Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 Page 21

  I tried to backpedal and was clearly floundering. “Well the thing is… at this time we can’t… we don’t know where…”

  “That’s enough,” Miller called. He jogged towards us from the end of the high street and I sensed that Oliver knew he had missed his opportunity for hot gossip. “Ollie, you know we can’t talk about open investigations. Leave Sadie alone or I will help her set up a restraining order!”

  “Wha- Really?” Oliver said.

  “No of course not,” Miller laughed. “But look, as soon as I have an update to give, you will be my first call, deal?”

  “Yes, sir!” Oliver grinned. He hit stop on his Dictaphone and pulled out a camera instead, snapped a quick photo of us then ran off into the distance.

  “What a strange man,” I mumbled to myself.

  “Yeah, this place is full of weirdos,” Miller laughed. “Speaking of which…”

  Ryder was now running towards us and I wondered why every man on the island was operating at a jogging speed today.

  “Sadie!” Ryder shouted. “Are you okay?”

  “She’s fine, you know she’s fine,” Miller hissed under his breath.

  “Did you ask him about the clearing yet?” Ryder asked.

  “What clearing?” Miller replied.

  “Oh, you know exactly what clearing,” Ryder said. I rolled my eyes.

  “No, I haven’t. Look, I spoke with Effie and Kate. They agree with you,” I said to Ryder. “That place is part of a ritual, we just don’t know exactly who is involved with it, or why. Or where Jake Hall fits into it…or where Jake Hall is…”

  “You still haven’t found him? Did the werewolf eat him?” Ryder said.

  “Listen here,” Miller said, jabbing an angry finger in Ryder’s direction.

  “Calm down, the pair of you. Miller, do you know Effie’s ex-boyfriend, Max?” I asked.

  “The singer?” he replied. “Yeah, Max Tyler?”

  “I don’t know his last name, but how many people called Max could be in bands around here?” I said.

  “You’d be surprised,” Ryder muttered.

  “Well it looks like he stole a book of dark magic from Effie’s house. Her and Kate are getting into a flap about the whole thing and keep talking about a sacrifice ritual,” I explained. “I don’t really know enough about it, but they are at my place now if you guys wanna come over.”

  “Ryder too?” Miller asked, pulling a face.

  “Sure, whatever,” I shrugged.

  The three of us walked towards the front door of my house on the far side of the café. Effie and Kate were bickering in my living room when we got inside and suddenly stopped when they saw that I had brought company.

  “Well, well, well,” Kate smiled. “What do we have here?”

  “Don’t ogle Ryder, please,” I asked. “Look, why don’t we lay out what we know so far and see what bits of information are missing?” I slumped down into an armchair, Effie and Kate were occupying one entire sofa. This meant that if Ryder and Miller wanted to sit down, they would need to share the sofa across from me.

  They both sat down, making sure that they were as physically far apart on the seat as was possible. It was comical.

  “Maxxy boy stole a big bad book,” Kate began. “It looks like he had earmarked page 89 which is a big problem because…” She looked over at Effie to finish the sentence.

  “Page 89 describes the process of using ritual sacrifice for personal gain,” Effie said. “Our current theory is that, well, do you remember what we were saying when we heard his entry to the Battle of the Bands competition?” She was looking right at me.

  “Er…” I tried to remember. It felt like weeks had passed since then. “You said that he sounded better than the last time you heard him.”

  “Exactly. The ritual is to be performed in order to ‘get’ something back from the universe. It’s usually fame and fortune, that sort of thing,” Effie said. “He, more than anything else in the world, wanted his band to be famous. He used to jokingly ask me if I could magically make that happen for him and now, I realize that maybe he wasn’t joking.”

  “Jake’s body is missing,” Miller added. “Is that part of the process?”

  “Yes,” Effie and Kate answered in unison.

  “You need the body of someone with a broken heart and a tormented soul,” Kate explained. “I know, super dramatic, right?” She chuckled for a moment. “Yeah, so if Jake was really going through it, and Max knew about it, then he would be the perfect victim. You make a ritual site, bring a body up there and then bang! You get one wish out of the witchy gods above.”

