Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness: A Witchy Christmas Cozy Mystery (Marshmallow Hollow Mysteries Book 2) Read online

  Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness

  Marshmallow Hollow Mysteries Book 2

  Dakota Cassidy

  Copyright

  Have Yourself a Merry Little Witness

  Published 2020 by Dakota Cassidy

  Copyright © 2020, Dakota Cassidy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Dakota Cassidy.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, locales, or events is wholly coincidental. The names, characters, dialogue, and events in this book are from the author’s imagination and should not to be construed as real.

  Manufactured in the USA.

  Author’s Note

  Welcome to Marshmallow Hollow Mysteries! Set in the wintery, seaside (and totally fictional) town of Marshmallow Hollow, Maine, where it’s all Christmas all the time, and murder is hung by the chimney with care! I’m so excited to introduce you to Halliday Valentine (Hal for short), Atticus Finch—her crusty hummingbird familiar—her small gang of crime solvers, and the quirky folks from her beloved hometown.

  Please note, this series is a bit of a spinoff of my Witchless in Seattle series, in that Hal and part of the gang were introduced in book 10 of the series, titled Witch It Real Good. But there’s no need to read the Witchless series if you haven’t.

  That said, this is an ongoing series (not a standalone) and there will be some underlying mysteries that will linger from book to book, but I promise to wrap up the central mystery with a big, fat bow by each book’s end! Also note, I’m taking artistic license with places and names of things in the beautiful state of Maine—thus, any and all mistakes are mine and certainly not meant to offend.

  Lastly, Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love everything about it, from the decorations, the music, the gathering of friends and family, and most of all, the hope the season brings.

  I hope you all love Hal, her friends, and her tiny little Christmas town as much as I do!

  Dakota XXOO

  Acknowledgements

  Cover artist: Katie Wood

  Editor: Kelli Collins

  Chapter 1

  The Christmas Song

  Written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells during a blistering-hot summer in 1945

  “There’s a light out on the strand of bulbs above the kitchen cabinets, Halliday. Do handle it, would you, please? It throws the entire balance of the greenery and ornaments off and looks positively dreadful,” said Atticus, of the deep voice and even deeper disapproval, as we finished up the last of our Christmas decorating.

  I rolled my eyes at my hummingbird, who hovered in my sightline, his wings buzzing. “Yes, Drama Queen. I’ll get to it as soon as I’m sure these pictures are straight.”

  Taking a step back from the batch of vintage Santa pictures I’d just hung along each side of the fireplace, I sighed with disgust. “I have zero sense of symmetry.”

  “Not if you angle your head at four o’ clock,” Atticus reassured. “Maybe five after.”

  I cocked my head. “I don’t think I can ask everyone to hold their heads at four o’clock, Atti.”

  “I told you to measure, Halliday.”

  “And I told you I never measure.”

  “And I told you it would be crooked.”

  I planted my hands on my hips and ignored him as I assessed. We were almost done with decorating the house (it only took an entire week, starting the day after Thanksgiving), and my fondest wish at this point was to be able to sit and enjoy it all. I couldn’t enjoy it if the pictures were crooked.

  Knowing Atti would scold me for using my magic instead of manually adjusting the frame didn’t stop me from lifting my index finger in the air, moving the frame a bit to the right and straightening the picture of Santa riding a moonbeam.

  “Halliday…” Atti warned.

  He didn’t like me to use my magic for something I could do with good old-fashioned manual labor. He was forever worried I’d forget and use it in front of someone I shouldn’t, and I’d be discovered for the witch I am.

  Then they’d burn me at the stake in the town square, blah, blah, blah.

  I grinned at him as the picture leveled out. “What? I’m just getting my fingers warmed up for Uncle Darling’s arrival. You know he’ll want to do at least one ritual altar to honor mom before he moves on to his next stop.”

  Uncle Darling is actually my godfather, and my mother’s best friend she met while in college in Boston. His real name is Andrew Darkling, and on the drag queen circuit he’s known as Tia Fortew (get it?). He’s quite famous—or maybe it’s infamous—in the world of hip pads and glitter.

  My first real memory of Uncle Darling is of him in a blonde wig teased to the heavens, long red nails, and a beautiful sparkly red dress, with eyelashes the size of hand fans glued to his eyelids.

  Apparently, his last name, Darkling, stuck, but I couldn’t pronounce it properly and instead dubbed him Aunt Darling. At that age, I didn’t know he was a man dressing as a woman as part of his profession.

  He was simply someone I adored who showed up from time to time and played trucks and dress-up with me, and took me on long walks to the beach to gather seashells and into town for double scoops of my favorite ice cream.

  Anyway, he’s retired from the drag queen circuit now, but he’s been a constant in my life for as far back as I can remember and I love him as much as if he were blood related.

  He and my mother were as close as two best friends can be, and now that she’s left the mortal realm, he’s made it a point to come visit me every couple of months so we’ll never lose touch.

  This month, he’s doing what he calls his Christmas tour—in and out in seventy-two hours or less. The one where he drops in on friends and family for a few days during the holidays (his motto is, stay any longer and, like fish, a houseguest begins to smell), lavishes them with love and gifts and whisks off to the next place, leaving behind his biting sense of humor and the memory of nonstop belly laughs over wine.

