The Touch Read online

  “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 failed 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 Kiddo, how was gymnastics?” she 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… She 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.

  The hairs on the back of Lexi’s neck stood 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?” she asked, not turning around.

  The question threw her 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 disappeared 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?” she 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 she 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, Kiddo. Come on now, hop in to bed and I’ll read you a story.”

  Chloe did as she was told, her movements slow, a slump to her shoulders. “Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

  “Of course I will, honey.”

  “And will you make sure my mom leaves the hall light on?”

  Lexi looked down into that sweet little face, knowing what it cost her to ask that question. “Sure, no problem. Now let’s read an oldie but a goodie…” Picking up the book of Grimm’s faerie tales, she flipped through to stop at random on the story of Rapunzel. “Once upon a time…”

  ***

  Lexi could tell when Chloe slipped off into dreamland, but she kept reading along, wanting to wait until she was deeply under before getting up from her perch on the side of the bed. When the final words of the story were spoken, her eyes fell to the sad little pile of belongings on the bedside table, the delicate earring in particular drawing her attention. More than likely it was just one of Allie’s old earrings, but it didn’t fit with the childish nature of the other items.

  The whole discussion of ghosts had been odd from the start; first with the drawings and then the admission that they shared the house with not just one ghostly child, but a whole passel of them? Any other day Lexi would have chalked it up to Chloe’s overactive imagination, but there was something off about her niece’s behavior. Besides, who was she to say whether or not ghosts did exist? She’d always been interested in the supernatural, given her own abilities, and she liked to keep an open mind.

  Suddenly it occurred to her that she might very well have the proof right at hand, so to speak. With trembling hands, she pulled off one glove, picking up the earring and closing her fingers around it.

  The brush moved rhythmically through her hair, lips moving as she counted softly. Cinquanta, cinquantuno, cinquantadue, cinquantatré… until her hair shone in the candlelight. She studied the effect in the dressing table mirror, turning her head first one way and then the other. There, pretty as a picture. If only Jack would come home to them… to her… It was almost unbearable facing every day without him, and now with the attack he would be gone that much longer. Her eyes lingered on the small black and white photo tucked into the corner of the mirror, Jack’s handsome face looking so stern and capable in his uniform. “Come back to me amore mio…” she whispered, fingers reaching out to stroke the edge of the worn picture.

  Lexi separated herself from the wave of utter loneliness and despair that she’d never see this Jack again and she sat there wondering who these people were and how they fit into Chloe’s ghostly visits. The woman in the vision wore the earring still clutched in Lexi’s hand and the room was recognizable as Allie’s bedroom with older furnishings, leading her to believe that the earring belonged to a former resident of the house which was at least sixty years old as near as she could tell. It could have been left behind in a forgotten closet corner, or even turned up in the backyard when Chloe was out playing. There were any number of rational ways the earring could have ended up in Chloe’s possession and Lexi reassured herself with those possibilities. Sometimes it was easier to believe a comforting lie than the truth.

  Chapter Three

  “Tell me again what we’re doing down here?” Maddie pulled her Chrysler LeBaron into the parking lot of The Harrison Group, the cellular company where Neil was Vice President of sales. The nondescript beige car blended well with the other vehicles in the lot and she was careful to park on the side of the building, well away from the security door.

  A roll of the eyes was given, Lexi had filled her in on the plan before they even left Santa Cruz, but her housemate looked like she was much less enthusiastic after the forty-five minute drive to San Jose. “I told you, I want to see if there’s anything in Neil’s office that will tell us if he took off or not. Plus, I want to get a look at the chick he’s been seeing on the side.” If that’s what you called it; she wasn’t sure just how much he saw her outside of the office or if their relationship was limited to the odd quickie at lunchtime.

  “Okay, but what am I doing here?”

  “Moral support?” Lexi gave her an entreating smile. “Besides, you look more corporate than I do.” That was true on any day; Lexi’s blue streaks, Chococat t-shirt, clunky boots and the ever present gloves might not have warranted a second glance on the streets of Santa Cruz, but in Corporate America, she stood out.

  “I thought you were going to identify yourself as his sister and see if they let you in?”

  “Yeah, but in the event that doesn’t work, I’ll need you to work your magic and sneak in there.”

  “Is that why you made me dress like this?” Maddie gave an inelegant snort. The petite blonde was dressed for success in her navy blue pencil skirt and blouse, hair drawn up into a French twist. What she liked to call her “capable” outfit when trying to impress potential clients. “What exactly do you think I’ll be able to do?”

  “I’ve never seen a situation you haven’t been able to talk your way out of.”

  “You’re doing a fair job of talking me into this on your own, what makes you think you can’t get in there?”

  “You’re just my ace in the hole. That, and I don’t trust the Bug to make it over the hill.” The winding highway between Santa Cruz and San Jose was treacherous even under ideal circumstances. The idea of attempting it in her old beater car was enough to make Lexi break out in hives.

  “Ah, the truth comes out, it’s my LeBaron you want, not me,” Maddie sighed dramatically, drawing a smile from Lexi.

  “Wish me luck.” Lexi didn’t own “capable” clothes by corporate standards, the nicest thing she owned was a black silk dress Allie had given her for her birthday a couple of years ago and she never wore it, she was too afraid she might spill something on it. In the end she decided not to try too hard
with her appearance, hoping the security wouldn’t be all that tight in a mid level cellular company.

  No such luck.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Travers isn’t in today.”

  “Yeah I know; that’s why I’m here,” Lexi tried explaining for the third time. There were plenty of people just walking into the building, and she might have been able to sneak in, only she had no idea where Neil’s office was in the two story building.

  “I’m sorry; I can’t let you into his office without his permission. I can try to reach him by phone…”

  Jill the receptionist just wasn’t getting it, and Lexi started to wonder if an excess of styling products were freezing the girl’s brain in place along with her hair. “No, you see, he isn’t answering. That’s why I need to get into his office; I’m trying to find out where he went. I’m his sister, Alexandra.” Almost the truth… she just left off the in-law part.

  “I’m sorry; I can’t let you back there without authorization. I could ask Mr. Daniels but he’s at lunch.”

  “When will he be back from lunch?” All she got was a shrug of the shoulders. So much for the honest approach; Lexi hoped Maddie would have better luck. Her friend was a better snoop than she was anyway; Maddie had a knack for ferreting out all sorts of secrets, mostly of the technological variety. Lexi was more the live and let live type, maybe because she already had an unfair advantage into seeing people’s deep dark secrets? “Thanks, you’ve been helpful.”

  Oblivious to the sarcasm laced thanks, the girl behind the desk smiled back politely, turning back to her game of solitaire on the computer.

  Head down as she drew out her cellphone, Lexi took the building corner a little too sharply, nearly dropping the phone as she crashed into someone doing the exact same thing. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I…” the words died on her tongue as she recognized Detective Gabriel Ryan. He’d said he would make a few phone calls, had something changed? Surely Allie would have called her if Neil’s body had washed up on the beach or something. “What are you doing here?”

  Surprise warred with suspicion as his head tilted to one side, studying her intently. “I’m pretty sure that’s my question.”