"Spencer," Lassiter said. The word was heavy with echoes of knowledge. Secrets loosed that were never meant to be unbound.
"I studied my brother's case for years," he said quietly. "My father's too. Cold cases. Both of them were murdered, you know."
'What are you trying to say, Lassie." Not quite a question.
Lassiter leaned back in the chair behind his desk. There was a reason he'd asked for Spencer to come to him and not the other way around. "I have no evidence against you except for your confession to O'Hara, which as you know, went unrecorded."
Shawn stiffened, every muscle tense and yet he was still retaining an eerie calm. It unnerved Lassiter; he was used to seeing the fake psychic as a man-child, not a superhuman.
"I'm going to ask you this once, Spencer, and I need your honest answers. Did you kill my father? And do you know who killed my brother Derek?"
Shawn took in a slow, controlled breath. "Yes. And yes."
The reaction was immediate, the movement fluid: a sidearm drawn. "Give me one good reason."
Uncharacteristic iciness overcame the fake psychic before Lassiter's eyes.
"Lauren."
"What do you mean, Spencer." Also not a question.
"Your sister is adopted, isn't she?" Shawn said placidly. "Whether you publicize that or not. Am I right?"
Lassiter's hand slightly tensed around the pistol grip. "Lauren has nothing to do with this."
"Of course she does. She has since the very beginning."
"My sister is innocent!"
"She's innocent, but she's not your sister, is she?"
"Spencer, I'm warning you---"
"Her name is Ashton!" Shawn blurted, sounding much more like himself than before---at least to Lassiter's ears. At this point, who could tell which side of Shawn was the most real?
"How did you know she changed her name?" Lassiter said slowly.
"Because the man who killed your brother is Lauren's brother. Ashton's brother."
"That isn't possible!"
"I'm telling you that it is."
The sound of silence had never been louder.