The Touch (2 page)

Lexi immediately saw the path her sister’s mind was starting to wander and cut her off.  “
Don’t worry sweetie
,
i
f he
wrapped his car around a tree the hospital would have called you by now
.”  The detective gave her a look for that, but
Lexi
wasn’t sure how to interpret it, so she just ignored it. 

“I think I have enough to get started here
, Allie.  W
hy don’t you go up and look through his things and check on that bank information while I talk to your sister, okay?”

“Just
look
through his things,” Lexi gave her a pointed
stare
, not wanting to spell it out in front of the cop and Allie seemed to catch her meaning, giving her a short nod.
  When Lexi turned back around, Gabriel was
watching her intently
and she gave him a self-conscious smile
, tucking a
n errant
blue
lock
of hair behind her ear
. 

Flipping open his notebook to a new page,
Detective
Ryan set pen to paper.  “It’s Lexi Morgan, right?  Is that short for something?”

“Alexandra,” she replied, watching him
write
. 
He’d been a big deal back in the day
;
Captain of the swim team and the track team. 
The years had been kind t
o the former jock, his build
still slim and muscular under the sports coat and his jeans were tight enough that she could see he was still in pretty good shape.  Straight brown hair threatened to spill over his forehead
, nearly touching his eyebrow as he looked down, giving him a slightly tousled look, as though he’d gotten ready in a hurry, but as soon as he looked up again the hair fell back into its regularly schooled style. 
Lexi couldn’t tell if the stubble around his chin and upper lip was just from forgetting to shave for a couple of days or if it was meant to be a short mustache and goatee
.  Either way she had to admire the overall effect;
on him it looked good. 

“Your date of birth please?”

“You don’t remember me
, do you?” Lexi countered,
head canting to one side as she studied him.  It made
perfect sense that he wouldn’t;
he hadn’t spoken more than five words to her back in high school.  In addition to being four or five years younger than h
im
, they hadn’t exactly run with the same crowd. 

Gabriel’s head came up in surprise, “Ah… no, I can’t say th
at I do, sorry,” he gave her a rueful grin
.

There was that smile again, coupled with the slightly baffled expression on his face
,
he was adorable. 
Much cuter than the bozo Allie ended up marrying. 
“That’s okay.  To be fair you only dated my sister for what, five minutes?
” s
he grinned back. 
Her sister was an idiot…

“It was longer than five minutes…” he started to protest.

“Yeah
,
but I get it, I was the pesky younger sister, easily forgotten.  It’s no biggie,” she fanned her gloved hand through the air.
 
“I’ve completely forgiven you.”

“Thanks, I think,” he chuckled softly.  “So, Miss Morgan, when was the last time you saw your brother in law?”

“It’s Lexi,” she corrected him automatically, chewing
on her bottom lip as she thought it over.  “I wanna say Easter, but I can’t remember if he was here, I spent most of my time with Chloe
outside
.  He might have been in
the house
watching sports or something.  You knew him
,
right?”  Neil had been part of that jock circle of meatheads
at Harbor
High;
he had to have known him.

“Yeah, I did
,
but we lost touch in college.” 
Ryan
seemed to realize that he’d answered a personal question, and attempted to reroute the conversation.  “How would you categorize your relationship with him?”

“Wow, that’s a loaded question,” Lexi snorted
, propping her worn boots up on the edge of the coffee table and wrapping her arms around her knees
.  “I’m sure Allie told you
,
Neil and I don’t exactly get along.”  She left off the part where he was a jerk and
she
couldn’t stand the sight of him, best to stick to the questions asked without embellishing.

“Why not?”

“
’
Cause he’s an asshat.”

Ryan’s pen froze above the paper, the bangs hanging in his eyes again as he looked up in surprise.  “I’m sorry, he’s what?”

“Ass-hat, just like it sounds,” Lexi supplied cheerily, he’d asked after all. 
“I told you, we didn’t get along,” she smiled sweetly.

His lips quirked like he was suppressing the urge to smile and Gabriel let out a long breath
before regaining his train of thought
.  “Was there a particular incident that caused this rift between you, or is it a general dislike
?
”

“I’d have to go with the second one.  Unless you count the first time I met him as a particular incident.  He’s just…” she made a face, “Allie could have done so much better.  Like you, she should have stuck with you and then I would be able to see my niece whenever I want.”

This time he did smile.  “Neil doesn’t let you see her whenever you want?”

“He thinks I’m a bad influence.”

“Are you?”

“I guess that depends on your definition
of a bad influence,” Lexi grinned wickedly
.  “You know, this conversation isn’t turning out so well.  If you end up finding him in a ditch with his brains bashed
,
in you’
re gonna think I bumped him off,
”
s
he added, only partly teasing. 

“Is that what you think happened to him?”

“Nah, there’s no way I’m that lucky,” she quipped.  “Seriously though, he’s
only
been gone since yesterday?  He’s probably holed up somewhere sleeping it off.”

“Alone?”

