Murder and the Missing Magic Keeper: The Story Keeper's Paranormal Cozy Mysteries, #3

By Emory Keller

We're off to London, but not for vacation. Sophie's good friend goes missing after a dead body is found in her flat, and it's hard to know who to trust.

 

Secret investigations, dark alley chases, underground meetings, and an anti-magic group are making it dangerous to be a Magic Keeper.

 

Along the way, Sophie learns that honesty is different than truth, and that forgiveness is not the same as trust.

Grab your sleuth hat, Story Keepers. We have a friend to save.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emory Keller
• Release date: Oct 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781962807043

Book preview

Murder and the Missing Magic Keeper

A Story Keeper's Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 3

Emory Keller

Heel Hook Publishing

Copyright © 2023 by Heel Hook Publishing

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the publisher's prior written permission, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact [include publisher/author contact info].

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Co-Authors: Zoe Eiseman, Kara Zone, Julia Opre, Rebecca Silva-Faville

Book Cover and Illustrations by Chris Hunter

1st edition 2023

Contents

1.An Explosive Entrance

2.Reading Cryptic Letters over Spilled Coffee

3.People Just Don't Disappear

4.The Inevitable Failure of a Nice Moment

5.Like a Takeaway Napkin

6.Stalkers & Street Chases

7.Is That a British Joke?

8.Goose Chases & Orchids

9.Liar for Hire

10.Who are these people?

11.Underground & Undercover

12.A Rat in the Alley

13.Everything Is Fuzzy When Covered in Dust

14.That’s a Ouija Board, Sophie

15.An Angry Tour Guide

16.Orchids Can’t Grow in the Shadows

17.A Letter from the Fox to the Scorpion

18.This Show’s Not over until the MC’s Down

19.A Broad Named Sophie Solace

20.A Dream of Piano & a Curse of Silence

21.No Such Thing as Unintentional

22.The Two-Way Mirror

23.The Heavy Door That Stopped the Doorman

24.Smoke & Maia

25.What is Mirroring Image, Ez?

26.I Have to Go to London . . .

27.Trouble Follows Me & Me Follows Back

28.Get Jiggy with the Lock

29.You Can't Call Me

30.Who Says Willy-Nilly?

31. Blonde Boardroom Attire.

32.Calls & Propositions

33.Undercover Anyone?

34.My Otherworldly Secret

35.Trust Has Nothing to Do with It

36.Rock Walls & Hidden Figures

37.Wanna See a Cool Trick?

1

An Explosive Entrance

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I t can’t be both! I threw my hands up above my head with a laugh as Charlie shook his head and took a sip from his smoothie.

"You’re wrong, Soph. I read it twice, and there’s no other explanation!" We walked with our drinks in hand on our way to open the bookshop. It was the perfect summer day in Elkin; sunny and breezy. These days were rare, so we soaked them in as much as possible.

Charlie took my hand again as it fell back down to my side. He swung our clasped hands between us to diffuse our senseless bickering over a book I’d recommended to him a couple of weeks before.

How about we’re both wrong? he offered and leaned his head over to me.

I let out a breathy laugh and shook my head.

You are impossible! I turned to him with a smile, and he planted a kiss on my forehead.

Not nearly as impossible as you. We arrived at the steps of the bookshop, and I could see the streams of sunlight pouring in through the window.

Anything exciting going on today? Charlie held the door with one arm above me as I walked in.

I shook my head. Nothing on the docket, but you never know what kind of craziness will arise around here.

He wiggled his eyebrows at me and set his drink down before he leaned over onto the desk, resting on his elbows. "Oh yeah, our little town of Elkin really has a lot of crazy occurrences. Last week, old man Bosniak called me over because an odd ticking sound came from somewhere in his house."

I raised an eyebrow and leaned into him to fake a look of shock. That does sound curious. What was causing such a peculiar sound?

Turns out, Bosniak has a grandfather clock in his attic. He said it hadn’t ticked in years, and he had forgotten that he had it. Charlie was dramatic with his response and posed it like the clock was the most dangerous thing in the world.

I gasped and placed a hand on my chest. Not a grandfather clock!

We both fell into a fit of laughter, and Charlie pushed himself off the desk. Well, I should be on my way. Work to do, crazy occurrences to subdue. He smiled at me and placed a kiss on my lips.

