smiled. I was being such a terrible cafe manager. I hadn’t introduced myself to anybody and I was taking more time out from the café to go out on boat adventures.

“Rosie, hey, I’m Sadie. I’ve been a bit caught up with...”

“You're the new peacekeeper. Greta was always busy too, that’s why Effie is the efficiency machine she is, because she had to take over at short notice all the time if there was a clan dispute,” Rosie giggled. We had circled the building to head towards the marina and Rosie had barely come up for air, she was speaking so fast that I wondered if she even needed oxygen.

“I’ve been at the cafe for a few years now, such an honor to work with the peacekeeper and serve the community, you know? Like, people will always need to eat so it’s steady work, we have tourists here all the time and it’s been such a good distraction since Greta died. The witches and humans that come here don’t even know about our peacekeeper thing, so they didn’t think anything weird was going on.

“I swear they don’t see people fighting or the graffiti or the litter. I wonder if there is some magic that prevents guests to the island from seeing it for what it really is? Ha, maybe my boyfriend had that spell on him too,” she said, finally pausing.

“You say the tourists haven’t noticed that there’s been tension?” I asked, bracing myself for another long response.

“Yeah, they still fly in and lie in the sun, buy our novelty hats and stay in the fancy hotels. Maybe it’s willful ignorance. No one wants their vacation to be ruined by the locals. Now that you are here it should all be back under control. Greta has been the peacekeeper for so long that I don’t remember if the last transition involved so much conflict.”

“Do you have any theories about what happened to Greta?”

“Oh boy, do I? Wow, so first of all she was like, super into Ryder, right? I don’t think Ryder was vibing in the same way, so what if he killed her? Or... what if some other woman on the island killed her over a rivalry thing? There are a ton of woman that would love to hook up with that tall drink of water. Or—”

“What about the stalker?” I interrupted. She looked at me very seriously all of a sudden and a tear rolled down her eye.

“I’ve considered it, but I have to keep those ideas out of my head otherwise I’d be unable to get out of bed in the morning,” she sobbed.

“When did you first notice someone following you? Can you describe them? Is it a tall person?” If the stalker was big enough to be the one that had pushed back Greta’s car seat, then it would increase suspicion in my mind that the incidents were connected.

“Tall? Yeah, yeah they’re tall. A guy, I think. I first noticed him, like, a month ago, I wasn’t sure at first but then it became hard to ignore,” she sniffed. We were almost at the marina now and I desperately wanted to continue the conversation about the mystery threat to the cafe staff, but I felt certain that I was about to hit two birds with one stone.

We boarded the small boat that had taken me to Port Wayvern earlier and I held on tight as we pulled away from the shore and began to power across the water. The reason for visiting Tivercana was twofold, it had been made clear to me that I had to go to meet the people on the island as I had taken the time to visit Port Wayvern and I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, and also because they had a golf course.

I was quite sure that the damage to Greta’s car had been caused by a golf club. This was based entirely on a memory of watching a country singer beat up an expensive car in a music video and the resulting dents looked identical to those that I’d identified up on the mountain.

I had briefly spoken to Ryder about it and he told me about the golf course, so I figured I could have a look around to see if perhaps there was anything Greta had spotted here that would make her a target for attack. I had wanted to take Miller along with me, but he was unreachable when I called the station.

I had considered wandering around looking for him, but with time pressing on it seemed like I should just pick another person to help me. I wasn’t sure on the peacekeeper rules yet, but I was sure that taking Rosie instead of Miller would be fine. Right?

I had wondered where Miller was as we hadn’t spoken much since he rushed into the water to save my life this morning. It felt like an age had passed since then, what with the mountain hike and now this trip to Tivercana. I hoped he was okay.

I still hadn’t sorted out my phone to connect to service on the island, so I wasn’t contactable, I had used the phone in Ryder’s shop to call the police station. If Miller wanted to contact me now, he couldn’t.

I also wondered if Justin, my ex-boyfriend, might have tried to