First Vision by Heather Topham Wood

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First Visions

By Heather Topham Wood

Second Sight Book One

Blurb

Two years ago, 21-year-old Kate Edwards became deathly ill and slipped into a coma. While unconscious, she crept into the mind of a missing boy and awoke with the knowledge of his location. Friends and family were skeptical and wary of her new ability to see into the minds of others. Their fears prompted Kate to keep her psychic powers a secret. Feeling alienated, she dropped out of college and spent most of her days holed up at her mother's home.

Now another child has been abducted. Police detective Jared Corbett seeks out Kate for her help in solving the case. Reluctantly, Kate agrees and they must work together to bring 8-year-old Cori Preston home to her family. Although attracted to one another, Jared has a girlfriend with ties to the abduction case and Kate is sarcastic and guarded since her coma. With visions she can't control and an uncontrollable attraction to the detective, she wonders if she can leave the past behind and finally stop hiding from the world. Otherwise, Cori may be lost forever. 

Jared and Kate have lunch together to discuss one of Kate’s visions about Cori’s abduction (Excerpt 1): 

I get you? What the hell was that supposed to mean? His comments were making her feel unsure and suddenly exposed. Quickly, she decided to change the subject. “Your aunt doesn’t have any abilities?”

“No, she just always felt there was more to the world than we could see. Most of her major life decisions are based on answers she receives during tarot card readings. Some of her ideas are pretty out there. But I learned from a young age how to take things with a grain of salt,” he explained.

“Is she local?”

“Not anymore. Kind of lives off the grid now. She met this guy from Maine and moved up there about five years ago. He makes these amazing homemade brooms and Aunt Lizzie helps him run his business.” He gave a fond smile as he thought about his aunt. “You should meet her one day, you’d love her.”

“She sounds cool. Although introductions might be a little awkward. How would you present me? As your psychic sidekick?” 

Before he could reply, the waitress returned for their order. He ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and potato salad. Against her better judgment, she went for the cheese fries with a side of gravy. 

Jared gave her an undisguised look of distaste once the waitress had left. “How can you eat that crap? Sounds disgusting.” As he let his gaze run over her body, she felt heat rise to her cheeks. “Why are you so thin? You should be a hundred pounds overweight if you eat that kind of stuff.”

Kate snorted. Jeez, she really needed to stop snorting in his presence, talk about one of the least attractive qualities. “I’m hardly thin, I saw your girlfriend. I look like Cartman from South Park next to her.”

“Ugh, girls with their weight issues,” he said and waved her off. “Want to show me that sketch now?” 

She pulled the picture out of her purse and he examined it thoroughly. After a moment of thoughtful consideration, he remarked, “You did a good job, I have a few ideas of what type of car it may be. Looks like an older model Ford or Toyota sedan. You said about ten years old and dark green?” 

She nodded and he continued, “I’ll work on getting printouts of models from around that time period. See if we can get an exact match.”   

“I wish I could’ve seen the license plate, but it wasn’t visible from the angle he brought Cori out in. The garage was well-lit, but the rest of the house was dark. The layout of the house looked like a Cape Cod style, but honestly he dragged her through so quickly I couldn’t say for sure.” She sighed and then took a sip of her diet soda. She figured ordering the diet soda helped to cancel out the massive amounts of calories in the cheese fries.

“Do you have any idea of a timeframe? How long she was in the car for?”

“She was unconscious for part of the ride. She didn’t have a good sense of time, but I would say he was driving for no more than twenty minutes while she was awake. It was very dark in the house which makes me guess it could have been a lot later after he left the Prestons. Not sure if he went anywhere first before heading to his house. Maybe someone near Cori’s house will remember seeing that type of car. I can’t imagine too many of the Prestons’ neighbors drive a hoopdie like that.”

 

He leaned back and chewed on his thumb. “With the damage to the front, it would definitely stand out. Of course, I wish we knew more, but this has been extremely helpful, Kate. Thank you.” 

Closely, she watched his movements as he patted her hand. It only lasted a second, but Kate felt the touch long after he pulled away. Suffering a loss for words, Kate was grateful for the interruption when his phone rang. 

After answering, he put his hand over the receiver and addressed her. “I’m going to step outside and take this. It’s a call from another one of the detectives working on the case.” After her nod, he disappeared out of the diner. While she waited, she fidgeted and tried not to think about how right his hand felt on hers. 

A couple of minutes later, he returned with an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry about that. He wanted to let me know that they’re organizing a search party for tonight. The plan is to comb a few wooded areas in town to look for Cori. We have other detectives going door to door with Cori’s picture to see if anyone has any information,” he explained solemnly. It was hard to not get drawn in by his intensity as he spoke about Cori. 

As the food arrived at the table, she became convinced greasy food would help get rid of these butterflies she was feeling. She saturated the fries with the gravy. After shoving a forkful in her mouth, she closed her eyes and sighed. “These are heavenly.”  

Jared gave her a dubious look while taking a bite of his sandwich. “I can see your arteries clogging right before my eyes.”

She held out her fork to him. “Go ahead and try them. You know you want to.”

He looked on the verge of denial, but eventually caved. “Fine, but I have a feeling I’ll be regretting it.” 

She grinned as he took a large bite. He showed no reaction, but she giggled as he reached over and took another large forkful. “I can’t tell if I like it. I better taste some more in order to make a sound judgment.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said. She grabbed a side dish plate and piled some on it. “Here, stop denying yourself. One serving of disco fries will not kill you.” Her grin could not seem to fade as she pushed the plate to his side of the table.

“So, that’s what these are called? Now that you have me addicted to them, I can blame you when I get too fat to chase anyone down,” he commented between bites. He cut his sandwich in half and held out a piece to her. “Wanna share?”  

She took the sandwich from him and felt a jolt as their hands brushed. She was in big trouble and she knew it. More of this and she was going to ask him to procreate on the table right then and there. He returned her smile and seemed to also revel in the intimacy of the moment. She wished she could’ve thrown his phone against the wall when it rang again a second later. Kate felt embarrassed that she was weirding him out when she noticed how uncomfortable he suddenly looked.

Author bio 

Heather Topham Wood graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a bachelor's degree in English. Working full-time as a freelance writer for publications such as USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bay and Step in Style magazine, she writes fiction novels in her spare time. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Besides writing, Heather is a pop culture fanatic and has an obsession with supernatural novels and TV shows.

First Visions is the first book in the Second Sight series.

http://authorheather.wordpress.com

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