"Okay, gross. This is a public space, guys!" Sadie’s high-pitched squeal poured from the office as she walked out. She raised the book she had in her hands over her face to cover her eyes and pretended to gag.

I rolled my eyes and pulled away from Charlie. I think someone forgot to take their drama medication this morning, Sadie. Your levels are off the charts.

Charlie chuckled and shook his head. I’ll make it up to you, Sadie! He pointed at her and gave me one more peck before trotting out the door.

I turned and looked at Sadie once the bell to the door was done chiming and placed a hand on my hip. I gave her an incredulous look. She raised her hands and smiled.

I’m just doing my duty as a sane public citizen and employee of this fine establishment!

As I opened my mouth to give her a rebuttal, a tremendous crash came from the left side of the shop, accompanied by a flash of intense light and the smell of smoke. We both froze for a split second, eyes locking on each other.

The second he walks out the door, a crazy occurrence happens! It’s like the universe is playing some kind of joke! Out of instinct, I threw an orb of protective energy around Sadie and myself as we ran toward the source of the noise.

2

Reading Cryptic Letters over Spilled Coffee

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I f the letter doesn’t specify that she’s in trouble, why do you think she’s missing? I held the frail piece of paper between my pointer and my thumb. I examined it to see if I missed something about it that led him to that conclusion. To me, this letter didn’t look suspicious.

Ezra shook his head with his lips pinched. Something isn’t right. Maia wouldn’t leave me a letter in the first place, not written in prose like that. He gestured over to the paper that was gripped between my fingers.

I handed the paper off to Sadie, who snatched it. She traced her finger under the lines of writing to make sure she didn’t miss a single detail.

That is pretty odd . . . I trailed off as I thought about what sort of trouble someone could be in that would give them time to write a letter and slip it under a door but not leave a voicemail on a machine.

The more I look at it, the more that this looks sort of familiar. I squinted my eyes at the letter over Sadie’s shoulder. Ezra furrowed his brow at me, distorting his face. His hair was back in a protective style instead of his usual natural curls, and it pulled his face, which made it hard to scrunch his face as he usually would.

The letter looks familiar? Ezra looked at me like I had grown another head.

I nodded and held my hand out to Sadie, and she placed the frail paper back in my hand with a shrug.

It’s pretty cryptic. Sadie looked over at Ezra, who twiddled his thumbs in his lap. Her expression softened at his obvious discomfort and worry. We’re going to figure it out, Ez.

Ezra looked away from her with no response. Looking at the blotches around the blue ink, I tried to focus as hard as possible on why this felt so familiar to me. I closed my eyes, feeling like the answer was right on the tip of my tongue.

Soph, there’s no way that you’ve seen a personal letter written to me before it was written. Unless you’ve become a master at telling the future without us knowing, that is. Ezra’s accent was thick, the stress making him a little less clear than usual.

Wait, now, Sadie held up a finger in Ezra’s direction. Sophie is a master when it comes to quoting books and writing. She looked over at me. Which is very annoying most of the time, but could be helpful right now. Sadie offered me a smile, and I chuckled before focusing my attention back.

Ugh, come on, brain! I tapped myself on the head to try to kickstart my memory. My eyes snapped back open, and I looked down at the letter once more.

Ez,

Years and years between us,

Seeing then and now,

I know you must be looking,

Not for me,

But for how.

Gone but not forgotten,

Here but never seen,

Ez, you have to find me somewhere,

Within the in-between.

Come hell or high-water,

I send you on your way,

To find my missing pieces,

And put them back in place.

I hope you know that I need to see you soon.

Maia

Have you tried looking it up? Sadie leaned her elbows on the table, tapping her long nails in thought. If it’s a reference to a poem, it would come up.

I tried. Ezra shook his head. No matches.

I chewed the skin on my lower lip and looked up at Ezra. Is Maia a poet? Does she write poems to her friends like this?

Ezra shrugged before he slouched inward and sunk into his chair. She is a poetry fanatic. It’s her favorite genre to read in her free time. She writes here and there when she has the time.

And has she ever written anything like this before to you? I pressed.

Ezra’s gaze was far off in thought. Not really. She’s shown me her own work millions of times. Sometimes, she will add a line from her favorite poems to the bottom of my birthday cards and such, but never a fleshed-out letter like that.