  “How do we prove this? What can we do next?” I asked.

  “Get the wolf to sniff out Jake’s body!” Ryder exclaimed.

  “Ew, no!” Effie scoffed. “Look, we have a few things going on here. First things first, was Jake the right fit for this ceremony. Maybe his wife knows if he was bummed out about something, you should speak to her.”

  “I’d be bummed out if I was in a relationship with that women, but sure,” I said. “We can ask.”

  “Great. Ryder, have you seen any other sites like that one when you’ve been hiking?” Kate asked.

  “No. Well, I’ve never seen one with scorched earth before, but I’ve seen gaps in the trees with big flat rocks,” he answered.

  “Hmmm,” Kate mused. “I just don’t know how Tim could be involved. He had a cut on his hand, and he was in the clearing which would tie him to all this, but I don’t get why he and Max would be in on it together.”

  “Are you serious?” Miller smiled. “I figured you two had your finger on the pulse around here.”

  “What are you talking about?” Effie asked.

  “The old bassist in the band developed crippling carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, so they kicked him out,” Miller said.

  “That was kind of them,” I chimed.

  “That left them with an opening. They held open auditions if I remember correctly. Within a week they were playing gigs around town again with their new line up…” he said, raising his eyebrows as high up on his forehead as he could. He was looking right at Effie and Kate to figure out what he was hinting at, they both stared blankly back at him.

  “Tim is the new bassist,” I sighed. “Right? That’s why he is involved in all this, he is in the band with Max.”

  “Exactly!” Miller said, lifting a hand for a high five before lowering it quickly as I was too far away to participate. “I think they got another new guitarist as well. I haven’t seen them perform recently though.”

  “We really have a type, huh sis?” Kate frowned.

  “I feel sorry for both of us, equally,” Effie said, reaching over to wrap her arms around her sister.

  “Hey, sorry to break up the pity party, but what are we supposed to do next?” I asked again.

  “Speak to Jake’s wife. If this is all really happening, which I am still kinda hoping it isn’t, then I will need to study the book and look for a way to end it. If they have performed a ritual sacrifice for personal gain, and it pays off… well, they would become unstoppable. I’m talking Justin Bieber levels of fame, only evil!” Kate said.

  “I thought Justin Bieber was evil,” Effie said.

  “No, you’re thinking of Justin Trudeau,” Kate replied.

  “No I’m not. Trudeau isn’t evil, he’s Canadian!”

  “So is Bieber!” Kate shrieked.

  “Let’s go,” I signaled to Ryder and Miller. We all stood up and walked out of the house as a three. Greta emerged from nowhere and hovered to the right of Ryder, making a weird movement with her face as if she was trying to sniff his hair.

  It was a well-known fact that Greta had the hots for Ryder, I think she was less than pleased that he appeared to have a crush on me.

  “Greta,” Ryder said. “How are things?”

  “Oh you know, I’m dead now so I don’t spend as much time washing my hair or shaving my legs now. I have so much more time to do what
ever I like,” she grinned. If this was her idea of flirty talk then I needed to give her some tips, not like I had any idea how to speak to guys in a sexy way either.

  “Miller and I need to go and speak to Jake’s wife. I think it’s best we go as the peacekeeper/police officer duo because she is already abrasive and I think she will respond negatively to us bringing along a third person,” I said. “Sorry.”

  Ryder took a deep breath and then turned to Greta once again. “Why don’t we go on a hike back to my store, for old times’ sake?”

  “Yes please!” Greta squealed. Ryder gave me a glance to see if his attempts to make me jealous were working. My mind was too busy to think about my stupid love triangle. Miller and I walked up to the high street where he flagged down a taxi. I was surprised that such a small place had a taxi firm, but when I saw the driver it seemed to make sense.

