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

over a branch on the way back to the dock and he jumped away from me as my arms came up to grab him for stability. I had fallen flat onto the sand, he apologized but didn’t offer to help me up. He was avoiding physical contact with me, but why?

As we waited for the captain of the boat to return from the town bakery, which was important because Wes had pointed out that Tivercana didn’t have one, Miller and I conversed about other problems on the main island.

“One of the women at the café, Rosie, reported that she has a stalker. Someone looming in the shadows and calling her name out when she’s walking home,” Miller began. “She said it has centered around her shifts at work and, after Greta initially went missing, Rosie was adamant that it was her stalker that had kidnapped Greta.”

“What do you think? Would someone have killed Greta by accident when Rosie was the intended target?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Everyone here knew Greta, there is no way anyone killed her by accident. Her murder was intentional, that’s my opinion anyway.” Miller was dragging one foot in circles in the sand, drawing patterns with the tip of his shoe.

The waves were crashing a little more energetically now as they hit the shore, the moored boat was bobbing up and down with gusto. The rope that was securing the boat seemed to come undone, the knot slipped loose.

“My boat!” the captain said, running back towards us with arms full of bread and buns. I looked back and saw it beginning to drift away. There must be other boats on this island, but I couldn’t see them. At first glance it looked like our only way to get back to the main island was being pulled out to sea. Miller was in full uniform, but I was in shorts. It made sense for me to wade into the water and try to grab the rope and pull the boat back. It wasn’t out too far after all.

I tossed my purse onto the sand and walked into the ocean. It was warm and the ground beneath my feet felt uneven, not the soft sand I had been expecting. The waves knocked me back a step, then again. I pushed forward to grab hold of the rope but felt my ankle roll and a shot of searing pain rush up my right leg.

I wobbled and splashed into the water and as my mouth had been open in a scream when I fell, the ocean swarmed my mouth and throat.

I tried to find my footing again, but the rocks beneath me were too smooth and as the waves rushed shore-bound once more I realized that I was in real trouble. I clenched my fists and realized that the amber ring I had been wearing on my left hand was gone. I had slipped it into my purse before the handshake with Link, an old habit that I had developed after having my watch stolen at a conference.

Effie had given that ring to me with a promise of its protective abilities and I had taken it off, it couldn’t protect me at a distance. My head swirled with wild ideas and then I felt a firm grip around my wrist. Something pulled me up and once I had my head above the water, another arm swooped underneath my legs and carried me back to the shore. It was Miller.

The pain in my ankle felt like a fire had started in the joint and I wanted to protest being carried this way, but was coughing and spluttering too much to verbalize my disapproval. Miller lay me down on the sand and I rolled onto my side to cough more. He handed me my purse and I took it to mean that he had seen me remove the ring and that it was time to put it back on.

The welcome party from earlier were now storming the beach with towels and bottles of cold water. This was my first day on the job and instead of carrying myself with some dignity, I had marched into the ocean and nearly drowned in front of the whole island.

With the ring back on my finger, I felt restored. The coughing was no longer necessary, and I took deep breaths, my mouth no longer tasted of salt water and I could visibly see the swelling on my ankle beginning to subside.

Magic was happening, I was watching it change my body in real time. I looked out to the boat and saw the captain towing it back to the dock, his bread in the arms of a passerby so that it didn’t get soaked.

This was possibly the most embarrassing thing that had happened to me in my entire life.

“Sadie, can you speak?” Miller panted. He was still breathless from hauling me to safety, but I didn’t think it was from the effort of carrying me. Something else was going on. “There is no doctor on this island, we’ll have to get you back on the boat, can you do that? Do you need help?”

I looked back at my ankle and the pain was no longer throbbing. It looked fine now and I felt sure that I could hop at the very least. I reached out for Miller to help me up onto my feet, he sighed and lifted me.

“Why does the thought of touching me bother you so much?” I asked him. I hoped that he would put this conversation down to I nearly died because I could tell that my subtly had gone out the window.

“This isn’t a conversation for your first day as the peacekeeper, Sadie. It has nothing to do with you though, I promise.” I limped along the dock and the captain assisted me onto the boat, all the while my eyes were locked on Miller’s face. What wasn’t he saying?

I thought about the stalker. Was someone still lurking outside the place that