by Deanna Chase
“Good,” Kate answered before adding, “It still feels kind of unreal. Like I keep waiting for him to realize what a weirdo I am and move on to greener pastures.”
Her mother shot her a scornful look. “Katie, don’t talk that way. I know I raised a more confident daughter than that.”
“I know you’re right. I just believe I’ve been an open book with him while it’s hard to tell how he feels about me,” she divulged.
“Although most of my experiences with men come from my time with your father, it seems to me that men are less inclined to discuss their feelings. Every time I tried to get your father to talk about his emotions, he would tell me I’d been watching too many movies on Lifetime,” her mother chuckled.
“Wow, didn’t know Dad could be so sexist,” Kate retorted. “Anyway, it doesn’t even have to be words though—Jared could show me that he cared about me.”
Her mother cleared her throat. “I just hope there isn’t too much showing going on,” she said pointedly.
Her face flushed and she felt momentarily tongue tied. Kate pretended to have a sudden and intense interest in her split ends as she mumbled, “Um…no worries there, Mom.”
“You’re an adult and I trust your judgment,” her mother assured her. “And I like Jared a lot. I have a good feeling about the two of you.”
Kate laughed and squinted at her mom. “I hope you’re right. People do say that everyone has a little bit of psychic power inside of them.”
“So, what are your plans for tonight?”
“I was thinking of cooking dinner for Jared,” Kate responded. “Any menu suggestions?”
“How about making him my red pepper sauce with tortellini?”
“Yes! Great idea, thanks Mom.”
Kate reached over and gave her a spontaneous hug. Although they had always been close, the past couple of months had really bonded them. Without the psychic secret hanging over their head, Kate really felt like she could talk to her mother about anything. With her newfound desire to help the missing, Kate understood she’d need her more than ever.
Chapter Three
“What kind of person doesn’t have any basil or olive oil in their home?” Kate questioned Jared later that evening with her hands on her hips. She glared at him as she stood in front of his stove.
Jared gave her an amused look. “You make it sound like a crime.”
“It should be! I picked up all of the other ingredients from the store, but figured you would at least have the basics. We need to start cooking here more. Do you know how much weight I’ve gained with all of our takeout dinners?”
“No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me,” he teased.
“It’s not funny! I’m already planning to do a fast as it is.”
“A fast?”
She shrugged her shoulders and turned back towards the range to give the pasta a stir. “Apparently you eat nothing but maple syrup and cayenne pepper for a few days and lose like ten pounds.”
“That sounds disgusting. You better not do that or I’ll be mad at you,” he warned.
Jared came up from behind her and pulled her towards him. While still holding the wooden spoon, she ended up sitting on his lap as he returned to his chair at the kitchen table. He nuzzled her neck. “I like you just the way you are. You look particularly cute in that apron.” Over her tank top and shorts, she was wearing her mother’s ‘Shitake Happens’ apron.
Her grin was unabashed. “You’re not so bad yourself.” Kate gestured to the laptop that sat in front of him. “What are you working on?”
“Just a report for work.”
“What’s the case? Maybe I can use my psychic skills to help?” she asked hopefully.
“No, I’m good, but thanks for the offer.”
“Jared, you really should be taking advantage of the fact that you’re dating a psychic. You could be, like, the head of the department!” She threw up her arms for emphasis. “I could be your own personal Cliffs Notes—give you all of the answers without you having to do any of the grunt work.”
“Having a child kidnapped was not a normal thing to happen in Franklin,” Jared emphasized. “If something like that happens again, I promise you’ll be the first person I call for help. The fact is, most of my cases aren’t that important,” he said lightly.
Pulling her eyebrows together, Kate said in a shocked voice, “What a mean thing to say! I’m sure the victims feel that their case is important!” She pulled the laptop closer and began reading his report. “Mr. Melville must really need...” she trailed off before finishing, “to find out who wrote those bad checks. Ok, maybe that’s not exactly a life or death situation.”
“Welcome to the glamorous life of a small town police detective,” he said wryly.
Hoping off his lap, Kate hurried over to the stovetop and gave the sauce a quick stir. She hoped the butter and oregano she substituted would still keep her mom’s recipe delicious. Peeking over her shoulder at him, she gave him a long look. “Hey, are you able to get self defense stuff from the department?”
An eyebrow shot up as he asked her inquisitively, “What type of self defense stuff?”
“Brass knuckles? Mace? A stun gun?”
Jared’s tone was weary. “Do I even want to know why you’re asking me that?”
“There was this weird guy at the college watching me. I thought I should carry around something to protect myself,” she explained.
Taking the boiling pot off the stove, Kate decided to bite her tongue when she realized he didn’t have a colander either. So annoying, she thought, and vowed to forward on any hospital bills if she developed second degree burns from using a plate to drain the pasta.
When Jared didn’t answer, she turned to face him. Instead of the concern she expected written all over his face, he looked rather undisturbed. “Don’t you think I should be worried?”