  “Hey, Sadie!” Wes shouted as we slid into the back of the cab. Wes had been the driver of the bus that had taken me from the airport to the beach on the day I arrived. Miller leaned closer to give Wes an address and soon the car was bumbling across the island to Mrs. Hall’s house.

  We drove in silence for the most part. Wes hummed along to many a tune from the car radio and I found myself staring out of the window and the blur of scenery that passed by. The greenery of the trees and the golden sands started to disappear as we pulled up to a gated community. I didn’t know there were places like this in Hallow Haven.

  “You know, I have sent in my entry and haven’t heard a thing yet! When will y’all be announcing the winner?” Wes asked.

  “This is our stop, thanks Wes,” Miller responded. He opened the car door and took my hand to help pull me out of the vehicle. He passed Wes some cash and waved to usher him to drive away.

  “You can thank me later,” Miller smiled. “He is totally unaware of how bad his singing is, just like most people around here.”

  A security guard in a booth nodded at Miller, smiled at me, and then pressed a button to cause the electric gates to slide apart. We walked through them and Miller led the way to a house with palm trees lining the path to the door. Every inch of the exterior screamed money.

  He knocked twice and then we waited. A car sat on the driveway, but no one was answering. He knocked again. I stepped away from the front door and pressed my hands to my forehead so that I could see through the window into the house, the sun blazing behind me was making it difficult to see.

  I could just about make out the outline of a sofa, a coffee table with a mug in the center, and the twisted body of Mrs. Hall lying still on the fireside rug.

  14

  It seemed pretty clear that she was dead, but we busted our way in through the front door and checked for a pulse anyway. She was dead, alright.

  “I would love to say that people didn’t die as often before you got here, but that would be a lie,” Miller said.

  “Did you and Greta stumble upon as many dead bodies as we have?” I asked.

  “Er… actually not all that many. We got called out for brawling, people stealing fishing boats, the occasional body would wash up on the shore I guess, but you seem to have brought bad luck,” he chuckled.

  “Maybe I should get back on a plane and zoom off for everyone’s safety,” I teased.

  “Nah, I kind of like having you around, even if I spend most of my days investigating murders now,” he smiled. I blushed, but then quickly remembered that we were flirting over the body of Mrs. Hall and we should probably focus.

  “What do you make of that?” I asked, pointing at an empty plastic container of medication. Miller crouched down to look at the prescription label.

  “These are hers; I don’t know the name of that drug, but it clearly hasn’t done her any favors,” he said. The container had landed just a few inches from her open hand, as if she had been holding it when she fell. “I can’t see any blood or a weapon anywhere around, for the minute I have to assume this was an overdose.”

  “I didn’t get the impression that she was too cut up about her husband being murdered,” I mused. “Although that might have been a front. Maybe she came back here and had to sit with her feelings for a while. I don’t know.”

  “Well look at all of these,” he said, pointing at handwritten letters that were piled up beside the sofa. They were small pieces of paper out of their envelopes and looked crinkled as if they had been held many times. “Dearest Evie, I can’t wait to press your skin against mine again, to have you in my arms and—”

  Miller was reading aloud but then stopped abruptly and I saw his cheeks flush a bright scarlet.

  “What are you reading there, Sheriff?” I teased.

  “I can’t say that out loud,” he said. “But there is some saucy stuff in here, these have to be from Jake, right?”

  “Can I see?” Miller passed the letter to me and I read over the words, quickly recognizing which part had caused Miller to blush. “There were notebooks in Jake’s apartment, we could try to do a comparison with the writing. It’s not like we can ask him… oh!”

  “What?”

  “Well, Greta’s ghost showed up after she was murdered, right? What about other ghosts? Maybe we could find his ghost somewhere and ask him what happened? I feel like a dummy for not thinking of it earlier, but this whole ‘ghost’ thing is still pretty new,” I laughed. “Oh man, wait until Kate and Effie hear about this. I bet they will kick themselves for not suggesting it sooner.”

