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

My friend giggled. “Something like that.”

I nodded. “Alright. Well, give me all the goss. What do people think happened to him?”

Her gaze shifted over the heads of party guests. “I’ve heard it a few ways. Some people think she fed him to their three-headed wolf. Others think she threw the body into the phoenix’s cage and all the remains burned up.”

I nodded. “And why did she kill her beloved?”

“Get this.” Heidi splayed her hands. “Malorie was twenty at the time, and Richard was fifty.”

I raised my brows. “Quite the age gap.”

My friend nodded. “Richard Rutherford left his wife and daughter, who was barely younger than Malorie, to be with her. Everyone thought she was a treasure digger. People think she killed him so she could inherit his estate. Within months of his disappearance, she remarried to their gardener.”

I chuckled and pressed my eyes closed. “Of course she did. Story as old as time. Murder your older husband using a firebird so you can marry the gardener.”

“Ahem. Er—good—good evening?”

I opened my eyes and looked past Heidi toward the raised stage. The crowd quieted down as all eyes turned toward the tall, thin man with enormous ears who stood atop the stage, narrow shoulders slumped.

“Thank you all for coming tonight. I, uh—” He scratched the back of his neck and looked behind him at the curtained-off cage, then scanned the crowd. “I apologize. My wife, Malorie, usually does the—the hosting.” He chuckled nervously, and polite laughter floated up from a few pockets among the hundreds of guests.

Heidi spun back around to face me and mouthed, “It’s him! The gardener!”

I grinned and nodded, then we both turned our attention back to the clearly nervous man. He wrung his hands, playing with an empty skewer.

“But as she’s, um—not available, I suppose….” He scanned the crowd again as if searching for his wife. “Malorie?” He raised his thin brows above the rims of his large glasses and looked hopefully out over the sea of faces.

His expression fell, and he shook his head. “Ah, well. I suppose you are all here to, uh—to see the phoenix. And as she’s about to start her change—her transformation—we’d best not delay. So, uh—the phoenix.”

He swept his thin arms toward the red velvet curtain behind him and seemed to shrink, as though he were trying to retract his head down into his shoulders. An awkward silence followed, and then the crowd applauded in a few faltering starts, until it caught on and everyone clapped. The guy was clearly used to his wife taking the spotlight. I wondered if all the gossip about her killing her first husband had caused her to hang back in the wings.

The curtain jerked skyward, revealing the enclosure behind. Lush, tropical plants and a two-story-tall waterfall filled most of the space. A woman beside me gasped and pointed. Several other cries rose from the crowd. I rose on my toes and planted a hand on Heidi’s shoulder to balance myself as I strained to see what everyone was getting upset over.

The tall, thin man on stage blinked, then turned toward the enclosure and startled. “Malorie!”

I caught a glimpse of two women—one blond, the other with dark gray hair—sprawled on the ground, unmoving, inside the phoenix enclosure.

3

Dead, Dead, Goose

“Help! Someone help!” The tall man’s face had gone pale. “Call an ambulance! Summon the police! Help!” He reached into the pocket of his alligator print tux and withdrew a quill. He dropped it, then reached back in and pulled out his wand. “Malorie! I’m coming, sweetie.”

His lips moved, like he was trying a spell, his hand shaking badly. He dropped his wand, stooped to pick it up, then spoke again. The magical force field around the enclosure shimmered, and he pushed through, dropping to his knees beside the blond.

Someone shouted something about the phoenix, and the thin man looked up. He swept his wand, a flash of light erupting from the end, then turned and looked over his shoulder toward all the partygoers. “The phoenix isn’t in here anymore! It’s gone!”

I rose on my toes as the crowd erupted in cries, some scrambling to get a closer look, others rushing toward the exits. I couldn’t see much, except the man cradling the blond’s head in his lap, rocking. I sucked in a sharp breath and sank back down on my heels. “Snakes.”

I lurched as someone slammed hard into my left shoulder. Shouts and screams sounded all around us as word spread and the party erupted into chaos. The sharp crash of breaking glass sounded, and the sea of partygoers churned and jostled as most headed for the exits.

“A killer’s on the loose!”

“Where’s the phoenix? It’s going to erupt any moment now!”

“It’s on the loose! The phoenix could burn us all alive!”

A woman shoved past me, whimpering. “Who knows what other creatures could be out.”

Heidi grabbed my hands and huddled close to me, her dark brows pinched with worry. “What do we do?”

I gulped. “Alright, can you tell Peter what’s going on?”

She squeezed my hands even tighter, eyes wide, but nodded. She raised a trembling hand to her ear and pressed the magical communication device with one finger. “P-Peter?”

She nodded at me, and I leaned close and spoke into her ear.

“Hey, Flint—it’s your girl.” I grinned to myself—wouldn’t get tired of saying that, even in the middle of a real situation. Screams sounded, and more shattering glass made my shoulders hunch.

“What’s going on?”

I pressed close enough to Heidi to make out Peter’s faint, deep voice through the device. “Two women appear to be dead inside the phoenix’s cage, and the bird itself appears to be missing—it’s total chaos in here. We need an ambulance, and if you and Days can get in here, that’d be great.” I glanced up at the stampeding guests. “Also, all of our fancy-pants witnesses and suspects are headed toward the exits right now, so you should probably lock the gates before they all hightail it out