The Touch (12 page)

“What’s there to talk about?  We know that Neil didn’t take her now; that changes everything.”  She looked ready to jump up and race into action.

“Lexi…” he tried for a diplomatic tone, knowing she probably wasn’t gonna have any of it.  “We don’t
know
anything.”

“But I saw her.  I saw her in that room and she’s miserable.  There’s no way in hell Neil would do that to her.  He might be a bastard, but he wouldn’t lock her away like that.”

“Do you know that for a fact?” Gabriel countered.  “I know what you saw, but we don’t have any idea what the context was.  How do you know for sure that’s where she is now?  It could have been a nightmare
,
Lexi,” he said gently.  “We are sitting on her bed, she probably sleeps with that bunny; it could have nothing at all to do with what happened to her.”  That brought her up short and he was gratified to see she was at least considering what he had to say instead of running off all
half cocked
.  “What do you think is more likely?  That she’s being held in a dark room with no windows while people taunt her with nursery rhymes
,
or that her own father decided to skip town and take her with him?”

“Kids.”

“What?”

“They were kids.  Just like she said
,
there were ghosts of children taunting her in the house,” she said softly and he could see she was still pretty
freaked
out over what she’d seen.

He had to shake her out of it, get her back to the spunky girl he was coming to admire.  “That’s an even stronger argument for a nightmare then.  Maybe she’s been having bad dreams about ghosts because she thinks this place is haunted?”

“I thought you said you believed in ghosts?”

Gabriel let out a long sigh, picking up her gloved hand and covering it with his.  “I do.  I just don’t think it has anything to do with her disappearance unless it’s the reason why she ran away from home.  Besides, if the house really is haunted, why would the ghosts be taunting her wherever she is now?”

Lexi nodded slowly, and he thought he’d finally gotten through to her.  “That’s a good point,” she agreed.  “Maybe it really was a bad dream?  I guess that explains how
scary
it all was.” 

“Do you want to try anything else?”

“What?”
s
he asked absently.

“Did you want to try touching anything else in here?  To get a… reading or whatever you call it?”

Lexi looked up at him and he was struck by how tired she appeared.  There were faint blue smudges under her eyes and she
was
much paler than normal. 
Whatever it was she’d done, it had taken a lot out of her. 
With the streaks of blue
in her hair
, the silly t-
s
hirt and the clunky boots, she looked a little like a girl playing dress up sitting on the child’s bed, rather than a grown woman
, but the o
verall effect worked for her
. 
“No, I think I’ll try again later.  I need a little bit of a break,” she gave him a wan smile.  “But you don’t have to stick around; I’ll call you if I come up with anything.”

“You’re sure?” Gabriel hesitated, not wanting to leave when she was still so rattled, but he felt a little better at seeing her answering smile.

“I’m sure
I don’t need babysitting
.  You go on and get busy with that detectiving, and I’ll stay here with Allie.”

Definitely more like the Lexi he knew.  “Alright then, I’m gonna take off,” he rose from the bed, surprised when she came with him. 
H
e thought she might want to stay in there but she followed him back downstairs.  “Ms. Travers?”  Ryan called out, back to his usual formality in front of the others.  “We’re going to get
moving;
you have my number if anything comes up, anything at all, no matter now small.”

Allison nodded, checking her pocket for safekeeping.  “I do.  Lexi
,
are you leaving too?”

“No, I don’t need to go anywhere.  I thought I’d just stay here with you.”

“No, I’ll be alright.  I’m go
ing to
try and find some better pictures for the police and then I might take a nap.  You can go on home,” Allison insisted.

“Alright, if you’re sure…”

“Ye
s
, I just need to be alone right now,” Allie replied, and Gabriel shifted a little closer to the door, feeling like an intruder.  If she started to cry again…

“Okay
,
I’ll take off too then,” Lexi relented.  “I can take a look through my stash of pictures
too;
see if I can get some good ones that I took last Easter.”

“That’s a good
idea;
you can email them to me okay?” Allie smiled tiredly.

“Alright, call me if you need anything.  Or nothing,” Lexi gave her a hug and Gabriel took the opportunity to slip out the front door to catch up with Cooper who
stood
leaning against his car, smoking. 

“Any word yet on the neighborhood search?”

“Not a peep,” Tim replied, blowing out a plume of smoke and crushing the cigarette on the heel of his shoe to save for later.  “So, did your side trip up
to
the bedroom with your psychic pay off?”

“Not really, she didn’t get a line on who has her.”  Not that she was
his
psychic exactly. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Cooper sniggered. 

“Yeah Timmy, you caught me out.  I always blow off an investigation to sneak off to a secluded bedroom with the hot sister for a little afternoon delight,” Gabriel replied, his voice thick with sarcasm. 

“I would…”

“That’s why I’m the detective in charge and you will always be my lackey.”  Gabriel’s fingers practically itched to hold a cigarette of his own, but he’d been good all day, he was hoping to at least last out until after dinner before he caved and had a smoke.   

“Hey
,
if you’re not going to partake, do you mind if I take a crack at her?”
  Cooper’s face turned hopeful.

“Be my guest.”  If he was any judge of character, Lexi would tell
Tim
to take a flying leap.  If he was wrong… well then she probably wasn’t the kind of woman he would really be interested in after all. 

