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

“This is weird, but I am still excited about this cliff-top dinner you have planned,” I laughed. “I’ll be back soon.”

I was barely at the front door when Greta appeared beside me and started talking at a thousand miles an hour.

“Word on the street is that now Mrs. Hall is dead too!” she began. “Which is a big problem, right? Like, how does this affect the ritual that is happening? Where is Jake’s body still? How do we find a body when it could be on any one of the islands or even in the ocean!”

“Slow down!” I insisted. “I have this letter, I need to match the writing to something, but I don’t know where to start. I was going to see if it matched the notes in Jake’s apartment.”

I unfolded the letter from my pocket and held it out for Greta to read.

“What is this?” she asked, staring curiously at the note.

“A love letter to Jake’s wife,” I replied.

“Looks like some crummy song lyrics to me,” she huffed. I looked again at what I was holding; it was the piece of paper I had taken from Max’s desk. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the love letter and crouched down to smooth them both out on the ground next to each other. The handwriting was the same.

Was Max having an affair with Jake’s wife?

15

Greta accompanied me all the way back to the main part of the high street. Miller’s house hadn’t been all that far away from the places I recognized, and with my cousin guiding the way, the journey was short. It seemed that Greta had plenty of opinion’s about Effie’s ex-boyfriend. Now that he had been revealed as the key part of the whole problem we were facing, she felt free to let all of those suppressed thoughts loose.

“Honestly, I always knew she could do better than him. The whole island knew that he was a leech, but Effie was so enamored that she wouldn’t hear our warnings. We figured we should just let it play out,” she moaned. “When he tried his hand at some magic though, that was when we knew that something had to give. Luckily Effie recognized that Max was waving the biggest red flag of all time and got out of there.”

I walked in the direction of The Guitar Yard. Now that we were under the glare of the streetlights, I could see that the high street was still buzzing quietly into the night. No one seemed phased by Greta floating beside me, but I wasn’t sure how many people could actually see her.

“What about your love life?” I asked. “Did you date any crazy people that are going to show up as some super villain in a few weeks?” I smirked, waiting for Greta to give me sass back. It didn’t come.

“Probably best we don’t delve into that right now…” she muttered. “Where are we headed anyway? Where’s your guardian?”

“Look up,” I said, gesturing towards the moonlit sky.

“Ahh, gotcha. What about Ryder?”

“He is probably hiking around in the mountains looking for something to blame Miller for,” I shrugged.

“You aren’t getting along? Honestly, I would have given my left arm for Ryder to look at me the way he looks at you, I can’t get my head around the fact that you haven’t proposed to him yet,” she laughed.

“I mean, he’s cute for sure,” I said. “But I have to work with Miller almost every day. Ryder seems to hate him, so it puts me in an awkward position.”

“I don’t see why that means you can’t give him a sneaky kiss when no one is looking,” she winked. She lifted her hand up to receive a high-five then obviously thought better of it as my hand would have passed straight through her.

I stood facing the store façade of Jake’s business. A sound behind me caught my attention and I turned to watch the islanders going about their business, despite the hour.

I always thought it was huge cities that were famed for having a twenty-four energy, but here on this island there were people shopping and eating hours after the sun had set.

There was a guy in a floral short-sleeved shirt, tan shorts and flipflops walking hand in hand with a woman in a fur-trim coat and snow boots as they turned to step into a restaurant. How could they be dressed so differently for the weather? It was such a strange place.

“Are we going in?” Greta asked. She began to float through the crime scene tape and into the building. I wondered for a moment why the tape was still there. Hallow Haven didn’t have any CSI team on the way, there would be no one checking out the store for forensic evidence. Maybe they just had to leave it up until the glass was repaired.

I ducked under the tape and followed her through the open door. Had it been left open like this? Obviously with the windows smashed up it was hardly necessary to close the door as potential thieves could climb inside anyway, but I don’t remember the door being open.

“This place is creepier at night,” I muttered. “I know there isn’t a dead body in here anymore, but it’s still spooky.”

“Are you frightened that the people that stole Jake’s body might come back and get you?” Greta asked.

“Well I am now, thanks!”

I walked through the store to the back stairs that led up to Jake’s apartment. I wouldn’t get the opportunity to speak to his wife about this place now, we wouldn’t know why this was a secret he hid from her. Unless…

“Hey, how come I haven’t seen Jake’s ghost anywhere?” I asked.

“Hmm, well I suppose that—” she cut herself off mid-sentence as footsteps creaked in the apartment above. Someone was up there.

I paused on the stairs, reluctant to climb higher as there was obviously an intruder in the building. It couldn’t be