Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) by Erin Johnson (reading diary .TXT) 📗

Opal’s eyes grew tighter, and her mouth collapsed into a pinched knot. She let out a heavy exhale. She stood aside and waved us in. “Come in, come in, of course. I don’t mean to seem flippant or heartless, but—” Her eyes widened as Daisy trotted inside. She cleared her throat and seemed to rearrange her words. “—but I’ve got family staying with me.” She shrugged. “The death and all, and I’ve had to put on a brave face.”

Erg. Now I felt like a real sea slug. I shot her an apologetic smile as I slunk inside behind Peter. “Sorry about that.”

“Not at all, not at all.” She closed the door behind us, then breezed past us into the open floorplan townhome. Her place was modern, luxurious and, unlike my place, clean.

She ushered us toward a tidy arrangement of sofas around a beautiful oriental rug that constituted the living space. Peter and I settled on the leather sofa, and Opal sat across from us on a sparkling, translucent chair. She adjusted her glasses and clasped her hands together on her knee.

“So… what can I help you with?”

Behind her, candlelight glinted off the white marble counters of her kitchen. An open bottle of wine sat beside two glasses. I glanced toward the stairs that led up to the second story, my curiosity piqued—what family did she have staying with her?

“Can I offer you some coffee or tea?” She brightened. “Or perhaps some potions?”

Tempting, except after speaking to the lizard man, I wasn’t going anywhere near those. I slumped into the sofa and stretched my legs out. “No thanks, I’d rather not turn into a reptile tonight.”

Her eyes widened. “Why would you say that?

Peter shot me a look, then turned back to Opal. “We’re actually here to ask you about Maria Wu and her husband, John. Are you familiar with them?”

Opal’s face darkened, and her neck flushed red. “How did you find out about that?” She shook a finger. “They’re not supposed to be speaking about that.”

I smirked. “Well, John being a lizard and all makes it pretty tough for him to speak about much of anything.”

Her nostrils flared as she shot me a withering look. “That’s per court order; that case has been settled. It’s over.”

Crash!

Opal pressed a hand with neatly painted nails to her chest. Peter and I snapped our gazes toward the stairs and the noise that had sounded from upstairs.

A line creased the space between Peter’s brows. “Do you need to go check on that or—”

Opal cut him off. “Oh. Just my guest. No need.” Her eyes darted to Daisy who sat, tail wrapped around her paws, beside Peter. “What happened to that man was an unfortunate tragedy, but it was the fault of our manufacturer. My formulation was fine—they messed up the production of it. But like I said, that case is closed, ancient history. So why in the seas did you want to know about it?”

Peter leaned forward, elbows on his thighs. “Why would Maria Wu have thought Potent Potions could cure her husband’s disease?”

Opal scoffed and airily waved a hand. “Why would any delusional person think anything?”

Daisy bared her teeth, and the woman sobered. She pinched the bridge of her nose, heaved a dramatic sigh, then splayed her palms. “Look, we’re a huge company. We’ve grown so quickly, and it’s impossible to make sure that every single one of our independent consultants is properly trained.” She pressed her bright red lips together and looked from Peter to me.

I frowned. “So you’re saying Maria was misled by one of your consultants?”

“So you’re saying you don’t claim that your potions can cure diseases?” Peter flipped a broad palm.

Opal scoffed. “Please. Have I mentioned I was trained by one of the best potion masters in the kingdoms?”

Daisy’s tail wagged just a little bit. Truth.

My eyelids fluttered as I tried not to roll them. Maybe once or twice.

“Well, our formulations are top-notch, but we have never claimed that they could cure diseases or illnesses or ailments or curses.” Opal scoffed again, a “how ridiculous” expression on her face. “We simply advertise that our Potent Potions promote a general sense of health and well-being.”

Wow. So vague.

She rolled her wrist. “If some of our consultants decide to embellish and make outlandish claims, that’s on them. They’ve not been trained or pressured to do so.” She looked smug, but her eyes darted to Daisy and stayed there until the dog wagged her tail. Partial truth.

Sure, but I’d bet it was just technically true. I had no doubt that the company let their consultants make all kinds of claims about what Potent Potions could do. Why wouldn’t they? As long as they got more sales, who cared what lies their consultants were spreading? Besides, if an errant potion turned somebody into a lizard, they could just bury it with a payout and a court order not to talk about it.

My shoulders hiked into my ears as the lawyer in me wanted to take this scam of a company down.

Peter leaned to one side and stared Opal down. “So you’re saying you’re not a powerful enough potion maker to concoct the kind of potion that could cure real diseases and curses?”

Opal leveled him a flat look. “Nice try. I think everyone knows that would be incredibly unrealistic to expect from our highly affordable potions.” She scoffed. “I mean, something with that kind of power would require a highly skilled potions master and would be extremely expensive.”

I perked up. Curses, you say? I scooted forward to the edge of the couch. “Wait a minute, you’re saying certain potions could actually cure curses?” I caught Peter staring and swallowed. “Just hypothetically speaking… how would someone go about doing that?” I stroked my chin super nonchalantly.

Opal took a deep breath through her nose and let out a heavy sigh. “Listen, if you’re trying to trap me, you’re out of luck. That court case closed ages ago, and besides, it