Serafina stole a guilty glance at Mrs. Decker, then looked down to where her hands were clenched on the tabletop.

“What is it, Serafina?” Sarah prodded. “We can’t help you if you don’t tell us the whole story.”

Serafina swallowed. “Mrs. Gittings told Mrs. Burke that she could come back if she brought someone new.”

“Had she brought other people there before?” Sarah asked.

“No, but… but Mrs. Gittings said she would charge the new person twice the fee so Mrs. Burke did not have to pay.”

Mrs. Decker gasped in outrage. “I can’t believe Kathy would do something like that!”

“She was desperate, Mrs. Decker,” Serafina said, defending her. “You do not know…”

“Well, I’ll certainly have something to say to her about it,” Mrs. Decker said.

“Do you think she was desperate enough to kill Mrs. Gittings?” Sarah asked.

“She was very angry,” Serafina said. “And frightened. And she asked me…”

“What did she ask you?” Malloy prodded.

“She asked me if I knew Mrs. Gittings was demanding so much money from her.”

“What did you tell her?” Sarah asked.

Serafina bit her lip, as if she were carefully considering her reply. “Mrs. Gittings always said I should never talk about money with the clients, so I told her if not for Mrs. Gittings, I would not even charge her.”

“Oh, my,” Sarah said softly.

Serafina realized everyone was staring at her. “What is wrong?” she asked in alarm.

“You gave Mrs. Burke a very good reason to get rid of Mrs. Gittings,” Malloy said grimly.

The girl looked horrified.

“I don’t care what reasons she had or how desperate she was, I just can’t imagine Kathy Burke stabbing anyone like that,” Mrs. Decker said, defending her old friend.

Sarah knew better than to offer an opinion. Even her limited experience with investigating murders told her that often the most unlikely suspect was the guilty one. “What about Mr. Sharpe?” she asked, remembering that he was sitting on the other side of Mrs. Gittings and would have had an even better opportunity to stick the knife into her back.

“He is a very proud man,” Serafina said. “He is used to having people do what he wants.”

“What did he want you to do?” Sarah asked.

“Not what you think,” the girl hastened to explain.

“I wasn’t thinking anything,” Sarah lied.

“He has visited many spiritualists,” Serafina said. “He never believed in any of them until he came to me.”

“How did you convince him when the others didn’t?” Malloy asked.

“I do not know,” Serafina said, “but many of them are fakes and not even good fakes at that.”

Sarah gave Malloy a warning glance. She knew he agreed with her that all spiritualists were fakes. She didn’t want to offend Serafina just when she was starting to give them useful information, though.

“How long had he been coming to see you?” Mrs. Decker asked.

“About two months,” she said. “He wanted to contact his wife. He loved her very much, and he was lonely without her.”

“When I was there, he asked his wife about a decision he was making,” Sarah reminded all of them. “Do you know what he was trying to decide?”

“No, I told you before. When Yellow Feather is there, I do not know what is happening. But Mr. Sharpe always consulted his wife before he made a decision. That is why he was so glad when I was able to help him contact her. None of the others could do that.”

Sarah suddenly realized something important. “If Sharpe had been to a lot of séances, he might know the trick about holding hands,” she told Malloy.

“What trick about holding hands?” Mrs. Decker asked.

Sarah demonstrated it for her.

“Good heavens,” she exclaimed. “How clever.”

“And Sharpe was sitting right next to Mrs. Gittings,” Sarah reminded them. “So he really believed you’d contacted his dead wife?”

“Oh, yes, he was very pleased. He said it was not right that I had to sell my talents, though. He thought I should be free to help anyone who came to me.”

“And he offered to set you up in a house of your own,” Sarah recalled.

“What did he want in return?” Malloy asked suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Serafina assured him. “Except…”

Malloy brightened, expecting the worst. “Except what?”

“He wanted me to… to test my powers,” she admitted reluctantly.

“What does that mean?” Sarah asked.

“I am not sure, but Mrs. Gittings would never allow it.”

“There are people who make it their business to show up people who are frauds,” Malloy said. “They go to a séance and expose the tricks.”

“No, that is not what he wanted to do,” Serafina explained quickly. “He wanted to bring in some people who would ask me questions to prove my powers are real.”

“Or that they weren’t,” Malloy offered.

“My powers are real!” Serafina insisted. “Mr. Sharpe said that when they proved me, I would be famous. I was willing, but Mrs. Gittings refused.”

“Why not?” Malloy asked, not bothering to hide his skep ticism. “If you could prove you were real, a lot more people would pay to see you. Wouldn’t Mrs. Gittings like that?”

Serafina turned the full force of her disdain on him. “If I got famous, I could leave her. She knew Mr. Sharpe had already made me an offer. Others would, too.”

Unless they proved she had no powers at all, Sarah thought, which was more likely what Mrs. Gittings feared.

“Did Sharpe ask you to leave Mrs. Gittings?” Malloy asked.

“Not at first,” Serafina said. “He did not know she was my manager, so he offered to be my sponsor. He said he would pay for everything so I would not have to take money for my readings anymore. I did not know what to say, so I told him I could not accept. He would not stop asking, though, so Mrs. Gittings had to tell him the truth.”

“Were you there when she did?” Sarah asked.

“No, but Mr. Sharpe was not pleased. As I said, he is used to getting what he wants, and Mrs. Gittings was not kind to him. I think she was very happy to tell him about her power over me.”

“Did he give up then?” Malloy asked.

Serafina’s lovely face hardened. “No, he did not. He tried to convince me to leave Mrs. Gittings. I told him I could not, but I could not tell him why, not the real reason, so he would not stop asking me.”

“What was the real reason?” Mrs. Decker asked.

Serafina smiled sadly. “I am sure Mr. Sharpe would not allow Nicola to live with me in the house he was paying for.”

“He must have wondered what kind of a hold Mrs. Gittings had over you,” Sarah mused. “And why it was so strong.”

“And maybe he thought if Mrs. Gittings was dead, she’d be free of it,” Malloy added.

“I never thought of that,” Serafina marveled.

“Mr. Sharpe seemed like such a gentleman,” Mrs. Decker observed. “I just can’t see him… Well, I must admit I can’t imagine anyone wanting to stick a knife into a woman in the hope of killing her.”

Serafina’s fine eyes glowed with suppressed fury. “That is because you did not know her.”

Sarah saw Malloy looking at Serafina in a completely new way.

“Did you want to kill her?” he asked casually.

“Yes, I did,” she admitted guilelessly, “but I was too afraid.” She lifted a hand to her throat. “I do not want to hang.”

“Murderers don’t hang anymore,” Malloy said mildly. “They go to the electric chair.”

All three women gasped. Sarah could have cheerfully smacked him, but he didn’t seem concerned. He was too busy studying Serafina’s reaction.

The blood seemed to have drained from her face. “What does this electric chair do?” she asked in a whisper.

“It kills,” Sarah snapped, silently warning Malloy not to offer any details. “It’s supposed to be more humane than hanging.”

“What does that mean?” Serafina asked in alarm.

Sarah searched for a word. “It’s kinder,” she tried, although she knew she was misleading the poor girl. She had no illusions that the electric chair was any kinder a way to die than hanging.