  “Take the letters anyway, it might be useful to double check just in case the ghost thing doesn’t work out,” Miller said. “But if we find him, maybe we can ask him where everyone from Wilmore went…”

  “Still no sign of them? I feel like the priority is to catch a killer, then we can worry about my Uncle and the rest of them.” I let out a long sigh. “I thought moving to an island would help me take my mind off all the negativity that was going on back home, it seems that I’ve just replaced it with a different set of problems.”

  “That’s life,” Miller agreed. “Maybe you just need something to look forward to.”

  “Like what?” I replied.

  “Dinner. With me. A dinner with me,” he said. “It would be great to spend time together that didn’t involve dead people, and I want to show you my favorite spot on the cliffs. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that, but I think you’d really like it up there. There’s a great view of the ocean and—”

  “Yes, I’d like that,” I grinned. For a second it felt like we were the only two people in the world, but reality soon caught up to us. Miller’s phone buzzed and he answered the call. He stepped away to speak and I got the impression he was talking to someone else from the police department.

  I looked again at the handwriting and got a sense that I had seen it before. It was familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. As I stood and thought about it, I had seen so many letters recently that it would be hard for me to work out why this one was triggering déjà vu.

  “Okay, the guys are gonna come over and have a look around. I didn’t realize the time either, so I can’t stick around for too long,” he said.

  “Why?” I asked, glancing past him at the sky and noticing that the sun was lower now. He gave me a look that was intended to tell me something without him having to say the words out loud. “Yeah…” he mumbled.

  It was getting close to sunset. He was a werewolf.

  “It’s supposed to be a full moon tonight and I don’t know enough about what triggers the shift, or whatever. I don’t even know the terminology,” he laughed. “I’m the worst werewolf in town, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

  “What if…” I began. “What if I came with you, helped you get sorted for the night. I mean, what is it that you are rushing home to do?”

  “Honestly? I had a buddy of mine build a big cage, I told him it was a night crate for a huge puppy I was thinking of getting. I was planning to climb inside and padlock the door, ride out the night in there and then… well I guess
I hadn’t thought of an exit strategy. The last time I shifted was when I ran to your house in the middle of the night and scared the life out of you. I’m lucky I didn’t hurt you.”

  “I’ll help you get into your cage if you like, talk about sentences we didn’t think we’d say,” I chuckled. “I can lock you in, take the key, then come back for you tomorrow. Deal?”

  “I was kinda hoping to take you on a real date before you were forced to chain me up inside a metal night-prison, but I guess this is what’s happening now,” he sighed. We both smiled at each other and then looked back at Mrs. Hall.

  “She isn’t going to get any less dead. Once I have made sure you are safe and comfortable, I’ll grab Kate or Effie and try to match this handwriting to something, okay?” I offered. He nodded. “Okay, how do we get to your place from here?”

  “It’s not all that far actually, we can probably walk. By walk I obviously mean power-walk, I don’t know how long we have until old furry feet makes an appearance,” he explained as he walked towards the front door.

  “Aww, it’s cute you have a nickname for the wolf in you,” I teased.

  “I’m open to suggestions for a better name, maybe something with a celebrity name pun?” he said.

  “I can think of nothing other than Wolf Blitzer, which isn’t so much a funny pun name and just the name of that guy from CNN,” I answered. “I’ll think of something, I just need more time to think!”

  We left the gated community as a patrol car was rolling up to the entrance. Miller gave a nod to the officers as they drove past us and then we turned right to walk down the road back towards town.

  “I don’t know if I made it clear, but I didn’t eat Jake,” he said after a few moments of silence.

  “I didn’t think that you had, or at least I didn’t until you just said that,” I laughed.

  “But Ryder said—”

  “Never mind what Ryder said. Call it intuition, or whatever. Someone shot Jake, that is the issue on the table. For some reason, Jake and his wife are dead. Kate and Effie said that the ceremony requires the body of someone brokenhearted and we just found all these explicit love notes around a dead woman. It has a faint resemblance to Romeo & Juliet, only with more guitars and witchcraft in it,” I hummed.