Searching for Faith - A gripping psychological thriller

by Kristen Middleton

  “Hey, Ben, could you turn up the television?” asked one of the men sitting at the bar.

  “Sure, Mac,” said the handsome bartender. He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

  Carissa looked at the television and noticed that a reporter was standing in front of a sign that read North Heights Ski Resort.

  “Earlier today, a child’s body was discovered on one of the mountains here at the North Heights Ski Resort, in Lutsen, Minnesota. Officials haven’t released any information about the girl’s identity yet, only that foul play is suspected.”

  Horrified, Carissa’s breath caught in her throat. She’d been too late.

  “Isn’t that just an hour from here?” asked one of the other guests seated at the bar.

  “Yeah,” replied Ben. “Pretty scary, huh?”

  “Jesus, what kind of a freak would do something like that to a little girl?” Barry muttered, scowling at the television.

  “Listen,” said Ben, turning the volume up higher.

  “Has anyone at the resort filed a report about a missing child?” asked the anchorman, with a grave expression.

  The camera zoomed back to the reporter.

  She shook her head. “Apparently not. It’s a slow time of the year for the resort, though, the manager said.”

  “Well, there hasn’t been a lot of snow,” said the anchorman. “Thank you, Joanna. Please keep us updated. This is such a horrible tragedy.”

  “It is. I’ll keep you posted,” she replied.

  The anchorman looked at the camera. “Speaking of weather, let’s check in with Jim Sanchez for an update on this weekend’s forecast.”

  “I hope they find out who did this and catch the bastard,” said Barry.

  “It’s probably someone traveling to Canada,” said Ben.

  “Or maybe from Canada.” Barry sighed. “These wackos don’t usually do things like this in their own backyard.”

  The child was from Duluth, thought Carissa, closing her eyes. She tried envisioning the girl, wondering if it was the one from her dreams. Something told her that it wasn’t, but there was definitely a correlation.

  “Here you go,” said the waitress.

  Carissa opened up her eyes as the woman placed her soup and salad on the table.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can get you?”

  She knew what she had to do and that it was going to be a long night. “Yes, actually. Can I get a cup of coffee?” asked Carissa.

  Chapter 5

  AN HOUR LATER, after changing into a pair of blue jeans and hiking boots, Carissa was on the road and heading toward Lutsen. Unfortunately, it was a few degrees colder than earlier and the snow was starting to accumulate, making it irritatingly slippery.

  Turning on the windshield wipers, Carissa’s mind drifted back to Gooseberry Falls. She’d been so sure that something was going to happen at that location. Of course, there was still the chance that the killer was going to strike there as well.

  Or, maybe the child was killed in Gooseberry Falls and driven up to Lutsen?

  Whatever the case, Carissa knew that she’d get some answers at the ski resort. Hopefully, they’d be the kind that would help her find a killer.

  ***

  Thirty minutes into the drive, Carissa decided to stop for gas and use a restroom. She pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store in Little Marais. After filling her tank, she went inside to pay, and found herself face-to-face with Alex, the DNR officer. He was on his way out, holding a six-pack of beer and a plastic bag filled with what looked like half a dozen frozen pizzas.

  Alex grinned. “You, again? Don’t tell me – your psychic senses told you I’d be here and you wanted to apologize for leaving so abruptly?”

  Carissa blushed. She had taken off quickly, but he’d made her uncomfortable. “No. Sorry… I was just in the area and needed gas.”

  “Ah. So, you’re visiting out this way?” he asked, his eyes probing hers.

  “Still asking questions. Aren’t you off duty?” she teased, nodding toward the beer.

  “I am now. I was just about to go home and throw in a pizza. You’re welcome to join me, if you’d like.”

  Her eyes widened at his blunt request.

  “Sorry,” he said, smiling sheepishly. “I didn’t mean like a ‘date’ or anything. I just figured that you might want to talk. You know, about that girl you were searching for? Did you ever find her?”

  “No,” she said, moving out of the way for another customer. “Unfortunately.”

  “Speaking of missing children, I don’t know if you’ve watched the news,” he said, lowering his voice. “But, they discovered a child’s body up in Lutsen.”

  “I know. Actually, I’m headed up there right now, in fact-” She stopped and her throat tightened as a sudden, clear image of the victim popped into her head.

  “Carissa?”

  The girl’s clothes had been removed, but not because she’d been molested.

  “Hey. Are you okay?” asked Alex, stepping closer.

  Carissa snapped out of it. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  “Another premonition?”

  “I need to go,” she replied, avoiding eye contact. She needed to be alone, to see if she could pick up on anything else.

  He frowned. “Now? Are you really sure you want to go up there? It’s dark and the roads are getting slippery.”

  She brushed some hair out of her eyes and sighed. “I don’t care. I’ve come this far and am not about to let a little snow get in my way.”

