The whole thing was enough of a mess that Trixie and my father didn't automatically object when I suggested I go with Eleanor. Sheriff Knoxx would be busy working the case and Eleanor was in a fragile state. Eleanor protested that she would be fine, but in the end, I convinced her that two sets of eyes were better than one. I could help her figure things out. I bet that once we got down there, we'd see that the whole thing was a huge mix-up. No way did the body look like Sheriff Knoxx. Not exactly.

  Sheriff Knoxx groaned when I told him I was going, too. "Just make sure you two stay out of trouble. In fact, just sit in the car when we get there. I'll leave the radio on for you."

  It was a spring day; then again, every day on Heavenly Haven was like spring. When we got to Mistmoor, Eleanor and I promptly opened our doors. Sheriff Knoxx's chest heaved but he said nothing. Two women against one man? He was never going to win that battle.

  The body had washed up on Mistmoor Beach. It lay sprawled on the sand about a hundred yards ahead of us. I could see the hair, the hard-set chin, the sheriff's uniform. From the distance, it was Sheriff Knoxx's spitting image. Eleanor stumbled. Sheriff Knoxx caught her before she could fall. I saw her face, pale and worn. It matched the sheriff's.

  "Ava, would stay here with your aunt?"

  I wanted to get a better look but Eleanor was shaking. "Okay," I agreed. My mind was already busy, thinking, analyzing. If there was a professional assassin in Mistmoor, why was he here? Had someone hired him or was he acting on his own?

  Colt was walking around in circles, talking to Lincoln as he examined the body from all angles. This was the same beach where Snowball had found me once upon a time. I kept waiting for Colt to see me, but he was too engrossed in his work. When Sheriff Knoxx approached, he finally looked up. The sheriff said something to him and Colt looked in our direction. I smiled and waved.

  He smiled back, but it was grim. He came toward me as Sheriff Knoxx stepped in to take his place.

  The first thing Colt said was, "It's not him. The body, I mean, it's not Sheriff Knoxx."

  "I kind of figured that out," I said.

  He nodded toward Eleanor, who was sitting in the sand with her knees to her chest. She was resting her head on the tops of her knees and only shot Colt a cursory glance.

  "It's an omen," she said.

  "Yeah," Colt scoffed, "an omen that we have a professional killer on our hands."

  "A professional? Are you talking about the assassin who attacked Tazzie Singer?"

  "That's right."

  Now Colt had Eleanor's attention. She stood up, brushing the sand off her emerald green skirt. "What does Sheriff Knoxx's body double have to do with a professional assassin? You think they're connected? Is it the same man who attacked Tazzie Singer?"

  "I can't get into all that right now, just trust me when I tell you—Ava? Ava, where are you going?"

  I was walking toward the shoreline, toward the body. Beach patrons had been cleared off the sand. Normally there were surfers, tourists, you name it, walking idly around. Not now. On either side of the beach, piles of rocks jutted up, creating lookouts.

  "Ava, stop. Come back here. You can't get that close; this is a crime scene." Colt was chasing after me. Eleanor shrugged and decided she might as well join us.

  Sheriff Knoxx scowled at me, then Colt. "I thought I told you to keep them away. I don't want Eleanor seeing this."

  "I tried. Eleanor's your fiancée, if she doesn't listen to you, she's not gonna listen to me."

  I stared at the body. Eleanor looked, looked away, looked back. The clothes were wet; he'd clearly been dragged from the water recently.

  "Wow, he really does look just like you," I muttered. "It's uncanny." I bent down for a closer look. Eleanor finally had enough, though. She stepped away, toward the water, and looked out over the sea.

  "Wait a second," I said. "The face. His nose." I reached out one hand and Colt pushed it away.

  "Ava! Don't touch the body." I was clearly frustrating Colt. It had been two days since we'd seen each other and what I really wanted was to get him alone. To hold him and kiss him and tell him how good he looked, his light brown hair shining like dark gold under the sun.

  "Sorry," I said. "But his nose. What's wrong with his nose?"

  Lincoln was wearing gloves. He leaned over the body with something that looked like a giant pair of tweezers and pulled on it. Sheriff Knoxx's large, Redknapp nose peeled back just under the left nostril, exposing a much smaller Grecian nose beneath it.

  "It's a fake!" I exclaimed.

  "A very good fake," said Lincoln, examining it closer. "Good catch. I suspect that once we get him back to the hospital and Dr. Wallace starts digging around, we'll find that the rest of him is just as fake."

  "What does it mean?" I asked.

  Eleanor had crept closer. Now that she had visual confirmation that the man before us was different from Sheriff Knoxx in crucial ways, she seemed a lot calmer.

  "Not sure yet," Colt said, "but the man who attacked Tazzie Singer was also dressed in some sort of disguise. She said he looked a lot like Dr. Wallace, except with glasses."

  "Dr. Wallace?" I asked, surprised.

  "Yes, but it wasn't him," Lincoln quickly said. "He was at the hospital. We already checked."

  "Could it just be a coincidence?" I asked.

  "She swore that his glasses were fake and was pretty sure that his nose was, too."

  "You think this is the same man, just in a different disguise?"

