The Touch (18 page)

“I thought you said you can’t use the same thing again?”

“It could still work if her connection with it is strong, or I might get nothing.  It couldn’t hurt to try though.”  Lexi took another long breath, not exactly looking forward to tapping back into that same vision she had before, but not having much choice if she wanted to find her niece.  Trying to shake off the apprehension, she took an extra couple of breaths to steady herself.  What was she so worried about?  It wasn’t like anything she saw could hurt her.  Even if she did encounter something ghostly, nothing had attacked her in all of the time she’d been in the house, there was nothing to worry abou
t.  At best the ghosts would
try to communicate with her, and maybe they could even tell her what happened to Chloe?  Communicate… Lexi’s eyes popped open as an alternative came to her.  “Under the bed…”  Dropping down to her knees, she peeked under the bedspread, and sure enough, there was a new pile of things under the bed that hadn’t been there before.  “Looks like the ghosts left us something new.”

Reaching under with her gloved hand, she withdrew what looked like Allie’s hairbrush, the book of nursery rhymes she’d found up in the attic the day before, and a small white teacup, smudged and dirty as though it hadn’t been used in a long time.  Looking up triumphantly, she realized she must look just as Chloe had
w
hen she’d first shown her “proof” of the ghosts.   If Gabriel’s expression was any indication, he found it just as doubtful as she had initially. 

“These weren’t up here the last time I was in the room.  See this book?  I found it in the attic yesterday, and I saw Allie with this hairbrush just last night.”

“I don’t remember seeing anything under the bed in the inventory, but I might have missed it.”  He was already pulling out his phone, accessing the report from his email to scan the contents. 

“That’s because it wasn’t there.  The ghost likes to leave things under the bed, remember?  These are newly deposited.”

Gabriel was silent, scanning the report long enough that she started to wonder if he was going over it twice.  “Yeah
,
there’s nothing here,” he allowed after another minute.  “Unless they missed it.”

“They’re trained to look for that stuff aren’t they though?”

“Yeah, they’re supposed to be,” he nodded.  “So why would a ghost leave those
things
under the bed?  And does any of it have anything to do with Chloe’s disappearance?”

“That would be the burning question, let’s see if I can find out.”  Without waiting for a response, Lexi wrapped her bare hand around the teacup since it was the only object she didn’t recognize. 

“Don’t cry… she hates it when we cry,”
she
whispered, darting a quick look to the door.  Two of the other girls had fallen silent
and still
, and she was afraid they
might
never wake up again
. 

“I c-can’t h-help it,” the other girl
sniffled, doing her best to stifle the hiccupping sobs, but the tears still came.  “It’s always worse when she comes.”

“I know, but if you play the game she won’t be so mean, I promise.  Just smile and play the game,” she hissed, trying to get through to Amy before it was too late for them.
  “We
only
have to hang on until someone comes to rescue us.”

“Nobody’s gonna come
,
Mary
,” Amy whined, working herself up into another sob.  “We’re gonna die down here just like the others.”

“Don’t say that!  W
e just have to play the game.  If we play the game she won’t hurt us like the others.”  Mary was scared too, so scared…but she hadn’t given up that little kernel of hope.  If they could just get the crazy lady to untie them…
  

“Here we are for a lovely tea party
.
” 
The door opened, their captor balancing a tray laden with a petite tea service on her hip as she closed it behind her.  They’d already found out the hard way not to yell for attention when the door was open.  Sarah had been the first to be punished for that mistake.  Now Sarah didn’t move or speak anymore.  “Now then, who would like cakes and tea?” S
ophia
asked brightly. 

“Yes please,” the required responses came, though neither of the girls sounded especially enthusiastic about it. 

Setting the tray down on the table, she paused to fuss over the collar of
Bianca
’s dress before pouring out the tea with a
great flourish.  Mary watched from
beneath
downcast lashes, knowing she didn’t like eye contact.  They’d all learned the rules over th
e past few days, though some
learned them too late.  Poor
Bianca
, she had been the first to go.  No, not poor
Bianca
; poor them. 
Bianca
was beyond pain and hunger now,
head
hanging
at a crazy angle, what skin was visible in the
murky
light was gray and pasty.

