The Touch (3 page)

“It’s no trouble, a few calls won’t take up much of my day,” he shrugged it off.  “I have to say I’m a little surprised to see you pitching in so eagerly to track him down though,” Ryan paused on the front porch. 

“Yeah well, she’s my sister.  Sure he’s a
n asshat
, but he’s
her
asshat
,” she gave him a lopsided grin.  “
Besides, if he
skipped out on her I wanna know before he cleans out the bank account.”

Gabriel’s smile was back as she followed him out onto the porch.  Turning to lean a little closer to her, he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.  “You know
,
off the record, I alw
ays thought Neil was kind of a
t
ool too, but I think I like asshat better.  Let’s hope for your sister’s sake he comes back in one piece though.”

Lexi stared after him for a moment, at a loss for words.  “
Are y
ou sure about that?  That would leave Allie off the market,” she called after him.

“She’s not my type,” he replied with a wink so fast she
thought she might have
imagined it. 
The question remained, just who was his type?

Chapter
Two

“Allie?”  Now that
Ryan
was gone, the
y could get down to the real reason she’d been summoned
.  

“Lexi
,
you have to find him, I don’t know what I’ll do if something bad really happened to Neil.  God, how am I going to tell Chloe?”  The tears were already starting to fall and Lexi pulled her into a hug, knowing from experience not to even bother offering words of comfort until the storm subsided.

When the worst of the sobs faded, she tried reason. 
“Allie
,
it’s gonna be okay.  Like I said, you would have heard by now if he’d been in an accident.”

“But what if he bumped his head and has amnesia?”

Yeah cause that happened every day…
  “Then
they’ll check his wallet or run the plates on the Audi or
Detective Ryan will find him in the hospital as a John Doe, right?  Hey, speaking of hot detectives, how random was that running into him again?  I can’t believe you dumped that guy.”

“Oh Lexi, that was a hundred years ago, I can’t even remember why it didn’t work out.”  Allison had dated pretty steadily through high school, never without a boyfriend for very long.  Lexi by contrast ha
d not gone on a real date until
college.  Considering some of the losers Allie
went out
with, Lexi
almost
thought she’d gotten the better bargain. 

“How soon till Chloe gets home?” Lexi asked, getting them back on task again.

“She’s got gymnastics after school, so not until six thirty,” Allie sniffed.

Wanting to stem off another flow of tears, Lexi let go of her, preferring to get it over with.  While most of the time she didn’t mind using her ability, in fact sometimes it was ev
en entertaining,
Neil wasn’t her favorite subject.  “Okay, that should give me plenty of time.  I’ll start in his bedroom
,
that should have the most recent contact.  Unless you think I should start in the den?” 

Allie shook her head, “No, you’re right, the bedroom is best.  I think it’s been a few days since he spent any time in the den.  I could give you the remote though; he holds that a lot while he’s watching TV.”

“No thanks, all I’ll probably get from that is what he’s thinking about beer commercials,” Lexi shot her a quick grin.  “I’ll start upstairs, why don’t you go look on his desk for any bank statements?”
  Allie nodded, withdrawing to the den.

It didn’t give
Lexi
much pleasure to wander through the house on her own.
Not that
she objected to older houses;
the old Victorian she shared with Paul and Maddie was in a constant state of disrepair and Allie’s house was in much better shape cosmetically by comparison.  Peeling wallpaper, exposed plumbing, the constant smell of paint stripper; those were all things she’d gotten used to at her own place, but something about this house… Even with all the windows the place seemed gloomy.  Maybe it was the canopy of shade from the mature trees on the property, or the fading
paint on the walls, but Lexi
never felt comp
letely comfortable there.  She’d
always chalked it up to her difficulties with Neil, but even now with him nowhere in sight, she felt uneasy.  

The master bedroom was to the left at the top of the stairs,
a guest room and
Chloe’s room to the right with a bathroom in between.  Despite the faded structure, her sister’s decorative touches were evident in the master, the crisp white linens and
colorful throw
pillows brightened the room considerably, as did the fresh flowers carefully arranged on the bedside tables.  One thing you could say about Allie, she did try to set the stage for a peaceful home.  Too bad it was a guarantee that Neil never noticed any of it. 

Built before the concept of walk in closets, an entire wall had been renovated in a deep mahogany to match the wainscoting, providing plenty of
storage
space, giving them each hanging and drawer space.  Neil’s shirts were arranged by color from light to dark, as were the suits.  Shoes
lay
neatly arranged in little cubbies built expressly for that purpose.

Tugging off her gloves, Lexi stuffed them in her back pocket, out of the way while she got to work. 
Taking a
deep
,
cleansing breath,
she
closed her eyes as her hand connected with the shirt sleeve directly in front of her.  As always,
the corresponding blur of images washed over her quickly and she let
them
go
without trying to decipher them
, opening her eyes as she tried to find the uppermost layer
of memory
on the material.
 
Staring sightlessly ahead, focused inward, Lexi got
an image of Allison hanging the clean shirt on the hangar, putting away the laundry. 

Digging deeper, Lexi peeled back another layer of memory, getting images of Neil getting ready for work.  After spending a few more
seconds
pushing back farther, she was treated to boring
scenes
of him at work, but nothing
to give any clue as to what
happened to him
or where he was now
.

That was the problem with trying to read a random object like a piece of clothing.  Without any real strong connection to the object, she wouldn’t get much more than surfa
ce thoughts or scenes.  If she
had something like his watch or wedding ring, something that he wore every day, there was a good chance she
could
get
a much stronger picture
, maybe even a connection to where he was in the present, not just the past. 

