Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 4-6

by Mara Webb

  “You need to sterilize your hands before you come in,” Wyatt said, thrusting a giant pump bottle of alcohol gel towards Miller. “I’ve got shoe covers for you too, make sure they are on properly before you come in.”

  I gave Miller the wide-eyed look that signified that I might have to use our magic to blast our way to safety, but he seemed oblivious. He rubbed the hand sanitizer over his hands, slipped the blue plastic shoe covers over his boots and then cleaned his hands again. Wyatt stepped away to speak to his wife who was still staring at us from the far end of the corridor.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered. “Are we going to get murdered in here?”

  “Why would they make you clean your hands before they killed you?” Miller asked.

  “So, the only reason you think we won’t die here is because they made us sterilize our hands first? That is why you are walking into this obligingly? We’re doomed,” I huffed.

  “I heard a rumor that his wife was a bit, you know, germophobic, but I’ve never been here and spoken to them at their house. Wyatt comes into town every now and then and I’ve spoken to him, he is usually buying cleaning supplies,” Miller replied.

  “Hair net!” a woman shouted. She was pointed a gloved hand at me, and Wyatt seemed to be trying to reason with her. Their hushed argument gained volume until it seemed Wyatt emerged victorious.

  “Sadie, would you mind tying your hair up?” Wyatt asked. I pulled the hair tie from my wrist and created a messy bun on the top of my head. I saw Wyatt’s wife take a deep breath as if she was calming down and I wondered what other strangeness we were going to encounter. “Thank you.”

  “No problem,” I smiled. I mean clearly there was a problem, but I was hoping we could speak to both of them long enough to get some information about the body on the beach before we got kicked out for being too germy.

  Miller was looking down at the shoe covers, and I couldn’t help but glance up at the woman that was appraising us from a few feet away. She looked visibly nervous. Once we passed Wyatt’s inspection, meaning that we sanitized our hands for a third time, we were invited through to a living room that was as frightening to look at as the hallway.

  The sofa was white, immaculate white, and this was largely due to the fact that it was under protective plastic sheeting. If I had to guess, I’d say that neither Wyatt nor his wife had ever made direct contact with the fabric underneath. There were white floor tiles, polished to perfection, and surprisingly not plastic covered, although I suppose we were all wearing protective covers to stop any dirt from our shoes contaminating it.

  I couldn’t see any books on shelves, there were no curtains hanging over the windows and the TV across from where I sat down seemed to still have that scratch-protection thing over the glass, the one that is oh so satisfying to peel off. I know I’d just seen a dead body less than an hour ago, but this place was much more alarming.

  “Please, make yourselves at home,” Wyatt said, gesturing for Miller to take a seat on the sofa beside me. I suppressed a laugh as I looked at the sterile space they lived in. This was the least homely home I’d ever seen. “This is my wife Lucy, she likes to keep things clean,” he offered. I’d picked up on that for myself, but I was glad he had addressed the elephant in the room.

  “Will you be staying long?” Lucy asked. “There’s no rush, but I had planned to scrub the inside of the washing machine this morning so…”

  “We won’t take up too much of your time,” Miller replied in a comforting tone. “We just wanted to ask a few questions about the cliff here, about whether you’ve seen people on the edge recently.”

  Wyatt sat down on an armchair across from us, the plastic sheeting squeaked against his denim as the weight of him sank into the cushion. Lucy looked as if she had something to say but stopped herself. I wondered what she was holding back.

  “These cliffs are popular with climbers,” Wyatt said.

  “It’s such a dirty hobby, scrambling about on the rocks with your hands,” Lucy shuddered.

  “Yeah, well we’ve got a great set of cliffs here, they stretch quite a way so normally the folk that abseil go further up the coast. I’ve warned them off enough times that they don’t really bother us no more,” Wyatt continued. “Every now and then you get some tourists on the island that figure they can do whatever they want, they come marching across my land and set up their ropes. I get straight out there and tell them to get going.”

