First Visions: Second Sight Book One

Chapter Three

Jared moved to the sidelines to diffuse the situation. When Kate caught sight of him with her mother at the door, she looked desperate to flee. Now they were seated in the living room and her head bounced back and forth between the two of them. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her and he tried to figure out his fascination with this girl. He presumed it came from his interest in the supernatural and the idea that she harnessed a secret power that could help him find Cori.

He had already presumed that Kate was lying to him yesterday. He was proficient at reading people, but he had no way to prove she was being untruthful. Darlene coming to his office was nothing short of a miracle. He desperately needed new information to break the case. If it meant swallowing his pride and asking for aid from a paranormal source, then so be it.

Working hard to keep silent and temporarily fade into the background, he watched Darlene confront her daughter. His discomfort increased while witnessing such a private moment. If he could have subdued his eagerness to find out what she knew about Cori's disappearance, he would have politely excused himself.

Darlene spoke. "Katie, I love you and I am sorry about all you had to go through in the past two years. It's time, though, we both come clean. I know you've lied and you have the ability to see things that come from a source you can't explain. You're psychic, baby."

Visibly paling, Kate shot a nervous glance his way before turning back to her mother. "Mom, you don't know what you're talking about..."

Darlene did not let her finish. "I know you're scared and may think being psychic changes my feelings towards you. You're everything to me and nothing will ever change that. I'm sorry my behavior made you feel as though you must lie about it. But we can put all that past us now."

Darlene fell silent and allowed her daughter time to digest the words. Kate placed her head in her hands. After a moment, she lifted her tear-stained face. Her mother pressed on. "Katie, you have no idea how sorry I am."

As a way to release her pent-up anxieties, Kate jumped to her feet and began to pace. "You're sorry? Well, so the hell am I! How could you abandon me when I needed you the most? Make me pretend for so long that now I have no goddamn idea who I really am!"

Her mother clutched her hand. "Katie..."

Violently, Kate snatched her arm away. "I don't know you at all. What sort of mother are you? Making me lie these past couple of years. You have no idea what I've been through," she said through gritted teeth. She hurried out of the living room and made a grab for her purse resting on a table in the foyer.

Before Kate could open the front door, Darlene rushed over to her. "Fine, hate me all you want, but at least help Detective Corbett find that little girl."

"And to top it off, you go behind my back and pimp me out to some detective you just met yesterday. It never occurred to you to talk to me first before running to see him? Thanks a lot, mother," she hissed vehemently. Before her mother or Jared could offer a protest, she was peeling away in her Toyota.

"She hates me," Darlene sobbed.

Jared came up behind her and gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. "She'll come around, she only needs time." He only hoped it would be in enough time to locate Cori.

***

"Will you forget about her, Jared? What are the chances she would be any real use for finding Cori?" Jared's girlfriend, Nikki, told him later that evening over the phone. As a way to rally around her parents as the family dealt with Cori's kidnapping, Nikki had moved out of their apartment temporarily to stay at her childhood home with them.