Copycat Killer (Psychic For Hire 1)

I hadn’t expected that. I had touched her on the off chance it might spark a vision. It is all I can do to not snatch my hand away.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” I say.

“So is everyone,” she says snidely.

“You didn’t get along with her?”

“How do you know that?”

I shrug.

“You saw the pictures in the press of her and Mo,” she says accusingly. “You think they were having an affair.”

“Her friend took pictures of them together on several different occasions. You weren’t in them. Why would your boyfriend be hanging out with your little sister so often?”

“He’s an idiot, is why,” she mutters.

She moves to the kitchen table and sits down abruptly. She cups the tea with both hands and inhales its fruity scent deeply before taking a sip. “This was my favorite tea. I couldn’t find it anywhere when I moved out. Uncle James must have it shipped from somewhere special.”

“It’s good tea,” I say, taking a seat opposite her. “You don’t live here then?”

She shakes her head. “I moved out when I went to university. I couldn’t wait to get my own life.”

“That’s understandable.”

“Is it? I moved out over a year ago. I never came back to visit her. Not once. Is that understandable?”

“Then how did Mo and Jenny meet?”

She shrugs. “Randomly. Or maybe not. My sister was always the socialite. Turns out she and her friends somehow managed to get into my university club-night with their stupid fake IDs. She found him. And now he’s been arrested and it is all my fault.”

“How is it your fault?”

She seems too distracted to have noticed my question. “He was always better looking than me. Just like her. I thought she must have been trying to take him away, like she took everything away. She was good at that.”

“Is that what you argued about the day she went missing?”

She nods bitterly. “I hated her so much. We went to a human high school, you know. Dad was human and didn’t want to send us to a mixed school. Growing up I always thought I was so lucky to be the human one. Lucky that only a few of them hated me. I thought she would have it worse. She showed her powers early. We always knew she’d be a succubus like mum. I thought they’d hate her for being a demon.”

“Otherkind,” I correct her.

She shrugs. “What’s the difference? That’s what most people think, isn’t it?”

“So what happened at school?” I ask.

“They loved her of course! She was always good at making people love her.”

“Did she make Mo love her?”

She looks up at me sharply and her eyes flash with anger. “No. That’s the funny thing. She came to the club hoping to bump into me, she said. It was just like her. She could never admit to needing my help. Only I wasn’t there. She said Mo was nice. She could talk to him. Couldn’t tell him everything though.”

“What did she need to tell you?”

She shrugs. “He only met her because of me. And now they think it was him who did it.”

“I know who did it,” I say.

She looks at me hard. “What do you know?”