“Sweet… oh here she comes.  Just go along with anything I say, okay?” Cooper gave a sly wink.

Gabriel had no intention of doing any such thing, but he remained silent, trying to play it off like he wasn’t the least bit interested in their conversation. 

Lexi approached with a neutral smile on her face, addressing Gabriel directly. 
“Listen
,
I’m glad you two are still here.  I was thinking
,
I have some good, recent pictures of Chloe that might be better for the TV.  Is there somewhere I should send them?”

Gabriel opened his mouth to reply, but Cooper snuck in between them, a cheesy grin on his face.  “That would be to me.  Why don’t I give you my email and that way we can stay in touch?”

“Okay, sure
,
” Lexi looked from one man to the other.

“Great,” Cooper pulled out his cellphone,
“w
hat’s your email and I’ll send you mine?”

“Ah… okay,” Lexi looked up at Gabriel
,
whose face remained passive
, giving Tim his shot
.  After just a little bit of hesitation, she gave him her email address.  “Also, I was thinking
,
if you tell your Captain there’s a strong possibility she ran away, that might get him to go ahead with the Amber alert, right?”

Despite the fact that he’d pretty much already decided on doing that, Gabriel was reluctant to let her think that he was inclined to agree.  Especially because he knew that it was more to fuel her own theo
ry about the vision she
had and less about Chloe actually running away.  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said finally, not wanting to get into an argument with her about it.

“So, you’re
not hanging out here tonight?”
Cooper asked.

“No, Allie wanted to be alone.  Honestly, I think maybe she doesn’t want to have to stay strong any more and she didn’t want any of us to see her break down,” her eyes returned to Gabriel’s face and he gave her a sympathetic nod.

“It’s probably for the best that she gets a little time to herself, I’m sure we’ll be in touch b
efore too long.”

“Okay, well I’m gonna take off…”

“Hey before you leave,” Cooper interrupted
, taking a step to block her progress
.  “Any chan
c
e you might give me a go with those magic fingers?”

“Excuse me?”  Her brows rose a fraction and Gabriel suppressed a groan over his choice of words.

“You know, tell my fortune or whatever it is you do with them,” he grinned.

For a moment it looked like she was going to refuse, but then she tugged off her right glove, keeping it handy in her l
eft
.  “Alright, give me something personal of yours.”

Cooper didn’t bat an eye, obviously already
prepared for
what it was he wanted her to touch.  “This should work,” he replied, stepping closer to her and holding up the end of his tie. 

“Okay, now close your eyes, I must have absolute silence,” Lexi instructed him dramatically,
eliciting
a raised brow from Gabriel over the show of theatrics.  She hadn’t done that with him before…  After Tim’s eyes were closed, she dropped a quick wink at Gabriel, a brief smile curving her lips before she closed her own eyes, taking in a deep breath.  Without realizing it, Gabriel breathed with Lexi, watching her intently as she picked up the tie.  “I see you putting the tie on this morning, nice apartment by the way.  Don’t they pay you guys enough to have real furniture?  I thought I lived simple…” she muttered. 

“I have furniture,” Cooper frowned.

“I said silence!” Lexi hissed and his mouth snapped shut, drawing a
n open
grin from Gabriel
at her tone
. 

“And the last time you wore the tie before that…”  Lexi’s face flushed scarlet to the tips of her ears and she dropped the tie like a hot potato.  “Whoa… TMI…” she gasped, taking a step backwards. 

“See anything you like?” Cooper grinned like the cat that ate the canary, prompting Gabriel to wonder
,
what the hell she’d seen?

“Sorry, I’m not into that,” she shook her head, backing towards her car.

“What?” Cooper’s hands came up in a supplicating gesture. 

Lexi fixed him with a dark look.  “You know exactly what it was you wanted me to see.  If you get your jollies playing mistress of pain that’s your business, but I have better things to do right now. Gabriel, I’ll talk to you later.” she stalked off to her car without a backwards glance.

Gabriel watched her go, “Smooth
,
Timmy.  Real smooth.”

“What?  She’s totally into me…” Cooper gave a half shrug.
  “I definitely made an impression, right?”

“Oh yeah, you’re totally delusional,” he chuckled, watching her drive off in that ancient
yellow
VW bug.  It was amazing an old car like that still ran.  It sounded like it could use a tune up, but then again, what old car didn’t?

“Are you sure you shouldn’t recuse yourself from the case?” Tim asked, drawing him from his reverie. 

“Why
,
because I dated the wife for a few weeks back in high school?” he scoffed.  That was no reason not to stay on the case.

“No, because you’re into the hot sister. Even if she is a total nutjob.”

“She’s not a nut
job
, Cooper.”  Gabriel started to walk towards his car, growing tired of the conversation. 

“Hey
,
I’m not judging; a hot nut
job
is still doable.”

“Cooper…”
Gabriel
stopped with a heavy sigh
, not even sure where he should begin.

“See, I told you you’re into her,”
his
grin was a mile wide.  “She is kind of a hottie, if you go for that granola crunching
,
hippie type.”

“Hot or not, I’m not in the habit of letting a psychic dictate the direction of my case. So anything she says
,
we just note and then proceed with our own investigation, got it?
”

“You got it
,
K
emosabe,” Cooper sketched a half salute.  “So you’re not
going to tell the Captain that the kid
’s a runner?”