“What’s wrong
,
my lovelies?  You all seem so gloomy.  It’s a perfect day for a tea party, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, can’t you smell the fresh air?”

Mary knew better than to point out the flaws in that question, trapped in the windowless room, there was only the stench of decay.   

“You aren’t drinking your tea.”  All tied up, the girls could hardly reach for it, but Mary knew the routine by now. 
Her wrists and ankles had long since stopped hurting, numb; she could only hope the feeling would return when they were freed. 

“It’s too hot
;
we must let it cool,
Zia
Sophia
,
”
s
he replied as sweetly as she could muster.  Sweet cakes and cream, enough to make her go crazy with want, Mary’s mouth watered at the sight, but she did her best to keep down the
whimper
of despair that
threatened to spill
at the gnawing hunger that consumed her.  It was better than drinking the tea anyway
;
hunger was preferable to the stomachache that would follow. 
Amy continued to sniffle from across the table and Mary aimed
a
pointed look in her direction; the only recourse she had. 

“It l-looks lovely, Zia Sophia,” Amy managed to get out.

“Thank you my sweets,” Sophia smiled.  “We must play a game while the tea cools.  What shall we play?”

“Ring around the rosie?”
Amy tried hopefully, though Mary knew she’d never allow it.

“Naturalmente no, of course not!  One of you might fall and
hurt yourself
.  No, we must play a nice quiet game, what shall we play?”

“Read to us Zia Sophia, please?”  It usually worked and bought them a measure of peace; Mary hoped it would do so now. 

Sophia beamed, pulling out a book of children’s nursery rhymes.  “You must all sing along,” she instructed. 

“Yes, Zia Sophia,” the two girls nodded. 

“All of you must sing along.”  Sophi
a
turned the page.  “All of you…”

The cup fell from Lexi’s nerveless fingers as she wrenched herself out of the vision, a sick feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.  “Oh god… I saw them.  All of them.”

“All of who?”  Gabriel nudged the cup aside, guiding her to take a seat on the edge of the bed. 

“I think it was the same room from before
,
when I saw Chloe, only this was in the past.  There were little girls being held in a dark, windowless room around a tea party, tied to their seats.” 

“That’s crazy.” 

“I know, it’s insane but I saw them, I saw them tied up and… it looked like at least a couple of them
were
either dead or in bad shape.  I saw
Bianca
there,” Lexi swallowed past a wave of revulsion at the memory of the girl’s corpse, propped up at the table.  “I think… I think she killed them.”

“Who?  Who killed them?”  Gabriel frowned, having trouble tracking what she was saying. 

“The woman who lived here, Sophia.  The same one I saw sitting at the dressing table,
Bianca
’s mother.  I can draw her for
you;
I saw her clear as day.”  Lexi reached for Chloe’s sketchpad, but Gabriel stayed her gloved hand. 

“What else did you see?  Did you see Chloe again?”

“No, what I saw was a past memory.  I saw that little girl,
Bianca
,
but she was already dead.  I saw her dead and propped up at a table with other girls tied up
around it
.  But the room, the room they were in was just like the room I saw Chloe in.  Dark
,
with no windows or electric lights, there were
only
lanterns hanging from hooks in the wall and candles on the table.  It was like something out of a horrible nightmare; the way the woman smiled, as though it was a lovely spring day and it was perfectly normal… You don’t believe me, do you?”

Gabriel let out a long sigh.  “I believe you saw… something.  But it doesn’t help me find Chloe or Neil.”

“But don’t you think it’s a weird coincidence that I saw the same room both times?”  They had to be connected, she just wasn’t sure how. 

“Hell yeah it’s weird,” he agreed.  “But what do you expect me to do about it Lexi?  All this talk about ghosts and dead kids… yeah
,
it’s freaky as hell.  But it doesn’t have squat to do with the present, does it?”

“Well you don’t have to put it like that,” Lexi scowled.

“Look… maybe the vision you got with the bunny makes more sense now in light of this other thing you picked up?  Maybe something bad like that did really happen to
Bianca
years ago, and she told Chloe all about it and that’s why
she had nightmares?  But I
can’t reason what it would have to do with her and Neil being gone like this,” he said gently. 

