THE SQUAWKING DEAD
A COZY WITCH MYSTERY
ERIN JOHNSON
CONTENTS
Prequel Novella
1.
Crab Puffs
2.
Up in Flames
3.
Dead, Dead, Goose
4.
Blowing Smoke
5.
The Murder Weapon
6.
Lemurs!
7.
Quincy
8.
The Plot Thickens
9.
Phoenix Nest
10.
Mark
11.
The Blow gun
12.
Darts
13.
Stolen Wombat
14.
Libbie
15.
Rebecca
16.
Pushed to the Edge
17.
The Boys
18.
Will and Heidi
19.
Coffee
20.
Monkey
21.
The Jungle
22.
Sloth
23.
WWAAC
24.
Zane Perez
25.
Madeline
26.
The Bodega
27.
The Phoenix
28.
Underground Animal Rescue
29.
Photo Finish
30.
The Photograph
31.
Habits
32.
Records
33.
Hexmakers' Lair
34.
Decision
The Competition
Murder
A Note from the Author
About the Author
Get the FREE Prequel Novella
A magical academy. A suspicious death. Can an inexperienced cop expose the deadly secrets lurking behind bewitched classroom doors?
Check out rookie officer Peter Flint’s first case with Daisy. Saved by the Spell is the prequel to the Magic Market paranormal cozy mystery series.
Download Saved by the Spell to solve a mystical murder today!
CRAB PUFFS
“Appetizers?” Heidi rolled her wrist, wand in hand, and the round gold trays laden with dragon rolls, shrimp, mini quiches, and cheese and crackers magically lowered to waist height. The chattering group of guests broke apart and clustered around the trays, eagerly scooping up snacks.
Thank the seas Heidi was such a good friend—and so coordinated. She managed to not only keep her own appetizer tray afloat, but mine as well as we threaded through the hundreds of glittering party guests.
As a certain curse had deprived me of magic, I’d have had to manually carry that tray around without her. And I’d have either tuckered out or probably knocked the tray over on some aristocrat’s head and gotten myself fired. Which would have been unfortunate. And it wasn’t because I needed the money or all the food and drinks I’d been sneaking—I was here to collect intel.
A woman in a floor-length leopard print dress pointed a black gloved finger at a mini quiche.
“Is it vegetarian?”
I blinked back at her, eyes wide. For one, she’d caught me unprepared—I’d been wondering where one found a floor-length leopard print dress. But two, I’d just stuffed one of those dragon rolls in my mouth and could barely chew, my mouth was so full, much less talk.
Thankfully, Heidi leaned over and saved my scales once again. “Nope. They have ham in them. Try the cheese and crackers?” My friend magically rotated the tray so they’d be easier for her to reach.
The guest smiled her thanks, took her cracker, and rejoined her similarly decked out friends. Animal print was apparently the theme for the Night of the Phoenix fundraising event at the Magical Animal Sanctuary.
“Excuse me!” I jumped back as a woman shoved past.
“Oof!”
She stumbled into a heavy man who turned and scowled at her, but the lady, who looked to be about seventy, never paused—just pushed her way through the crowd. I followed her with my eyes for another minute. It wasn’t just her expression—she’d looked pale and distraught— that made me take note of her. I frowned a little as I realized she was maybe the only person at the party in head-to-toe black—well, besides us servers—no hint of animal print. What had her in such a hurry?
As she disappeared into the sea of party guests, someone else caught my attention. I nudged Heidi with my elbow and jerked my chin at a guy threading his way through the crowd.
“Would you ever date a guy who wore a tiger print tuxedo?” I had to lean close to her and raise my voice to be heard over the murmur of voices, click of heels, clink of glasses, and the magically amplified harp music coming from the stage in the corner of the big, glass-ceilinged room.
Heidi giggled, then her dark eyes grew wide and she pressed a fingertip with a shiny black nail to the communication device in her ear. “Oops! No, Peter, that was not a question for you.”
She flashed her eyes at me, and I grinned as I munched on the last of the dragon roll.
She swatted at me and mouthed, “Stop eating all the food.”
I popped a quiche into my mouth before she magically raised the trays higher than I could reach.
“It’s food. It’s here to be eaten.” I rose on my toes and swiped at the trays while she grinned.
Her gaze dropped, and she nodded. “Okay.” She looked at me. “Peter wants me to tell you that he’s cold and misses you and that you should stuff some crab puffs into your pockets for him for later.”
I grimaced. “If there are any left. They’ve been very popular tonight—”
Heidi shot me a flat look. “With you.”
I shrugged, then remembered something. “Ask Peter if he’s seen you-know-who.” I rose on my toes and glanced over the heads of the guests as Heidi relayed my message. Overhead, a glass greenhouse ceiling revealed the fast-moving clouds gliding past a bright half-moon.
The huge room echoed with the voices of the densely packed crowd, and a huge banner that read Night of the Phoenix—embellished with flames, of course—hung from the tall ceiling in front of a red velvet curtain. A stage, raised a few steps above the polished marble floor, stood empty in front of the red curtain, which apparently hid the phoenix’s enclosure from view.
I frowned as I looked toward it. I’d never seen a phoenix in person and wondered how the extremely rare creature was handling all the hubbub outside its cage. Hopefully the sanctuary had cast a dampening spell to at least keep the noise down for it.
Heidi nudged me to get my attention and shook her head. “No sign of him. But Peter says he’s also been working patrol along the perimeter, so he could have arrived when he wasn’t stationed at the gates.”
I nodded. “Thank him for me?” I winked. “And tell him I’ll warm him up later.”
Heidi shook her head, grinning, her braids coiled into two buns at her nape. “You’ll have to tell him that yourself, lovebird.”
I glanced around again, muttering to myself. “Where is he…?” Peter and Daisy weren’t suffering out in the cold and Heidi and I didn’t have aching feet just for kicks. We were here for the mob boss of shifters himself, Ludolf Caterwaul.
We’d decided we needed to learn more about Ludolf to take him down and prevent
