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

I hear one song by my ex-boyfriend tonight then I will burn this island to a crisp,” she said. I chuckled but then saw the look on Kate’s face. Eesh. It wasn’t a joke.

“Is this the type of thing that is open to questions from me?” I asked. “Or is this more of a ‘we don’t speak of him’ thing?”

Kate sarcastically rolled her eyes. “She will pretend it’s off limits, then in about ten minutes she will be red in the face from ranting about him.”

“I will not,” Effie replied, joke punching her sister in the arm. At least someone else’s love life complications were a welcome distraction from my own. The sensation when Ryder had touched my skin was still so vivid in my memory. It had made the crystal-clear water of my mind seem murky.

We took the take-out containers to the kitchen and then headed for the door. Greta met us on the sand as we locked up the house.

“Where are you guys going? Did anyone find Jake yet?” Greta asked.

“Jake? Oh that guy is super missing,” Kate said. “Not a solitary clue where he is. But right now we have to listen to a bunch of songs by people that are tone deaf, so we can carry on looking for him tomorrow.”

“You are going to carry on with the Battle of the Bands after what happened at The Guitar Yard?” Greta asked, her brow furrowed in disbelief.

“Of course I am! Until we know anything more about who killed Jake, we should just carry on as normal, right?” Kate said, looking at Effie and I for back up. We both shrugged in a non-comital way. “Thanks for the support you guys!”

“You’re welcome,” Effie grinned.

“I’m surprised you’re going along, Effie,” Greta said. “What if you hear a song from Ma—”

“Don’t say it!” Effie interrupted.

“Come on Greta, you can join us. Why not make it a party of four,” Kate smiled.

“I’m surprised you don’t have other plans tonight, what with two guys chasing after you,” Greta grinned at me. Effie and Kate were walking a few feet ahead as we crossed the beach to get to the high street.

“Well Miller has to find a missing murder victim, and Ryder is convinced Miller is eating people in the woods. They are making it very complicated,” I said.

“Eating people?” she laughed.

“Yeah. There’s a clearing up on the hill with a big flat rock in the middle and—” I began.

“I have to go!” Greta announced. She disappeared in an instant and I wondered what I had said to make her run off like that.

“That woman will do anything to get out of listening to amateur musicians,” Kate laughed. We continued our journey as a group of three. As we walked into The Trident radio station, Kate gave the same enthusiastic greeting to everyone in the office before walking into the studio. She found two extra chairs for Effie and me, then pulled on her headphones to begin the show.

“You’d think we didn’t get enough attention as kids or something,” Effie teased as we watched her sister switch on her performer-mode.

“Gooooooood evening islanders, this is Kate Knockout coming to you live from The Trident,” Kate crooned. “It’s been a crazy day, but we are here tonight to provide the salve to your stress. It’s another night of listening to the entries for our Battle of the Bands competition!

“I have some very special guests with me in the studio tonight. First off… you know her from The Sand Witch as the woman serving up your lunches. She’s got tattoos and her eyes ain’t blue… it’s Elegiac Effie!”

Kate clapped as she finished talking. Effie was looking up the work ‘elegiac’ on her phone. I peered over her shoulder to see what the word meant.

“It doesn’t even make sense,” Effie whispered. “Describing me as elegiac means I am ‘haunting or lamenting someone who is dead’. It would make more sense if I were a widow and it was all I talked about.”

“She said it’s more about alliterative names than anything else,” I reassured her.

“And our peacekeeper with the most-ess, it’s Sneaky Sadie!” Kate laughed.

“Okay, yeah I don’t like this game,” I mumbled to Effie.

“We are going to get started with our first song of the night, submitted by ‘The Bunny Hoppers’. This one’s called ‘lettuce leaf’,” Kate said, pressing play on a machine that began blasting out a wall of noise. She fumbled around trying to turn down the volume before turning to read our expressions. “What do you think?” she asked.

The desk of switches and buttons in front of her indicated that she had turned the mic off. We sat quietly listening to a male voice whine the words, ‘girl you’re my little lettuce leaf, a tiny bit crunchy and oh so sweet.’

“This is, and I don’t say this lightly, the worst thing that has ever happened to my ears,” Effie said. “If this guy is about to break into a three-minute guitar solo then I will… oh, there it is. The solo.” She rolled her eyes.

“Give it a chance,” Kate protested. “It could get better!”

‘Baby doll you’re also mostly water, rabbit food for my soul.’

Kate switched it off. “It got worse,” she agreed. She flicked the mic back on. “Sorry folks it looks like we lost the feed there, oh well. Our next song comes from ‘Havoc Hound’ with their entry, ‘Liars Love Grocery Lists’. That really is the name, I apologize in advance.”

“Kate, are these all gonna be garbage?” Effie asked.

“I don’t know. I guess these are the entries from people that already had a song recorded. You know what people are like around here, there isn’t all that much to sing about,” Kate shrugged.

“Well it beats being home alone,” I smiled. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and pulled it out to see a message from Miller.

“Are you at home?” it read.

I replied ‘no, at The Trident’, and watched the three little dots as he typed something back. Then the dots