New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (19 page)

As she watched her drive away, she heard Declan clear his throat behind her. “You wanted something?”

“Listen about the othe
r day…I just wanted to say I’m sorry for
overreac
ting a bit
,” she hedged.

“A bit? You said I was morally bankrupt,” he seethed.

“A
lright, I did
come off as preachy and I
wanted to apologize for that. I didn’t mean any offense. I mean people make money off of much worse things, right?
” she asked rhetorically.
His mouth was set in a thin line and he didn’t respond to her rambling. She decided to continue.
“
The end result is still the same. Someone is returned safely to their home,” she said with false cheer in her voice.

Declan
shook his head. “That’s not always the case. Sometimes they give me a reward for finding the location of a body. Those are definitely not the fun ones. Means I have to get inside the head of the killer and
see them murder someone.”

Kate swallowed down her distaste.
Maybe she didn’t have the stomach for this whole psychic thing after all
.
She croaked, “Sounds awful.”

Her disgust didn’t go unnoticed. “Kate, I know you didn’t come here for my forgiveness.”

“Partly, I did. As much as I resisted,
you have become a friend to me—a
nd I do miss talking to you about all this paranormal cra
ziness,” she confessed.
“
But I also would like to work together if you would still consider it.”

“I don’t know…”

His uncertainty made her plow on. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’re making me pull the birthday card. It’s today and I think it would be really mean of you to not forgive me.”

Shaking his head, a ghost of a s
mile appeared. “I must be crazy…” his voice trailed off,
“
but okay we’ll give this a shot. Just try not to annoy the hell out of me.”

“No worries,” she replied.
“I frequently annoy people
. However, I’m like mold, I grow on you.”

“Well, since you’re here, I m
ight as well show you something,
”
he said resignedly
.

Declan
gestured for her to
follow
him into the house. Walking behind him, she
trailed
him into his living room. He picked up a piece of paper lying on the coffee table and handed it to her.
She felt the couch depress as he sat next to her, but her eyes didn’t move from the paper. It was a missing persons poster that Declan must have printed off the internet.

The girl
in the photograph
loo
ked to be about her age. She had
an infectious smile on her face and a vibrancy that jumped off the page. Her blon
d hair was cut to her shoulders and her tanned skin was highlighted by perfectly white teeth.
Scanning the statistics, she saw that Melanie
Pirola
was twenty-four
years old an
d had been last seen at her own home
three days earlier. The reward was listed as $25,000 for information leading to her return.

Declan’s voice interrupted her thou
ghts. “I got
in touch with Melanie’s sister Delaney
last night after I found the case online
.” Kate didn’t dare ask if he spent his spare time scourging the internet for abduction cases. In this case, ignorance was preferable.

He continued, “S
he’
s willing to accept my help. Delaney
explained
that she lives with her sister and when she arrived home from her bartending shift, Melanie was nowhere to be found. Her car was still parked in the driveway and there was no sign of a struggle or break-in.
”

Kate fired question after question at him.
“Any suspects? Or any i
ndication she may have just taken
off?”

“It doesn’t sound like it. She’s a very popular fitness instructor at a gym near their house and has a very close-knit group of
friends and family. She sounds
reliable and this is the first time she’s ever even missed a day of work. Her sister insisted that no one would ever want to hurt her sister. She was too well-liked,” Declan explained.

Kate didn’t find that hard to believe judging by t
he picture. “Where in
Pennsylvania
does she live?”

“
Chambersburg
. It’s about three and a half hours from here. Your dad lives in
Pennsylvania
, right?”

“Yeah, but
he’s not that far away. His house is only
about an hour from here,”
she replied.

“It took me a couple of hours
, but I did have a vision about her last night…”
Declan began.

Her face lit up. “Which means she’s probably alive.”

“Unfortunately, the vision didn’t tell me anything about her situation. It was just a random memory of a
night out with friends at a karaoke bar
.”

Kate chewed on her thumbnail as she pondered Melanie’s disappearance.
“Well, maybe she did just take off then. Any guys in the picture?”

“She broke up with her boyfriend a few months ago
, but he has an alibi for the day she went missing. And Delaney said he hasn’t shied away from the investigation. He’s cooperated with police and has helped pass out fl
yers and do ground searches. Melanie wasn’t known for keeping secrets from her family
, so her sister doubts t
here was someone else. Also, Delaney was able to get access to
Melanie’s
online passwords. She checked yesterday and
found no activity in the past few days on her bank account.”

Kate rubbed her hands together in anticipation.
“Okay, let’s get to work then.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, why not? I just need…” she paused and carefully considered her words. “I need to have a win. I’m thrilled Max was brought home, but I keep having visions about him.
He’s back home, but I’m unable to stop reliving what happened to him—s
eeing the things done to him while Ally had him. The extent of the abuse was way more than I ever imagined.
” Kate shuddered.