“Not overly.” He continued quickly, “You’re a beautiful girl, Kate. I’m not surprised somebody was staring at you. But if you’re nervous, I’ll get you a can of pepper spray you can carry in your purse. It’s probably a good idea anyway, if you’re walking alone in the parking lot,” he explained. She didn’t respond because she couldn’t put into words what about the boy had bothered her. His look hadn’t conveyed he was attracted to her. Instead, his gaze was predatory.
She found herself in an unfamiliar kitchen sitting at a small table cluttered with soda cans and candy wrappers. The air was stale and the temperature stifling. Parts of the floral wallpaper were peeling off the walls and the paint was yellowed with age. From a distance, she could hear someone softly humming, but could not recognize the tune. In her hands, she could see a forest green crayon broken in half and the picture of a cluster of trees in front of her. Except they weren’t her hands she was seeing. They were small with a few miniscule scratches on top.
The humming came to a stop and a middle-aged woman entered the room. Her hair was held back with a red bandana, but a few frizzy blond strands peeked out of the back. Her eyes were wild and her panicked gaze darted everywhere as if she expected someone to jump out of the shadows. Taking a deep breath, she finally focused on the picture on the table. “What are you drawing Max?”
As soon as she said the name, Kate felt alarm shoot through her. When she first entered his head, his thoughts were completely jumbled. She decided that this was the reason she initially had no idea whose memories they were. Since it had been days since he disappeared, Kate had assumed Max had been killed. Stopping her own inner monologue, she tried to concentrate on the scene taking place in front of her and glean as much information as possible.
Max was uncertain about the woman, but not scared. She seemed to sense his reluctance to speak with her as he mumbled, “The park.”
She clapped her hands together. “How wonderful! I love the park!” Max winced at her enthusiasm and a hurt look passed over her face.
Max replied, “Can we go there?”
His heart sank as she fr
owned at him. She gave him a stern look before speaking. “Max, I explained this to you over and over again. It’s not safe for you! The bad guys who killed your parents are still looking for you! We must stay here and be very quiet until the police catch them.” She chewed on a thumbnail before continuing, “I could never live with myself if you were hurt.”
“But what about my grandma? Can’t I stay with her?”
“They know where she lives, Max. She told me to take care of you until it’s safe again,” the woman assured him.
Tears filled his eyes, but he gave a small nod. He couldn’t believe his mommy and daddy were really gone and he would only get to see them again in heaven.
Max thought back to the first time he met the woman. The woman had come up behind him while he was trying to shake a gumball out of the machine at the mall. She let him know that his mommy and daddy were in trouble and he had to go with her right away. He didn’t see his grandma and figured he better go with her to stop anything bad from happening to them. When they drove away from the mall, she let him know the truth. His mommy and daddy were dead and they asked her to take care of him. She asked him to call her mommy, but he told her no way. Instead, she made him call her ma’am.
“It’s almost time for bed, sweetheart. Finish up your picture and I’ll be in to read you a story,” she said in a singsong voice. The humming began again and a distant look entered her eyes. As the woman turned away, Kate felt the vision dissolve around her….
Her heart was pounding as she opened her eyes. It was pitch black in her room. Looking at the clock, she saw it was barely after three in the morning. Kate swore under her breath as she knocked over a glass of water while reaching for the lamp. In the drawer of her nightstand she stored her hot pink leather journal. It helped to have the book nearby in order to jot down her visions as soon as she woke up. Immediately, recording the things she saw while sleeping helped her remember as many details as possible.
After Kate was finished writing down Max’s memory, she exhaled slowly as a way to get some of the tension to leave her body. No one seemed to understand how much she abhorred her gift. The reason was because most of the time the visions left her with more questions than answers.
The good news was she could tell Max’s parents that their son was alive. The bad news was she had no idea where he could be. It wasn’t like the woman had handed over her address to Max. Kate only wished she could get the information she needed instead of seeing these random glimpses into memories.
Kate planned to give the police the description of the woman, but didn’t have high hopes this would lead to Max’s recovery. Although she had the woman’s facial features memorized, her hair and body type would be hard to describe because of the bandanna and oversized clothes. Also, police departments didn’t always put much manpower into tips called in by psychics. The key reason her visions about Cori were taken seriously was because of Jared’s involvement with the case.
Kate tried to quell the sadness threatening to overtake her. The poor boy thought his parents were dead while some crazy lady held him hostage in her home. She couldn’t really get a feel on the woman’s motives, but knew Max was unharmed at the time of the vision. However, the woman was psycho enough to snatch him from a shopping mall, so Kate knew it was imperative he was returned to his parents as soon as possible. Her erratic attitude made it seem possible the woman could snap any minute.
Recognizing she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, Kate hopped out of bed and slipped on a pair of fluffy slippers. Maybe a few hours of online research would lead her in the right direction and Kate could unearth the identity of Max’s abductor. After Cori’s kidnapping, Kate had vowed to no longer be a casual observer. She would do whatever it took to help the people in her visions.
