The Touch (7 page)

Chapter
Four

“Thanks for the ride, I wasn’t expecting door to
door service,” Lexi smiled as Gabriel
pulled up in front of the old Victorian home she shared with Maddie and Paul.

“It’s no trouble,” he shrugged away the thanks with an easy grin. 

“So if this is the end of the investigation, I guess I might not see you again?”

“Yeah
,
I
suppose
that might be true,” he admitted with a slow nod
,
as if thinking about something else.

Now that they were at the end of the line, Lexi found herself not quite ready to say the final goodbye.  “
Do you want to come in for a cup of coffee or something?
”

Ryan h
esitated long enough that she thought he was going to say no
but then he turned off the engine.  “Never been one to say no to a cup of coffee from a pretty lady.”

A flush of pleasure went through her at the compliment.  “Alright then, come on in, I’ll get the coffee brewing
.
”
It was a safe bet Paul
was
at work and Maddie would be out shopping until the cows came home.  That should give them enough time to see if they had anything in common besides a tenuous tie to the past and Neil’s disappearance. 

“
This place is… big
,
”
Gabriel paused before climbing the short flight of stairs to the covered porch that wrapped around three sides of the house.

Lexi had a feeling the adjective was slapped on at the end when he couldn’t find anything complimentary to say about the house
,
which was an eyesore at best, and she laughed at his diplomatic tone.  “
It’s okay, you can say it… we know it’s kind of a
pit
right now, but it’s got potential
.  Officially it’s Paul’s house and he rents rooms out to us, but Maddie and I have put in so much work on the place, we feel like it’s ours in a way.
”

“That’s Paul
Spencer?”

Lexi’s brows rose in surprise.  “
Yeah, how did you know?
”

“
Cop
,
”
a
half shrug was given.

“
You checked up on me
?”  Why had he bothered
?  Or did he really suspect
she had something to do with Neil’s
dis
appearance?

Ryan
shrugged
again
, a slightly apologetic look on his face this time. 
“I’m a c
op
, it sort of goes with the territory that I check out everyone that catches my interest.”

“
You’re interested in me
?”
t
he corner of her mouth tugged up into a half smile
.

Gabriel’s answering smile was
ins
crutable.  “
Let’s just say you’re definitely not the usual type of girl I run into
,” he said finally.

It occurred to her that he
must be
a great poker player, because she was having trouble getting a good read on him
, but she
thought
he was being complimentary
.  “
Is that good or bad
?”

His hand waved back and forth in a so-so motion. 
“
I’ll let you know once I taste the coffee,
”
he teased
.

“Oh the
coffee, right
.  Come into the kitc
hen with me and keep me company,
”
she
caught
hold of his arm
,
pulling him
through the dilapidated front entry that was a cosmetic nightmare
,
towards the one room
on the ground floor
she could be proud of.  While the majority of the house was still in need of some serious refurbishing, the kitchen had been the main focus of their restoration efforts so far.   The old cabinets had been repainted a crisp white and hung with new doors and hardware, appliances replaced with modern stainless steel and the old pitted and scarred countertops with smooth granite.  The original wood floor had been sanded down and re-stained the color of warm honey.  The effect was a pleasing blend of old and new that somehow worked
and it was Lexi’s favorite room in the house with the exception of her bedroom
. 

Making a beeline for the coffee pot, Lexi released her hold on the detective, letting him inspect the kitchen on his own
,
but she noted with a surge of pride
that
he looked considerably more impressed with this part of the house. 

Gabriel’s hand skimmed over the
sleek
countertop.  “This is nice.  Did you do the work in here yourselves?”

“Y
ep.” Lexi traced a vein of gold in the swirl of earth tones found in the giant slab
.
“You’d think the counter w
ould be
the hardest
to manage but the floor was actually the biggest pain in the ass.  The next big project is the main bathroom.  The plumbing in this place is older than dirt and we’re probably gonna have to replace all of the tile, but the giant clawfoot bathtub stays.  Paul says he heard about a company that will re-enamel it or something, make it look as good as new,” she chatted lightly as she got the mugs and things down for the coffee.

“Oh yeah?  I’ve done a fair amount of tiling in my
day;
it can be a bitch to get everything to line up just right.” His hands came up as though he was remembering a difficult project that resisted
his efforts and Lexi thought he was probably the type who needed to have things line up perfectly straight or his sense of order would be thrown into a state of chaos. 

