Read Online First Visions by Heather Topham Wood - Free Book Online Page B

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