  Lincoln looked out over the sea. "It's too early to say." When he looked back, his mouth was set in a thin, hard line. "Look, the two of you really shouldn't be here. Why don't you go by Cakes and Creations? I'm sure Felicity would love to say hi."

  Eleanor and I exchanged a look. I could tell she wanted to get out of here. Even though she knew it wasn't Sheriff Knoxx, it was still too unsettling for her.

  "All right," I reluctantly agreed and we headed back toward the car. Sheriff Knoxx agreed to drop us off, but it wasn't a far walk and I thought Eleanor could use the air. She was normally the most composed person I knew. Ever since the wedding planning had started, she'd seemed a lot more frazzled.

  I glanced to our left as a wave crashed down on the shore. There was someone there, watching us amongst the jagged pile of rocks that climbed toward the sky. They were dressed head to toe in black, not an ounce of skin exposed even though they were at a beach.

  "Eleanor, do you see that?"

  "What?"

  "That person." I was already walking toward them. They saw me coming and disappeared behind a large boulder. I saw their foot poke out as they began climbing. It wasn't a cliff exactly, just a tall pile of rocks that had sort of fused together over the years.

  "Ava!" Eleanor called after me, but I pretended I didn't hear. Who was this person and why were they watching us? There was something nefarious about a person dressed all in black while at a beach.

  I reached up and grabbed hold of the first rock, bracing myself for the climb. It wasn't an easy one but it wasn't exactly like climbing Mount Everest. My foot found a nice series of groves and I made my way to the center of the pile, where I could hear stones scattering over the ground.

  "Ava!" Eleanor was shouting my name, running after me.

  The figure in black was just ahead of me. I could hear them even though I couldn't see them. My foot slipped out from under me. I barely caught myself as I fell face first toward a razor-sharp stone. I brushed myself off and stood up. I was at the edge of the rock pile, about fifty feet up.

  I looked down, a mistake. My head got dizzy. It was almost a straight shot into the ocean. From this height, though, I wasn't sure you could make it. There were more rocks down there, hiding beneath the water. If I was lucky, I might miss the water and land on a patch of sand instead, breaking my bones instead of drowning.

  I heard a noise and turned too late. A pair of hands jolted out of nowhere. They pushed hard against my chest and I felt myself careen over the side.

  "Aaaahhh!"

  The black masked face looked down at me as I caught hold of a rock that was jutting out horizontally. My hands slipped and my feet dangled in the air beneath me. For a second, I thought he might help, then the mask disappeared.

  I searched frantically for a foothold but found nothing. There were voices now, running, yelling. Colt was there. He reached over the side with his COMHA-issued super-wand just as I fell. A bolt of blue shot out and wrapped around my waist like a rope. It didn't stop me from falling, but it made me fall slower. I missed the water, landing on the ground like a dancer on a cloud.

  Eleanor pulled me into a hug. "You could have been killed!"

  "Did you see him? Did you get him?" I was looking frantically around the beach. Except for our small group, it was empty.

  "See who?" Eleanor asked.

  "The man in black. He pushed me off the rock."

  "Ava," Eleanor said, looking at Sheriff Knoxx and Lincoln. "You fell off the rock. I saw you."

  "No, I was pushed."

  Colt was back down now. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek. "Let me take you home. You need to rest."

  "I don't need to rest," I snapped. "I need to find whoever just tried to kill me because I'm betting it was the same person who killed the sheriff's lookalike over there."

  I could tell by the blank faces that they had not seen what I had seen.

  "Doesn't anyone believe me?" I asked.

  The resounding silence said it all. No.

  >>> Find Out Now To See How The Story Ends <<<

  Order of Book List

  ALSO BY ZOE ARDEN

  . . . . . . .

  Standalone Novella : Cake Spell Disaster

  LINK: Standalone Novella : Cake Spell Disaster

  << Sweetland Witch Women Sleuths Series >>

  Book 1 : LINK >> #1 Witch Cake Murders

  Book 2 : LINK >> #2 The Witching Flavor

  Book 3 : LINK >> #3 A Drop of Witch

  Book 4 : LINK >> #4 Sweet Murder Hex

  Book 5 : LINK >> #5 Batter and Spells

  Book 6 : LINK >> #6 Portion Disaster

  Book 7 : LINK >> #7 Frosting Disaster

  Book 8 : LINK >> #8 Witch Way To The Bakery

  Book 9 : LINK >> #9 Royal Witch Curse

  Book 10 : LINK >> #10 Witches, Recipes and Murder

  Book 11 : LINK >> #11 Sugar Magic Murder

  Book 12 : LINK >> #12 Espresso, Cake, and Murder

  Book 13 : LINK >> #13 The Bakery Murder

  Find Out More

  Sign up for Zoe Arden’s New Releases mailing list and get a FREE copy of Cozy Mystery story: Cake Spell Disaster.

  And you will be automatically get notified as soon as her future series is available as well as any new updates.

  Click the Find Out More link below to get started

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  Publisher Notes

  Copyright © 2019 by

  ZOE ARDEN

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Zoe Arden, Sweet Murder Hexes (Sweetland Witch Women Sleuths) (A Cozy Mystery Book)

 

 

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