Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (hardest books to read TXT) 📗

“That doesn’t make any sense, you both know that, right?” I said, raising an eyebrow at both of them.

“Yeah, I’m with Sadie,” Fitz nodded. “It’s no way to live your life, hanging on to old grudges out of habit. You are denying yourself the happiness of hanging out with your cousin. I am pretty sure that one of my cousins accidentally turned himself into a tree and we can’t figure out which one he is.”

We were almost at the Green Holt dock and Fitz was trying to recreate a sea-shanty that he’d seen online, but Miller cut him off. Thankfully.

“Okay, who’s getting off here?” Miller called out. “I think Sadie and I are going over to Skerry briefly first.”

“Huh?” I said.

“I’ve just seen someone on the Skerry beach rolling a cannon along the sand and it’s aiming right at this island so the quicker we move the better,” Miller explained.

Fitz, Effie and Kate leapt off the boat onto the dock and Effie wiggled her fingers at the bags and they floated up through the air and landed on the dock beside her.

“Could you use your magic to just send those bags up to the guest house?” I asked.

“Well yeah, I can do pretty much anything,” Effie laughed. “But then I would miss out on the fun of dragging luggage around a humid island, up hills and between palm trees.”

“Are you joking?” I laughed.

“No, she’s not,” Kate sulked. The two of them began to pull back packs over their shoulders, extend the handles on wheely suitcases and struggle up the dock dragging their stuff behind them. Fitz was trotting alongside them both happily and continuing his sea-shanty.

“She’d not been two weeks from shore, when down on her a right whale bore…” he sang.

Miller was already turning the boat around and zooming away, but I had no doubt Fitz would give me another performance later on.

“How do people on both of these islands have cannons?” I asked. “Where can you even buy a cannon?”

“I’ve asked,” Miller sighed. “I don’t get answers, or at least I don’t get answers that make any sense.”

The journey to Skerry was short and it didn’t seem as though Miller was planning to find a dock. He steered the boat around the collapsed wall between the two islands and brought it to a stop a few feet from the beach where three men were loading gunpowder into a cannon.

He pulled a lever, and I felt the boat sway as an anchor beneath us hit the seabed. Miller put one hand on the side of the boat and jumped out into the water while shouting for the men to stop what they were doing. I knew I should get out of the water too, but I was contemplating how many times I’d been soaked to the bone over the last few days. I just wanted to be clean and dry, was that so much to ask?

I let out a sigh of complaint, then jumped into the shallows and followed behind Miller. The men standing around the cannon didn’t seem thrilled to see us.

“I don’t see you over there telling Old Toothless Pete to put his cannon away!” one of the men shouted.

“I have asked him to stop several times. Now I’m telling you the same thing,” Miller explained. The three men stared at me for a moment and then looked back at Miller.

“Where’s Greta?” they asked.

“She died,” I answered. “Killed, actually. My name is Sadie and I’m—”

“The peacekeeper…” one of them interrupted. “She came back…” The three of them turned inward to form a small huddle and whispered among themselves. I still wasn’t used to the idea that everyone in Hallow Haven had an awareness of me before I had even moved here. My parents had sent me away when I was a baby, but for some reason that was common knowledge.

I still had so many unanswered questions about my family. The thought of finding out the truth was scary, maybe that’s why I was putting it off. The men broke their huddle and stood shoulder to shoulder in a line facing us.

“We will stop firing… for now,” the tallest one agreed. They had stood in height order for some reason, tallest to shortest. The shortest guy had to be five feet tall on a good day.

“Can you tell me why you destroyed the wall?” I asked.

“Why we…?” the tallest one gasped. “We destroyed the… excuse me?”

“Pete said that you guys had damaged this wall and that you were planning an invasion,” I said. “Don’t shoot the messenger!” I laughed, holding up my hands as if I was surrendering. Miller reached across me and pushed my arms back down to my sides, shaking his head. At least I thought I was funny.

“That pirate man, he lies to you!” the short man shouted. “We did not destroy the wall! It was them, the Green Holt thugs that plague these waters! How dare he accuse us of doing such a thing.”

“That’s the reason he is firing his cannon at you. Was he the first to shoot?” I asked.

“Yes! He is a violent man, Sadie. A violent man with all of his teeth,” the short man shouted. “To call yourself toothless Pete… he is a liar and a fraud!”

“I don’t know enough about his dental situation to comment,” I smiled, “but let’s just take a minute to calm down and step away from the fuse.”

The short guy was flicking a lighter against his thigh, like a biker from an old movie that was about to smoke a cigar. He didn’t have the same swagger as those movie stars though, he was just awkwardly slapping it against his leg, and it wasn’t doing anything.

“Are you saying that you didn’t destroy this wall?” Miller asked.

“Yes! This wall was the only thing that prevented us from having to watch Toothless Pete sunbathing with his shirt off, why would we want it gone?” the tall one shouted.

“We heard that Green Holt is having