Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by Mara Webb

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Hallow Haven Witch Cozy Mystery Bundle 1

  Mara Webb

  Contents

  All Wands on Deck

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Ghost Writer

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Witch in the Water

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Thanks for Reading

  Mailing List

  All Wands on Deck

  Book One

  1

  First impression; bad. I had stepped off the plane no less than ten minutes ago and was already scanning the departures board for a flight back home. Although I suppose home wasn’t in Virginia anymore, it was here. Somewhere, someone had the audacity to be playing a joyful tune on a ukulele and I was in no mood.

  This airport was easily the most dilapidated place I had ever had the misfortune of being in. I had walked across the tarmac into the arrivals area and there had been a huge pile of rubble blocking the way through the corridor. I had hoisted my suitcase above my head as if I was wading through water in order to lunge over the dirt mountain and get back to flat ground.

  I had been on the island of Hallow Haven only once before to attend a funeral and had made a secret wish to never return. I was now coming to terms with the fact that, clearly, wishes do not come true. Back on the mainland, you might expect to walk through a seemingly endless stretch of stores selling perfumes and flip flops, but I was ducking under scaffolding and weaving around wet floor signs.

  I checked my cell phone and let out a long sigh, no signal. Fortunately, I had taken a screenshot of the directions I would need. Even though I had been warned that it would be unlikely to find a taxi when I landed, I was still surprised by the lack of any cars outside. The fact that the plane had only brought two other passengers with me should have been the biggest clue that this place would be weird.

  I watched the two other passengers wander out of the airport and considered following them. Perhaps they knew about a special place to look for a cab. The larger of the two stepped in front of the short one and bent down a little, the short one jumped and then they walked off in piggy-back formation towards a long stretch of road. I made the sensible decision to turn back to the bus stop.

  I was told it would be one long bus ride if I got the timing right, or three buses if I messed up. I heard the gentle rumble of a large engine approaching and began to run to the spot where I needed to signal that I wanted to board the vehicle. The bus stop was less complete than the airport, if that was possible, and the bus timetable was a scrawl written on a plank of wood which read, ‘turn around and keep an eye out.’

  As the rusty bus slowed to a halt, the doors struggle open and a cute guy smiled from behind the wheel. “Sadie Alden?” he asked. I nodded, dumbstruck that he knew my name already. “Step right up, your fare has been covered already so take a seat and we’ll get going.”

  I lifted my suitcase up the steps and walked down the central aisle of the bus. There was not a single other soul riding today, so the driver and I were alone.

  “Sit closer to the front, I like the company,” he said. I turned and realized he had been watching me scuttling to the back in his rear-view mirror. I turned around and made my way to the seat nearest to the door so that I could see his face. Such a handsome face too, bearded and sporting honey-kissed brown curls down to his shoulders. He looked like the picture postcard for island living.

  As we pulled away from the airport, he turned up the volume on the radio and it seemed to play an endless stream of steel-drum covers of popular songs from home. My old home. It would take a while to get used to that.

  “Rough flight?” he asked.

  “I haven’t found the words to describe the experience yet,” I smiled. “We hit some turbulence then the pilot started singing over the speakers to keep everyone calm. Like I said, I don’t have the words.”

  “Tom is a performer right down to his bones,” the driver laughed. “If there is an open-mic night anywhere on the island you can guarantee that he will be onstage before the event is over. It’s like he can sense them.”

  “Have you lived here long?” I asked.

  “Since day zero, I was born here,” he smiled. “Wes is the name, this bus is Wes’s Wheels, technically, but it can be a bit of a mouthful for some, so call it whatever you like. You must be excited to get here, but it’s quite a leap from your old life, right?”

  “I lived in a town with people that rarely spoke to me and I didn’t have any family in the area. Once I became single again, I decided to do something drastic and scoured the internet for new opportunities. The job listing seemed too good to be true,” I explained. I was astonished by my own candor. Just because Wes knew my name already didn’t mean I needed to share personal details.

  “Too good to be true? What do you think you’ve gotten yourself into?” he laughed. “I didn’t read the ad myself, but I figured they must have put quite a spin on things to get any applicants at all.”