Twice this week she had been inside of Max’s head as Ally wailed on him over some minor discretion. The boy seemed to be unable to escape the horrors of his time with the deranged woman. Each vision reinforced Kate’s belief that she should’ve found the boy sooner. She said determinately, “
I want to get this girl home as soon as I possibly can.”

“Kate, you’re having way too much guilt over this Max thing…”

She turned her head away from him and closed her eyes. “I know I am. But it’s not just about Max. It’s about
refusing to help Jared find Cori and for all of the other cases I avoided since I found out I was psychi
c. I’m starting to have
regret
s
about things and I want to make amends.”

Declan looked like he wanted to disagree, but something in her expression must have dissuaded him. With a nod, he said, “Alright
, let’s find Melanie then.”

***

Melanie’s
blond
e
hair poked out of her bun as she ran past the trees. Her breath came out in short bursts, but she did not stop until she reached the top of the
hill. She collapsed on her bottom
as she tried to catch her breath. Another blond
e
figure ran up to her. “God, you suck! One of these days I’ll beat you to the top.”

She laughed at her sister’s mock anger. “Not
even
in your dream
s. We’ve been running this
trail for two years now and the only time you beat me was when I was getting over the flu.”

Her sister
plopped
down next to her.
She used her shirt to wipe the sweat off of her brow before speaking.
“There’s something wrong with you. Not only do you
exercise at work, but you do it in your spare time too. It’s just not normal.”

“Well, maybe you should try it. Exercise releases endorphins, it could
make you a happier person,” Melanie
said and elbowed her
sister
in the ribs.

“Well, I’m not giving up
yet. I’m going to start training and by summer’s end I’ll beat you.”

“Alright, if you win by the end of summer, I’ll do your
half of the chores for a month,
”
Melanie challenged with a teasing smile.

Her sister gave her a wide grin. “You’re on!” Getting into a standing position, she reached down
her hand to help lift Melanie off of the ground. “You better be ready to kiss your days of winning goodbye, Mel. B
y next Sunday, I’ll be lounging in a lawn chair while you’re slaving away cleaning the house. I plan to be extra messy this week. So, expect plenty of dishes in the sink and grime in
the shower,” she promised.

“Ugh, gross! Now forget about me giving you a pity win after all.” They both laughed. “Enjoy the view of my ass, sis
,
as we
’
re going down the mountain,” Melanie
teased and took off in a sprint. Her hair tie
fell to the ground as her
blonde
hair streamed behind her
.

***

An outside voice made its way into her consciousness.
“Kate, did you see her?”

She opened her eyes to see Declan’s inquisitive expression. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I just saw her. I thought at first it was a recent memory. She was running through the woods which made me think she was
being chased. But turns out
s
he was going for
a run with her sister.
”

“Damn,
” Declan swore and swung out his hand in frustration.
“U
sually if somethin
g bad has happened it’s
in the forefront of the person’s mind.
If someone has been abducted, it’s normally one of the first visions I have
.”

“Maybe we should
consider the possibility that she’s fine then,” Kate suggested.

“Maybe,” he said
uncertainly
.

They sat cross-legged in front of a few candles. He had closed the shades and put on some soft music in the background. In any other incidence, it would come across
as a romantic atmosphere. I
nstead it was turning into a psychic marathon. They were both trying to get
inside Melanie’s head to determine where she could be. This meant practicing Declan’s meditative techniques as a way to welcome in the missing girl’s thoughts
.

Kate hadn’t been able to immediately see Melanie’s memories
. After a couple
of visions about her father, Kate
was ready to throw in the towel. After Declan had
a vision about Melanie dancing at a beach part
y in the bikini—
a vision he
seemed to enjoy way too much—
she decided to keep trying.
Finally, she had seen the vision
of Mel
anie and Delaney on their weekly run
.

After this vision, Kate
noted how exhausted she felt. She never expected meditating could wear you out. As she looked at the drawn curtains, she did not see any light peeking through. “I feel like we’ve been at this forever. What time is it?”

Declan jumped up and walked over to the coffee table. Lookin
g at his cell phone, he replied,
“Just after eight-thirty.”

“
What
! Are you sure?” she demanded and scrambled to her feet. Her flats were on the floor and she slid them on her feet
without waiting for a response
.

Declan appeared unmoved by her rant. He knitted his brows and commanded,
“Jesus, calm down. Sometimes you lose track of time when you’re trying to bring on the visions.”

“Calm down?
” Kate asked incredulously. “
I was supposed to meet Jared for my birthday dinner two and a half hours ago,” she cried. “Where the hell is my cell? Why hasn’t he called me?” She grabbed her pocketbook from the floor and rifled through it. “My cell isn’t here. Shit, shit shit!”

“Get a grip, Kate. If you drive like a maniac home, you’ll end up killing someone
,” he warned.