  Atti grated a sigh. “You don’t need your fingers for that, Halliday, and you know that quite well. Speaking of Andrew, when is he supposed to arrive?”

  I looked at my phone. “In about an hour. He’s driving in from New Hampshire, where they just left Monty’s sister’s house. So it shouldn’t be long before they arrive.”

  Monty is Montwell Danvers, Uncle Darling’s husband, who was once a lighting engineer on several of his tours. They were married four years ago in a gorgeous wedding on the beach in Bora Bora, with my mother as maid of honor and me as a bridesmaid.

  Remembering it now, my portly Uncle Darling in his white shirt and crisply pleated trousers with a tall, lean Monty at his side, both of them with love brightly shining in their eyes, forced me to remember how beautiful my mother had been in her organza sea-green dress.

  Backless, crisscrossed over her breasts and wrapped around her neck, the dress floated delicately in the wind as her long black hair rippled behind and her bare feet dug into the sand as the sun set and the happy couple had promised to love one another until the end of time.

  Warm waves had crashed to the shore, their frothy caps slapping against the wet sand, the setting sun grazing my mother’s shoulders as she silently shed ha
ppy tears because Uncle Darling, after all those years on the road, had finally found true love.

  “I hope so,” Atti said, interrupting my reverie. “I worry, with the weather being the way it is tonight, the pair of them will land teats up in a snowbank. It is quite dismal out, Halliday.”

  “You say dismal, I say picturesque.”

  Wandering into the kitchen to attend to the broken light above the cabinet, I looked out the windows facing the cliff my house sat on and heard the ocean crashing below. Even though the backyard was lit up at every corner with snowmen and Christmas trees, it was hazy from the snow and visibility was poor.

  But did I mention Uncle Darling is a warlock? He’ll clear a path if necessary because he doesn’t have an Atti riding him like a bucking bronco and minding his magic at every turn.

  Witchcraft could be a little sexist from time to time. Warlocks don’t have familiars—it’s as though the ancients thought a man could navigate this world without issue, but a helpless woman? She needed a keeper.

  Not that I don’t love Atti. There was never a time he wasn’t around, and to say I wanted to do as I pleased without him breathing down my neck is to denounce the enrichment he brings to my life.

  Without him, I’d be very sad. But I won’t lie. I do mind the freedoms allowed warlocks when I’m not given the same pass.

  Though, times were a-changin’. Our supreme ruler—head witch honcho, Baba Yaga—was a feminist, and while the ancients may have set the standards, she was all about blowing them up.

  “Picturesque, yes. Conducive to safe driving? No, Halliday.”

  “It is looking pretty rough out there,” I agreed, pulling the sleeves of my mid-thigh-length sweater over my cold hands with a shiver, grateful for the warmth of a crackling fire.

  Atti flew up behind me with a tsk-tsk. “Though, I’ll admit it’s rather lovely.”

  Turning, I looked at my open concept kitchen/dining room in one of the biggest spaces in the house, pleased with how the decorating had gone.

  With the large kitchen island behind me, I leaned back on it and smiled. I adored the long walnut stained dining room table to my left and the fireplace next to it, ten or so feet away.

  I’d put two small matching buffalo-plaid armchairs in front of the glowing fire, with a small antique white table between them for the times I wanted to enjoy my morning coffee. Phil’s cat tree was to the right of the fireplace so he could enjoy the warmth, but was far enough away from food preparation and well, us.

  I plumped the pillows sitting on the chairs before I wandered over to Phil and gave my ungrateful rescue cat a stroke to his head.

  As per usual, he gave me the evil eye and inched away from me.

  “Is that worry I hear in your voice, Atti? Wasn’t it only last week you gave me that long sigh of aggravation when I told you Uncle Darling was coming for a few days?”

  “As if the day will ever come when I worry about that over-bedazzled wanderer.”

  I grinned. Atti, as always, had a gripe about Uncle Darling. Let’s face it, Atti had a gripe about everyone, but he was especially sore with Uncle Darling for taking Mom on so many of his “pointless meanderings,” as Atti called them.

  But there was one meandering he had with my mother Atti would probably forever grudge about.

  Uncle Darling had been a nomad for most of his life, touring as a drag queen, landing wherever the road or an airplane took him. Atti didn’t like that Darling didn’t have a permanent residence until he and Monty bought a place in Cape Cod five years ago.

  Atticus also thinks my uncle is responsible for encouraging my mother to have an impromptu summer fling with my father. My father, Hugh Granite, is a movie star—well, in Japan. He’s sort of what David Hasselhoff is to Germany, and he’ll tell you so—even if you don’t ask.

  Anyway, my mother, Keeva, met him when he was here in our little town, filming a movie. From what I understand, they had a whirlwind romance, but he left when the movie was done and never looked back.

  She never looked back either, but she also never told him about me, or me about him. I didn’t know until the reading of my mother’s will and I didn’t go looking for him. I was too wrapped up in my grief. However, he came looking for me.

