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

Jake, because even if his ghost had shown up, it wouldn’t be making any noise when he walked. Unless he was now some sort of zombie. Great. Now that idea was lodged into my head and my imagination was getting ahead of itself.

“What do we do?” I whispered.

“You’re the peacekeeper! You go in there and tell them they shouldn’t be snooping around a dead man’s house! You have authority,” she replied.

“So did you, and you got murdered because you approached a killer by yourself without your guardian!” I squeaked.

“Good point,” she nodded. “Well if someone tries to kill you then I will spook them big time and you can run back out the door, deal?”

“Hello?” a voice boomed. The apartment door was open slightly and clearly the conversation between Greta and me wasn’t as quiet as I had thought. “Hello, who’s there?”

“Oh!” Greta grinned. She suddenly rushed up the stairs towards the door and then I heard a lot of noises that sounded like shrieking, laughter and panic all rolled into one. What?

I ran up after her, not for a second thinking that there could be a madman in the apartment with a bayonet or a shotgun. I was pleasantly relieved to see what was going on, then immediately confused.

Standing in the middle of Jake’s apartment was Walter Alden, my uncle. He was also Greta’s father, so they were having a moment. They had a strange relationship; he had been her guardian but had been absent when she went exploring by herself and was killed as part of some family feud on one of the outer islands.

I didn’t know if they had seen each other since her murder, or where he had been since his housekeeper had reported the whole family missing.

“What are you doing here!?” I blurted. My voice put an abrupt end to their enthused conversation. Walter was a grey-haired man with a short, dense grey beard and a stern brow. The last time we had met he had been so serious; curt in his responses and less than happy to see me. He was smiling from ear to ear with Greta by his side. Had I misjudged him?

“I could ask you the same thing! Oh, what a pleasant surprise!” he beamed. “You know I couldn’t have predicted that my day would end like this, I mean I could have, obviously.”

What did that mean?”

“Why are you in Jake Hall’s apartment?” I asked. “Where have you been this whole time?”

“All in good time,” he replied. He stepped sideways to the sofa and collapsed down into it, then patted the seat beside him. “Come and sit with me, I hear it’s been busy.”

I was hesitant, but Greta nodded her head towards her father. She suddenly faded into the air and disappeared, leaving Walter and I alone.

“You shouldn’t be out at night by yourself,” he cautioned, some of the severity returning to his face for a flash. “I know Greta was with you, but she can’t defend you as well as your guardian can.”

“I have two guardians actually,” I mumbled.

“I heard, yet neither of them is with you. What’s that about?” he scolded in a fatherly way.

“It’s a complicated story,” I replied.

“Ah yes, the moon. I suppose you have one guardian in chains somewhere for the safety of the island, right? What about the other?”

“I don’t actually know where he is,” I confessed.

“Sadie, believe me when I say that, well I don’t mean to worry you, but there are people around here that would gladly do you harm. The outer islands can be a lawless place, some families are out for global domination, some are squabbling about fishing restrictions and others are arguing about hedge size.

“People turn to you for guidance, diplomacy and justice. You will win more friends than enemies, I’m sure. But you must be careful,” he warned. His face softened with a smile and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened. He had thick, black framed glasses, but I could still see the familiar crystal blues behind the lenses.

“You still haven’t told me why you are here?” I said, finally sitting down beside him.

“Well, Jake and I have a history,” he sighed.

“Are you about to reveal yourself as his killer? Because that is going to make for a really uncomfortable conversation,” I smiled.

“Oh no, goodness no. I didn’t kill him. I heard about what happened and I couldn’t stay away any longer. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I never expected that this would be the end of the story.”

“Are you going to elaborate? Or do I have to keep prodding?” I teased.

“Jake was in love with your mother. Always had been, from the day they met at school probably right up to his last breath,” Walter said, looking away from me as he spoke. He was staring through the window to the glow of the high street and in the silence, I could just about hear people laughing down on the sidewalk.

“They were together?” I asked.

“No. You see, your mom had her sights set on a different guy. Jake watched on as she fell in love and married someone else, his heartbreak was obvious to everyone. He would send her love letters every day for years, poems, flowers, songs. He didn’t stop sending them even after she moved away from here, even after you were born. He himself got married, but the letters didn’t stop.”

“Did his wife know?” I asked.

“I’m sure she did, at least on some level. He has so many letters here that are draft versions of ones that were sent to the house. Tapes of songs he wrote, too.” He handed me a cassette and I recognized the word ‘Nobody’. He had sent in the song to Kate’s competition that we had all loved so much.

“I felt bad for the guy,” Walter continued. “But I told him to back of so many times. He was head over heels for her, he’s been living with a broken heart his whole life.”

That would have made him