  As far as I knew, I had taken a job as the new manager of a beach side café. There was a building attached to the back which would allow me to live on site for free and there had been all sorts of information about the finances of the place, the popularity with the locals and its desirable location for passing trade. Well, passing trade for the tourists that were already on the island, obviously that was a limited crowd.

  Back in Virginia I had owned two cafes and had been expanding slowly. My dreams had been enormous but the reality of it all was much more difficult. There were so many setbacks, issues with suppliers and extortionate costs associated with owning the buildings that I wanted to make a fresh start.

  When things went South with Justin I just wanted to get out of there.

  I had dived down a rabbit hole of looking for obscure locations to start again, somehow I had come across an ad for a caf�
� that was for sale on a distant island and it sounded perfect. ‘The Sand Witch’ was available for a reasonable price and I already had a vague awareness of the island from my last visit. What could go wrong?

  “Are you saying the café is a disaster?” I asked. Wes smirked as he navigated the bus around a corner which allowed terrifying cliff side views to open up to my left. Seagulls swarmed the skies and screeched as the bus hummed quietly along the road. The occasional house was passing us on the right and then they got closer together as we began to reach a business district. We must be getting close.

  “Not at all, The Sand Witch is the place to be, man!” Wes replied. “You’re planning to keep some of the staff on, right? Those folks are the heart of that place, you’d be hard pressed to find replacements that could keep the same quality that people are used to.”

  “I haven’t thought about it much. I tried to call once or twice but the connection was always so bad that I could barely hear the answers to my questions,” I sighed. Of course, I had wanted to speak to the staff, but I could only communicate via email and that lacked the personal touch.

  “Where are you staying?” Wes asked. “I can recommend a hotel for the night if you haven’t made arrangements yet.”

  “I was planning to stay in the house at the back of the café,” I answered. I watched the skin on Wes’s arms prickle like goose flesh, had he suffered from a sudden chill, or was it in response to something I said?

  “There’s a good reason that the house at the back is empty...” he muttered to himself. I felt like he had spoken out loud but not with the intention of me hearing him. It had been a long day of travelling and stressing that I was going to get here and immediately get lost. I just wanted to relish in the fact that I had made a bold decision and followed through with it, I didn’t need a superstitious bus driver trampling on my good mood.

  The water was so blue from up here and as the bus followed the road down to the seaside town, I found that the colors grew more vivid. It was as if nature could really thrive in a way that it couldn’t in the concrete nightmare of my last hometown. Ocean air and greenery are supposed to be good for your health, or so a cheap women’s magazine once told me.

  Wes and I had travelled in silence for several minutes and I didn’t want to be the first one to break, even though I clearly had a million questions.

  “Are you excited to meet up with some family? They must be stoked to have you moving to the main island,” Wes finally said.

  “Oh, I don’t have any family here, it’s just me,” I smiled. I didn’t have family anywhere, not anymore. I was the string-less puppet, free to uproot my life and move wherever caught my eye. There was a small voice in my head saying the things I didn’t want to hear, like, ‘you’ve made a reckless decision as a result of a bad breakup’, and, ‘you did this to get his attention.’ I didn’t like that voice. “What do you mean main island?”

  “You really are from another world aren’t you,” Wes chuckled. “Hallow Haven is the main island, but there are islands around this one where the locals live. They commute here to work and then get back on the boats to head home. A few people swim back to their islands, any excuse to get a dip in that blue water!”

  “Oh yeah, I think someone mentioned that they rowed to work in an email to me,” I said. I must be tired. It had been such a long time since my one prior visit that everything felt brand new. Had I been foolish to move my life here without doing some research first? “Where do you live?”

  “I’m over on Port Wayvern. It’s not the biggest or the smallest of the extra islands around the Hallow Haven. We have our own bakery over there so we’re one up on Tivercana. Stupid place to live if you ask me.” I had only just met Wes and hadn’t had the time to learn much about him, but still felt surprised by his outburst.

  “…I should get myself a map,” I smiled. I wanted to defuse the tension, but it seemed Wes had his own issues with Tivercana, and I wasn’t going to be able to address them before it was time to disembark. I could see the sand of the beach merging with the end of the road and saw the building that I had seen so many photographs of. My new café.

