Devil's Advocate (The X-Files: Origins #2)(85)



Dana watched him go, feeling her heart swell with admiration for him. He was like her mentor, sure, but more than that. Much more. Why hadn’t her own father offered her that kind of love, trust, and support?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Corinda’s voice speaking to a customer on the other side of the partition.

“Yes, I’m happy to help the sheriff’s department in any way I can.”

Dana half turned in her seat to listen. The customer was gushing about how wonderful it was that Corinda was using her gifts to help the town. Corinda was eating it up.

Then something occurred to Dana, and it made her blood run cold. She could hear everything that was said at the café register. The partition was, after all, nothing more than a piece of colored canvas over a wooden frame. And if she could hear Corinda have a conversation, what could Corinda hear from the booth behind her?

Dana thought back to the times she and Melissa had been here, and everything they’d talked about. Dana’s visions, the angel, seeing Maisie in dreams and at school, the reaction of the teachers and other students …

Pretty much everything.

Every.

Single.

Thing.

Before she knew it, Dana was out of her booth. She all but pushed the customer away from the register and pointed an accusing finger at Corinda.

“You lied!” she yelled.

“What? Lower your voice,” demanded Corinda.

“You’re a fraud,” cried Dana, her voice rising. “You’re not a psychic, and you didn’t see anything. You’re a fake and a liar.”

“Dana, I asked you to lower your voice.”

People in the store were looking, eyes wide, gaping at the outburst, appalled at the scene Dana was making. But Dana did not care. She wanted to crawl over the counter and punch Corinda.

“You heard me and Melissa talking. That’s how you know so much. You’re about as psychic as a dead rat. God! How could I ever believe in someone like you? You snoop and eavesdrop, and then you pretend it’s all stuff that came to you in your visions. What a joke! You’re a slimy, backstabbing, egotistical—”

“Shut up!” roared Corinda with such force that it shocked Dana to silence. “Shut your mouth right now and get out of my store. Get out. No, don’t say another word. Out. Out!”

She came around the counter and pushed Dana toward the side door. Corinda was tall and strong and filled with furious anger.

“You’re a stupid girl who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Go on. Get out of here and never come back.”

And then Dana was on the sidewalk, watching Corinda pull the door shut. She watched through the big picture window as the customers inside the store came hurrying over to offer comfort to Corinda and throw hateful glares out at Dana.





CHAPTER 78

Craiger, Maryland

11:21 A.M.

And so Dana headed home.

Home.

It should have been a beacon of hope promising an oasis of calm and of acceptance. As if. She trudged along the street, dragging behind her the wreckage of too many things. Despite Sunlight’s encouraging words, Dana had to think about everything that had happened at Beyond Beyond.

That she was right about Corinda being a phony seemed beyond question. Everything that Corinda had said on TV and to her in their “sessions” could have come from things Dana said at the store. Maybe there were some things from Dana’s session in the Chrysalis Room, but at this point Dana wouldn’t have put it past Corinda to have bugged Sunlight’s room. Maybe that was her whole thing—stealing information and insights from the people who trusted her. She was always gossiping in the store. Was that how she picked out details about the regular customers?

Every fiber of Dana’s being screamed yes.

It saddened her as much as it made her angry. She’d trusted Corinda, and she’d trusted Corinda’s abilities as a true psychic. Now so much was a lie.

Not all of it, whispered her inner voice. Sunlight is real. Believe in him.

She did, but even that felt fragile as spun glass.

Halfway home Dana saw a figure running toward her. Even from three blocks away she knew that run, knew that wild, curly, bouncing ponytail.

“Missy,” murmured Dana, and there was a catch in her throat. She broke into a run to meet her sister, knowing that somehow they’d both cut through whatever tangle of knots had snared them last night. But as they closed on each other, Dana could see that there was something wrong. Melissa wasn’t smiling. This wasn’t going to be a happy reunion. She was scowling. Her face was twisted into a mask of pure anger and resentment.

“What’s wrong with you?” cried Melissa from half a block away.

Dana skidded to a stop. “What are you…?”

“She called Mom and she was crying on the phone, Dana,” said Melissa with real heat as she slowed to a walk. “How could you do that to her? How could you say those things?”

“Corinda called home?” asked Dana, shocked by the news.

“Of course she did. Corinda cares about you. She’s worried that you’re going to do something stupid.”

“Like what? Tell everyone that she’s a phony and a liar?”

“No, she’s afraid you’re going to fly to pieces and maybe hurt yourself.”

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