  I think it might have to do with aging and atonement, but it’s not for me to judge, I suppose. I’m honest when I say, I wasn’t one of those kids who wondered where her father was all the time or felt like I’d missed out on having a father. I had my grandfather and two incredibly strong women in my life. I never lacked for guidance and love, even when I didn’t want either of the aforementioned.

  When Hugh located me, I was shocked, but I knew he was telling the truth about who he was when Atti all but turned him into a bullfrog the moment I opened the door. If my father hadn’t blocked his spell, I shudder to think what the aftermath would have been.

  Also, we look a bunch alike. There’s no denying Hugh’s my father. All in all, he’s really a good guy, if not vain and almost comically superficial.

  To say there’s no love lost between my father and Atti is an understatement. However, meeting him led me to find my sister, Stevie, who’s technically my half-sister (my dad was a busy, busy guy in the romance department), but I couldn’t be more pleased to still have a relative I can count on if things get tough. My life has become so much richer for having Stevie in it, and her familiar, Belfry.

  Anyway, my uncle’s whimsical, devil-may-care nature never sat well with my hummingbird familiar, and he hasn’t a single qualm about sharing his displeasure.

  “Listen, Atti, if not for that fling Uncle Darling encouraged Mom to have, you wouldn’t have me. Are you saying you’d rather she didn’t have a summer romance and didn’t end up knocked up by the famous-only-in-Japan star of stage, screen, and TV, Hugh Granite?” I teased.

  He pecked at my ponytail with his long beak before landing on my shoulder. “Don’t be so crass, Halliday,” he drawled. “She was not knocked up. She became impregnated by a two-bit, D-list actor who happens to look like Cary Grant and Rock Hudson all rolled into one vain, muscled package. Of course I’m not saying that. I’m saying, your Andrew encourages poor behavior. That’s what I’m saying. I worry he’ll encourage you to do the same.”

  I grinned. “So you think I’m going to have a summer romance and get knocked up because Uncle Darling’s here? It’s winter, in case you hadn’t noticed. Too cold for a fling—no matter what Uncle Darling says.”

  “Says you. How quickly we’ve forgotten your gentleman caller, Hobbs.”

  I sighed, maybe a little too breathy to hide. I liked Hobbs. I liked him a lot. I liked that he rented the cottage behind my house and I liked his dog, Stephen King. But I really liked that we’d spent a lot of time together since we were almost killed last week.

  I know that sounds a little off-kilter, but we’d bonded over having to run for our lives. In fact, we’d spent a good portion of our days together since, sharing meals, and decorating, and talking about everything from my life in New York as an interior designer to his prior job as a financial advisor.

  “He’s not fling material, my funny feathered friend. Hobbs is a fine Southern gentleman who’s never been anything other than respectful.”

  “As he should be, or I shall turn him into something dreadful like a gargoyle or a hedgehog.”

  “Do gargoyle’s really exist, Atti?”

  “I’ve seen many things in my time, Halliday. I’m certain I’ve seen one or two.”

  “Your time as in when the dinosaurs roamed the earth?” I teased.

  He scoffed. “Aren’t you quite practiced for your stint at the comedy club performing standup, Miss Witch?”

  My phone beeped a text then, and I grabbed it off the counter to see if it was from Uncle Darling. In my haste, I almost knocked over the mini Christmas tree I’d just placed next to a long wooden dough bowl filled with greenery and ornaments. I’d begun to worry. The roads were probably a mess of ice and visibility was undoubte
dly low.

  Also, Uncle Darling really was a hideous driver. Atticus hadn’t been kidding. I hoped Monty had taken the wheel.

  As I began to read, my eyes went wide and I had to grab ahold of the countertop, letting the cold quartz ease my suddenly hot palms.

  I gasped. This was bad. This was so bad.

  “Holy—”

  “Uh-uh-uh,” Atti warned, cutting off my penchant for using foul language as he landed on the island counter. “Halliday? What’s wrong, Poppet?”

  “Stiles… he just texted me on Uncle Darling’s phone. It’s Monty,” I barely murmured, my head swimming.

  “What is it? Did that wanker land in a snowbank? It’s just as I told you, Halliday, that man is treacherous behind the wheel of a car. He shouldn’t be allowed to drive a remote for a battery-operated car, let alone four thousand pounds of steel on icy roads.”

  I squeezed my temples before texting him back and shoving my phone into my back pocket, looking for my jacket and my hat and gloves. I ran to our long walnut-stained dining room table next to the fireplace and grabbed my jacket from the back of a chair.

  “Halliday? What is happening? You have me quite worried! Answer me, please!”

  Pulling on my coat and hat, I dug in my jacket for my gloves. “It’s Monty. He’s been hurt, Atti. Uncle Darling’s at the convenience store just outside of town. I have to go get him. He’s hysterical.”

  “What happened?”

  “Murder…” I whispered.

  “What, child? Another one? Isn’t it rather early in the season for another murder after we’ve only just had one last week?”

  I licked my dry lips, my only concern getting to Uncle Darling, who never handled a crisis well. “I’ve got to go, Atti, and yes, I’ll be safe. I promise. But I have to go get him. According to Uncle Darling, someone murdered Gable Norton—and Monty saw it happen!”