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"Well, thenWynona Jakes to help you solve cases Because the wo at the defendant’s table is as innocent as my left pinkie toe"

My uncle shifted in his seat I felt dread saturate his entire body

The captain frowned at us I could feel his knee-jerk reaction to ative But he’d learned a lot about s others couldn’t

"What are you talking about, pu my darnedest to be mean But he’d been mean first "I told you, I never hired Wynona Jakes It was a setup Payback, remember? For when you set me up?"

Fine I set hi Cookie out when he’d so clearly wanted to, so I constructed a scenario that would change his mind The plan was to send Cookie on a few dates to make him so jealous, he’d feel coured out ere doing For payback, he’d brought in a fake psychic to consult on a case Or he pretended to, anyway Thought he’d rufflehiivable

"You knohat you did," I said to hi my arms over my chest

"I really don’t"

I closed my eyes, counted to ten, then said as cal a , he doubled over into a fit of coughs to suppress his laughter Everyone looked, but he recovered quickly, coughing into his handkerchief, his face red with humor "She did it?" he asked from behind the white material "Wynona Jakes sent you the book?"

"I didn’t even know she had a book out," I said, h aset a book deal?"

He bent towardwhisper, "Is that what all this is about?"

"Maybe" I stared straight ahead, unable to ht you’d like a copy of her book"

"She knew damned well I didn’t want one I made my opinion of who she was and what she did perfectly clear the day we erous Period And those who followed her, who believed the cockamamie lies she dished out… well, I felt sorry for them There was the real deal, and then there were the charlatans She’d ruined people’s lives and refused to take responsibility, to come clean to the public Maybe so a plan, I could just have Reyes sever her spine

No Severing spines rarely solved anything And I couldn’t turn to his spine-severing service every time I needed to incapacitate someone The consequences were so permanent

"I didn’t know she actually sent you a book, pu nored all of them," I said, defensive