But Lexi doggedly worked her way through the closet, hoping that she’d stumble upon something more interesting than watching Neil surf the net at work.  When a break finally came, she was so shocked, that she actual
ly let go of the belt she’d
grabbed hold of, breaking the connection.  The image of a blonde woman fumbling with the belt buckle still burned bright in her mind though and Lexi forced herself to take hold of the belt again to see what she could learn.  It was easier to hone in on the images this time, now that she knew where to look for them
,
so to speak. 

Mouths crashed against each other,
hands roaming boldly;
he knew what she liked.  In the middle of the day at the office was tricky but that lent some of the thrill of discovery.  Neil sprawled in his chair with the blonde sitting across his lap,
dropping
his hand lower to slip under th
e
tight fitting skirt that drove him nuts.

“Ah, ah, ah, not so fast…” she clamped her hand over his, drawing it up to her warm, waiting mouth. 

A thrill went through him as her tongue snaked around his finger.  “Don’t make me beg
,
Monica.”

“You promised we’d go out today
,
”
she pouted prettily.

“We will, we will, but if I don’t have you soon
,
I’m gonna die…”  It was all he could do to keep from bending her over the desk whether she wanted him to or not. 

Monica
’s hands moved lower, ma
king him groan.  “Well, we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”  Slinking down to the floor with an arch smile, she knelt bet
ween his legs
…

Lexi pulled herself from the vision with a
start,
cheeks flaming as she struggled to catch her breath.  Sometimes it was like th
at
, caught in her own private picture show, experiencing things from the point of view of whoever owned the object she was holding.  Instead of fuzzy images or vague feelings
,
she was treated to a feast for all the senses
,
in bright Technicolor with surround sound and more.  In this instance, it was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach to have shared what Neil was up to with that Monica at the office. 

“Allie’s gonna kill me,” she sighed, stepping away from the closet to run her fingers through her hair.  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d told someone something they didn’t want to hear
,
only to have them blame the messenger.  The sick feeling stuck with her as she sat down on the bed; could Neil really have run off with
an
other woman without even so much as saying goodbye
to his wife and daughter?  She knew
he was a scumbag, but that seemed cold and callous even for him. 

But then again, she’d learned not to read too much into any one single vision; out of context, it rarely gave the entire picture.  Staring down at her hands that lay upturned on her lap, she reached out to touch the coverlet on the bed, centering herself to try again.  Images of Allie tossing and turning in the bed were fairly steady and regular, along with Neil sleeping soundly beside her.  Methodically she worked her way back through the layers of memory, trying to steel herself for any sign of bedroom activity
other
than sleeping, but there didn’t seem to be any lovin
’
going on, at least in that bed.  Lexi was just about to give up when she stumbled upon an argument between husband and wife.

Neil sat on the edge of the bed while Allison clutched the c
overlet,
knuckles standing out white from her tight grip.  “Answer me!”

“I was working late,” Neil replied, his voice devoid of inflection. 

That’s what he always said…  “I just don’t understand why you have to be at the office so late?  You’re the VP of Sales, what clients are still in the office at ten pm?
”

“Y
ou obviously don’t know anything about how sales work.  During the day I’m in the office, but sometimes at night I have to take clients out and get a drink or two into them before they’re ready to sign on the dotted line.”

She hated it when he talked to her like that, as if she was a child
,
incapable of understanding.  “Ye
s,
sometimes, but you’ve been staying out more and more…”

“I told you, I’m trying to put together a big deal right now and we can really use the money.  Chloe’s braces don’t exactly grow on trees
,
you know.  And you wanted a master bathroom added to this place too, don’t forget that.”  Neil tossed his dirty clothes in a heap on the floor beside the bed.

“I’d rather have you around more and shower out in the hall bathroom,” Allison replied glumly, her eyes on his back.  He wouldn’t even look at her anymore.  How could she
know
if he was telling her the truth if he wouldn’t look her in the eyes?

“Look, it’s not for too much longer.”  Neil turned and pulled back his covers, climbing into bed with a tired groan.  “I’m doing this for us, you know.  All of us.”  Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I know,” her eyes slid shut at that kiss, some of the worry slipping
away
at the tender touch.  “I know you are, and I’m sorry, I just miss you.”

“I know, I miss you too.  Just… you gotta stop nagging me about every little thing, okay?  You’re driving me nuts.  One of these days, I’m just gonna snap,” he
sighed
. 

Was that what happened?  Had Neil snapped?  As Lexi tugged her gloves back on, she struggled with what she should and shouldn’t tell her sister about what she’d seen.  Without real proof as to why Neil had gone missing, would it do any good to clue her in to his affairs?  It might not have anything to do with his disappearance at all.  But didn’t she owe it to her sister to tell her what a rat bastard she’d married in case she wanted to divorce him?  Not that her visions were exactly admissible in divorce court, but Allie might want to at least start gathering evidence against him
.  But knowing her sister, she would
probably want to make excuses for him, or wait for him to come up with an explanation as to how it wasn’t his fault. 
Maybe
it was
better to wait and gather
concrete evidence before she told Allison what she knew?

At the end of the day, Lexi knew her reluctance to spill the beans stemmed more from her cowardice than anything else, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Allie about the blonde coworker.  As she came down the stairs, she put on her best game face, heading straight for the den where her sister sat behind the massive wooden desk.  “Hey, did you find anything useful?”

“I don’t know, there’s a stack of statements, but nothing that looks like it’s a password,” Allie replied.  “What about you though, what did you find?”

Her sister looked scared, like she was half afraid of what Lexi might say, so she offered her most reassuring smile.  “I wasn’t able to get a line on what he’s currently doing, sorry.”
 
Not a lie
…