First Visions (10 page)

“Yes,” he replied.

“Well, let me see them.”

He gave her a startled glance as she reached
across the table and grabbed them out of his hand. Silently, he
stared at her as she shuffled through the photos. She stopped at
one and closely inspected each detail.

After a resolute nod, she passed the paper to
him. “This is it.”

“The Ford Taurus? Are you sure?”

“Positive. The color matches too. It was a
dark shade of green, but definitely had a metallic sheen,” she
explained. She crooked her body away from him and resumed typing
without another word to him.

“That’s great, I’ll let the other detectives
know,” he remarked. After a brief pause, he inquired, “So, what are
you working on?”

“A paper on James Joyce’s
Ulysses
,”
she answered shortly. “Doubt they teach that one in cop school.”
She hoped he would take the hint and leave. The urge to throttle
him was growing more insistent with each passing second.

Jared looked taken aback. Typically, her tone
was teasing with him and she discerned he picked up on the malice
in her words. “Everything ok with you?”

She gave him a bored look. “Yup, I’m
fine.”

He didn’t reply, but only sat there gawking
at her with his head tilted. She couldn’t even look him in the
face. As they spoke, her mind kept replaying the soft porn scene
from the previous evening. She was equally sickened by his and
Nikki’s words echoing around in her head. It was humiliating to
think about how he was only being nice to her because he felt sorry
for her.

Stupidly, she had thought he actually liked
her—albeit platonically. It made her furious to think of him
befriending her only because she was psychic. He was the one to
extend this proposed offer of friendship. If he wanted to keep
their relationship professional, he should’ve never said he was
trying to be her friend. A part of her had even hoped maybe after
the case was over, he would still keep in touch with her. Is this
what she should expect out of life? Never being able to be close to
anyone in fear of the person having an ulterior motive?

She knew her rage was clear on her face by
the sudden way he got to his feet. Jared held his hand out to her.
“Study break time, you’re coming with me.”

“Huh?”

“Come on, let’s go. We’re taking a ride,” he
commanded.

“Sorry, no can do. Really have to work on
this paper.” Kate shooed him off without turning away from her
laptop screen.

“Stop pouting and get your stuff together.
I’ll have you back in less than half an hour.” Not waiting for her
reply, he began to pile her books into her messenger bag.

“What? Are you using your cop voice on me
now? I’ll go, but this is police harassment I hope you know,” she
grumbled.

Reluctantly, she finished gathering up her
things. Crossing her arms across her chest, Kate grudgingly
followed him out of the library. Walking over to the Crown
Victoria, he opened the passenger side door and gestured for her to
get in. When he entered, she shifted her body as far away from him
as possible and gazed moodily out of the window.

Jared made an attempt at conversation. “Do
you want to tell me what’s going on or should I guess? Did you have
a vision? Was it about Cori?”

“No,” she said empathetically shaking her
head.

He sighed, but did not try to converse any
further. A part of her wanted to shock him by simply blurting out
what she saw last night. It would be extraordinarily easy to make
him see what a freak she truly was. Who would want to spend time
around anyone who could dig into their personal thoughts? A person
who has the ability to spy on their most intimate moments and know
their darkest secrets?

Maybe she should remain perpetually single.
Everyone had skeletons in their closets and wouldn’t she be
constantly let down every time she would get close to someone and
find out theirs?

They drove for approximately five minutes
before pulling into a park. It was one of the larger parks in town
and covered over three hundred acres. It had two separate
playground facilities, a large pond, tennis courts and dozens of
trails. Kate gave him a questioning look.

“There’s a brown paper bag in the backseat,
could you grab it?” he requested.

“Why? Did you take me to a drug deal?” she
asked sarcastically reaching for the bag.

Ignoring her sarcasm, he began to walk away.
Obediently, she followed him while carrying the bag. He stopped at
the edge of the pond a few yards away and held his hand out.
Dutifully, she handed over the bag while sending him her best
confounded look.