What if this wasn’t her? After thinking for a second more, I mumbled and scooted my chair back while I focused on the page. I got up, trying to figure out what I was forgetting.

He said it didn’t come up in a search— Sadie’s disgruntled features followed me as I stood.

She said my name in the poem. That’s her handwriting. . . Ezra continued on to Sadie, and I walked away. I felt a pull and followed the energy that drew me to the shelf by the front of the bookstore. It held the oldest copies of our classics, my favorites, and a few of my grandmother’s most-read.

I trailed my finger along the spines of the books lined up on the shelf in front of me and plucked out a few of the poetry books I’d read over the past few months. There had to be a reason that these words felt so familiar to me and as close as Maia and I had become, there was no way that I had read her mind.

After I plucked out three books I thought it could be from, Plume came up onto the desk. Anything I can be of assistance with, Miss Sophie?

I smiled at him. Plume had become an incredible worker, and he loved to be in the shop surrounded by books. He and Sadie had become close in their work together.

Oh, Plume. You always have perfect timing! I know I’ve seen this poem before, and I know it’s in one of these books. Could you help me skim through them and see what we find?

Plume beamed, and without a response, he picked up the first book off of the small stack I’d made. We sat together for a moment, flipping through and skimming the pages of the books.

What are we searching for, if I may ask? Ezra walked up to the front of the shop. He winced as he hobbled over.

Shouldn’t you be sitting down? As the words came out of my mouth, Sadie rushed over to him with a chair and an aggravated look.

"I get up to go to the bathroom for one second, and you do the exact opposite of what I tell you? She guided him down into the chair. The magic I used will heal you, but under an hour would be an insane expectation!"

Ezra waved her off, and Sadie threw her head back in frustration and let out a groan. I looked up from my book over at my two bickering friends and shook my head before I refocused my attention on the pages in front of me. You two need to learn how to communicate better.

They both gave me glares that could burn holes through my skull, and I smiled while paging through. Out of nowhere, Plume let out a large sneeze. The sound made all of us jump, and the force of the sneeze itself sent him backward.

3

People Just Don't Disappear

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M iss Solace! Why am I not surprised to see you at the scene of a crime? a woman bellowed through the room as Melinda, the Story Keeper’s Elder, sauntered through the door. I stood out of respect and greeted her with a handshake and a slight head bow.

You know what they say, I returned her broad smile. Some people are trouble, and some people have trouble following them.

Ah, it seems that you do, my dear. She patted the back of my hand with sympathy before walking the rest of the way into the apartment and meeting the authorities.

It worked a little differently in London than it did back home. Since it was such a large city, law enforcement did not know about Arcana but had their own branch that worked with the Keeper’s Guild when things went awry. There were members of that branch of police and two Elder members: Melinda and the Time Keeper’s Elder, Niro.

I sat back down on the couch next to Sadie and Ezra, whose knees bobbed up and down nervously. I leaned behind Sadie to be closer to Ezra’s ear.

They’ll sort it out, Ez. It’s their job. I patted his shoulder and leaned back, and he smiled at me weakly.

Ezra showed the letter to the police once they got there and explained the author’s circumstances but got little response for his theory. Melinda walked over to us, her face much more serious than it had been in our greeting minutes before.

This is not looking too good, Ezra. Melinda finished typing something on her phone before she shoved it into her back pocket.

I know. With the body and Maia being missing, I can’t help but think that—

Missing? Melinda cut him off, her brows tugged down in confusion. "Finding a dead body in someone’s home and them being nowhere to be found is not what leads me to believe someone is missing."

What, you think Maia did this? I pointed over to where the body was, now covered, lying on the carpeted floor.

Melinda took a deep breath to gather her thoughts and clicked her tongue. I know Maia is your friend. I know she didn’t tell you when she left. That doesn’t mean she’s missing. It means she’s running, Melinda turned and looked at the crime scene, and we can see that there was something to run from.

But the let— Sadie began, trying to pull the letter out of Ezra’s front pocket before Melinda held up her hand.

A cryptic letter with pieces of a poem inside isn’t a cry for help. It sounds like someone on the run that needs someone on their side. Melinda rested her hand on Ezra’s shoulder. Don’t let her pull you down with her. With that, she gave him an apologetic look and walked out of the apartment.

Ezra’s jaw was clenched so tightly I swore it could have cut through