His argument made sense
,
but Lexi was reluctant to let go of the idea that what she’d seen was still relevant.  Something so disturbing was bound to hav
e had an effect on Chloe though;
it did stand to reason it would give her nightmares. 
“Yeah, I guess maybe you’re right,” she allowed.

“Tell you what, maybe you need to take a break from this for a while, clear your head and get away from this house?” Gabriel suggested, standing up and holding his hands out to her.

Lexi dutifully replaced her glove and set her hands in his.  “What do you mean?”

“Well when I get bogged down on a case it helps to take a break, go
for
a swim, clear my mind; and when I come back to it, I’ve usually got a fresher perspective.  There’s no doubt in my mind that this place has some bad juju associated with it, how about we get out of here and take a walk?”
h
e pulled her up to her feet.

“I can’t leave Allie…”

“Alright then
,
what about later tonight?  We can all go out together; it’ll do Allison good to get out for a while too.”

“I’ll ask her,” Lexi promised, feeling a little better about the idea of taking her sister with her.  The prospect of dinner alone with the handsome detective scared her almost as much as the ghosts.  Almost.

“I’ll call you later and we’ll figure something out, okay?  In the meantime, at least get out of this
room;
enjoy some of the sun if you can find it.” 

“Is that an order
,
Detective?”
s
he grinned, feeling lighter the moment they left Chloe’s bedroom. 
Though the weather was much brighter than it had been the day before, the canopy of trees still managed to cast a shadow over the house
, b
ut there were still bright patches of sun visible in the back yard.

“More like an expert opinion,” he matched her smile, holding onto her hand as they descended the stairs. 

“Alright, I’ll take it under advisement.”

A quick glance at the time and Gabriel edged closer to the door.  “Good to hear. 
I’ve gotta run.  I’ll catch you later Lexi, thanks for the coffee.
” 

Lexi watched him from the window, waggling her fingers when he waved from the car.  The question rema
ined… did she want to be caught?

C
hapter
Eleven

Gabriel liked to think of himself as a fairly strong willed individual, but he did know his limits.  All day long his fingers itched to pick up the phone and give Lexi a call, but he put it off the same way he put off the first cigarette of the day, knowing all along that he would cave in sooner or later.  It was inevitable, but it
made him feel
more virtuous to prolong it for as long as possible.  When had the simple act of calling a woman turned into a guilty pleasure?     

Completing
the self appointed goals for the day
, he
was about to think about taking a walk for a little privacy on that
long awaited
phone call when Cooper hung up the phone with a flourish. 

“Guess what?” Cooper looked fit to burst with whatever news it was.

“You’re gonna shave
your head and become a monk.”
Ryan barely looked up from his desk.

“The Travers car turned up.”

“Neil’s car?”  Gabriel sat up straight in his chair; Tim had his complete attention now.  “Where?”

“It was found abandoned in the parking lot of the Outlook Apartments over on the west side.”

There had to be more, Cooper was grinning like the cat that ate the canary.  “Any sign of where Neil went?”

“I’d say so, they found him in the trunk,” Tim smirked. 

That didn’t sound very promising.  “Not in good shape I take it?”

“Let’s just say it was the smell that tipped them off.” 

Gabriel was already up, strapping on his badge and gun. 
This was going to kill Allie…
“Is there any sign of the little girl?”

“Preliminaries say no, but there’s
only
a black and white on the scene so far.”  Looking plenty pleased with himself; Cooper laced his fingers behind his head and stretched.  

Ryan drummed his fingertips on the side of Cooper’s desk impatiently.  “The M.E.’s gonna beat us there if we don’t shake a leg, you know how he gets.”

“Not if I drive,” Tim grinned, snatching up his keys.

“No thanks, I’d rather g
et there alive.
I’ll drive.”

***

Thankfully the uniform
ed officers
had things well in hand by the time they got there, with the area cordoned off and the view of the body blocked by the tow truck for the most part.  “Get some shots of the crowd with your phone, okay?” Gabriel reminded Tim as they pulled up.  Sometimes the killer liked to show up at the crime scene when the body was found.