Reaching in, he removed a large chunk of
bread. He broke off a piece and threw it into the water. A nearby
group of ducks grew excited and began to glide over to the water
where it had fallen. A cacophony of excited quacks filled the
air.

“You took me to feed the ducks?” she asked
incredulously. Before he could answer, she persisted. “You know
that it’s like totally illegal, right? I think there is even a sign
warning of a huge fine if you’re caught. Since you’re a cop,
doesn’t this set a bad example?”

“Shhh, you’re scaring the ducks away,” he
said and handed her a piece of stale bread.

“It’s also against the laws of nature.
Feeding them affects how they migrate and also can pollute the
water. You should be ashamed of yourself,” she admonished.

“You’re ruining the Zen feeling of feeding
the ducks,” he said.

She rolled her eyes and launched a few small
pieces into the pond. She smiled as one of the ducks caught a piece
in its bill.

His gray eyes gave her a sideways glance as
he continued, “Whenever I feel stressed I come here, I guess it
makes me feel like a kid again.”

“And you brought me here because…” Kate
prompted.

“I don’t know, you seem upset, thought
communing with nature might help,” he said and gave an exaggerated
shrug. “You can talk to me if something is bothering you.”

She blew out a long breath. “Thanks for the
offer.” She stopped and turned to him. “You don’t have to be nice
to me. It’s not a requirement or anything for me to help with
Cori.”

“Are you always like this?”

“Always like what?”

“You’re defensive and combative. You seem to
have a hard time trusting people,” he explained.

“And what? I’m supposed to trust you?” she
scoffed. She snatched the bag from his hand. Continuing to throw
bread, she noticed the number of ducks coming over to them
multiplied. “I don’t think I’ve trusted anyone completely since I
became sick,” she admitted warily.

He nodded and sensed she didn’t want to
elaborate on her trust issues. “You never told me why you were so
sick. The paper said you had an infection?”

Kate shifted uncomfortably. “It was actually
meningitis. The doctors guessed living in the college dorms was one
of the reasons I got sick. You know, close quarters and all that.
It happened sort of suddenly and I didn’t even feel very ill at
first. Next thing I know, I’m in a hospital and a week of my life
is gone.”

“Do you remember anything else from when you
were unconscious? Besides the vision of Matt?” he probed.

“What, like a white light? An angel in a
meadow meeting me?” Kate shook her head. “No, the rest is pretty
much a blank. I kind of wish something like that did happen. Maybe
I received some sort of explanation on why I see these images and I
can’t remember.” Talking about when she almost died was difficult
and it provoked her to change the subject quickly. “What’s with the
casual attire? No work today?”

“I worked for a couple of hours this morning,
ran some errands and got the car info I gave you at the
library.”

“You look good in normal clothes, generally
your work outfits look like JCPenney rejects,” she cracked. He was
about to reply when something over her shoulder caught his eye.

Kate clumsily leaped forward when a large
honking sound came from behind her. She turned around and faced two
large geese waddling straight towards her. Their eyes fixated on
the bag in her hands and they came at her like they were out for
blood. Kate shrieked and began a mad dash as they quickly made a
beeline after her. They continued to chase her until she dropped
the bag and took shelter in a nearby gazebo. With viciousness, the
geese tore at the bag and devoured the contents inside. As she
tried to calm her breathing, she looked around for Jared. He was
bowled over in laughter.

He made his way towards her. “That was
classic,” he laughed and mimicked her wild hand gestures. “I wish I
could of videoed it, I would have gotten at least a million hits on
YouTube.”

“Ha-ha, very funny,” she drawled and socked
his arm as he took a seat next to her on the bench in the gazebo.
After catching her breath, she gave him a sideways glance. “Sorry
about my strangeness, I did have a vision last night that bothered
me.”

He opened his mouth to interject, but Kate
held up her hand to stop him. “It didn’t have anything to do with
Cori and I
really
don’t want to talk about it.”