Chapter Four
Later that week, Kate sat in her Rhetoric course unable to keep her eyes open. Every couple of minutes she had to give herself a hard pinch to wake up. One time, the pinch was hard enough for her to yelp out a startled “Ow!” It wasn’t a surprise that from that point on, her classmates kept sending her looks that translated into how much they deemed her a mental case.
The week had worn on without another vision of Max. Instead, Kate’s brain had been overcrowded with memories from Jared’s past. She would never tell him this, but one of the challenges lately was not having visions of him. She guessed it was from the excitement and infatuation that came with starting a new relationship.
In other circumstances when she wasn’t trying to find an abducted child, Jared’s memories would be fascinating to her. Not many girls were basically able to view a biography of the guy they were dating. It allowed Kate to learn much about him without having to grill him about his past.
She enjoyed watching him grow up and it was sort of shocking to see Jared as a sullen loner in high school. Kate had early on categorized Jared as a super stud and she had never bought his tales of being an outcast growing up. Although it sucked he had a rough childhood, it definitely reduced his god-like status in her mind. Feeling like an outsider was something she could easily relate to and if anything, his past made her feel more drawn to him.
It was a relief when the professor finally dismissed the class. Once Kate arrived at the campus café, she planned to order an extra large coffee with boatloads of sugar to help wake her up. Tonight, she had plans with Jared to go out to a hibachi restaurant with Julie and Gage. Normally, Kate would be nervous about going on a double date with Julie and her Neanderthal boyfriend, but Max had consumed her every waking thought. Although she handed over the information to the Blaine police department, Max was still missing. Max’s mother had provided her number in the letter she had sent Kate. She had phoned Farrah to pass on the vision of Max. After her initial excitement over the possibility that Max was most likely unharmed, the conversation had become strained.
Her online searches yielded no more information and Max’s mother did not seem to know the woman based off of Kate’s description. It had been difficult to explain to Farrah that she couldn’t just hone in on his location. Since Max didn’t know where he was, Kate couldn’t find him without seeing a clue from subsequent visions.
After ordering her coffee, she took a long sip and sighed at her inner musings. Getting stressed about a lost boy thousands of miles away wouldn’t get him home any sooner. There was no guarantee she would have another vision of him, so her best hope would be to center her attention on him each night. Meanwhile, it was comforting to know the investigation was still ongoing and there was the potential police could find Max.
As she made her way across campus towards her car, Kate paused to grab her keys from her purse. As her body was turning, her heart momentarily stopped. Less than twenty feet behind her was the scruffy looking guy she had spotted earlier in the week. He was walking slowly while looking down at his smartphone. However, Kate had a feeling the sudden fascination with his phone was all for show. As she was grabbing her keys, she noted he kept glancing up to watch her movements. Holy crap, she thought, and tried to avoid hyperventilation. Calling out for help seemed a little premature—it was easy to imagine her humiliation over falsely accusing someone of following her. Her best bet at the moment would be to continue to her car without causing a scene. However, her sense of self-preservation motivated her to slip the pepper spray Jared had given her two nights ago into her palm.
The campus crowds thinned out as she moved closer to the parking lot. Her dawdling had left plenty of time for students to get to their next class or head to their cars. The closest figure appeared too far away to hear her in case she needed to cry out for help. With a quick look over her shoulder, Kate almost cursed aloud when she saw the guy was still tailing her. His phone was still in his hands and he would look down at it each time she glanced behind her.
The thought of being a victim again forced her to quicken her pace. Turning the corner as she passed the last academic building, Kate sprinted towards the tree-lined area next to the parking l
ot. She pressed her body against one of the larger elm trees and tried to stay as still as possible. This was easier said than done given that her body quaked with fear. Gripping the pepper spray in her hand, Kate didn’t have to wait long until she heard quick and urgent steps close by. Without a second’s hesitation, she jumped out from behind the tree and held out the can in front of her body. Her face contorted into a menacing mask as a way to disguise her trepidation.
“Whoa! Hold on there! I swear I’m not trying to hurt you!” the boy shouted with obvious alarm as his eyes connected with the pepper spray. His phone dropped out of his hands and smashed to the ground.
“You have ten seconds to explain why the hell you’re following me before I scream rape and give you a mouthful of mace,” Kate threatened. Her breathing came out ragged and she could not stop trembling as she gripped the container.
The boy frowned and did not meet her eyes. “I’m so sorry I scared you. I guess I went about this whole thing the wrong way,” he mumbled.
Kate looked him over while still keeping her finger on the trigger. He was definitely rough around the edges and she felt she had just cause to be alarmed. A few scars were visible on his neck along with one at the edge of his full lips. Besides a tribal band on his left bicep, she noted a scorpion tattoo on his forearm. He was super muscular and she guessed he could easily knock her out before she even had the chance to think about making a run for it. She hated to judge a book by its cover, but this dude looked like he should be serving ten to twenty at the state pen.
“What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded when he didn’t elaborate on his statement.
“I’ve been following you.”
Kate fought down the urge to vomit when he uttered those words. What the hell were the chances she’d end up being targeted by another nut job in a month’s time? Did being psychic send out a mix of pheromones that attracted all the crazies in the Franklin area?
