Book 6 - Morbid Monday (A Tabitha Chase Days of the Week Mystery) - Large Print Paperback ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5 (65 ratings)

Tabby has inadvertently invited her estranged father, the State Senator Conrad Chase, for a visit to Crystal Cove to help her plan Detective Aaron Thom’s mayoral campaign. Unfortunately, the visit comes on the heels of another tragedy in Crystal Cove, one that Tabby can’t help but investigate.

Her parents were never going to be in favor of her involving herself in dangerous investigations, but even more so now that they are seeing it with their own eyes. But this tragedy concerns a friend of Tabby’s, and more importantly, she has a distraught teenager counting on her for answers.

However, as more and more information is uncovered, Tabby wonders if she’s only going to give the girl more questions than closure. Especially if all evidence is leading to another murder in Crystal Cove.

Join Tabby, Jay, and Sherlock as they team up once again in order to get to the truth.

Chapter One

The navy stretch town car that pulled up in front of the café Sunday morning immediately caught my attention, but I barely recognized the man who stepped out of it.

Ever since he’d been elected to office, I thought of our interim mayor as a man afraid to make any real changes to better the town. He’d come across as timid when his announcement was made in the town square, and he barely said two words in way of an introduction of himself.

However, that was not the same man who walked through the café door on Sunday morning, greeting me with a large politician’s grin. “Well, hello there!” he bellowed, even though the café was almost empty this morning. The only patrons were a group of witches near the back. “You’re new to town, right?” He didn’t give me time to answer. “I’m Mayor Gregory. I never caught your name.”

I’d been living in Crystal Cove for more than a year. I gnawed my lip to keep my immediate irritation to myself. Everything about his words reminded me of a hundred other politicians I’d met over the years on my dad’s campaign trails. It just didn’t remind me of the man that had been passed the baton of our town’s leadership only three months ago.

Mayor Gregory was really only meant to be a council member. I didn’t know him at all, but in the past couple of months, I’d noticed him to be overly cautious, especially concerning the witches. He wasn’t trying to push them out of town, as our last mayor, Matthew Kelsey had. But he also didn’t seem like he was promoting any of their events. In my opinion, Crystal Cove needed a stronger hand, especially now, while the camaraderie between townsfolk and witches was fracturing.

I reached out a hand to meet his outstretched one. “I’m Tabitha—Tabby,” I corrected, remembering myself. Dad used to always introduce me as Tabitha, and said it sounded more professional, but since moving to Crystal Cove, everyone now knew me as what I felt was a more personable nickname. “What can I get you, sir?”

He chuckled. “Oh, no. Nothing for me.”

A man I’d barely noticed stood behind him and gave the mayor a nudge toward the back of the café. Without another word, Mayor Gregory turned his large smile toward the group of witches and I was left staring across at a slim, academic looking man in a suit and wire-rimmed glasses.

He pulled a folder out from under his arm and opened it to a stack of bright orange pamphlets. He passed a small stack over. “We were hoping we could get you to these out here at the café.”

I was confused. These looked like voter’s pamphlets—brighter ones than I’d ever seen—but Tim Gregory already held the position of Mayor in Crystal Cove.

I opened to ask the man in front of me, but he answered before I could.

“We feel that Crystal Cove needs to know they can count on their new mayor for the long term. We want to spread the word as quickly as possible so we can get Mayor Gregory’s appointment upgraded from simply an interim solution.”

My heart sank. I had finally convinced my detective-friend Aaron Thom to run for mayor. I hadn’t thought he would have much opposition, but maybe I was wrong.

Was this man Mayor Gregory’s campaign manager? He didn’t seem much more outgoing than Mayor Gregory, although something about this man’s nudges were bringing our interim mayor out of his shell.

Olivia had never liked flyers on her counters. She used to compromise with a corkboard, but lately, she’d done away with that as well because she didn’t like the vibe it gave the cafe. On the odd occasion, if the local dance studio was putting on a fundraiser, or if the city would be holding an outdoor movie in the park, she’d think about posting their flyer for a week at most, but generally her café remained flyer free.

I didn’t take time to look at the pamphlet, and explained to the man, “If you want to leave one with me, I can ask the café owner. I can’t put anything out without her permission.”

He let out a low chuckle. “Oh, Olivia? She’ll support our efforts. She’ll let you pass out every one of these.” The man glanced at the front window, as though he wanted to tape one right up against the glass.

I reiterated, “I’m sure that’s true, but I still have to get her permission.” I attempted to hand the pamphlets back. “She’s not big on papers lying around, so you may only want to just leave one.”

A crease appeared between his eyebrows, but just for a second. Then it was gone. He waved off my outstretched hand. “Keep ‘em all. She’ll distribute them.” He reached into his folder and passed me a business card. “Have her call me if she has any concerns.”

The business card read: ALFRED CUNNINGHAM. DEPUTY MAYOR.

I hadn’t been aware we even had a deputy mayor in Crystal Cove.

Without any thank you or any words at all, Cunningham spun and headed to the rear of the café, where Mayor Gregory seemed to be getting on famously with the witches. While I was happy to see him making an effort, the sea glass around my neck cooled, and something about the camaraderie between them gave me pause. The five witches that were in today were all familiar to me, but the only one that appeared to be speaking to Mayor Gregory was Barbara Colling.

She laughed a loud laugh, and even though I couldn’t hear any of their words from the café counter, her body language as she played with her graying hair and her glasses appeared flirtatious. At sixty years old, she had to be almost two decades older than our interim mayor. She was heavyset and walked with a bit of a limp. Did she really think she had a chance with him?

But the way he smiled back at her, at the very least, he seemed to be pandering to her interests.

Marigold Weathers, a commanding purple-haired witch, usually had the loudest mouth of all the witches in town, but she sat back in her seat, flashing a look of consternation between Barbara and Mayor Gregory and not saying a word.

Seconds later, the mayor was laughing, too, and then he passed out orange pamphlets to all five of them. This reminded me to look down at what it was they wanted Olivia to distribute throughout her café.

It read: VOTE GREGORY FOR YOUR LONG-TERM MAYOR ON APRIL 10TH.

It included a photo of our interim mayor, but his face didn’t look terribly attractive on the bright orange paper. My brow furrowed at the date. April 10th was less than two weeks away. The immediacy seemed highly unusual—perhaps even illegal. By the large amount of fine print included on the double-sided pamphlet, though, it seemed like they had gone to a lot of trouble to make this election legitimate.

I gnawed at my lip. I’d suggested Aaron would make a great mayor for this town. As a local detective, he had such an authority about him and he truly cared about Crystal Cove. But we thought we had until the fall to plan his campaign. The local council had elected Tim Gregory from within, to take over until such a time as the town could plan another election to permanently elect someone to the position.

Why was Mayor Gregory suddenly pushing to make his position permanent?

But more importantly, was there any way we could plan a successful mayoral campaign for Aaron in less than two weeks?

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