“Interesting question,” Lexi regarded him with a new respect; he was looking at it from all angles.  There were things that she knew about Neil, things she’d never told Allie because it would crush her, but there wasn’t anything she could tell him that was based in cold hard facts other than what her
gift
told her.  “I’ll just say it’s entirely possible that he’s not alone, and leave it at that.”

“So their marriage isn’t quite as rosy as she would have me believe?”

“You’d think Allie was the artist in the family from the pictures she likes to paint, wouldn’t you?” Lexi gave a tight smile.  “It’s not that she’s delusional or even clueless.  I think on some level she knows her marriage isn’t all its cracked up to be
;
but it’s easier for her to think of it
as perfect
, if that makes sense.” 

Gabriel nodded slowly, but she didn’t think he really understood from the look on his face.  It was hard enough for Lexi to swallow but she’d had a lot
more practice accepting Allie’s perspective.  

“And they’ve been married for how long?”

“Let’s see, Chloe’s ten
,
so going on eleven years now.  Why, are you thinking you might have a shot with Allison now that Neil’s out of the picture?”  Again, she was only half kidding, Lexi fully expected Neil to come back when he was good and ready
but the thought
crossed her mind; was the detective single and looking?  There was no ring on his hand, but that didn’t mean much these days.

“That wouldn’t be my first instinct, no
,
” Gabriel muttered.

“Why
did
you guys break up, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Actually
,
I do mind,” he replied with a
slightly bewildered smile
.  “Miss Morgan, I’m doing my best to take a missing person’s report and I think you’ve asked almost as many questions as I have.  Did you want to take over?”  Gabriel thrust the notebook in her direction.

“No, you’re doing a bang up job so far.”  Lexi kept her hands neatly folded in her lap, though she was a little curious as to what he’d scribbled down in that little book about her family. 
“I noticed you called it a report though and not an investigation.  Do we have to wait forty-eight hours or something until it’s considered an investigation?”  She could see in his face that he wasn’t used to getting such direct questions in his line of work, but she couldn’t help it.  “I’m sorry, I know this is old hat to you but this is my first missing person.  Even if it is a
t
ool like Neil, Allie wants him back, so…”

This time his smile was a little easier and he tucked away
the
notebook with a sigh.  “No, you can report someone missing at any time; it doesn’t have to be forty-eight hours from the time he’s missed.  The thing is
,
it’s not a crime for a guy to stay away for a while or even decide not to come home
ever
again.  Without any signs of foul play, there’s not a whole lot I can do.  Normally a call like this would get a uniform out here to ask a few questions, we’d file a report and that’s pretty much the end of it, there’s not even a follow up with a detective.  The only reason I responded was
because
I recognized Neil’s name when the call came through and I was in the area
,
so I thought I’d check it out.  I didn’t even
remember that Allie
married him,” he spread his hands.  “I tried explaining that to your sister but…”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like news she wanted to hear.”  Lexi chewed on her bottom lip, eyes shifting when All
ison returned to the living room
. 

“I don’t think any of his clothes are missing, I was careful going through everything though, just in case,” Allie addressed Lexi directly before turning to the detective.  “I don’t know how to check about the bank account
though;
I can’t remember the online password.”

“Oh Allie…” Lexi groaned, how could anyone be so clueless?

“What?  Neil handles all of the
finances;
I can’t remember the last time I had to get into any of that stuff.”

“If you call the bank they should be able to
assist
you
with that
,” Gabriel supplied helpfully.

“But I don’t know the account numbers…”

Lexi
resisted the
urge to facepalm, forcing a neutral smile to her face.  “We’ll figure it out Allie, I’ll help you, okay?”  There had to be a paper trail around the house somewhere to dig into that stuff, and if not, calling the bank should do the trick like
Detective Ryan
recommended. 

Allison gave her a grateful smile, “Thanks Lexi, you’re so good at those kinds of things.”

Lexi bit back the sarcastic retort that leapt to her lips, leaving the bland smile there while the detective got to his feet.  Now that he stood she could see just how tall he was, easily over six feet which meant he would tower over her five foot four frame but he was we
ll matched to Allie’s five
seven height.  Once again she wondered what things would have been like if her sister had married someone she could get along with
reasonably well
.  But then again, it was probably for the best that her brother in law wasn’t someone she could
drool over…

Detective Ryan was all busi
ness now that Allison
rejoined them, no sign of that laid back quality in the set of his impressive shoulders. 
“
I’ll tell you what I’ll do. 
I’ve got
the
list of
Neil’s
friends
and
associates
;
I’ll make a few calls and see if I can come up with anything, okay?”

“And you’ll call me?  Either way, whether you find anything or not?” Allie pressed.

“I will,” he nodded, edging towards the door and Lexi took pity on him. 

“
Okay, thanks; we’ve got it from here. 
I’ll see the detective out and I’ll be right back Allie,” she smiled, scooting past him to the front door
before she spoke again
. 
“Thanks
again
for the help
,
Detective
.  I
t’s really nice of you to offer to call around, but I can do that too if you’re busy.”