  “People that come from other countries on planes can bring all sorts of bacteria,” Lucy said. “That circulated air on a long flight is a breeding ground for disease and…” I could see her breathing start to speed up as she considered all the different ways strangers could contaminate her personal space.

  “Why don’t you get some water,” Wyatt suggested. Lucy nodded and staggered out of the room, one hand to her chest as she tried to calm down. Should she be going off on her own in that state? I doubted she would appreciate a comforting hand from me, she likely appreciated me staying in one room, so she didn’t have to do quite as much cleaning once I left.

  Wyatt watched her walk away, waiting until he felt that she was comfortably out of earshot. He leaned forward in his seat, and we instinctively did the same.

  “Well?” Miller said first. I cocked an eyebrow at him, not sure what he was pushing for. “Are you going to explain how people are trespassing on your land when the cliff path is beyond your fences?” Ah! Good point. We had walked through a gate to get to his house, but that was a few dozen feet from the path that led to the beach, and the edge of his property seemed to be far from the edge where climbers would go.

  “Lucy isn’t well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that this isn’t a normal house,” Wyatt said, his eyes darting back to the door to check that she wasn’t coming back anytime soon. “There was a time that she had to go and seek some treatment, you know, see specialists to help with her anxiety. It was around that time that I sold our house in the center of town and moved us up to my family’s place.”

  “You moved here?” I asked.

  “Yeah, once my parents passed on it was just sitting empty. I decided that we could live up here and be away from people, grow our own food and enjoy the sea air. It’s helped her a lot, I know this place probably looks like she is struggling, but for her this is what coping looks like,” he smiled. His eyes conveyed a deep love for his wife, it was sweet. Sort of.

  “But the fences…” Miller prompted.

  “Right, yes, well we own a lot of the land here. We own a section of the cliff right down to the water, but that’s tidal,” Wyatt nodded.

  “Huh?” I grunted, looking to see if Miller had similar confusion. He seemed to understand what that meant, so Wyatt clarified for my benefit.

  “When the tide is in, and the water is right up to the base of the cliff, then we only own the land that’s up here. When the water is out, we own a chunk of the beach,” Wyatt shrugged. “I guess it’s something to do with the ocean being free, or one man not being allowed to legally own a slice of water or something. I don’t know exactly.”

  “So, when the tide is high, you don’t own the cliff face, is that right?” I asked.

  “Exactly. There are two high tides a day, or two every twenty-four hours and fifty minutes if you wanna get technical,” Wyatt smiled. “During that period of time, those climbers technically aren’t trespassing.”

  “But the fences…” Miller repeated.

  “Right, sorry, yes,” Wyatt flustered, looking back at the door to check if Lucy was on her way back in. “Look, I don’t really mind those climbing folks wandering about up here, but Lucy doesn’t like it. It’s been going on up here since my mom was a kid, probably even longer. When Lucy was still at the clinic, before we moved here, I came up and moved the fences in on all sides.

  “I made it look like the land we owned was a lot smaller, much more manageable for cleaning and such. That way those rock climbers ain’t knocking on our door to ask about the cliffs, they
can just get there without coming on to our property at all, or at least they don’t think they are on it.”

  “I’m confused,” Miller said. Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one. “So, people are still trespassing, but they think that they’re not. Is that right?” Wyatt nodded. “Before you moved the fence, they would come up to the house and knock on the door to ask you if they could abseil and climb and whatever?”

  “Exactly!”

  “But now you’ve moved the fence, they think it’s free access?”

  “The tourists do, the locals know about it, and they still go further up the coast,” Wyatt replied.

  “But you said Cindy was trespassing,” I added.

  “She ain’t a tourist! She knows better, she knows that this is my land, and she was still setting up all sorts of equipment and wandering around here at all hours,” he huffed. “I had words with her, that’s all.”

  “You said she found something on the cliff,” I said. “If there was something valuable on the cliff, then it’s only on your land twice a day, right? When the tide is high, it could be taken by someone, and it wouldn’t technically be stealing?”

