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

other stringed instruments stood along the edge of the room. There was a single shoe in the center of the floor.

I crouched down to inspect it a little more closely. Who would leave a shoe in a guitar store? I walked over to the cash register and found the other shoe. It was on the foot of a man clutching a phone in his left hand. Blood pooled around the bullet wound in his chest. I rushed around to see if he had a pulse, but it was too late.

The man was dead.

5

I double checked, but there was still no pulse. Miller came round to see what I was doing crouched down behind the cash register.

“Oh,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, oh,” I repeated. “You better get the rest of the police, right?”

“For what?” he asked. I looked at him curiously. “I realize that this is a crime scene, but you seem to be forgetting that we don’t have all the fancy forensic stuff on these islands. This place is very old school, and you are pretty much in charge of dealing with crime around here. Most people respect your opinion more than ours.”

“Right… well my opinion is that someone shot this guy,” I muttered. “Kate, you said that you heard the gunshot on the phone call? Did you hear anything else?”

“I can’t remember. I mean, it might be recorded… we could just go and listen to the whole thing,” she said. “I can check in with the station.” She pulled out her cell phone and began to type, her fingers moving quickly over the screen.

“That would be great,” I replied. “I guess we should look around here first in case there is anything obvious to point to a suspect.”

“Good idea,” Miller agreed. “It shouldn’t be hard to get a name for this guy confirmed. I’ve never been in here before but I’m pretty sure his name was Jack or something.”

“Jake Hall,” Kate announced. “That’s definitely Jake. He wears belt buckles shaped like guitars, it’s his thing. He’s a cool guy, well he was cool. I haven’t seen him much over the past year, but he was keen on being involved in the Battle of the Bands competition, that’s for sure.”

“Involved how?” I asked.

“Well if people on the island suddenly decide that they have a chance at becoming a rock star, the first thing they will need is a guitar,” Kate said. “His business always gets a boost whenever the radio station runs the contest. We had been emailing back and forth about him having a booth at the music festival. He was keen on promoting his guitar lessons, he’s been teaching for years but he’s not great at advertising.”

“Do you know if he has any enemies? Maybe a rival business on one of the smaller islands?” I suggested.

“No, Jake has the only music store around. If you want an instrument you either buy it from Jake or pay to get it brought over on a plane. No one ever chooses the plane option, too expensive,” Kate explained.

“Maybe this was a robbery gone wrong?” Miller mused. “He probably has an inventory around here somewhere; we can see if anything is missing.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Yeah, it could be a robbery.”

“Your intuition is telling you something else, isn’t it?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know yet, but I feel as though this wasn’t random.”

“Paws up if you think we should go snooping around his apartment!” Fitz yelled. He was already sprinting for the staircase.

“Look for the inventory, see if you can figure out what’s missing,” I yelled back at Miller and Kate. They both nodded as I chased my familiar into a stranger’s home.

“What a dump!” Fitz cried as he pushed open the door.

“What are you talking about? This place is pretty nice,” I said. It seemed to be a one open room that encompassed the kitchen, bedroom, dining space and lounge area. There was a door by the bed that I assumed led to the bathroom.

He had sheet music in picture frames all over the walls, the sun had bleached the pages causing them to shift into yellows and browns instead of the white they would have originally been. He had a huge pile of books on his nightstand and empty coffee mugs all over the place.

He had a vase of dying flowers on the kitchen counter and a note stuck to the fridge. I stepped closer to read the words that had been handwritten, ‘it should have been me, one day it will be’.

“Huh,” I uttered softly.

“Have you found a clue?” Fitz asked.

“I’ve found something,” I answered. “I don’t know if it leads me anywhere. Why did you want to come up here?”

“Oh, I’m just nosy. I can’t even whistle, never mind play a guitar. I used to watch that show on the music channel, you know, the one where you snoop around famous people’s houses. I thought there would be giant stacks of money lying around or something. I’ve not seen a single diamond anywhere,” Fitz scoffed.

“I don’t think he was that kind of musician,” I smiled. “Not everyone gets lucky enough to get discovered. I saw some video about making it in Hollywood, it’s not always about talent. You have to be talented in front of the right people. This island is so isolated, I don’t know if anyone is ever going to get hugely famous playing music here.”

“Better not let anyone else hear you saying that!” Kate laughed from the doorway. “Otherwise, no one will enter the Battle of the Bands and I will be doomed to a life serving pizza at Pete’s Za and hosting midnight talk radio. If this goes well then I could get a prime-time slot!” She pretended to cry and projected her bottom lip.

“Did you guys find an inventory down there?” I asked.

“Yeah, nah. Miller is still looking but I got bored. All this murder stuff has made me really hungry; did you guys get lunch already?” she asked.

“Sadie and Miller had a soup date