“Kate, I know you find it hard to believe,
but I do want to be your friend. If these visions are bothering
you, it might not hurt to talk about it.”

“I’m good, honestly. Anyway, it’s not like
this is my first rodeo,” she said with a shrug.

She wrapped her arms across the front of her
body and ran her hands up and down her arms. Her tank top and
shorts didn’t conceal the goose pimples that erupted over her arms
and legs. The sky was beginning to cloud over and the wind was
steadily picking up. Kate didn’t know if the chill came from her
past memories or the abrupt change in the weather.

“You mean seeing Matt Spencer? Or the other
letters you received? What were those cases like?” he questioned
while she tried to not focus on the feel of his leg against her. It
was hard not to pay attention to the heat emanating from him
against her bare leg.

Sitting in the gazebo suddenly made the
conversation very intimate. It was making her feel sort of
breathless and erasing her feelings of resentment towards him. She
could not understand why she couldn’t just turn off this disastrous
attraction.

“The strangest thing about Matt Spencer was I
never saw him before and I still had a vision of him while I was in
the coma. Since then, I’ve never had images of anyone who I have
not seen or met.” She never understood why Matt was her first
vision and how she suddenly woke up psychic. Her family had no
connection with the Spencers and she was already in the coma when
his father took him from the school playground. One of her greatest
hopes was that she’d be able to solve the mystery surrounding the
origin of her second sight.

Opening up to him was awkward. Her journal
was the only place she really let down her guard and shared any of
her psychic experiences. “Anyway, one time I received a letter from
this husband desperately looking for his wife. She never returned
home from work six months earlier and he had two young children who
constantly cried for their mother. He sent me her photo and I
connected with her that same evening. She had left her family for a
man she met online. She used a different name and lived with the
man out of state. Her love for this virtual stranger superseded her
love for her husband and children.

What was I supposed to do with this
information? Would it be better for her kids to know she lived and
abandoned them? Or let them assume something horrible had happened
to her and that was the reason she hadn’t returned to them?” Her
tone grew more anxious and she didn’t dare a look at him.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I’m not god—who was I to decide
this family’s fate? Yet, I have to be wrecked by this decision for
the rest of my life. My point is, this is the type of garbage I
deal with on a regular basis. I see things about others whether or
not they want to keep the memory private. You can’t be my friend
because you leave yourself open to exposure. I have visions of the
people in my life and most of them are things they likely don’t
want me to know,” she persisted.

Her objective was to warn him off without
having to divulge what she had seen the night before. He looked
ready to interrupt and she held up her palm to silence him. “Do you
want another example? I found out my father was having an affair
before he left my mother. The best part was the vision confirmed
what I already believed. The reason he left us was because he
didn’t know how to handle the scandal surrounding the story on me
being psychic.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. We all blame
ourselves for shit that really isn’t our fault,” he said and
stilled. He admitted softly, “I blame myself for my parents
dying.”

She turned to him shocked. “What do you mean?
Why?”

“I was very close with my parents—especially
my mother. When I was seven, I had finally got up the nerve to
sleep at a friend’s house for the first time. Well, of course, I
panicked once it came time to go to bed. I started crying and my
friend’s mother called my mom. My dad had taken her out for a
romantic dinner. They left the restaurant to pick me up as soon as
they received the call. A drunk driver hit them a few miles away
from the restaurant.”

His brow furrowed and Kate resisted the urge
to reach for him. “If I wasn’t such a momma’s boy and I sucked it
up and spent the night there—they’d still be alive today.”

“Jared, you can’t…” she whispered, “I mean
you know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

He shook his head as if freeing his mind of
any dark thoughts. He looked at her intently. “Yes, I understand
now I can’t take the blame for it. That’s my point. You didn’t
choose to be psychic, it just happened. Your father had an affair
because of his own shit, not because of you.”