Don't Touch (5 page)

He kept her talking for ten more minutes.
“I’ll let you get back to work Detective. Thanks for talking for a
few minutes.”

“No problem, I think I can focus on the
screen again. Thanks for the rescue.” He paused, thinking for a
second who was rescuing who. They hung up and he grinned. She
wasn’t the type to say goodbye either. With all her strange ways he
imagined she didn’t get to talk to people much.

Asking around Jackson found out that Ryan
Reign hadn’t left her house once in the last seven months. She had
a sister that stopped coming around three months ago. Over a year
had passed since her…. collapse. The detective couldn’t help but
wonder what had happened in that autopsy room to make her shut out
the world?

Ryan had spent the night trying to understand
what she was seeing in the visions that the photos brought. It was
strange that the folder and paper didn’t seem to hold anything but
the pictures seemed to have something to say.

The second case wasn’t so clear. Most of it
focused on the cranky investigator. She had even given him copies
of the first victim to check out. She had been fairly sure they
were related. But the moment he took the file Ryan knew he wasn’t
going to spend his last few weeks on the force working for this
poor girl.

There was something that seemed to call out
to her but she couldn’t find that one single similarity. It was
frustrating. She even went back and pulled her notebooks from those
years. The notations weren’t really much different than what she
had gotten from the photos.

The next evening the detectives were met by
Ryan on the porch. “Hi.”

Her long hair was pulled back in a pony tail.
She wore a small smile but Jackson thought she looked tired. “Long
night?”

She nodded. Thomas set the files on the
table. “We can come back another night if you like.”

She sat up and pulled the file over. They
noticed she didn’t have on any gloves. The plastic was still in
place but no gloves. “Jillian Hilliard, sorry sweetie I never got
to your name.”

She picked up the report very careful not to
touch these photos. “I don’t look at the name or much personal
stuff until I’ve done the autopsy. It makes it easier for me to
stay detached. I found early on that if I read about her being a
mom or such that I was driven to find the answer for the family. It
can cause you to make mistakes. So I save that for last before I
write up my findings.”

Thomas gave her another appraisal himself.
Other than looking a bit rough around the edges, she seemed more
comfortable. But Ryan was a bit pale and thin. “Hey we haven’t had
dinner yet. How about I call for a couple of pies?”

Jackson readily agreed and knew it wasn’t for
their benefit. They almost never got to sit down for a lunch or
dinner. If they were lucky they got one real meal a day. The rest
was ala vending machine. “Sounds good, extra pepperoni.”

Never looking up she flipped through the
notebook. “Yeah, extra pepperoni on mine.”

Tom stepped off the porch to make the call.
Ryan was shuffling though their newest file. “Where is Tina’s
personals list?”

Jackson flipped through and found it between
two of the photos. She smiled at him, it wasn’t a real smile. It
was the kind you give when you are embarrassed. “You don’t have to
worry about it with us. If you don’t want to handle it, I will.
Alright?”

Nodding Ryan then went down the list trying
not to look at him. Thomas sat back down and Ryan put the paperwork
down and leaned back. “Listen you don’t have to do this at all. If
Barney put you guys up to this….”

Putting a finger up to stop her Jackson then
pointed to the photo of Tina lifeless on a metal table. “This is
why we’re here, Ryan. I really think you can help us. When we
talked to your friend he was concerned about you but he gave us
your name thinking you could help. That’s it.”

She sat for a moment looking back and forth
between the two, trying to judge their sincerity. “I’m sorry, it’s
just…. Forget it.”

Shaking her head she went back to the file,
she kept eyeing the photo. Just as she reached for it Detective
Lord’s phone rang. “Lord. Gina, slow down, what happened?”

He stepped back off the porch then came back
up after a couple of minutes. “Calm down, I’ll be there as soon as
I can.”

Jackson waved at him. “Emergency, go.”

“Call when you’re ready to go and I’ll come
back.” He looked at Ryan apologetically. “My sister Gina, her boy
fell and broke his collar bone and maybe his arm too and they're
giving her a bit of a run around.”

Ryan got up, “What hospital?” He gave her the
name and she ran in the house and grabbed the phone, coming back
out dialing. “Hi, Dawn this is Dr. Ryan Reign. Let me speak to Dr.
Torrance please, emergency. I’ll hold for one minute then I start
calling HR.”

