The Touch (4 page)

“You didn’t pick up anything at all?”

“Oh no
,
I picked up plenty but it was all him at work,”
not a lie
, “nothing that tells me where he is now,”
also not a lie
.

“Oh,” defeat crumpled her features. 

“If I had his watch or his wallet I might be able to get more.  I’m sorry sis,” Lexi came around the desk to wrap her arms around Allison.  “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon though.” 
Only the good die young
.  “Now, about these bank records…”

For the next half hour, Lexi pored over the bank statements with her, trying to make some sense out of the accounts they held together.  In the end, they had to call the bank, explaining the situation to three different people before they would give her the account balance and confirm that there had been no large cash withdrawals in the past couple of weeks.

“See, that’s a good sign,” Lexi soothed her, thinking maybe there was still time to safeguard some of her assets. 

“How is that good? 
It
just proves something awful happened to him,” Allison groaned, head resting in her hands as she massaged her temples. 

“Why don’t you go lie down for a little while?  Try and get some rest?  I’m betting you didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night, am I right?”

“I was up pretty late once I realized he hadn’t come home yet,” Allie nodded.  “Do you think you could pick Chloe up from gymnastics for me?  I want to be here in case Neil calls.”

“Sure,” Lexi agreed immediately.  “What do you want me to tell her?”

“Don’t tell her anything, I’ll just tell her he’s working late again, that’s not that unusual an occurrence.”

So she’d seen… 

***

Lexi had always enjoyed a good relationship with Chloe
,
despite Neil’s bad attitude.  Her niece was of course fascinated by her hands and never fail
ed to ask for a demonstration,
listening with rapt attention
to
the gossipy stories
about
people’s lives
that
Lexi
picked up
.  Maybe Lexi shouldn’t have encouraged that trait in her, but
she tried to be
careful never to reveal anything too salacious or damaging to the person they were “spying” on, treating it more like a game. 

As she waited for Chloe to wrap up her lesson, Lexi admired the grace and absolute fearlessness the little girl displayed as she flipped her body on the big beam set a few feet from the ground, defying gravity. 

“Hey
K
iddo, how was gymnastics?”
s
he called out as Chloe raced towards her, ponytail swinging from side to side. 
A pretty girl despite the mouthful of metal, with shoulder length honey blonde hair and inquisitive green eyes, Chloe still had that fresh innocence about her that Lexi hoped she’d never lose. 

“Did you see me on the balance beam?”

“I sure did, you were the best one.”

A roll of the eyes was given, “I was the only one.”

“That’s what I said,” Lexi grinned, walking her to the parking lot where her little VW bug waited.  Now when she noticed her niece’s smile she thought of Neil’s words. 
Braces don’t grow on trees
…
S
he
always thought they were doing fairly well financially, maybe that wasn’t the case?

“How come you’re picking me up today?” Chloe asked, scooting into the passenger’s seat and pulling on her seatbelt.

“Your mom’s got a bad headache; she asked me to swing by and pick you up.”
Not a lie.
  “What do you want for dinner?  The sky’s the limit as long as it’s under twenty bucks.”

“Mom said we can get take out?”

“She didn’t say we
couldn’t
get take out.”  Sometimes you had to push Allie out of her habits; it was good for her every now and again.  Lexi thought she could use the break from having to make dinner and it would give her more time alone with Chloe.

“Can we go to King Chwan’s?”

Her niece was the only little girl she knew who would pick Chinese over fast food.  Any other kid would have been begging for McNuggets right about then, but Chloe was a sucker for
Kung
pao chicken. 

“Yeah
,
sure we can.”  It would stretch her budget, but she could make it work with a little creative ordering.  “So, how have things been?”

“Good.”

“How are things at school?”

“Good.”

She was starting to see a pattern.  “What about things at home?”

“Good.”

Good; hardly the most descriptive response.  “Geez Chloe, you want to vague that up for me a little?  I hate it when you go on and on with details…” Lexi poked her shoulder lightly.

“It’s okay.” 

“Just okay?” Lexi frowned, this was not going as she’d expected.

“Lexi
,
can I spend the night at your house tonight?” Chloe asked out of nowhere.

“My house tonight?  How come?”

“I just want to.”

Lexi mulled that over for a moment, but figured Allison would probably go ballistic at the suggestion
of
a mid-week slumber party.  “Well
,
it’s a school night, and I’m pretty sure your bus doesn’t make it all the way out to my place.” 

“What about this weekend?”

“We can ask your mom, okay?” Lexi relented, which was about as definite as a maybe.

“Really?” Chloe brightened a little at the possibility. 

“Sure.”  This quiet behavior was odd, normally Chloe chatted her ear off about every little thing.  “Hey seriously, is everything okay at home? With your mom and dad?”

“Oh
,
they’re fine,” Chloe replied dismissively and that sent up a warning flag with Lexi.  Whatever she was worried about; it wasn’t any problems with her parents’ marriage.

“But it’s not okay with something else?”

“I just don’t like it there.”

“At your house?” Lexi’s brows drew together in confusion.  “I thought you liked your room?”  Chloe shrugged
;
at least
Lexi
thought it was a shrug, it was difficult to tell out of the corner of her eye.  This wasn’t normal, but it was impossible to get a straight answer out of her when she was concentrating on the road.

