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

us when there was a lull in the line to pay. She didn’t have a clue what our current emergency was but liked to chime in with updates on her love life.

“Anyway, he didn’t text me back right away and I figured he was asleep, right? It turns out…” Rosie began. She looked up and saw three people waving their credit cards in the air and leapt out of her chair to see to them.

“Is there not a more private place we could talk?” I asked. “My living room is less than thirty feet from here.”

“Yes, but do you have endless supplies of caffeine at your house?” Kate said.

“Well, we can get refills from the café and then speak freely about all this,” I replied, gesturing vaguely at the book in Effie’s hands.

“Good point,” Kate nodded. We stood up to leave. My eye was caught by a man entering the café with a boyish grin and a sparkle in his eye. He spotted me and gestured for me to walk over. It was Oliver, a reporter for the island newspaper.

“Morning to ya,” he sang in his gentle Irish accent. “Could I speak with you about something important? Maybe outside?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Effie and Kate stepping behind the café counter and making their way to the kitchen.

“We’ll see you there!” Effie mouthed at me. They were taking the shortcut to my house through the kitchen door. I turned back to Oliver and wondered what information he was planning to press me for. So much was going on at the minute and I was quickly forgetting who knew what.

I followed him out onto the sand, and he pulled out a Dictaphone from the pocket of his shorts and fiddled with the buttons.

“What’s this about, Oliver?” I asked.

“Well, where do I start? I suppose I’d love an update on the Battle of the Bands contest, I hear that you have been roped in to judge the competition as our very own peacekeeper celebrity!” he smiled.

I let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Oh that! Jeez, I thought you were going to ask me about Ja—”

“Jake Hall?” Oliver interrupted. “I’m sure the readers would be thrilled to know that you and the police department are making progress with the hunt for the killer that is still at large on the island. Do you happen to know if there is more than one killer? Was it a group effort to break into The Guitar Yard?”

I tried to backpedal and was clearly floundering. “Well the thing is… at this time we can’t… we don’t know where…”

“That’s enough,” Miller called. He jogged towards us from the end of the high street and I sensed that Oliver knew he had missed his opportunity for hot gossip. “Ollie, you know we can’t talk about open investigations. Leave Sadie alone or I will help her set up a restraining order!”

“Wha- Really?” Oliver said.

“No of course not,” Miller laughed. “But look, as soon as I have an update to give, you will be my first call, deal?”

“Yes, sir!” Oliver grinned. He hit stop on his Dictaphone and pulled out a camera instead, snapped a quick photo of us then ran off into the distance.

“What a strange man,” I mumbled to myself.

“Yeah, this place is full of weirdos,” Miller laughed. “Speaking of which…”

Ryder was now running towards us and I wondered why every man on the island was operating at a jogging speed today.

“Sadie!” Ryder shouted. “Are you okay?”

“She’s fine, you know she’s fine,” Miller hissed under his breath.

“Did you ask him about the clearing yet?” Ryder asked.

“What clearing?” Miller replied.

“Oh, you know exactly what clearing,” Ryder said. I rolled my eyes.

“No, I haven’t. Look, I spoke with Effie and Kate. They agree with you,” I said to Ryder. “That place is part of a ritual, we just don’t know exactly who is involved with it, or why. Or where Jake Hall fits into it…or where Jake Hall is…”

“You still haven’t found him? Did the werewolf eat him?” Ryder said.

“Listen here,” Miller said, jabbing an angry finger in Ryder’s direction.

“Calm down, the pair of you. Miller, do you know Effie’s ex-boyfriend, Max?” I asked.

“The singer?” he replied. “Yeah, Max Tyler?”

“I don’t know his last name, but how many people called Max could be in bands around here?” I said.

“You’d be surprised,” Ryder muttered.

“Well it looks like he stole a book of dark magic from Effie’s house. Her and Kate are getting into a flap about the whole thing and keep talking about a sacrifice ritual,” I explained. “I don’t really know enough about it, but they are at my place now if you guys wanna come over.”

“Ryder too?” Miller asked, pulling a face.

“Sure, whatever,” I shrugged.

The three of us walked towards the front door of my house on the far side of the café. Effie and Kate were bickering in my living room when we got inside and suddenly stopped when they saw that I had brought company.

“Well, well, well,” Kate smiled. “What do we have here?”

“Don’t ogle Ryder, please,” I asked. “Look, why don’t we lay out what we know so far and see what bits of information are missing?” I slumped down into an armchair, Effie and Kate were occupying one entire sofa. This meant that if Ryder and Miller wanted to sit down, they would need to share the sofa across from me.

They both sat down, making sure that they were as physically far apart on the seat as was possible. It was comical.

“Maxxy boy stole a big bad book,” Kate began. “It looks like he had earmarked page 89 which is a big problem because…” She looked over at Effie to finish the sentence.

“Page 89 describes the process of using ritual sacrifice for personal gain,” Effie said. “Our current theory is that, well, do you remember what we were saying when we heard his entry to the Battle of the Bands competition?” She was looking right at me.

“Er…” I tried to remember. It felt like