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

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 him from likely killing me by using me as a lab rat to test “cures” on—for the curse he’d put on me in the first place. So Peter and I had gone to the best (and only) reporter I knew, Madeline L’Orange and asked her to dig up some dirt on him.

She’d said she was still doing research but had gotten word that he’d be attending the Night of the Phoenix fundraising event at the Magical Animal Sanctuary. When a list went around the station, Peter signed himself and Daisy up to work the event as an off-duty officer helping with security. And Heidi had begged a favor from a friend so that we could go undercover for the catering company.

I frowned as I looked at all the glittering zebra and leopard prints. Seemed like both an oddly wholesome and tacky event for a man as devious and particular as Ludolf, but hey. Maybe even evil villains enjoyed a good crab puff sometimes.

Plus, the place was brimming with Bijou Mer’s elite, all gathered at this opulent mansion on one of the top tiers of our magical island. Maybe Ludolf was here to rub elbows with the rich and powerful. I sighed. If he was even attending. Maybe Madeline had gotten it wrong.

“Come on.” Heidi turned, the trays magically hovering beside us. “Let’s keep looking for him.” She glanced back over her shoulder and grinned. “It’s kind of exciting, isn’t it? Will’s going to be so mad he had to keep the clinic running tonight and couldn’t come.”

I grinned back. This part was kind of fun, though I doubted Will would be all that jealous. Before an angry outburst outed him as a bear shifter years ago, he’d been one of Bijou Mer’s top surgeons and had attended swanky parties like this one all the time. I doubted he’d want to show his face here as the help.

I thought over the last month. Being summoned to Ludolf’s secret underground lair in the sewers to have possibly deadly potions tested on me had been less than pleasant. I wanted to figure out how to prosecute Ludolf for one of his crimes—not one of his underlings, who he always managed to shift the blame to—and put him away for good. I’d nearly done so years ago when I’d been a successful lawyer—until I got too close and Ludolf cursed me to silence me.

I still didn’t quite understand why he hadn’t just killed me back then. He could have. And yet, he kept me around to test potions on. Why?

He’d already summoned me down there several times. Each new potion threatened to take the last bit of magical ability I had left—being able to speak to animals—or worse, even my life. Every time I thought about it, it sent shivers down my spine, so I fished some salami and cheese out of the pocket of the black slacks I’d borrowed from Heidi and popped them into my mouth. Stress eating—always worked for me.

I followed my friend as we laced through the partygoers, past laughing groups of glittering elite and clouds of overly sweet perfume. The whole time I scanned for Ludolf.

“—think she’ll kill the new hubby off tonight?”

“Oh Harold, you’re terrible!”

The group of middle-aged men and women to my left tittered. Heidi caught my confused look and leaned close, her voice low.

“Have you heard about Malorie Rutherford?”

2

Up in Flames

“Malorie Rutherford…” I shook my head. “The hostess? What about her?”

Heidi’s dark eyes lit up and she edged closer. “Okay, my friend Jilly, the one who owns the catering company? She filled me in. Apparently, Malorie Rutherford has a reputation as a black widow. Everyone thinks she killed her first husband, Richard Rutherford. No one’s ever found the body, but get this—he disappeared exactly fifty years ago, at the last Night of the Phoenix party.”

I tipped my head to the side. That’s right—the phoenix apparently burst into flames, burned to a crisp, then was reborn from its own ashes every fifty years like clockwork. I arched a brow. “So everyone’s wondering if watching a bird spontaneously combust is going to