“Well
,
now I know who to call if we get stuck or just need an extra pair of hands,” she smiled over her shoulder.  “
So what kind of detectiving do you do when you’re not taking missing persons reports?
”

“Homicide mostly, a li
ttle bit of robbery when it’s a high value theft or if we suspect it
’s
part of a string of robberies or a known ring of thieves, but no
t your standard B&E’s
or snatch and grabs.
”

Lexi nodded, pretending she knew what the hell he was talking about. 
Those crime procedurals on TV never caught her interest, so she had no idea what a snatch and g
rab or a B&E was.  The mugs she
got down were a little dusty and without thinking much of it, she tugged off her soft cotton gloves and pulled out a pair of disposable latex ones so she could give them a proper wash.  Reaching for a dishtowel, she was a little disconcerted to see him watching her intently.  “What?”

“Okay seriously
,
this has been bugging me all day; do you always wear the gloves?”

“Uh yeah
,
pretty much, unless I’m in my room.”
 

“Are you a germophobe or…”
 

“No, not exactly.  I told you, I wear them for protection.”  Lexi turned away to pour out the coffee, using the simple act as a way to buy her some time.  This was what she’d been hoping she could avoid at least a while longer until he had a chance to know h
er
a little better.  But then again, there was a good chance she wouldn’t see him again, wasn’t there? 

“Protection from what?”

Setting the mugs down on the counter, she
went back for the milk and sugar, avoiding his eyes for the moment.  “I get… impressions from things I touch.  The gloves keep me from constantly picking up distractions every time I touch something
,
so I can function,” she said simply.  

“Impressions,” he repeated.

In for a penny, in for a pound
. 
"I can see things when I touch them
.  S
ometimes
it’s
brief images
;
sometimes quite a bit more depending on how much they've been handled and if there was a particular association with them.
 
It's just somethin
g
I've always
 
been able to do and it's more of a nuisance than anything else, trust me there are things you don't want to know about how your food has been prepared
,
"
 
she went for a smile, "h
ence the gloves."
 

Gabriel stood there, the mug frozen halfway between the counter and his mouth.  “You see things… like visions?”

She could tell from the way he
looked
at her that he was skeptical at best and seriously doubting her sanity at worst and Lexi struggled to explain it in a way that didn’t make her sound completely whacko. 
"It's like... I get images of things, places the object has been, who's been handling it
, what they were thinking at the time
.
 
If it's something they've held for a long time I can sometimes even see the person and what they're doing now."
 
Was she just digging herself a deeper hole
?
 
"There
are
layers to it
;
once you figure out how to peel them away
, then you can look farther and farther back into its history
.
 
I’ll tell you what,
give me something of yours
and you
’ll
see if I
can really do what I say I can
or
if I’m
just a little balmy in the brainpan.
”  Sometimes th
at
was on the only way, to give an actual demonstration.  Even then, some people assumed it was a parlor trick.

“Okay
,
”
h
e seemed willing to play along at least
.  P
ulling out his wallet
,
he fished out a business card and handed it over.

Accepting it with her left hand, she pulled off the right glove with her teeth revealing her pale
,
smooth hand.  Drawing in a long, calming breath before she touched it with bare skin, Lexi let the images wash over her for a good few minutes, taking it back as far as she could before her eyes popped open.  “So
when I touched it, I could see the last time you pulled out
the
card
next to it
to give to Monica.” Not that it would prove anything to him since she’d been standing right there when it happened.  “Before that
,
I saw when you put it in your wallet to begin with and beyond that I could see where the card was shipped from, stuff like that.
  Nothing too interesting, but if you gave me something more personal I could probably pick up more.
"

Gabriel’s head canted to one side as he studied her, obviously trying to decide if he could take her at her word. 
“Where was I when I put it the card in
my wallet in the first place?”

“In your bedroom
,
I think.  There
’s
a blue comforter on the bed and a big brown chair in the corner of the room with a bunch of clothes hanging on the back of it.  The blinds were open, but I couldn’t see much of what was out the window because you were looking at your wallet.  Oh and the bedside table, it has…two drawers and it’s a dark brown, I think they call it espresso
, with silver handles
.  ” Lexi struggled to recall every detail she could about the room.

His eyebrows climbed skyward and she could tell she’d been accurate in her description of the room.
 
“So you get these visions from everything you touch?  What would happen if you touched me?”  Gabriel
extended
his hand
, palm up towards her
.
 

Lexi withdrew her hand instinctively, cradling it to her body and then away with a little gasp as she picked up something from her jeans without being prepared for it.  “I don't...” she paused to take a calming breath, giving him an apologetic smile.  “I'm sorry, I don't touch people
,
”
s
he tried to explain, reaching for the coffee mug with her gloved hand before realizing that she hadn’t added milk or sugar
yet
.  Instead she hurried
to
replace
the
cotton glove, instantly feeling more at ease once it was covered again.