The Touch (16 page)

“No, I haven’t,” Allie replied, forehead puckering with lines of stress.  “I really have more important things to worry about than whether or not there’s any truth to those stupid stories, Lexi.  I know that kind of thing interests you, but you know I don’t believe in that crap.”

Lexi nodded, lips compressing into a thin line as she bit back the retort that sprang to her lips.  She could cut Allie some slack for now, she probably hadn’t meant to be so insulting, at least Lexi was willing to offer her the benefit of the doubt.  “Okay, well I’m gonna keep trying to get a fix on Chloe’s location.  I’ll just keep out of your hair then, shall I?” 

“Let me know if you find anything,” Allison nodded.  “I do appreciate your help,” she added belatedly. 

“Sure thing,” Lexi nodded, getting out of the kitchen before she said something she would end up beating herself up over later when she was alone.  Instead of heading back upstairs, she took a detour to Neil’s study, figuring she might find a
more
personal possession of his in there. 
A quick check of the bo
oks found most of them for show;
Neil hadn’t touched any of them since unpacking.  The desk itself mostly gave images of him working or surfing the net once she got past the most recent police presence and Allie’s searches.  It was time consuming and tiring, but it had to be done
,
and Lexi moved methodically through the contents of his desk, finding nothing out of the ordinary until she came upon an expensive pen and pencil set in a black velvet box.  As soon as she picked up the box, she knew it was an object that he liked to handle often.  Taking a deep, cleansing breath to refocus, Lexi picked up the pen, concentrating on finding a link to where Neil was right at that moment.  Instead of flashing upon a string of memories or even the tentative link to where he was now as she’d been hoping for, there was just… nothing.  Almost as though the object was wiped clean, she wasn’t picking up any vibrations as she searched for that link to his consciousness. 

He just felt… gone. 

She’d never tried to read a dead person’s possession before with the
goal
of trying to locate them, but it struck her that it might be just what she’d stumbled upon
.  Letting her mind relax, she stopped trying to find that connection to him and was rewarded by a series of regular images of the past, Neil writing with the pen, tapping it against his lower lip, scratching his balls…
eewh
.  Lexi dropped the pen, staring at it, her brows drawn together into a single dark line.  Could Neil really be dead?  Then where the hell was Chloe? 
 

“I brought you some cocoa,” Allie smiled from the doorway, drawing Lexi out of her reverie.

“Oh, thanks,” Lexi tried for a smile, not wanting to let on to her theories until she was a little
surer
of them. 

“Any luck so far?”

“No,
I’m pretty much
getting him sitting here working and surfing the net.” 
Not a lie
. 

“Listen, about before… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call what you do crap.  That’s not what I meant at all,” Allie apologized, setting down the mug of hot cocoa on the desk blotter. 

“Oh, yeah I know
,
Allie.  No worries, I know you’re under a lot of stress,” Lexi waved away the apology, feeling a rush of guilt over any bad feelings on her part in seeing her sister’s face.

“Like I said, I’m going
crazy
sitting here doing nothing all by myself.  I keep thinking
,
what if this is it?  What if this is my life now?  Here all alone?”

“That’s not gonna happen Allie,” Lexi reached for her sister’s hand with her gloved one, giving it a squeeze.  “
I’ll t
ell you what, how about I spend the night here with you tonight?  It’ll be like a sleepover, like old times when we shared a room, remember?”

“How could I forget?  You snore like a freight train,”
a
trace of the old Allie was visible in her smile.

“I’m pretty sure that was you,” Lexi laughed
,
“
b
ut I can stay in the guest room if you think you might keep me up with
your
snoring.”

“Alright, a girls’
night in it is.”
 

“Do you have any other girlfriends you want to invite?”

“Not really.  I’d rather have it be just us with all of this going on anyway.”

“Okay great.  We can braid each other’s hair and pig out on ice cream.”  Lexi left off the part where they’d stay up telling ghost stories, though it did come to mind. 

“Maybe I’d better go out and buy some groceries then, I’m fresh out of mint chip and donuts.”

“You
do
remember,” Lexi laughed.  “Do you want me to stop by the store for you?”

“
Actually
, I think it might be a good idea to get out for a little while.  If you don’t mind sticking around here for a while,” she added quickly.