  ***

  Alex wanted to grill Carissa with questions, but even now she looked like a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt.

  “I just returned from the crime scene myself. With all of the cops and media, you won’t get close.”

  Hard determination filled her eyes. “I have to try.”

  “Why?”

  Another customer walked in and Carissa had to move out of the way again. “I can’t talk about it in here.”

  “Then I’ll meet you outside,” he replied.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Fine. But, I don’t want you mocking me again.”

  “I won’t. I swear.” He grinned. “Hell, I might even give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  “How generous of you,” she said a little dryly.

  “Just give me a chance.”

  She relaxed. “Fine. I’ll be right out.”

  “Okay.”

  Alex walked outside to his truck, which was parked at one of the pumps. He put his groceries into the back of his Jeep Cherokee and waited for her.

  A few minutes later, Carissa stepped out of the gas station and headed in his direction.

  “Burr,” she said, sliding her hands into her pockets as she approached his vehicle.

  “I know and it’s going to be even colder tomorrow. The roads are getting worse by the minute,” he said, watching as a car almost spun out on the road next to them.

  “Yeah. They are.”

  “So, this must be about your missing girl. Do you think it’s her?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” she replied. “And that’s why I need to see her body, or at the very least, get close to the crime scene.”

  “The police aren’t going to allow that. They’ve got their forensic team up there now, collecting evidence. It’s all blocked off.”

  “They won’t be there all night. I’ll just wait for them to finish up and then do what I need to do,” she said stubbornly.

  Alex sighed. “It could be a long night.”

  “I don’t care. I know that you think I’m some kind of crazy woman-”

  “Hold on now, I never said that,” he said, frowning.

  “No, but you were thinking it earlier.”

  She had a point. He still didn’t believe in mediums or psychics, but it was obvious that Carissa was very serious about trying to find her missing girl, and he certainly respected her tenacity. Something told him that she’d wai
t all night to get what she needed.

  “I should go.” She turned and began walking toward the black Tahoe parked behind his. “Have a good night,” she said coolly.

  “Hold on a second,” he replied, following her.

  Carissa turned around.

  “Hell, I don’t have anything better to do. Why don’t I drive you out there? I know some of the guys investigating the case. I might be able to persuade them to let you get close enough to do your…” he rubbed his chin and smiled, “whatever it is that you psychics do.”

  Her eyebrow raised. “So, you really are going to give me the benefit of the doubt? Amazing.”

  “Yeah, but under one condition.”

  “The condition that I don’t ‘read’ you?”

  He stared at her in surprise.

  “Don’t look so alarmed,” Carissa replied, amused. “You have a horrible poker face. You’d be an easy target for someone to take advantage of. Especially those hokey fortune tellers.”

  He laughed.

  Chapter 6

  AFTER GETTING PERMISSION from the gas station, to leave her vehicle in the lot, Carissa climbed into Alex’s Jeep.

  “What about your pizza and beer?” she asked, buckling her seatbelt.

  He took off his gloves and threw them onto the dashboard. “Actually, I just live a mile up the road. Would you mind if I dropped my things off there before we head up there? I need to let my dog out, too.”

  An image of a Golden Retriever flashed through her head and then trees.

  “No problem. What’s his name?” she replied, grateful that Alex was driving in the first place. The snow was starting to accumulate heavily and she’d yet to see a plow.

  “Woody.”

  “Nice. I love dogs. Especially Goldens. They’re such lovable animals.”

  Alex looked at her and his lip twitched. He turned his attention back to the road. “Yes. Mine would lick someone to death before ever trying to harm them.”

  “I bet.”

  “Do you have any pets?”

  “I have a cat.”

  “What’s your cat’s name?”

  Carissa picture her white Persian. “Madame B.”

  “What does the ‘B’ stand for?”

  “Bitch.” Carissa smiled. “She’s not always very friendly. She’s getting better, in her old age, but we’ve had quite a rocky relationship.”

  Alex chuckled. “Oh, yeah? A moody cat, huh?”

  “Let’s just say that when I get back home, she’ll have expressed her irritation with me by wrecking something personal of mine. The last time she peed on a sweater that had fallen off of a hanger. The time before that, it was a shoe. A new one. She’s not only a bitch, but a very smart one.”

  He laughed again. “She only does it when you’re traveling?”

  Carissa nodded. “Yes. I’d bring her with, but she’d be even angrier with me, I think.”

  “Maybe she’s lonely and needs a companion?”

  Carissa snorted. “Cats aren’t like dogs. At least mine isn’t. She likes her solitude but still needs me around when it suits her. When I’m not, she’s very expressive.”

  “Sounds like my ex,” he said dryly.