It wasn’t until later, after the Chinese food
was eaten
and Lexi volunteered for story duty when she had a chance to talk to Chloe alone again.  While the little girl was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Lexi wandered through her room, decorated in pale pinks and yellows, looking for… she had no idea really, just some sort of clue to her strange behavior earlier.  Pausing before the easel she’d given her for Christmas, Lexi flipped through the pages on the oversized sketch book propped there. 

Chloe
demonstrated
real artistic promise and Lexi
was
happy to support those interests in any way she could, exposing her to every medium she could think of.  Chloe showed a preference for sketching, mostly with pencils
with
just a hint of color every now and again for shading.  Her drawings reminded Lexi of Japanese anime art, featuring characters with oversized heads on tiny bodies, and human figures with animal ears and tails.  As she flipped through the pages, one figure in particular became a constant from picture to picture.  No matter the setting, the same girl was featured in the background, always looking down, hair covering her face.  Sometimes the figure was standing, or sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees as though comforting herself
,
but she always had the same straight hair hanging over her face and the same dress with princess sleeves and a wide sash just under the bodice. 

“What are you doing?”  Chloe stood by the door, hesitating as though she hadn’t decided if she was going to enter or not.

“Looking at your artwork.  Who’s this?” Lexi pointed to the girl.

“My friend.”

“A friend from school?”

“No, just a friend.”

“What’s her name?”

“
Bianca
.” Chloe’s voice
was barely above a whisper,
eyes on the drawing.

T
he hairs on the back of Lexi’s neck st
ood up at the way Chloe said the name
.  She almost sounded like she was afraid her friend would know they were talking about her.  “How come you can’t see her face?”

“She always looks like that, she…”

“She what?”

“She doesn’t like me to talk about it, it makes her sad.”

Lexi digested that for a moment, not wanting her niece to abuse that trust even though there was no way the girl would ever know about it.  “Okay, where did you meet her?”

Chloe didn’t answer the question right away,
focusing on
putting her shoes away in the bottom of her closet. 

“Chloe, I asked you a question,” Lexi pressed, watching Chloe carefully for her response.

“Lexi, do you believe in ghosts?”
s
he asked, not turning around.

The question threw he
r off balance for a moment
.  “I… guess so.   I mean I
suppose
they could exist, but I’ve never seen one for myself.”

Chloe turned around, her face absolutely grave.  “She lives here with us.  There’s lots of kids who live here, but most of them aren’t nice, not like she is.”

“What do you mean
,
she lives here with you?  Are you saying she’s a ghost?”  Lexi’s brows climbed skyward, but she managed to keep her reaction fairly neutral, not wanting to disrupt the thread of communication they finally had going.  The girl’s head bobbed as she nodded, but she didn’t add anything else.  “How do you know she’s a ghost?  Have you seen her before?”

Another nod was given, “Sometimes, though most of the time I can just tell she’s around.”

“Is she here now?”

“No.  Mostly she comes when I’m all alone.  Mostly
at night
.”

Talk about creepy…
  Lexi knelt before her, looking into those cool green eyes.  When had they taken on that sorrowful cast? 
“Chloe, are you afraid of her?  Is that why you wanted to spend the night at my house?” 

“No, I’m not afraid of her, she’s my friend.  It’s the other kids I don’t like.  They’re mean sometimes, they like to play tricks.”

She was almost afraid to ask,
“What kind of tricks?”

“They like to hide things, or pull my hair sometimes when I’m trying to do my homework. 
Bianca
finds them for me though and leaves them under the bed.”

Lexi wasn’t sure what to say.  It was apparent that Chloe absolutely believed everything she was saying, but it was difficult to know if
it was all an
elaborate
game or an imaginary friend
.  “Have you told your mom about any of this?”

Another roll of the eyes was given.  “Are you kidding?  She’d send me to the looney bin for sure,” she snorted.

A smile rose unbidden to Lexi’s lips.  “It does sound a little
cuckoo
,
you know,” she said carefully.

“I can prove it though.” 
Scooting
to the edge of her bed, the top half of her
body
disappear
ed
underneath as she reached for something deep under the bed, surfacing a moment later to deposit her treasures on the bedspread.  “See, these are the things
Bianca
left for me while I was at school today.”  The little pile of objects included a cheap plastic whistle, a pink eraser with thumbtacks stuck into it to look like the wheels of a car, a penny and a woman’s gold filigree earring.

Lexi studied the items carefully, not wanting Chloe to think she wasn’t giving this “proof” absolute consideration.  “Chloe honey, anyone could have put those things under the bed, including you.  Do you have any other proof?”
s
he asked gently.

“But I’ve never even seen this earring before, it’s not mine,” Chloe replied, as if that cleared everything up.  Her face fell
a moment later
,
jaw
setting with a mutinous cast.  “You don’t believe me do you?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you exactly… it’s just…”  At a loss for words, Lexi could tell s
he was losing what rapport she
had with Chloe on the subject fast.  “It’s a lot to take in is all, you caught me by surprise,
K
iddo.  Come on now, hop in to bed and I’ll read you a story.”