  Wes parked the bus and turned the key to kill the engine. “There should be a map in the back of the café, don’t feel like you need to rush to learn everything about this place. I’ve spent all of my thirty years here and I still feel clueless,” he smiled. He climbed out of his seat and offered to carry my suitcase across the sand. I was grateful for the help.

  The café was still open, and I could see people inside happily eating and talking. I was thankful we made it in good time as I didn’t have a key yet and would have been stranded here otherwise.

  “Pardon my intrusiveness, but I’m just dwelling on what you said earlier about having no family,” Wes said as we approached the door.

  “Yeah, I was adopted by a sweet lady, but she passed away a few years back,” I replied. “It’s okay now, don’t worry about me.” People always tended to pour pity and sympathy all over you when you mentioned stuff like that, it’s why I rarely told anyone. Why I offered that information to Wes I had no idea.

  “I’m just confused. You’re related to most of the people in Hallow Haven, didn’t you know?”

  2

  My forehead was screwed up in confusion. I had follow up questions but Wes was already mingling with the patrons of the café and I was left standing alone in the doorway. It was busy and loud, the sound of excited voices washed over the lunch-time diners as they saw me, and I looked back over my shoulder to double check that there wasn’t a celebrity behind me.

  “Leave her be, she’s only just arrived!” a young woman yelled. Her authority was unquestioned, and everyone returned their gaze to the person they were sharing a table with. “Sadie, this way,” she barked. I picked my suitcase up again and followed her behind the counter through a door in the back.

  “Nice to meet you, I’m...” I began. I was quickly cut off.

  “Sadie Alden, I know,” she smiled. “My name’s Effie, I’ve been taken care of things between owners.”

  “Thank you,” I replied. It made sense that they keep the place running, I wasn’t sure of the circumstances surrounding the departure of the previous owner and I hadn’t checked how long the ad had been available online, all I had seen was the price and the location.

  “How was your flight?” she asked.

  “Long,” I sighed. “Well it was actually several flights and they all added up to a long trip. I struggle to sleep on planes even with the eye mask and ear plugs.”

  “Oh yeah, getting to the mainland is such a chore!” Effie was already pouring me a cup of coffee and I was so glad to have the scent of it flooding my nostrils. She was the most interesting person I had ever seen. Her hair was two different colors and they met at the central parting like two colliding oceans.

  On the right side of her parting her hair was peach colored, on the left a vibrant lavender. She had bangs that covered her whole forehead, the color divide ending just above the bridge of her nose. Her nose ring caught the light as she turned to pass me the mug of coffee and I realized I had just been staring at her in silence.

  “Been a while since you saw anyone cool, I’m guessing,” she laughed.

  “Your hair is amazing! Yeah, back home there isn’t much variety,” I admitted. I hadn’t considered that the people here would be so different to the people at home. My main focus had been to get away from my ex-boyfriend, Effie had an aesthetic that promised adventure.

  “Oh we have variety in spades,” she smiled. There was something about the glint in her eye that suggested there was more to her statement, but I left it alone. “We still have the schedules and everything figured out until the weekend and you just got here so you should take some time to soak up the place.”

  “I’d love to just throw myself in the deep end,” I protested gently. “I’d appreciate a little time to shower and unpack though if that was okay.”

  “Sadie, this c
afé is famous around these parts. It won’t be something to figure out overnight, there is a lot going on with this place that you probably haven’t dealt with before,” she said sternly. I felt slightly offended.

  I had plenty of experience with cooking and baking, I’ve been making bread since I was a kid, I know all about the early starts and how to balance the books. What was it that she thought I wasn’t equipped for?

  I parted my lips and the look she gave me prompted me to press them together again.

  “Sorry, I’m coming at this all wrong,” she said, placing her hands on my shoulders. “I was warned that there was some stuff you didn’t know, like, stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, you know?”

  I blinked slowly like a fish out of water.

  “You’re new here, I can get you all caught up with The Sand Witch over the next few days and transition to your leadership as we go. I’ll show you how things are done, and you can learn as you do, is that okay? I just don’t want to drop a huge pile of problems on your lap when you still have jetlag and aren’t even wearing sunscreen.”