Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) by Erin Johnson (simple ebook reader .txt) 📕

I grabbed a red lollipop from a cup on the counter and held it up to Biddy. “This too, please.”

“One lollipop—half a merkle.”

Jan tapped away at the register.

As they worked, I unwrapped the lollipop, stuck it in my mouth, then pulled the police file from under my arm and opened it. I flipped through statements, pictures of evidence, the photo we’d found in the safe, and finally examined the photograph of our mystery Jane Doe.

A photograph of the dead body was much easier to tolerate than seeing the real thing in person. I puzzled over her fringed vest and bell bottoms. Why had she been dressed like that? Had she heard the phoenix fundraiser was a costume party and missed the bit about it being animal print themed?

“Why do you have a picture of Maria Begin?”

I glanced up and frowned at Biddy. She held a package of beef jerky in one hand, a bottle of red wine in the other. Jan took the jerky from her and placed it in a paper bag. It took me a moment to register her words.

I closed the file and pulled the lollipop out of my mouth. “Who?”

Biddy and Jan exchanged exasperated looks, then Biddy leaned forward over the tall counter, her dirty-blond hair falling forward over her shoulders. She tapped my file folder. “Maria Begin.”

My breath caught, and I stuck the lollipop back in my mouth and fumbled to open the file back up. I fished out the photograph and held it up for them to see. “You know who this is?”

Jan squinted, then pulled the glasses that hung from a beaded necklace around her neck onto the bridge of her nose. They both peered at the photo, nearly cheek to cheek.

Jan looked from it to me. “Why do you have a picture of someone when you don’t even know who they are?”

Good point. “She’s involved in a case—what can you tell me about her?”

The women looked at each other.

Biddy crossed her arms, expression flat. “She’s still alive, huh?

Jan smirked. “Pay up.”

Biddy shook her head but fished around in the pockets of her overalls.

Jan grinned at me. “We had a bet. Biddy thought she was for sure dead, but I had a feeling she’d turn up some day.”

I frowned, thoroughly confused as Biddy slapped a gold coin into Jan’s hand. “Well, no, actually. This woman is a murder victim… and possibly also suspect?” I shook my head. This was turning into a thoroughly confusing case. Also, had they not noticed the giant gash running from her shoulder across her chest?

Jan’s shoulders slumped. “You sure she’s dead? One hundred percent positive? Dead forever?” She stiff armed Biddy, who was pawing at her hand to get the coin back.

I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Hmph. Fine.” She pushed the coin back at Biddy, who looked vindicated.

“I knew it. Dead.” She seemed to catch herself and grew serious. “Sea rest her soul.”

Jan shook her head. “Thought it was a sure thing she’d be alive still.”

Biddy shook her head, her bobbed hair swishing back and forth. “My intuition. You never listen to my intuition.”

Jan spun to face me. “Well, she was alive until recently, right, Jo?”

I nodded. “We’ve been having a rough time even identifying her. You’re sure this is that woman—Maria Begin, you said? What can you tell me about her?”

Biddy opened her mouth, then shut it again. The women exchanged knowing looks.

Jan frowned. “Hm… my memory is so fuzzy these days….”

Biddy bit her bottom lip. “When you get older, it takes more to grease the wheels, so to speak….”

They both fixed expectant gazes on me.

“Oh, for….” I rolled my eyes, dug around in my pocket, and slapped some gold coins down on the counter.

The women eagerly scooped them up and stuffed them in their pockets, then leaned forward, voices lowered.

Biddy raised her brows. “We haven’t seen Maria Begin around here for ages—what?”

She looked to Jan, who frowned and shook her head slightly. “Probably… over fifty years.”

I narrowed my eyes. Fifty years—the same amount of time that had passed since the last phoenix rebirth event and the disappearance of Malorie Rutherford’s first husband. I had no idea how they were connected, but it seemed unlikely that it would just be coincidence. Then again, Maria looked to be about fifty to me—had she been a baby the last time these two saw her? And if so, how would they have recognized her?

I leaned forward, voice also lowered. “What happened to her?”

Jan shrugged. “Just disappeared one day.”

Biddy snapped her fingers. “Poof!”

I narrowed my eyes. “No one knew anything about what happened to her?”

Biddy lifted a shoulder. “There were rumors, of course.”

Jan nodded. “I heard from Benjamin Hadid’s wife, you know, the fishmonger who got caught up with that awful—oh, what was his name—”

Biddy shook her head. “Nah, you can’t trust those fishmongers—such braggarts.”

I bounced my leg, impatient, and stuck the lollipop back in my mouth.

Jan waved it off. “Anyway, I heard Maria got in over her head with Ludolf.” She barely breathed his name.

I grew still. “She was a shifter?” Had she gone behind Ludolf’s back somehow? Stolen money from him?

Jan scoffed, and Biddy nodded. “And how.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

We were standing with our faces so close that I nearly had a heart attack when Biddy lurched upright and shouted, “You break it, you buy it!”

I whirled around. A young lady curled her lip and slowly replaced a glowing gold potion bottle on the shelf. Biddy kept her eyes fixed on her for a long moment, then leaned back down.

She dropped her voice back to a hushed tone. “It means she was pretty unique, even in the shifter world.”

“Oh, yeah?” I sucked on the candy. “What’d she turn into?”

Jan raised her brows. “A phoenix.”

I nearly choked on the lollipop. “A—phoenix?”

The ladies nodded. Jan shrugged. “It’s why I bet she was still alive, even after all this time—whole rebirth thing, you know?”

Biddy patted her back consolingly.

I couldn’t breathe. A phoenix? Holy snakin’ shell. My