Read Online The Witching on the Wall: A Cozy Mystery (The Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 1) by Constance Barker - Free Book Online

Internet reached the town and made a daily paper all but obsolete. Plus there was never much news to cover in Coven Grove—fairs, contests and who won them, local political news which was repetitive after several decades of seeing the same people hold offices until they passed or retired, just like Sheriff Larson.
    Now that they had the scent of a real story, reporters were clamoring to pitch their various takes on it, including Gloria Olson. In the end, it was her that won first prize and got her story printed.
    It wasn’t news to Bailey that Martha Tells had been deeply in debt and hoping to reboot her career by coming home to exploit the caves, but it was news to everyone else. Overnight, it became the talk of the town—even more so than it already had been. Martha was the first murder victim in Coven Grove for as long as anyone could remember. She wasn’t the first, however. Another article detailed the other six cases in the town’s history, the last one more than eighty years ago. The strange thing, the article suggested, was that the one before it had happened only a year prior. In fact, all six of the murders of the early twentieth century were ‘suspiciously’ close together. Was Coven Grove potentially looking at a string of similar murders in the modern day?
    Both articles were printed in papers that ran for two consecutive days, prompting Ryan to wonder whether the paper was going to use this event to re-re-brand themselves to a daily paper again. Either way, the two stories hurled the town into a rabid frenzy for details and gossip and very soon it was all anyone was talking about.
    Bailey sequestered herself in the library. The initial enthusiasm and righteous sense of purpose she’d had about somehow single-handedly solving Martha’s murder bled away with surprising speed once she’d had a night of troubled sleep and disconcerting dreams. It was best, she decided, to keep to herself. Especially since being out about town seemed to make the voices in her head worse while being in the library gave her a desperately needed break from that maelstrom of insanity though she couldn’t figure why that would be. She was not left alone for very long. On the second day, just after lunchtime, Avery and Piper showed up to check on her. Avery was dressed a little smarter than usual, it seemed like—probably he’d been fielding questions as one of Bailey’s two ‘known associates’. Piper, of course, was nearly pregnant enough to pop already, only six months in. She managed it well, though; Piper was a woman who made pregnancy somehow look easy in her ankle length, flowing, forest green jersey knit one-piece that on anyone else would have looked like the moo-moo it technically was. But a clever braided brown leather belt and a matching brown cotton bolero turned it into something almost queenly and high fashion.
    They brought the lunch that Bailey had skipped.
    “ I love you both so, so much,” she announced as she unwrapped the sandwich and went to work on it. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was. This was from Elliot’s the deli, she assumed, and was phenomenal although that could have been her stomach talking. She liked what it was saying anyway.
    Avery helped Piper into one of the chairs around the wide library table. It was littered with books about languages, iconography, and what little academic interest had been leveled at the Caves.
    “ So,” Avery said casually, “how are you doing?”
    “ I can’t imagine,” Piper said, “finding a body like that? It must have been so awful, how are you sleeping?”
    Bailey chewed and swallowed while she looked from one of them to the other. There were whispers again—far in the back of her head, but noticeable, like a mosquito buzzing around her ear. “I’m okay,” she said. “It was scary, but, you know… I’m dealing. Any news?”
    Avery and Piper shared a brief look, one of clear mutual concern. Avery reached across the table and touched