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

“I’m new to the whole witch/werewolf/ghost life, so you are gonna have to tell me if it is actually a possibility that I might find a talking horse up there,” I said.

“I was joking! It’s not impossible, obviously…” she trailed off.

I took a step onto the staircase, then quickly started to jog up the stairs until I was facing a woman in a black dress. She had grey curls, pale skin and a broom in her hands.

“Oh! It’s just Meredith,” Greta laughed. “She won’t be able to see me… I don’t think. Or at least I’m not trying to appear to her, I don’t have a firm grip on this yet.”

“I can see you, dear,” Meredith grinned. “Surely you didn’t think I could have gotten to such a grand old age without seeing a ghost or two on this island.”

“Well blow me down!” Greta explained. “How are you? I really wish I’d visited more when I was alive, but I have all the time in the world now! How’s the dog?”

“Hold up, can we make some introductions?” I interrupted. “Are you Greta’s mom?”

“I’m the housekeeper, dear. Don’t you remember?” Meredith asked.

“Mer, she hasn’t seen you since she was a baby. Before she left Hallow Haven,” Greta said.

“Do people not remember things from the first eight weeks of their life anymore? I remember everything!” Meredith chuckled. “But I suppose you had a lot to deal with at the time. Who sends death threats to a newborn baby, huh?”

“What?” I gasped.

“Not now, Meredith,” Greta chastised. “Where is everyone?”

“I was rather hoping you could tell me! That’s why I called the sheriff’s office. My oh my, what a tall drink of water you’ve blossomed into,” Meredith grinned, setting her sights on Miller.

“Hands off,” Greta laughed.

“Are you saying you called us because everyone is missing?” Miller asked, trying to ignore the look Meredith was giving him.

“Yes. They went out somewhere a few days ago and were due back last night. When my alarm went off this morning I set about preparing breakfast, but no one came down to the table. All the beds are still made, and the suitcases are still gone. They haven’t come back.”

“Where did they go?” Greta asked.

“Well if I could remember that then we wouldn’t be in so much trouble, would we,” Meredith answered. “Although I find your handsome friend here to be soothing my worries. Have you ever considered modelling?”

“Meredith,” I said, trying to refocus her attention. “You must have called us because you were worried. Do you have any reason to believe that they are in trouble?”

“The Alden family is always in trouble, dear. Rarely a day goes by without your uncle receiving concerning news. I think the nature of the letters has changed recently though,” Meredith said. She seemed to be thinking about something that caused her face to betray her fear.

“Where are the letters?” Greta asked.

“This way,” Meredith answered. We followed her along the hallway from the top of the stairs to a door that had three keyholes. One by one, Meredith unlocked them.

“What letters is she talking about?” I asked quietly.

“You’ll see,” Greta replied.

Meredith pushed open the door to reveal a room with a giant pile of letters on the floor. There was no furniture, and the blinds were drawn over the windows.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“Well, dear. This is every threatening letter that has been sent to the Alden family over the last thirty years. Walter, Greta’s father, had a habit of keeping them all just in case he needed to refer back to them. I think he was hoping that the police would get involved at some point,” Meredith explained.

“Wait, why didn’t they?” I asked. I was looking at both Miller and Greta.

“We thought they were just letters,” Greta explained. “My dad was so paranoid about everything going wrong all the time that he hardly let me have a life. I appreciate that the reason I got killed was because I ignored his advice and got myself into a dangerous situation, but that doesn’t mean he was right about everything.”

“I wanted to at least look into it,” Miller said, trying to defend himself. “I guess I didn’t have all the facts. I didn’t know how long it had been going on for.”

“We actually got a new one a few days ago,” Meredith said. “It’s right here.” She picked up the letter on the top of the paper mountain on the ground and handed it to me.

“So a new letter was sent and now they are all missing?” I said.

“Seems that way. We actually hadn’t had one for about a year, but it looks like they got started again,” Meredith sighed. “Do you think there’s a connection between the letter and their disappearance?”

“Er, yeah…” I sighed. I pulled the note out of the envelope and began to read it. Now I could see why Meredith needed our help.

4

I re-read the letter again. Miller was pulling out letters from other envelopes and I could see his lips moving as he read the words on the page. It was cute, if you ignored the fact that he was reading threats that had been sent to my family.

“This sounds familiar,” Miller said aloud. “I can’t place it, but the words are giving me déjà vu.”

“What does it say?” I asked.

“Don’t think that I’ll forget, that binding choice you will regret, I’ll do whatever it takes because I know what’s at stake,” Miller read.

“That’s it?” Fitz remarked.

“What else do you want there to be? A scary drawing in the corner of the page? Because it has one of those!” Miller said, turning the letter around to show us.

“Do all of these threats rhyme?” I asked, looking to Meredith.

“I have only read a few. I shouldn’t have read any of them really but I’m a nosy old thing,” she laughed. “The ones I have read are all like that, just a few lines and they