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

“I’ll wait out here,” Miller said. I think he knew I wanted to speak to Effie in private. I stepped through the front door of The Sand Witch and was hit by a wall of sound. Every table had customers and there was a huge line at the counter. Shell’s Day preparations seemed to have driven up business. Fortunately, Effie had brought in enough staff that they could handle it. It seemed that the lunch rush was reaching its end and the majority of people inside were just waiting to pay their bill before leaving.

“Effie, can I speak to you for a minute?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said, gesturing for Rosie, one of the other staff, to take over at the cash register. “What’s up? Is this about your cute new hair cut? Or have you and Miller picked a wedding date? I will of course be your maid of honor,” she teased.

“No, it’s not that,” I smirked. “The amber ring you gave me, it changed.” I lifted my hand up to show her the ring and her mouth fell open.

“Is that what I think it is?” she whispered. What did she think it was?

8

“Dude! I don’t care what level you’re on, get over here!” Effie screeched into her cell phone. She hung up with a forceful shove of her index finger against the screen then looked back at me. “You can’t slam the phone down on people anymore, stupid touch screens.”

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Oh, I was calling Kate to get her to come here. She was complaining because she is in some online strategy game thing and she’s on this level that means she’s about to… you know, it doesn’t matter. The point is, I wanted my sister to get here to look at this,” Effie said, pointing at my ring.

“Are you gonna let me know what’s happening? Or are you making me wait until she gets here?” I pressed. Effie had dragged me through the kitchen of the café and through the doorway that connected the café to my house. We were now standing in my hallway as she paced up and down muttering under her breath. Less than a minute after she had hung up on her sister, there was a loud pounding at the front door.

Effie rushed up the hallway to see who it was. A breathless Kate stood on the sand outside gasping for air and clutching her stomach.

“Ran so…fast. Can’t… oxygen,” Kate wheezed.

“Finally, you’re here,” Effie teased. “Come see this.” She grabbed her sister by the arm and pulled her along until they stopped in front of me.

“Sadie? I’ve… seen Sadie before,” she said, still struggling to breathe. “New hair cut?”

“Look at her hand,” Effie prompted. Kate looked down at the ring and she replicated Effie’s reaction perfectly, jaw open in disbelief.

“Is that what I think it is?” Kate said.

“Hello?” I yelled, frustrated.

“Yeah, sorry. Is that a peridot?” Effie asked.

“I have no idea, but there’s a woman on Green Holt that said that word when she saw it, so maybe,” I shrugged.

Kate and Effie looked at each other and then started to jump up and down excitedly.

“Sadie, that stone is not just any peridot,” Kate shrieked.

“For real, I have never heard this word before, so this means nothing to me,” I complained.

“You were on Green Holt when the ring changed?” Effie gasped. “I need to sit down.” She started to dramatically fan herself with both hands and I resisted the urge to throw a toddler tantrum in front of them to get their attention long enough to tell me what was going on.

“There is a legend over on Green Holt about buried treasure, have you heard about that?” Kate asked. I nodded. “Well, some people say that the treasure was found long ago. I know there are folk over there still digging up any bit of earth they can get their hands on, but bear with me.

“Okay, so the treasure was found, and they start counting up all the goodies; tipping the chest out onto the beach and taking stock of what they’ve won. The island didn’t want just anyone getting its hands on the loot, so it swallowed up a few items.” Kate grinned widely as if she’d said something that should have caused me to jump up and down excitedly like she just had.

“Let me guess, this stone was swallowed by the island, is that what you’re telling me?” I groaned.

“Yeah!” Kate and Effie shouted together.

“How did you get this?” Kate asked.

“I was standing on the dock with Miller, and we were about to get to our boat to go to Skerry, but I saw something in the water and—” I was cut off by the two of them squealing with delight. Effie, who had sat down on the ground to calm down, had leapt back onto her feet and had wrapped her arms around her sister. They were spinning and near screaming.

“This is a really big deal,” Effie yelled. “Kate, pack a bag for each of us, grab my camera and meet me back here in, err…” she paused to think. “Thirty minutes!” Kate nodded and ran back out of the front door of the house and was gone.

“Bye?” I laughed.

“I’m so glad you came to get me, I didn’t know that you knew we were into this sort of thing,” Effie grinned.

“Have I hit my head? Or have neither of you made a lick of sense since you opened your mouths today?” I asked.

There was another knock on the front door; it was Miller this time. He pushed the door open and stopped to see if it was okay to enter. The look on Effie’s face must have given him the impression that he was intruding.

“Sorry, I can wait in another room if you like,” he said. “It’s just baking hot out there, and I know you’ve got AC so…”

“Come on it. Maybe you can