  My brain was trying to figure out what my mouth had just said, it was hard even for me to make sense of it.

  “What did she find, Wyatt?” Miller asked.

  “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s mine,” he grunted. “If it’s valuable and on my land then maybe I could sell it, help pay for Lucy to get the help she needs. I think a couple more sessions with a therapist or something and she’d be fine.” That seemed unlikely, but he might have just revealed a motive for wanting to get rid of Cindy. He could take this mystery valuable thing for himself if she was out of the picture.

  “When did you last see her?” Miller asked. Lucy re-entered the room at this point and Wyatt sat back in the plastic-covered armchair.

  “It’s been over a week,” he replied curtly. Miller looked at me and I could sense that he thought we should leave.

  “Thank you for your time,” I smiled, standing up and moving toward the door that lead into the hallway. “Where should I put the shoe covers?”

  “There is a bin just outside the front door, put them in there. They are single use!” Lucy shrieked. Okay then.

  Lucy raced around to open the door herself, seemingly appalled that I was about to touch the handle with my bare hand, and I stepped outside with Miller close behind. He reached into his own pocket to pause the recording app on his phone and before we had time to say anything further to Wyatt and Lucy, the door had been closed.

  “Oh, goodbye then I guess,” I mumbled.

  “Strange isn’t the word is it, just, hmm, it’s something…” Miller said, frowning back at the house. “I know a few of the coastal properties that have this tidal property thing, I don’t know who came up with it, but it is incredibly annoying. I mean, I know why it happened.”

  “Oh?”

  “Did you see that cargo ship accident on the news a few years ago, the one with all the motorbikes?” he asked. I shrugged. “Basically, a ship that was transporting some very expensive bikes got damaged somehow and almost a million dollars’ worth of cargo fell into the water and washed ashore. This wasn’t here, this was somewhere else, but people were storming the beaches to take them.

  “It became some huge legal issue about when ownership ends, do you still own property that has been discarded into the sea, even if it was an accident? Do the items then belong to whoever owns the beach that they’ve washed up on? Hallow Haven went crazy about it, started drafting up property law for coastal homes. I think it’s more confusing now than it was before they changed it,” Miller sighed.

  “Do you think Wyatt would kill Cindy over something she found on the cliff?” I asked.

  “Possibly, but I don’t know what she found. I don’t know if she actually did find anything or if she was just abseiling and taking photos to sell. If there is anything valuable on the cliff face, then we currently have no proof she was planning to take it for herself. We have a lot of unknowns here.”

  “You’re about to have one less,” Mabel yelled from the other side of the fence. We closed the distance between us, walked through the wooden gate and stood waiting to hear more. “Cindy’s assistant said she has no idea where Cindy is, hasn’t seen her for a couple of days. Brielle called Ryder, who just told me that they’ve managed to get an x-ray of her teeth though, it is Cindy Saco for sure!”

  “Well that’s something, and—” I began.

  “Hold on,” Mable continued. “They also found an engagement ring on her finger, it was a little hard to see on the beach on account of her body being a bit, you know, squished and gross.” She looked at Miller and I expectantly, what did she want, applause? “This means there is a fiancé to speak to!”

  Ryder was standing at the edge of the cliff looking out at the sea. I wondered what his relationship with Cindy had been, he’d never really mentioned a previous girlfriend or anything. Although had I asked?

  “Why don’t you guys go and find the fiancé? I’ll stay here with Ryder, maybe we can ask the neighbors if they saw anything?” I suggested. Miller seemed uncomfortable with the plan, but Mabel was already trying to drag him to the car that they’d driven up here in.

  I was caught in the middle, somewhere between my boyfriend and my guardian, and I was having to choose Ryder this time.

  9

  Miller and Mabel drove away, and I watched them leave, smiling as I could see Mabel talking quickly at the side of Miller’s head as he tried to turn the car around. He gave me a quick ‘help me’ glance and I waved goodbye with a laugh.

