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

“You can’t let fear dictate your life,” Honey interrupted. “If I’d have allowed it to then I never would have seen snow and eaten poutine and drank a coffee in a Tim Hortons. I don’t know where he was planning to go, but if he had a passport then he has paid off the mailman and would have needed to pay off the pilot.”

“Wait, what mailman?” I said.

“If you apply for a passport then you have to fill out the paperwork and get it processed,” Miller explained. “We have a post office on the main island, I think they sort it out there.”

“They do,” Honey nodded. “But if you live on Green Holt then you don’t go over there yourself and do it in person. The Hallow Haven mailman goes by boat to all of the islands and can take letters or bring you things, for the right price.”

“That’s what you did?” I asked.

“Yes. He came one day to deliver my Tupperware catalogue and I asked him to get me a set of passport application forms. He explained the price; I paid in cash then and there. The next time he came to Green Holt he brought me the forms and I filled them out, handed them back and he took them to the post office to get processed.”

The whole notion that trying to go anywhere was so frowned upon was something I couldn’t get my head around.

“We need to know how he got his passport then,” Miller said. “Our mailman is pretty old; would it be the same guy that Robert would have known?”

“Yeah, he’s been sorting out the Hallow Haven mail for decades. If anyone is gonna know about it then it would be that guy,” Honey nodded.

The rain eased up slowly as we sat pondering the information we’d shared. I knew that the storm would mean that the tunnels were flooded, so if we planned to go anywhere then we would have to leave by boat.

“I want to see what the water looks like,” I said, standing up. “If it is calmer then we should get back to the main island and look for the mailman.”

“Sure,” Miller smiled.

I walked out onto the lawn and towards the cliff edge so that I could look out across the ocean. The water was no longer choppy and wild; the storm had come and gone so quickly that I wondered what had caused it. I knew that Ryder had practiced magic to control the weather with Greta before she died. Maybe he would know what was going on?

I turned back towards the guest house when something shimmered out of the corner of my eye. Some sort of light rushed over the pit in the ground, like it had flown across the grass and then disappeared up in the air.

I ran the rest of the way back inside. Something was going on with this island and I would be glad to get off it, even if just for a few hours.

“We’re good to go,” I said to Miller.

“Great,” he smiled. “Honey, we’ll be back as soon as we’ve spoken to this guy. Could you just keep an eye on the you-know-what?”

“The hole in the ground with a dead body in it?” she said. “I’d rather shave my head to be honest with you, but I will make sure it isn’t tampered with.”

“Thanks, Honey.” Miller and I walked out of the house and began to make the journey down to the dock. I couldn’t help but wonder if the weather would take a sharp turn again once we got to our boat. What if it had happened to make sure we didn’t leave? What if the island really could take people back? I didn’t think I was the type of person to believe in that sort of thing, but it was hard to ignore it at this point.

By the time the powerboat was in view, the water was still calm. That was a good sign. Once again Miller helped me down into the boat, but this time when he held my hand, I saw the peridot ring glow. The little sparks of blue light that normally appeared anytime Miller touched me were all shooting in one direction, into the ring on my middle finger.

Miller didn’t notice, but I couldn’t stop staring at it. He loosened the knot in the rope that was tying us to the dock, and we were soon speeding across the water back to the mainland. I felt relieved once I saw the familiar sight of my home on the beach. I hoped I would get a chance to speak to Effie about the ring before we needed to get back to Green Holt.

We were soon shoring up to the marina, the journey had been shorter than I expected but that might have been because I was so focused on the glowing stone on my finger. Miller helped me off the boat, the peridot glowed the same way it had on the Green Holt dock, and then he disappeared to sign us in again. I wondered how long he would keep using that sign in/out book after he had learned about all the corruption going on.

“Where would we find the mailman?” I asked once he returned.

“He lives in the lower ground, not too far from Effie and Kate’s house now that I think about it,” he replied.

“Great,” I muttered. “I just need to run into the café to speak to Effie quickly, actually.”

“Are you gonna tell them that I shook like a wet dog? I’d rather you didn’t,” he laughed.

“Kate can read my mind, as soon as I see her, she is gonna know,” I smiled.

We walked along the beach from the marina to The Sand Witch, my café. Although I owned it, Effie did most of the work in running the place day to day. I had run a number of cafes back in Virginia, so I hadn’t anticipated it being much different,