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

“Sadie, you should know that Greta kept things strictly business with me. There was no hanging-out or friendly conversations really, she wanted to keep her job separate from the other aspects of her life. I had assumed that you would want the same thing, and, despite my own interests, I tried to adhere to it,” he said.

“Your own interests?” I replied, echoing my favorite part of his response. He looked away again. “Okay, let’s just focus on the break-in and the stalker, then we can talk about your emotional blockade later.” He opened his mouth to respond but thought better of it. Hey, I’d been to a couple of counselling sessions and I knew enough buzzwords to give the vague sense that I knew what I was talking about.

“Okay, so we deal with everything internally. This means that you can speak candidly on the record about anything normal, or paranormal, and it won’t be used against you in court. I suppose if you were back on the mainland discussing witches with the police you wouldn’t be taken seriously.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” I mumbled.

“I will start the recording and we will get started,” he said. He pressed the button to start the tape recorder, stated the date and time, my name, his name and then he asked me to tell the story of the events that resulted in the police being called out last night. Despite my initial suspicions, Miller seemed unphased by my descriptions of a large wolf in my living room. He didn’t flinch or squirm.

“By the time I got outside, I realized that the shadow outside my window was a tall, thin man. It was Simon Davick,” I stated. This caught his attention. He paused the tape.

“Davick? Are you sure? If we start throwing accusations around about members of the Davick family then we are going to end up in hot water. You’re the peacekeeper, even you speaking to the police about an incident like this will have people talking.”

“Surely part of keeping the peace involves making sure people are sticking to the rules. Rosie said she is being stalked by a tall man, a tall man was outside my window, a tall someone drove Greta’s car into a tree... do you see where I’m going with this?” I asked.

Miller looked worried and was shifting in his seat, the reaction I had been expecting when I brought up the wolf.

“Here’s the log you wanted,” an officer said, bursting through the door and dropping a book onto the desk between Miller and me.

“Thanks,” Miller mumbled, already thumbing through the pages. The officer left and the only sound came from the paper creaking near the spine of the tattered book. “This is the log of boat travel to the main island. When we travelled together to Port Wayvern, the captain of our boat will have made a note in this book before we boarded because I had called ahead. There is another book at Port Wayvern, and our arrival was recorded there.”

“Seems strange to track movement like that,” I said, squinting at the handwriting that I was trying to read upside down.

“We have to keep a log of people travelling by water in case someone goes missing. I think it was introduced during prohibition to catch bootleggers and deter them from shipping alcohol from one dock to another. Doubt it worked, but it seemed like a sensible system to keep,” Miller said, scanning the book with his eyes mere inches from the page. “The handwriting gets worse by the day,” he moaned.

“I may as well elaborate on my Simon theory then, because you didn’t ask a lot of follow up questions,” I huffed. “Greta’s car didn’t crash. With a bullet through her chest it is obvious that the cause of death wasn’t related to a tree collision, unless the tree had a gun...” I joked. He wasn’t paying enough attention to laugh, just continued to nod so that I would continue as he read.

“The car wasn’t dented around the trunk; it clearly didn’t hit that tree at speed. The drink in the cup holder hadn’t spilled and the driver’s seat was moved back as if someone tall had done the driving. Rosie said she had been stalked by a tall man and I think it’s the same person. Rosie could be in danger, and so could I. If this mystery man is coming after people at the café then... hang on,” I interrupted myself. Miller looked up to watch my one-man-conversation.

“Rosie said that she and Simon broke up a week or so before the stalking started, so it would make sense if Simon was the one following her, right?” I said.

“Why would that make sense?” Miller asked.

“You don’t watch a lot of junk TV, do you? It’s a classic strategy to trick your partner to coming back, I’ve seen it in more soap operas than I can count. Simon follows her, makes sure that she knows someone is lurking in the shadows, make her feel scared. Who would she turn to if she got frightened?” I said, waiting for him to shout the answer. He didn’t. “Simon! She would run back into his arms for protection and one thing would lead to another and suddenly they are in love again!”

“That’s super manipulative, right? Who would do that?”

“I’ve seen in on Forensic Files too, actually. It’s real,” I smiled, thrilled to be putting puzzle pieces together in my mind. “She wasn’t scared enough, so he upped the ante and killed Greta!”

“As fascinating as this theory is, there is a major flaw that you are overlooking. The log doesn’t show Simon travelling to the main island at any point during the last few days, so there is no way that he was standing outside your window last night,” he said.

I was stunned. I had seen him with my own eyes, I was sure of it. There must be some other way to travel