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

I grinned as I thought back to the Potent Potions party at Heidi’s friend’s house. Sue had said that too much of one of the potions would make you sleep like the dead. “Opal might have been a hack potion maker, but she’d probably have known enough to concoct something that would send Pearl into a death-like sleep. That’s what Pearl drank that night on stage—she gave the vial to Ralph herself, he told us that. As soon as she collapsed, Opal jumped onstage and, in all the chaos, managed to switch the real vial for a mostly empty one containing poison.”

Peter nodded. “And that was the one our team found clasped in Pearl’s hand. And the poison on her lips?”

I shrugged. “Everyone panicked as soon as Pearl collapsed. Opal probably just smeared a bit of the poison on them while no one was looking.”

Peter’s expression darkened. “That way, we didn’t have to do an autopsy.”

I nodded. “And that’s why Opal was so protective of her sister’s body and so insistent we didn’t cut her open. Pearl was still alive.”

Peter shook his head. “With Ralph in jail, Opal was the one who checked her sister’s body out of the morgue for funeral preparations.” He glanced toward the stairs. “In reality, Pearl was staying here, recovering from the sleeping draught.”

I scoffed. “No wonder Opal didn’t want us going upstairs—we would’ve found Pearl, alive and well.”

Peter’s throat bobbed as he paced behind the chaise, and I tried hard not to look at Opal’s slumped body. “So Pearl faked her own death, with her sister’s help, for the life insurance payout. Why not just fake a boating accident or something more benign? Why fake a murder onstage at the annual summit?”

I leaned on the back of the sofa and drummed my fingers on the plush cushions. “Well… we arrested Ralph, right? Pearl gave him the vial to give to her, setting him up, and Opal hinted she thought he was guilty.”

Peter paused his pacing. “You think Pearl and Opal wanted to take Ralph down?”

I nodded. “Seems like it, right?” I thought of what the pig, Buttercup, had told me about Ralph putting her outside the hotel room when various women would come to visit him. “I’m 99 percent sure Ralph was being unfaithful—I even suspected Avery Ann of being his mistress. Turns out she’s the illegitimate daughter of an affair, but I’m not sure that’s a whole lot better.” I curled my lip. “I bet Pearl wanted to take Ralph down, and Opal agreed to help. They framed him for murder.”

Peter stopped dead. “The anonymous letters—I bet Pearl and Opal sent those, too. Opal sold her shares in the company, so when it went down, she wouldn’t lose all her money. They alerted the press, Madeline L’Orange, about the fraud, disgruntled employees, and bankruptcy filings and even got Carolyn Lopez and the other protestors together.”

I scoffed and straightened. “It wasn’t enough for Ralph to go down for murder—they wanted him to lose his company and fortune, too. Avery Ann said they hadn’t told Pearl about her real identity yet, but I’d bet you anything she found out on her own and wanted to spite Ralph. All while getting a huge payout from selling Opal’s shares and from the life insurance policy. They could disappear to start new lives over again somewhere else.”

Peter’s eyes darted to Opal’s dead body. “Why’s Opal dead, then?”

I bit my lip and tried not to look her way. “Maybe it was Pearl’s plan all along to kill her sister and take all the money for herself? Maybe, when she woke up, they fell into old habits and started bickering. Opal admitted that they often didn’t get along.” I shrugged. “Pearl’s the head of a pyramid scheme scamming poor, unsuspecting women out of their money and dreams, faked her own death, and framed her husband for murder. She’s demonstrated she’s capable of some murky stuff, but killing her own sister seems pretty low even for her.”

Peter strode into the kitchen and lifted the bottle of white wine on the counter. The outside sweated, and he rubbed his wet fingertips on the thighs of his uniform pants. “It’s still chilled. Pearl can’t have gone far.”

He pressed a fingertip to the magical device in his ear. “Hey, Edna. I want you to tell all units to be on the lookout for Pearl Litt. Mm-hmm. Yeah, me too. Turns out she’s alive and has likely killed her sister. She’s trying to get off the island, so be sure to send units to the airship station and the—”

I startled as I remembered something Ralph had told me. “She’s afraid of flying.” I waved at Peter to get his attention. “She won’t be at the airship station.”

He frowned. “Hold on, Edna—” He licked his lips. “If she’s not flying, then where would she go?”

I glanced out the front window. The sky was lightening to a pale gray, which meant it was nearly dawn, which meant the tide would soon be out. During the day, with the tide low, Bijou Mer became connected to the human mainland and accessible by foot. Only every evening, when the tide rose, did our mountain become an island and safe for the magical folk to be out and about in public.

Peter’s eyes widened as he apparently followed my train of thought. He touched the device in his ear. “Edna, send as many units as you can spare to the marsh. She’s going to be heading to the human side.”

He plucked the device from his ear and shoved it in his pocket. He jerked his chin toward the door. “Come on! We’re on one of the lowest levels of the island, we may be the closest ones to intercepting her.”

30

Making a Break for It

Peter, Daisy, and I raced down the mountain and along the slippery path that led to the ferry dock. The water level had just recently dropped enough to reveal the top of the submerged