“I’m on it.”  Cooper slipped out of the car, blending into the crowd while Gabriel strode right up to
Neil’s
car.  Sure enough, DeGraw was already there, muttering to himself as he examined the body.

“So, what have we got so far?”
Gabriel kept his tone mild
,
but it didn’t seem to make any difference to the irascible doctor. 

“Jesus Christ Ryan, I’ve only been here for two goddamn minutes, you mind if I poke around before I give my statement?”
he barked,
voice gravely from years of smoking. 

“Not at all Doc; you go ahead and work your magic,” Gabriel gave the man a wide berth, his expression schooled to a passive mask despite his irritation with the man’s personality.

“Thanks so much for the permission,” DeGraw muttered, already turning back to the body, thermometer in hand.

Gabriel wasn’t a fan of this part of the exam anyway and he turned resolutely away from the body in order to avoid the visual wh
ile
the doctor tested for core temperature.  Instead he approached the uniformed officer leaning against his patrol car and making notes.  “You were first on the scene?” he asked, after a professional nod of courtesy.

“That’s right, the car’s been ticketed over the past few days by the local security guys and nobody thought anything of it.  But when the tow truck driver came out and started to hook the car up he noticed the smell and got curious.”  He handed over the handwritten copy of the tow truck driver’s statement
,
which
Gabriel
scanned and handed back.

“Thanks,” Ryan nodded to the officer
,
who he knew by sight
,
though not by name.  His name badge said E. Harris
,
but it could have stood for anything from Eddie to Emilio.  “Anyone in the crowd claim to have seen anything?”  It was usual to get at least a couple of people who thought they saw suspicious characters lurking around in the parking lot whenever a crime was committed. 

“No, there are no windows on this corner of the lot and no one
has come
forward yet.”

“Do me a favor and go ask in a general way if anyone saw anything, okay?  And report to Detective Cooper with anything you find.”

“You got it, Ryan,” Harris nodded and Gabriel wondered if his reputation had preceded him?  More likely there just weren’t that many detectives in town and
Harris had
seen his name around the
station
. 

“Thanks buddy.”  The tow truck driver looked up when
Gabriel
approached, a bored expression on his face.  “Alright Mr… Matthews.  You popped the trunk?”

“Yeah
,
well the smell was bad, I thought maybe there were some rotten groceries in there and I was gonna dump them out here instead of taking it to the yard.”  The swarthy man blew his nose with a resounding honk into a red bandana, tucking it away in his back pocket.

“You do know it’s illegal for you to remove the contents of anyone’s tr
unk without their permission?”
Gabriel
smiled politely
.

Matthews shrugged, unperturbed by the vague threat.  “Yeah well
,
tell that to my old lady, she’s the one who pitches a holy fit anytime I bring home something that stinks to high hell.”

“Did you touch the body or move it at all?”

Now he looked offended.  “What do I look stupid to you?  As soon as I saw what was in there I called 911, I didn’t even slam the trunk back down,” he added proudly.

“Well thank you for that, we appreciate it
,
Sir
. 
Is there anything else you’d like to add to the statement you gave Officer Harris?”

“Naw, can I go now?”

“Sure, you can clear
out;
we’ve got your n
umber if anything else comes up.
”
Gabriel left him to negotiate a path through the crowd o
n his own.  Cooper hovered
near the M.E.
,
doing his best to watch the proceedings but stay out of DeGraw’s line of sight from the looks of it.  “Did we get anything from the crowd?”
h
e asked sotto voce, not wanting to disturb the cantankerous old man.

“Nothing much, just a lot of people who didn’t recognize the car but felt the urge to speak up and tell us about it,” Cooper shrugged. 

The body had been photographed by now and the gurney stood by waiting for DeGraw to finish up, but
he took his sweet time,
as though he enjoyed having people waiting around on him.  Finally he turned to face the detectives, pulling off his gloves and tossing them negligently aside.  “
So there are n
o visible wounds or ligature marks.  There might be signs of a drug overdose
, and
I wouldn’t rule out some kind of poison or toxin at this point, but it’s too early to tell. 
You see this here?”  DeGraw extended a
slim metal probe, lightly touching the nose to reveal a brick red discharge.