  Maybe I had been a little jealous at the thought of him spending all that time with another woman, but she was intense and not in a good way, so I felt slightly less worried about it now.

  “Does she know he carries a gun?” Ryder asked, smirking. “I mean, I don’t think he would actually shoot her, but the taser might stop her from talking for a few minutes.”

  “She’s a lot, huh?” I nodded. “She said that the dental records matched the x-ray though… it was Cindy down there.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said, turning back to face the ocean. “I’m telling you, she’s a good climber, there’s no way she fell, there’s just no way. Besides, she had a harness on, but did you see any rope?”

  I shook my head, the only climbing equipment I’d seen anywhere was what the body had been wearing.

  “Someone took everything else; someone knows what happened here,” he frowned.

  “Soon, we will know too, okay?” I said. “Mabel and Miller are off to speak to her fiancé and we are going to speak to the neighbors. Come on, the best way to get through this is feeling like we are doing something useful.”

  I wasn’t sure that I believed that, but I was trying to be helpful in whatever ways I could.

  “She was engaged?” Ryder said. “I… I didn’t know that. You know, Cindy and I were together for a few years. She wanted to travel and be a famous photographer, I couldn’t leave the islands… not at the time anyway. We just drifted apart. I’ve always just wanted good things for her, you know?”

  “Of course,” I said, lifting a hand to his upper arm and squeezing gently. He was wearing a t-shirt, so my skin was in direct contact with his, and he recoiled slightly as my magic shot through him by mistake.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “Static… don’t worry about that,” I lied. I clearly had feelings for Ryder, and the witch in me was making those feelings known. Of all the times to be attracted to someone, right now was probably the most inappropriate. “We’ve been here for hours, Miller and Mabel are speaking to her fiancé now, right? Why don’t we get a bite to eat and make a plan for the rest of the day before we interview the neighbors. We would only be gone an hour.”

  “Probably should be a police officer that gets witness statements anyway, right? I’m just some guy,” he said, smiling softly. He rubbed both hands over his
face, pressing the tips of his fingers against his eyelids for a second, before looking at me. “Lunch would probably do us both a world of good, right? I guess seeing dead people is part of this job and I just had a shock that it was someone I knew.”

  “It’s understandable. Look, if this is all too much then I’m sure you can sit this one out. I can catch up with Miller and Mabel later on and we can get to the bottom of this by ourselves,” I suggested.

  “I want to be part of this,” he said, his eyes meeting mine for a moment that felt like an hour. I felt my heart pump harder for a few beats.

  “Do you want to call Wes? We could get a cab to the high street.” I was trying to break the spell, not an actual spell, but whatever it was that was hanging in the air between Ryder and me. Bringing the conversation back around to food seemed like the best way to do it.

  “There’s a place not too far from here that does sandwiches,” he smiled. “We can walk, the views on this side of the island are out of this world so I always try to make the most of it when I’m over here.”

  “Sure,” I said, suddenly realizing that I was still staring at him. I was daydreaming, but simultaneously paying attention, I’m sure I didn’t used to do it, but I found myself stuck in this half-reality more often than not now.

  If I was keeping count, then Ryder and I had almost kissed twice, or was it three times? They had blurred in my mind, but I had replayed the moments so much that it felt as though it had happened a million times.

  Every time I indulged in the memory of those almost-kisses, I felt a wave of guilt hit me. I had a boyfriend, a boyfriend that I loved. Had I ever said that to him? I felt it, so I should have said it, right? I’d gotten out of a long-term relationship just before I moved to Hallow Haven, so clearly when two guys had shown an interest in me, I’d lost control of myself.

  What I was doing with Ryder, sharing these small, intimate moments, it wasn’t fair to Miller. I was having an emotional affair, that’s the name for it right? I was letting my brain entertain steamy fantasies about someone else and I should be rejecting them, not actively encouraging them.