Death by Chocolate Cake - A Short Read: A Moonlight Bay Psychic Mystery, #5

By K.J. Emrick and Kathryn De Winter

An Old Love... A New Love... and Murder!

Many years ago, Jack Travis was madly in love with Anya Westfield who broke his heart when she cheated on him. 

When she dies in suspicious circumstances Jack and Miranda (and Kyle) are drawn into the investigation. They discover that Anya had a secret which got her killed.

The more they uncover about Anya's life the less Jack realizes he knew about her. 

The trio must keep their wits about them and use all of their deductive powers to get to the truth of this murder.

In this psychic mystery will they be able to evade the watchful eye of the killer long enough to solve the case?
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: South Coast Publishing
• Release date: Jul 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386794042

Book preview

Chapter

1

Miranda laughed as she reached for her wine glass. "I love how the view from your house is almost exactly the same as the view from mine. Our town is just that small,

isn’t

it

?"

Jack Travis, tall and handsome detective of the Moonlight Bay Police Department, smiled at her with his fierce blue eyes. Yup, we both get to see the lighthouse, just from different angles. Say, before you start swigging that wine back, Miranda, I was about to make a toast.

Over the past few weeks she and Jack had been seeing a lot of each other. There had been a lot of walks on the beaches of Moonlight Bay, a lot of snuggling on his couch or hers, and a lot of talking.

Of course, they had a lot to talk about.

Miranda found that she felt almost as comfortable in Jack’s home as she did at her uncle’s huge manor house, nicknamed Ragged Rest. Through his open window she could see the green expanse of Jack’s back yard, and past that was the uninterrupted view of the deep waters of Moonlight Bay. She could see and hear the waves lapping heartily at the sand. A breeze came in to playfully stir the edges of her long, deep red hair. Here in this moment, Miranda felt truly content.

In truth, she had never thought that she would settle in Moonlight Bay. She had lived in Melbourne for years and considered herself a city girl. But, when her book writing career had taken off, the time had come to move on from there. There had been more to it, of course. People had begun to find out that she was psychic when her best friend had died and begun haunting her in spirit. It had brought her the wrong kind of attention.

So, when the opportunity had presented itself to move here to the tiny community of Moonlight Bay out on Australia’s coastline, she’d readily accepted. She’d tried to keep her psychic abilities a secret out here but that became increasingly difficult when she seemed to get mixed up in every murder that had happened in Moonlight Bay since she’d moved here. Her friends—her living friends—Sapphire Moon-Flower and Jean-Paul Devereux both knew her secret, but until now it had only been

those

two

.

Now, Jack Travis knew her

secret

,

too

.

Well most of it. But perhaps the uncovering of her psychic abilities and the unwanted attention she had received in the city had not been such a bad thing after all. It had been the catalyst for her moving out to Moonlight Bay to the old family home. She guessed that was just how things work sometimes; something you thought was bad turned out to be the one thing that set you going in the right direction.

In the quiet of the gently cooling evening, the only other sounds besides the crashing of the waves were the gentle snores of Butter. Miranda’s golden retriever was happily chasing rabbits in his sleep again. When Miranda’s visits had become a regular thing, Jack had happily dedicated the exclusive use of a giant pillow to Butter, and the sleepy pooch always dug it out the moment he set paw in Jack’s home. Miranda was glad for that. She didn’t know if she could ever be with Jack Travis if he wasn’t a dog person.

Oops, Miranda said, just a second before the wine glass would have touched her lips. She’d nearly forgotten Jack’s toast. "Sorry. What were you going

to

say

?"

He smiled, and lifted his glass. I was just going to congratulate us both on our two-month anniversary.

Do people ordinarily celebrate their two-month anniversary? Miranda asked playfully, cocking her head to

one

side

.

Does it matter what other people ordinarily do? Jack asked in return. You formally agreed to go out with me two months ago. I think that’s worth celebrating.

Miranda laughed and held her arm out straight and high, the wine swirling dangerously close to the rim. "To two months

together

,

then

."

Miranda twisted a little on the couch where they were sitting, bringing herself close enough to kiss him without any danger of spilling their drinks.

Oh, Kyle said from the far side of the room, how I wish I had a party horn to blow for the occasion.

Still enjoying Jack’s wonderful lips on hers, Miranda allowed her eyes to flick harshly over his shoulder just long enough to give Kyle a good dark look. Just because he was a ghost did not give him the right to ruin moments like this

for

her

.

Ooh, sor-ry! Kyle said with a comical snarkiness that Miranda chose to ignore entirely.

Butter lifted his head off the pillow long enough to whuff at Kyle. Doggie-speak for ‘

shut

up

.’

You too? Kyle moaned.

Kyle Hunter didn’t have to be here. Tall and lanky with a hazy blue aura surrounding his spiritual form, he was invisible to anyone but Miranda. He was a ghost and he could go wherever he wanted to. In fact, after tonight, she was going to have to lay down some ground rules for her dead friend. It was all well and good that other than the few stray ghosts they encountered here in Moonlight Bay it was only Miranda who could