Disappointment set in by the weekend when Kate discovered Cori still had not been found. She'd had high hopes that as soon as the guy's picture was released, the cops would have him in jail and Cori back home within a few hours or days. Her mother reassured her that the man was bound to be discovered any minute and it took time for the right person to see the sketch.
In the meantime, Kate had tried to keep Cori on her mind constantly in the hopes another vision would result from it. She even attempted to concentrate on the face of the abductor. If she could worm her way into his mind, she might be able to get the exact location of where he was keeping the little girl. Her efforts were fruitless and Kate's frustration grew. She couldn't understand why she couldn't simply close her eyes and see what she wanted to see. What kind of vicious joke was it to show her random images and not give her the ability to help the person in the visions?
It was a seemingly quiet Sunday morning when all hell broke loose. Her mother had mentioned the night before she would be heading out early to go to church (Kate suspected she'd felt guilty after she had remarked about their lackadaisical church-going ways) and would then be heading to breakfast with a few of her girlfriends. It was a sad day when your mother had a more exciting social life than you.
Kate awoke to their house phone ringing. The ringing would go on until the machine picked up and then start over again without the caller leaving a message. Glancing at her nightstand clock, Kate observed it was barely nine o'clock in the morning. She speculated about who would be desperate enough to keep up the repetitive calling. Moreover, her cell phone sat next to her and when examining it, she didn't find any missed calls.
Climbing out of bed, she headed to her mother's bedroom to pick up the cordless phone. After probably at least fifteen minutes of constant calling, she finally picked up. She barely got out a hello when someone who definitely had way too much caffeine in their system was blaring in her ear.
"Hello, is this Kate Edwards?"
"Yes, who's this?"
"This is Lois Speedman of the Franklin Times, do you mind answering a few questions for me?" The woman talked about a mile a minute, with her words melded into one another. What did she have for breakfast? A line of cocaine and three pots of coffee?
Kate was utterly confused and still disoriented from sleep. "About what?"
"We want to know about your involvement in the Corinne Preston abduction case."
"I'm not involved," she answered shortly as a knot began to form in her stomach and her chest tightened.
"We have received reports that you're working as a psychic advisor on the case."
"Shit!" she cursed and quickly disconnected the call.
Within seconds, the phone began to ring again. Kate immediately felt dizzy and her heart began to race. It didn't take her long to realize her cover had been blown by someone and the media had been alerted that she was providing information about Cori's kidnapping. Running downstairs, she headed for the front door. Her mother had several newspapers delivered daily and she wanted to see if anything was written yet about her. As she pulled open the door, she heard some yelling and noticed about a half dozen reporters swiftly moving towards her. A couple of camera flashes momentarily blinded her, but she was able to quickly back into the house and lock the door behind her. Looking down at her ratty pajama bottoms and ripped t-shirt, she really hoped they weren't able to get a clear photo of her.
The phone continued to ring. Disconnecting the cord from the wall, she slumped down on the cold tile of the kitchen floor. This was bringing back memories of how things were two years ago when she found Matt. The media wanted her to prove the legitimacy of her story and explain how exactly she had found the little boy. When she had refused to do any interviews, the reporters became pretty persistent. They asked her to make predictions that could be proven or to give information on other missing persons' cases. She loathed being the center of attention and didn't know how she could live a normal life after waking up psychic.
Kate sat shocked and unmoving. Finally she rallied enough to crawl over to the den in the back of the house. The den offered privacy by being windowless and the farthest room from the front door. There was no way she was permitting the cameras to get a shot of her in all her early morning glory through the living room's large bay windows.
Switching on the desktop computer in the den, she quickly logged on to the Franklin Times website. Scanning the latest headlines, she didn't see any new information about Cori's abduction. She closed out the page and headed to the website for the local rag. It was a poor excuse for a newspaper and printed mostly gossip items with only the occasional news story. In all honesty, most people bought the paper for the bikini shot of the girl located next to the horoscopes.
"You've got to be freaking kidding me," she mumbled to herself.
