Zandra spends the night asleep at her desk in Sneak Peek, this time not by choice. Gazing into the crystal ball that proved so effective earlier, she chews her fingernails and tries to cool the boil of dread in her gut into a mere simmer. Self-hypnosis won't work tonight, not when there are so many loose threads coiling around her neck.
Some time after midnight, she slumps her head into the soft cradle of her bicep and falls asleep, gently knocking a lit candle over in the process. Just her luck, it misses a stack of papers on the desk, the flame extinguished in a pool of its own wax.
The sound of the mailbox outside shuttering wakes her the following morning. Early morning. 4 a.m.
Dvorak.
Zandra bolts from her chair at the desk and hurries toward the front door, hoping to finally catch the courier in the act. With the candle extinguished, the inside of Sneak Peek is completely dark. Whoever opened and closed the mailbox probably doesn't know she's inside.
Twisting open the lock and barreling through the door onto the sidewalk, Zandra turns just in time to meet the eyes of the person at the mailbox, hand still resting on the lid. The streetlight makes the visitor's identity clear.
Zandra staggers, her weary body leaning against Sneak Peek's window, where the word "FRAUD" is still painted in red letters.
No. It can't be.
"Amanda?" Zandra says.
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Black Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #2 (Watty Winner)
Mystery / ThrillerSeason 2 of Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective Six months after solving the Elle Carey case, Zandra finds life is much easier for her. Money and fame grant her the creature comforts and respect she sorely missed for years. But not all of the at...