“No, I’m fine to stay here.  You go and take your time.”  She could always borrow something to sleep in and Lexi knew that Allison always had an extra toothbrush lying aroun
d.  At least she used to;
it had been a while since they
’d
had any kind of impromptu sleepover together. 

“Okay
,
I think I will.  Thanks Lexi.”  Allison bent to wrap her arms around Lexi for a hug and Lexi was careful to keep her bare hand balled up into a fist, away from anything she might inadvertently touch. 

“What are sisters for?”
Lexi smiled as they parted ways.  Tugging on the glove as soon as Allie was gone, she picked up the phone, calling Gabriel’s cell. 

He picked up on the third ring.  “Detective Ryan here.”

“Hello Detective Ryan, are you busy?”

“A little,” his tone sounded guarded.  “What can I do for you?”

Lexi caught the implication, he wasn’t alone and able to talk freely.  “I wanted to talk to you about Neil and Chloe.  I think… I think he
might be
dead.”  Having said it out loud for the first time, she couldn’t help but feel like it was true. 

There was a pause on the line as he took in what she said.  “What makes you think so?”

“I’m getting nothing but a black void whenever I try to focus on connecting to him in the present.”

“But the two of you have never had much of a connection before, right?”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it.”  Lexi wished she’d waited to have this conversation with him in person, maybe it wo
uld have been easier to explain, b
ut as usual she
’d
followed her more impulsive nature.  “It has to do more with the connection they have with the object.  Usually it either works or I don’t tap into it at all, I just get the memories.  But this time
all I got was
a big bunch of nothingness.  I’ve never felt anything like that before, but then again I’ve never tried to forge a connection with someone I know is dead before
either
.
”
 

“Okay,” Gabriel replied after a moment.  “Do you have any idea what might have happened to him or where we might find him?”

“Sorry no,” Lexi admitted.  “I know it’s not much to go on.”

“Or
anything
to go on…” he muttered. 

“I just wanted you to know, that’s all.”  It was hard to keep the ribbon of hurt from her voice.

His voice dropped.  “I know Lexi, and I appreciate you calling, really I do.  I’ll call you later and we can talk more about it, okay?”

She decided not to mention anything about the ghostly singing for the moment either.  “Okay.  I’m staying the night at Allie’s tonight.”

“Oh?  That’s nice of you.  I’ll let you go for now then.”

“Bye.”  Lexi sat with the phone in her hand, wondering what to do next.  
While
it was
clear that Gabriel believed in her gift, he was right about one thing; it didn’t give him any evidence to go on.  All it told her was that the vision she’d seen of Chloe being held in a dark room seemed more and more likely if Neil really was dead. 
But what did that have to do with the ghosts of children singing nursery rhymes?  Maybe nothing, but Lexi intended to
make the most of
her sleepover that night. 

Chapter
Nine

Allison was eager for the distraction of the sleepover, going all out in her shopping with junk food that Lexi
was willing to
bet hadn’t graced the inside of her kitchen in some time.  All too happy to help distract her sister, Lexi scoured the house for all of the key components for a successful sleepover.  Since Allie had the junk food part down, Lexi dug up the other essentials; nail polish, tweezers, cold wax strips, three different kinds of facial masks
…
every conceivable accoutrement for personal grooming
she could think of
was assembled on the coffee table with a stack of movies to choose from to get the ball rolling. 

Between Allie’s selection of DVD’s and the cable’s On Demand feature (which Lexi spent the better part of a half hour
drooling over; they only had basic cable at her house) there were too many choices available not to descend into a lively debate over what to watch.  Both were in a nostalgic mood and both agreed to a classic movie from their teen years, but that’s where the ability to agree ended. 
Lexi wanted some
thing quirky, maybe in t
he Cusack m
ilieu.  Allie wanted more like Pretty in Pink or the Breakfast Club, but those didn’t sound as appealing to Lexi.  Who wanted to sit around listening to spoiled high school kids complain about their white bread lives for two hours?  When Molly Ringwald got to see what it was like to be a social pariah for four years, then they could talk, otherwise, Lexi wanted something light and fun. 