The third story down featured the headline "Seer or Scammer? Local Psychic Enlisted to Solve Preston Abduction." Clicking on the web link, she quickly scanned the article. It basically painted her out to be fraud who was giving generalized information about the case. It referred back to the Matt Spencer case and how she'd been out of the limelight since then. It also included her photo taken in her senior year in high school. Good Lord, they couldn't find something more recent? Kate thought, cringing at the image. Kate had been experimenting with her hair and at that time had a chin length cut with bangs—really not a good look for her. The only consolation was maybe it wasn't as bad as printing the pictures from this morning of her braless in her pajamas. Without looking in the mirror, she only guessed her hair was a mix of frizz and knots. At the very least, the paparazzi could have given her enough time to get in the shower and run a comb through her hair.
Most of the information provided was attributed to an "anonymous" source. Well, Kate was going to give this anonymous source an ass whooping. She ran upstairs and grabbed her cell phone. Thankfully, it seemed as though the media hadn't discovered the number yet. She quickly dialed her mother's cell phone.
Darlene picked up on the first ring. "I just saw the paper, honey. I'm on my way home now."
"There are reporters hanging outside and they keep calling the house," she moaned. Then, she began to cry and found it difficult to speak. She wondered if she could be having a mental breakdown. The walls felt like they were closing in. It had taken a long time for her anonymity to return and she was finally gaining the nerve to maybe start going out again and actually attending school on a college campus and not over the computer. Although Franklin was a small town, there had been enough scandals over the past two years for Kate's story to almost fade to a distant memory.
"Katie, calm down. It's just a news story, it doesn't mean anything. It will die down soon, I'm sure of it. I'll be home in a few and I'll let the reporters know we have no comment. I'll also tell them to get the hell off our property."
"Now everyone's going to know about me and realize I've been lying about not being psychic. The letters are going to start coming again. What am I supposed to say to these people? I don't want to be these people's only hope for finding their loved ones and then fail them miserably."
Tightening her hand over the phone, she began to wonder if her original promise to run away and change her identity would be that bad of an idea. Besides her mom, what was keeping her in Franklin? Her dad left her and the guy she liked wanted nothing to do with her. When her best friend found out about her deception, she was certain to be shunned by her as well.
"I'm sorry this has happened and I pushed you into the case. I thought you could help Cori and that would be the end of it," her mother sighed. "I can't imagine who would have leaked your name."
"I have a pretty damn good idea," Kate fumed.
***
"Come in," Jared yelled while pulling his phone away from his ear and covering the speaker with his palm.
Nikki entered their bedroom, but before she could speak he held a finger up to silence her. He continued on with his conversation. "I'm absolutely aware of that, sir and I apologize again. I'm not sure how this happened."
After saying a hasty goodbye and ending the call, Jared turned to face Nikki. He gestured to the phone. "That was my supervisor. You can imagine how thrilled everyone is with me right now," he drawled sarcastically.
Nikki shrugged noncommittally and sat down on the corner of the bed. "I got your text. You said it was urgent I come over right away."
She said it like a question and Jared inwardly groaned as he realized what he suspected was true. He didn't know why she was playing dumb. The story about Kate working on the case was being picked up by all the local news outlets. It was almost a near certainty reporters would've contacted Nikki's family for their response to the news. A migraine, slowly built over the course of the day, threatened to worsen as he looked over at her. As he watched her examine her nails with a bored expression, he saw red. Had he really provoked her to this level of callousness?
"I assume you heard Kate Edwards' name was leaked to the press," he said tightly.
"Yeah, I saw the paper this morning. Is that the reason you called me here? We are back to discussing Kate?"
"I distinctly remember telling you and your parents multiple times that Kate's involvement was supposed to be confidential." He felt himself losing his temper and wondered if another wall would wind up being punched by day's end.
"What's your point? I didn't tell anyone. It must've been someone from the station." She picked at a hangnail and looked uninterested at the idea of continuing the conversation. Seeming to sense his anger and refusal to back down, she demanded, "What's the big deal anyway? The press will get over it and move on to something more exciting than a fraudulent psychic in a couple of days."
Jared silently counted to five before speaking. "The big deal is it completely compromises the investigation. The perp knows we're using a psychic and she provided us with a description of him and his car. We don't know what could set him off. Who's to say he doesn't retaliate and hurt Cori?"