“
Blood?
”

“
T
he mu
cous membranes have been
hemorrhaging, but it’s not typical of a regular bloody nose. 
You can also see it here at the eyes and the mouth,” he tapped with the pointer.  “Some poisons will do
that;
I’ll have to run some tests.”

So
Neil
hadn’t met too violent of an end
as deaths go
, but why was he stuffed in the trunk of his own car?  Gabriel wondered what the tox screen would turn
up;
drugs or poison, neither one of those was going to make Allie happy.  “Are you able to set a time of death?”

“It’s hard to tell with the weather we’ve been having. 
He’s gone out of rigor and we’ve got this marbling here,” he pointed at the mottled flesh on Neil’s neck where the veins stood out against the skin.  “
If I had to guess
,
I’d place it at four or five days at least, no more than a week.  I’ll know more when I get him back on the slab.  He’s all yours
,
fellas.”  DeGraw stepped away to allow the body to be loaded up onto the gurney. 

“Thanks, Doc.
”

“It looks like he had his wallet on him, cash and credit cards untouched.  The keys were in the trunk with the body,” Cooper reported. 

“Let’s see what kind of prints turn up
.  We have the
elimination prints from the tow truck driver and
let’s get
the private security if they touched the car.”

“You know we’re gonna have to get the prints on the wife and the sister, right?”

“I know, I’ll take care of that,” Gabriel replied.  It wasn’t a conversation he
looked
forward to.  That and the fact that there was even less to go on for Chloe’s disappearance now. 

“Are you sure you want to stay on this case?” Cooper’s brows rose a fraction.

“Are you saying I can’t be objective?”

Cooper’s hands came up in a supplicating gesture.  “I’m just saying this isn’t a missing persons report anymore.  We’re looking at murder and kidnapping now.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

“So, are you gonna be able to investigate your girlfriend?”

“I’m going to be able to do my job, yes.”  He was confident of that.  If there was any indication that either Lexi or Allie were involved, he wouldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way. 

“So she is your girlfriend,” Tim grinned, earning a scowl from Gabriel.

“Stop fishing
, we’ve got work to do.”

***

Gabriel was loathe to call Allie and tell her about
her husband’
s death until he knew a little more about how
Neil
died, but he knew it would
be
worse if he put it off for too long.  Still, he found himself dialing Lexi instead of her sister first.  Not terribly surprised to find her still at Allison’s place despite his advice to spend some time away, he let her know he was on the way with some news and refused to say anything beyond that over the phone.  Getting used to the drive up Branciforte, the sun was just starting to slip from the sky when he pulled up in front of the weathered house
.  G
rateful that he’d sent Cooper off to see the Captain about getting Chloe bumped up to Amber Alert status
,
the last thing he needed right now was a dose of his partner’s sarcastic humor.  Lexi came to the door, a mug of something in her hand, feet still bare
, those multi-colored toenails peeking up at him
.  Gabriel gave her a nod, resisting the urge to give her a more personal greeting
,
but damn she looked good.  

“I thought you were gonna call a long time ago.”

“Sorry, it’s the nature of the business, stuff comes up, we don’t have a whole lot of control over that.”

“That’s
okay;
I figured it was something like that.  I get lost in my work too, but it’s never a life or death thing if I lock myself in for an hour or six,” she handed over the mug.  “It feels like I’m always making you a cup of coffee and you’re always running off without drinking it.  Maybe I should stop offering and you might stick around more,” she grinned. 

Damn, now that she was in a flirtatious mood he had to be all business.  Gabriel accepted the mug with a nod of thanks, trying to strike a balance from his normal interrogation style and the friendly tone that sprang up whenever he talked to her.  “Hey, I’d like to talk to Allison alone if you don’t mind.  But stick around
,
okay?  I’d like to talk to you afterwards.”

“That sounds ominous, what did you find?”

Gabriel’s voice dropped considerably, “Neil’s body in the trunk of his car.”

“Oh God
,
that’s awful!”  Her gloved hand covered her mouth, a quick look darted over her shoulder towards the house.  “How did he die?”

“I’ll tell you all about it after I talk to Allie, okay?  I really should tell her first.”  Even though Lexi
was
the first one he called, now that he was actually there it seemed wrong not to speak to the widow first.