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

“Well, if you feel pulled in any direction just follow it. I remember when I would get the first bursts of witch instinct and it made me feel like a superhero, walking in some random direction until I found whatever the universe wanted me to find. I once found Kate’s headphones a full eight months after she lost them on a hike!”

Effie wanted this to be intuition, but I suspected I was just being nosey. I didn’t know who to turn to now that the boat logs were pointing away from Simon. I was sure I had seen him outside my house, but no one would believe me unless the boat logs confirmed it, which they didn’t. I was also wrestling with the werewolf encounter. Maybe there was some evidence that it all really happened out on the sand, proof that I wasn’t inventing my reality.

With an encouraging pat on the shoulder from Effie, I was walking along the golden beach. The water seemed calm, the turquoise ocean rolling gently onto the shore and reeling back again, over and over. I walked around the cafe, past the window of my living room where Simon had been stood the night before and continued in the direction of the marina.

There was no one at the marina. The silence was only punctured by the gentle bobbing of the boats on the water and my feet shuffling along the beach. I didn’t feel like stopping, whatever I was being pulled towards wasn’t near these boats. If I thought that Simon and the wolf had made a great escape, it wasn’t from here. I walked further along the sand towards a cluster of cliffs that, from the base, were far enough away from my house that I couldn’t see it anymore. I must have turned a corner.

There was a number of huge boulders near the base of the cliff. It looked as though huge chunks of the rock had slipped away and plummeted down to earth. For some reason I decided that this was the perfect spot to eat lunch.

I sat on a rock that was flat enough that I could spread my food across it like a table, laying down a few serviettes first and arranging my sandwich, drink and cookie as if I was putting on a low-budget dinner party.

As I started to eat, I turned my head to gaze out at the ocean. I could never have done this on a lunch break back home, not without driving for an hour or two first. Even then the beach would be flooded with tourists.

I turned back to the rock pile I was sitting on, expecting to see a rock pool or two. Instead my eye was caught by a set of keys that were shining under sunlight. I reached over to grab them before straightening up to inspect my treasure.

I put the last bite of sandwich into my mouth to free up my hands enough to explore properly. Turning them over, holding the jagged edged up to the sky and then finally reaching into my own pocket.

The keys I had found by these rocks was identical to the set of keys I had been given for the café and the house. Someone had a set of keys to my home and had dropped them by this cliff. On the assumption that werewolves don’t use keys, these had to belong to the other living thing that was creeping about in the dark.

Simon.

Had this been the reason I felt the urge to go walking up the beach, to find these keys? There was something about this pile of rocks that was still holding my attention and I continued to eat my lunch as I stared at them, hoping inspiration would strike so that I wasn’t standing here for hours.

I wondered if a set of keys wasn’t the only treasure here, maybe there were other things that had been dropped when people climbed over them. With my drink in my hand, I tried to shove one of the larger rocks aside, painfully slamming my shoulder against a solid surface that didn’t budge.

I scrambled up and over a few, seeing wet sand on unusual parts of the rock as if it had been poured on from above... or the rock had been rolled over. There was no way this quantity was just from sand that had fallen loose from shoes walking over the pile, these rocks had been moved and then put back.

I searched my brain for another explanation, but for some reason I couldn’t think of anything else that made sense.

Was there some super-strong weightlifting key thief rolling enormous rocks around the beach for fun? Or maybe there was something behind these rocks, a hiding place or an escape route. I knew that I couldn’t move any of this alone, unless Effie taught me how to do it.

I was still getting by with the ability to transform my empty hand into holding a cookie. Speaking of cookies, I had one waiting for me on my picnic rock.

As soon as I bit into it, I knew there was a problem. A pain at the back of my mouth radiated through my jaw towards my ear, an unexpectedly hard nut had been buried in the cookie dough and I’d injured myself. I cupped my face and gathered up my trash before beginning the jog back towards the café.

I tried to maintain an Effie-like attitude that these things all happened for a reason, but I couldn’t see why an emergency dental appointment would be a necessary part of my week.

Turns out I was wrong.

15

“Miss Alden?” the receptionist announced to the waiting room. I raised my hand like a school student, and she waved me through. The café was almost at maximum capacity and so Effie had given me the directions for the dentist’s office, and I