Nikki gazed at him with wide eyes and he knew he had struck a chord with her. Her lips trembled and he knew she hadn't thought of how her sister could be inadvertently harmed because of her irresponsibility.
When she didn't reply, he continued, "What about my job, Nikki? My supervisors are pissed that the case has turned into a media circus with a psychic at the center of it. The paper painted her out to be a con artist. This makes me and the rest of the department look like bumbling idiots. Not to mention the call I got today from Darlene Edwards. She's threatening to sue me for breaking our agreement about Kate's anonymity." He shook his head at her. Lowering the pitch of his voice, he stated flatly, "I know it was you, Nikki."
Without a reply, she turned her head to look away from him. He remained relentless. "The details in the story you gave and the timing fits. We have a huge blowout over Kate and within days her cover is blown. It doesn't take much deductive reasoning to figure out you called."
"What if I did? Is it so horrible the world will be able to see what a huge fake this girl is?" Her tone dripped with venom and Jared felt a sudden weariness. He'd known Nikki had a vindictive side, but had always chosen to ignore it. He should've suspected she would go after Kate after she had guessed Jared was falling for her.
"Yes, what you did is horrible. Your actions could harm a lot of people, including your sister. I feel like...you're a complete stranger," he said flatly.
"That's funny, Jared, because I kind of feel the same way about you. You suddenly seem to care less about my feelings or desires. My sister is missing and you're making moves on another girl."
He cut her off. "You know that's not true. You can't use that as justification for what you did."
"I asked you not to involve her and told you she wouldn't be able to help us. Yet, you refused to listen to me and still consulted with her. And guess what? Cori is still not home. Most likely, she's dead," Nikki choked on the last words and continued with a strangled voice. "And you're letting a fraud fill us with false optimism. Believing in a psychic is like believing in fairy tales. To be honest, it makes you appear foolish and causes me to doubt your aptitude to even find my sister."
"Why couldn't you trust me?"
"I stopped putting my faith in you a long time ago when I figured you had no intention of marrying me," she said sourly.
Her blue eyes sent him a challenge and Jared felt a strong divide between them. The reasons for his reservations over getting married were suddenly bubbling to the surface. How could he marry someone who thought this little of him?
"Nikki, we've only been together for three years and living together for one. Why do you need to push this so much? Why can't you let me propose when I feel the time is right?"
"Because I know the time will never be right." She walked over to him. "I've been unhappy for months, Jared, and couldn't figure out what it was. Being home with my parents gave me time to think about everything. I'm tired of fighting for our relationship. It's awful the reasons why I'm home again, but it feels like a relief being away from you. If you have to constantly fight for something, maybe it's not right to begin with."
He gave her an uncomfortable look and wasn't certain how to best respond.
"I think we need...a break. It will give us time to both get our heads together and re-evaluate what we want," she said with conviction.
"We shouldn't even be getting into this stuff right now. Emotions are high and it would probably be better to discuss things after your sister is found."
"Jared, come on," she said with annoyance. "Don't pretend you're not feeling the same way, but feel obligated to stand by me. If you were happy, you wouldn't be attracted to someone else," she explained.
He began to speak, but she covered his mouth with her palm to silence him. "I'm not going to debate you about Kate right now. Deny it all you want, but you've never been good at concealing how you truly feel about something. This is why I'm certain you don't want to marry me. I know you're a good guy and want to do the right thing. However, staying with me out of pity isn't the noble thing to do."
"I never wanted it to be like this. I really wanted to make things work with you," he mumbled, peering down at the floor. He couldn't look her in the face. He had too many mixed emotions then and he couldn't discern what his face would reveal.
"I'll be fine. I'm tougher than I look." She moved her arms around his body and gave him a tight hug. "I know you're mad at me, but please don't give up on my sister."
"Never," he swore.
She pulled away and tears began to pool in her eyes and a glimpse of the Nikki he knew from years ago made a brief reappearance. With a nod, she left the room and hurried out of the apartment. Sitting in the same spot for a long stretch of time, Jared was unsure of how to feel about what had just transpired. It was glaringly obvious he had made the right decision when the strongest emotion he experienced was relief.