In the end they agreed
on
F
erris
Bu
eller’s
D
ay
O
ff
,
because the
re was no denying
what a fox Matthew Broderick was in his heyday
.  After the fi
r
st wave of snacks, they painted each other’s toe nails and Lexi mixed up a batch of honey oatmeal face mask
while they laughed over the movie, and generally had a good time
reciting
the lines along with the characters. 

“
It’s been a long time since we did this
,” Allie sighed, settling back onto the couch with a bowl of mint chip ice cream while her nails dried.
             

“
Yeah well… you have other responsibilities now,” Lexi replied
,
without a trace of rancor.  Even as kids their ta
stes
were
different
, nights like this had been few and far between even before her marriage to Neil
.  “D
o
you ever do this sort of thing with Chloe?”

“
N
o,” Allie replied
,
a trifle
subdued and Lexi
instantly regretted mentioning her niece
.  But it was important to focus on the future, especially one that included such happy memories to be made. 

“She’s probably old enough to get into it, provided you don’t mind watching something with sparkly vampires or
the Jonas Brothers,
” Lexi grinned.  “
I bet she’d like it.
”

“Maybe,” Allie
nodded, setting down her largely untouched bowl of ice cream. 

“Are you gonna finish that?”

“
No, you go ahead
,” Allison waved her
on
.

Not one to let good ice cream go to waste, Lexi leaned forward to scoop the bowl up before it got too melty, savoring the rich treat. 

“
Do you think Neil ran off with another woman?
”
Allie a
s
ked out of
the blue
,
and Lexi blinked at the rapid change in subject, grateful for the spoon in her mouth that gave her a few seconds to formulate her response. 

“I really couldn’t say Allie, you’re the one who knows him the best,” she replied carefully.
  So far she’d kept the truth about Monica to herself and she intended to keep it that way if at all possible.  Especially since it seemed obvious that Neil hadn’t run off with her.

“I know we’ve had our share of p
roblems, but who doesn’t?
”

As far as Lexi was concerned, their problems were a bit more serious than Allie was making it sound, but she thought it interesting that her sister finally acknowledg
ed
that her marriage wasn’t exactly Ozzie and Harriet. 
“I’m not the best person to ask, I’m not all that experienced in the relationship department, remember?”

“
Oh, right,” Allie nodded, looking embarrassed.

“No, it’s fine.  You have to kiss a lot of frogs before
your prince comes, right?  I’m
still in my amphibian phase
, that’s
all.
”  But Lexi
was hopeful, especially with Gabriel in the picture. 
Speaking of which…
“Hey
,
you never told me,” not that she’d been all that interested
at
the time, “why
did
you break up with Gabriel back in high school?”
  Though for all she knew it had been the other way around and Gabriel had done the dumping.

“
Gabriel?  Wow, that was a long time ago,” it took her sister a few
seconds
to shift gears.  “He never took me anywhere
fun
.  We didn’t go to parties
;
we went to one dance, but we didn’t go to the party afterwards.  He was always either in training for sports or he had a lot of studying to do.  It was like… his priorities were all out of whack.
”

Or just not in synch with hers, Lexi thought to herself.  It sounded like Gabriel
took
his academic career a little more seriously than Allie had, and she hadn’t wanted to sacrifice her social life to be with him.  Not that she was gonna come right out and say that, but no wonder he hadn’t seemed all that eager to rekindle things between them
if that was
why she dumped him.  Especially if she’d been vocal about why
.  “I’ll bet it serves him well as a cop though, those guys are married to their jobs,” she commented idly. 

“Yeah, he seems to be pretty focused,” Allie agreed.  “But people change.  Who knows, if things don’t work out with Neil…”

Lexi’s head came up sharply, was she
for real
? 
Her husband had been gone for less than a week and she was talking about maybe starting something up with Gabriel? 
Mashing her teeth against the inside of her lips, she kept from blurting out something inappropriate
.
 
But wasn’t that practically the same thing she’d said to Gabriel the first day they’d met?  So why did it bother her so much now? 

Holy crap
, was that jealousy she was feeling?
 
T
he thought of Gabriel and her sister together again
was enough to fill her with a serious
ca
se of ickiness.  The realization was funny enough to help her find a
little
humor
in
it
and the
knot in her stomach started to loosen
. 
“Yeah, stranger things have happened,” she nodded, grateful when the movie’s end credits started rolling and they could seize upon the distraction of picking the next movie
without going back to either topic
. 

