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

It was a modest home, nothing seemed particularly expensive, but it looked like Jeff lived a comfortable life. Perhaps the bribery money was a nice little boost to his mailman salary, and he was using it to buy himself his creature comforts. The TV looked pretty old though, as did the sofa. Despite the slashes through the cushions, I could see that the fabric was faded and dusty.

“If he was taking bribes, where did all the money go?” I whispered.

“If he was keeping it in that safe,” Miller said, pointing over to the wall, “then it’s gone.”

The smell of freshly poured coffee caught my attention. “Kitchen,” I whispered. Miller nodded and we quietly crept through the living room and through the door into a small, country style room with pine cabinets and floral wallpaper. I almost slipped through the doorway on something and looked down to see that I had stepped onto a drop of blood.

More blood drops were dotted across the floor and led to an older man that was slumped against a wooden table, groaning quietly.

“Jeff!” Miller shouted.

10

Miller had called the station for help and it had taken several tries before he got hold of anybody. Apparently, they were all still busy looking for the vandal that had damaged all the roses, but Miller had been quite stern that it was now much less of a priority than the medical emergency we were dealing with.

Jeff was injured, but alive. That was the important thing. He had blood on his face and was feeling a little woozy but had managed to speak to us briefly to say that he was okay. I sat with him as Miller went outside to navigate some sort of extraction.

“Sadie,” Jeff mumbled. I didn’t need to question how he knew my name, everyone on the main island seemed to know who I was.

I found a cloth and soaked it under some warm water to clean away some of the blood on his face. When I found the injury, I was surprised by how small it was given how much blood was on his skin. It reminded me of when I’d nicked my legs when shaving them in the shower and it looked like I’d cut through an artery but was barely noticeable once I’d cleaned it up.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Did they take it all?” he mumbled.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It looks like someone has been through every hiding place in the house though.”

“Good job I keep some money in the safe at work... could I have some water?” he asked. I jumped up and poured him a glass, placed it on the kitchen table and helped to pull him up onto his feet so he could sit down on a chair. He took small sips and seemed to be perking up. I was so grateful that he was okay, the last thing we needed was another killer on the loose today.

“Okay,” Miller said as he burst back into the room. “I’ve managed to secure a helicopter lift out of here. Don’t ask me how, I had to call in a lot of favors, but we will have to wait maybe forty minutes and—”

“No need,” Jeff laughed. “Can’t you just call Wes? He has a taxi that can come almost all the way to the door you know. He could take us to the doctor, or have the doctor come to us!”

“That’s a… that’s a good point,” Miller said, shaking his head. “Okay, that makes way more sense than what I was just suggesting. Let me make some more calls.” He disappeared back out of the kitchen and left Jeff and I alone again.

“He tries his hardest,” Jeff wheezed.

“I know,” I smiled back. “Do you remember anything that happened? Did you recognize your attacker?”

“I didn’t see a face…” he sighed. “But at least I’ve been able to finally meet you! I’ve heard all this buzz around the island about the new peacekeeper and how much you look like your mother. All those rumors were true!”

My mother? The words caught me off guard and I tried to reorganize my thoughts so that I could respond appropriately, but Miller was suddenly back in the room talking very quickly.

“Wes is picking up the doctor, picking up one raspberry lemonade, then coming here,” Miller said. “I tried to fight the need for the lemonade but—”

“That is for me,” Jeff laughed. “Wes is a lovely young man. He often brings raspberry lemonades to the post office and hands them out to us all. It can get very hot in the sorting room and we don’t have any air conditioning in there anymore. The darn thing broke a few months back and we haven’t had the money to fix it. I was saving up to pay for it myself, but I guess all that money is gone.”

“I’ll have a look at it, Jeff,” Miller said. “Anyone on this island would repair that thing for free, you know that!”

“I pay people for their work. Always have, always will. It’s not an easy world to live in, I won’t shortchange anybody in Hallow Haven,” Jeff replied, proudly.

“That’s very noble and everything, but we can hardly let our favorite mailman spend his days in a furnace, can we? Let me help you,” Miller insisted.

“Let’s get my head looked at first,” Jeff said. “If you get a few minutes to look at the AC unit this week then I’ll find a way to repay you. That’s on top of what I owe you both for coming here in the nick of time to find me. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”

“You owe us nothing,” I grinned. It was hard to keep in mind that we had come in the first place because we were investigating the passport-payment scam that he seemed to be running. A sweet old man could still