“You’re leaving?” Peyton followed us, then stood in the doorway frowning after us.
I waved goodbye to her and jogged to keep up with Peter as he strode up the street toward the upper tiers. “What’s going on?”
He glanced back over his shoulder, and once out of hearing distance from Peyton, lowered his voice. “That was the station. I’d asked Russo to keep an eye on some of our suspects’ finances. We just got news that a massive life insurance policy was recently paid out on Pearl Litt.”
I gasped. “No way! To who?” Madeline was right—this situation just kept getting juicier.
A little bit of the twinkle was back in Peter’s eye as he raised a brow at me. “Her sister—Opal Whitaker.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Opal?”
Peter nodded as we hustled uphill, Daisy leading the way. “So Opal recently sold all her shares in the company….”
I nodded. “That’s right….”
“She was first on the body and insisted on no autopsy. She’s a potion master and admitted to likely having made the potion that killed Pearl.”
I scoffed. “It was Opal. She was sick and tired of being overshadowed by her talentless sister and not only killed her, earning a huge life insurance pay out in the process, but cashed out her shares before the company crashed.”
Peter and I whirled to face each other at the same moment.
“I bet she was the one who sent all those anonymous letters!”
I nodded my agreement. “It wasn’t enough to kill her sister. She also hinted that she thought Ralph had murdered Pearl—she framed him and took down the company as well by tipping off the protesters and Madeline L’Orange.” I pressed my lips together. “Wow. Someone had a grudge.”
Peter nodded. “On top of it, I had Russo look into the potion master Opal claimed she studied under.”
I smirked. “Claimed?”
He nodded. “She was kicked out of the program for selling illicit potions on the black market and never completed her training.”
“No!” I smacked his arm before remembering we weren’t really friends anymore. I let my hand hang at my side, suddenly self-conscious. Our footsteps clacked up the cobblestones, Daisy’s breath puffing in little clouds of mist as she bounded ahead.
I swallowed and racked my brain for something to say to break the awkward silence. “So I guess that means you’ll be releasing Ralph from custody?”
Peter sniffed. “Not after what Madeline told us. He may be innocent of murder, but it sounds like we should be asking him about fraud and a host of other crimes.”
I grinned. “We’re on our way to arrest Opal?”
Peter nodded.
I smirked. “Probably won’t look too good in front of whatever family she has staying with her.”
28
SISTERS
Peter, Daisy, and I crowded together on Opal Whitaker’s stoop. Peter pounded on the door again.
“Police! Open up!”
I grinned, and he frowned. “What?”
I shrugged. “You just sound so—commanding.”
“I am a police officer.” He lifted his nose, and I smirked. Of course I knew he was, it’s just he was usually so mild mannered. I hadn’t seen the “open up! Police!” side of him before.
He drew his wand. That had been our third attempt, and it looked like it was about to get real. He extended his arm, ushering Daisy and I down the steps a few paces. “Stand back.” He leveled his wand at the red door and muttered a few words of a spell.
The door shuddered, then blew open, banged against the wall, and swung back and forth a few times. Peter stormed in, the tip of his wand glowing. “Opal Whitaker, you’re under arrest for—”
Daisy and I raced inside behind him, then stopped short and froze.
Opal Whitaker lay slumped in her clear glass chair, a trickle of foam oozing from the corner of her mouth, eyes wide and unseeing. Her arm hung limply at her side with a spilled glass of white wine right below her hand. I turned quickly away, and Daisy whined.
Smells like death.
I whined back at her, my stomach tight. No doy, Daisy. I was still not used to dead bodies.
Peter grunted a little and edged closer to her body. I sneaked a peek and found him pressing his fingers to the side of Opal’s pale, bluish throat. I quickly looked away.
“She’s gone. Poisoned, by the looks of it.”
I curled my lip. “Remind me to never buy a Potent Potion. Way too many poisonings for my liking.”
“I’m going to check the rest of the house.” Peter jogged upstairs, his footsteps sounding overhead.
Daisy sniffed around, her nose twitching.
I glanced behind me and found her nearing the body. I huffed. Ew, Daisy.
She huffed back. It’s my job, you baby.
I growled. You don’t have to enjoy it so much. I glanced over my shoulder and woofed. Does her body “reek of lies” like her sister’s did?
Daisy bared her teeth. No. Just death.
My stomach turned. Great.
Peter quickly rejoined us.
“Nothing?”
He shook his head. “I called in the murder to the station. I found sheets crumpled in the guest bedroom—she definitely had someone staying with her, but no one’s up there.”
I frowned. “Think her guest took her out?”
Peter looked around the room, brows pinched. He let out a little sigh, and his shoulders slumped.
“What?”
He stalked across the space into the kitchen and lifted two sacks emblazoned with an insurance company’s logo. “Well, the merkles from the life insurance payout appear to be gone.”
I raised a brow. “So maybe their whole family is as messed-up as Pearl and Opal and a crazy aunt saw the opportunity to make a cash grab, or something?”
“That’d be quite the coincidence.” Peter scratched at the scruff on the side of his cheek and paced. “Ralph’s in jail, Pearl’s dead, and now Opal, too. Who’d want them all dead?”
I shrugged. “Could’ve been anyone with a beef with the company.” I smirked. “Which is apparently half the island.”
Peter shook his head. “But who’d benefit most from Pearl’s death?”
I scoffed. “Aside from her sister,