  Knowing that it was a sore subject, Carissa didn’t reply. Instead, she turned the subject back to Woody. “Dogs are very loyal. I’ve often thought about getting one,” she said, as they headed toward a vehicle that must have spun out before ending up in a ditch. A tow-truck was on the scene and it was obvious that his night had just started.

  “Even with Madame B.?” he asked, slowing down as they went around the tow truck.

  “Yes. It would serve her right.”

  “What’s your hesitation?”

  “My traveling. It would probably need to be kenneled or my mother would have to take care of it, and she’s busy enough as it is. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.”

  “So, there isn’t a significant other in your life to help out?”

  Carissa’s thoughts turned to Dustin, a man who she’d dated on-and-off in the last couple of years. He’d been an ex-cop, turned private investigator, who’d first approached her after finding out about her psychic gifts. Dustin had been trying to locate a couple’s seventeen-year-old daughter. They’d thought she’d been kidnapped until Carissa’s involvement told them otherwise. She’d learned that Tina, the daughter, had run away with a boyfriend, whom her parents had forbidden her to see the year before. She’d been secretly dating him and once the teenagers had saved up enough money, they’d taken off together. With that information, Dustin had found the couple in Vegas. The parents were reunited with Tina, who went home without much persuasion. Apparently, they’d been right about the boyfriend - he’d been pressuring her into becoming a hooker, to pay for a drug habit she’d been too blinded by love to see. Afterward, Dustin had asked Carissa out and they’d started seeing each other, but then she’d started having premonitions about him. Ones he didn’t want to hear about.

  “Not right now,” she replied, thinking about the last time she’d seen Dustin. They’d gotten into a huge fight after she’d tried warning him about getting shot. She’d had a vision of him taking a bullet during one of his cases.

  “I appreciate your concern, but this is my life. It’s who I am. I can’t walk away because you have a ‘feeling’ that I’m going to get hurt,” he’d argued.

  “Even if it means getting murdered?”

  “You said so, yourself - ‘the future isn’t set in stone, even after you get a glimpse of what could be’.”

  “Yes, but-”

  “I always knew the dangers of being a cop and I certainly know that I’m not out of the woods as a P.I. If anything, some of the cases that I take are more dangerous. But, I can’t give up my career to dodge a bullet that might not ever happen. You, of all people, should know why.”

  Dustin’s older sister, Taylor, had been kidnapped and murdered while riding her bike home from a friend’s house. She’d been nine and Dustin had been fourteen at the time. There’d been no witnesses and the police never caught the perpetrator. Dustin had been devastated, not only by the fact that he’d lost his little sister, but in the end, he ended up losing his parents as well. Wallowing in their grief, they’d blamed each other for Taylor’s death while turning to alcohol to cope with the pain. Unfortunately, all Dustin could do was watch from the sidelines as their grief consumed the couple and they took for granted the son they still had. The experience left him an angry, distant teenager and then later, a determined young man who went into law enforcement. He spent the next few years as a cop, until one night, he met up with an old friend from high school, Joanna Mitchell, who was a private investigator. They started a personal relationship and eventually, Dustin gave up his badge and they became business partners, too. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for them romantically and they went their separate ways. Dustin then started up his own investigative business and eventually it brought him to Carissa.

  “I suppose you intimidate a lot of men,” Alex said, smiling.

  “Why? Because of my psychic abilities?”

  “I was going to say because you’re very attractive, but once they find out you can read their minds, I’m sure that might send them running for the hills.”

  “I can’t read minds,” she said, ignoring the compliment about her looks. Carissa wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Sure, it was flattering and he wasn’t sore on the eyes either, but this was all about business and she didn’t want it to turn into anything else. “I read energy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Thoughts and feelings have energy. I can sometimes interpret the meanings behind certain energetic vibrations and get a feel for what someone might be thinking.”

  “Interesting. So, if you were standing next to a criminal or murderer, would you know?”

  “Maybe. It depends on their energy and whether or not they were able to somehow block me from what they were truly feeling.”

  “D
oes that actually happen?”

  “I guess I don’t really know,” she replied, smiling. “Most people that I’ve met are easy to read.”

  “What about me?”

  “I thought you didn’t want me to read you.”

  He laughed. “Good point. Enough about me. How did you find out about this little girl you’re searching for?”

  “Through my dreams,” she replied, staring into the darkness as the image returned to her. The girl had blue eyes and long dish-water blonde hair.

  “How old?”

  “I think somewhere between five and seven. It’s hard to say.”

  “So, you drove all the way out here because of a dream you had about a child you’ve never met before?” he, said, turning down a dirt road.

  “Yes. A little girl and a serial killer. The problem is, I can’t see his face and I don’t know anything about him, other than he’ll end up murdering her if I don’t stop him,”

  “Do you know why he is doing this? Other than he’s a sick bastard.”