F
rom there it seemed natural to segue into Girls Just Wanna Have
Fun with a pre
-S
ex in the
C
ity
,
S
arah Jessica
Parker
. 
That
one definitely lost some of it
s appeal with age and
Allie fell aslee
p halfway through
.
  Lexi w
asn’t sure if she should
disturb
her or not, but from the angle of her head
,
Lexi decided to wake Allie to save her from a terrible crick in the neck come morning.
  Offering to take care of the mess, Lexi stayed behind to straighten up, noting that Allie would have plenty of junk food on hand in the coming week; they’d barely made a dent in
the stash
. 

It was a little strange being in the quiet house with Allie gone up to bed, and when Lexi started up the stairs,
there was
a moment of uneasiness a
s
she snapped off the downstairs lights.  While she was used to
going up
the stairs in the dark at her own house
without giving it a second thought
, something made her turn the
hall
light on before she ascended the staircase.
  Safe
ly reaching
the guest room, Lexi could smil
e at her fear;
nothing evil
jumped out at her and not even a flicker of a ghost put in an appearance while she got ready for bed
. 
Allie’s borrowed sleepsh
irt came down to about mid
thigh
, comfortable enough with the weather turning warmer
and she decided to forego socks for fear of mussing her new pedicure that sported a rainbow of colors
.
  Just about to climb into bed, an idea came to her and Lexi let go of the covers, padding barefoot to the top of the stairs, this time refusing to turn on the lights out of
sheer stubbornness
. 

Careful to be quiet lest she disturb Allie, she crept down to the formal dining room, in search of the heavy china cabinet.  Moonlight filtered through the window
,
giving Lexi more than enough light to see where she was going without bumping into furniture and to see her prize; their grandmother’s old
set of china and
silver tea service.  Gran only used the good china on special occasions which pretty much meant Easter and Christmas with the odd birthday thrown in when rain kept them from going out.  But the tea set had been brought out at least once a week for afternoon tea with anything ranging from home baked lemon scones to ritz crackers and cheese whiz depending on the mood.  It was the only thing she could think of that Allie had around the house that might have a direct line to Gran
. 

At her
house there were treasures of her own that she kept from Gran’s place
, both before and after she
died; her favorite being the afghan in her room and a few pieces of jewelry that were too precious to wear
often
and too beloved to sell, even when money was tight.  As she reached for the teapot now, Lexi frowned over the
thick
layer of dust visible even in the poor light that smudged her gloves.  Usually Allie was absolutely meticulous in her housekeeping and it bothered her to see Gran’s prized possession so forgotten.  Maybe she’d talk to
Allison
about taking it back to her house when all of this was over?  Maddie might get a kick out of having high tea on Sundays. 

It had never occurred to her to try and forge a connection with her gift to someone she knew to be dead before but that was exactly what she intended to do that night.  Would she get that same blank feeling she got when trying to connect through Neil’s pen earlier?  Would she end up with a series of memories of Gran serving them tea on a sunny summer afternoon?  Would she reach Gran’s ghost?  Tempted to
almost
give up the idea altogether, Lexi pulled herself together, ignoring the prickling sensation that she was being watched.  Tugging off her glove, she reached for the teapot but chickened out at the last moment, instead turning on the dining room light and the hallway light for good measure until she stood bathed in golden light, half relieved and half feeling disgusted
for wanting
that crutch
before she began
. 

With trembling fingers
Lexi
reached for the teapot
, closing around the cool metal.  S
he let the initial jumble of images slide by without scrutiny, concentrating on forging that link to her beloved grandmother and met… nothing.  That same void of utter nothingness met her efforts, as though she was coming up against a big black wall that absorbed all light, sound and energy, firmly separating Lexi from her quarry.  Relaxing her concentration, she was able to access the layers of memory embedded in the silver pot.  Images of Allie dusting and polishing the teapot appeared, and then there was Gran doing those same things, and tears escaped Lexi’s sightless eyes as she beheld that dear face
,
so full of life and love.  It was with great reluctance that Lexi let go of the images and returned to the present to swipe at her eyes.  Gran was unreachable beyond the memories stored in the object, as she should be in death.