There was a thirty second pause. “Hey Paul,
no no not me. You’ve got a boy in the ER with fractures, collar and
fibula, possibly. They're friends of mine and the

mom is upset. Can you take over and do right
by them? Yes, you can call us even, for now. Thanks Paul.” Hanging
up she gave him a warm smile. “Go, I promise to make your partner
eat all his veggies.”

Thomas was floored. “You didn’t have to do
that.”

“And your point.”

“Thank you.” He grabbed his jacket and headed
to the car. “I’ll call in a bit, Prince.”

When the car pulled out of the driveway the
detective left behind. Snorted at the satisfied manner of his
companion. “You got off on that didn’t you.”

Her eyebrows rose. “What are you talking
about?”

“I’ll hold for one minute then I’m calling
HR, is what I’m talking about. I get the feeling not many folks
crossed you in the autopsy room.”

He was joking but realized that it may be a
sore spot. He really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut
sometimes. Then she snorted back with that crooked grin.

“When I was on the war path Barney coined the
phrase, look out it’s going to Reign on your parade.”

Jackson was getting ready to call it when he
saw her reaching for the crime scene photos of Jillian Hilliard.
Her hand seemed to hover over them as if she were testing the
water. “Ryan, what happened?”

With a sigh she rubbed her arms then gathered
the files. “Let’s go inside.”

Pausing at the door he asked. “You sure?”

Ryan didn’t look sure but nodded. Jackson
tried not to touch anything. The house was a bit bigger than it
looked from the outside. It was decorated in blues and greens. The
furnishings and little touches were elegant, womanly but not
frilly.

Not wanting to just stand in the middle of
the room like an idiot, Jackson went back out and grabbed some of
the plastic and put it over the couch. “There.”

Ryan watched him sit on the plastic as it
crinkled. He was even careful of how he sat, so his legs weren’t
touching the couch. She forced herself to sit next to him. The time
was coming to face her fears and what ever this ability was. “My
sister is the only person I have tried to explain what ever this is
to. I have to warn you it sounds crazy.”

Turning to him Ryan looked the Detective in
the eyes.” I’m not crazy. It was my first day back to work after a
serious car accident. On my leave after the accident, there were
some strange things that happened. I just chalked it up to after
effects of the head trauma.”

Ryan looked at him. Jackson was just
listening with that intent cop face. With a deep breath she opened
her mouth then shut it, then just let it tumble out. What could it
hurt he already thought she was insane.

“We were in the middle of doing trace on
Jillian Hilliard I had torn my glove and a lipstick fell out of the
pocket. I just reacted and grabbed it. Suddenly all I could see
hear, feel, or smell was her death. All of it though the eyes of
Jillian Hilliard. Since then when I touch things sometimes it
happens again. Only it’s whoever touched the object I’m
touching.”

Jackson had tilted his head to the side
listening to more than just her words. The lady was in pain from
the memory. He wasn’t sure he really had understood either. “So it
was like a vision, something psychic?”

Pushing her bangs back, Ryan tried to fight
the urge to cry in frustration. “I have been talking to someone
about it the last couple of weeks. She said it is called
psychometry. I can, for lack of a better term, read impressions
from objects. It sounds crazy but if it’s real then I’m not crazy.
Am I?”

At that moment, Jackson wished there was
something he could do to comfort her. In his mind it did sound
crazy. “Is that why you wanted the files?”

“Yeah, but it’s useless I’m only getting
impressions that the photographer saw and felt when they took them.
Or these are Barney’s work, no offense but it seems to be from
first person view and that is one head I don’t want to be in.”

She opened one file. Ryan hadn’t tried the
crime scene shots, thinking that they may have more attached. There
was a knock on the door as she laid out the folder. Jackson jumped
up then paused at the door. She was engrossed in her
decision-making before she realized what he had waited for. He
didn’t want to touch the door.

He had already solved the problem using his
sleeve to open and close the door. Setting the boxes on the dinner
table he came back for his plastic. Ryan got up and grabbed paper
plates, drinks, cups with ice. Before he sat down she stopped him.
“Can we try something?”

Wondering what she had in mind he nodded. She
had trusted him to come inside her space, turn about seemed fair
play. Ryan asked him to sit back on the couch without the
plastic.

After a few minutes he got up and she went
over. First placing her hands on the cloth arm where his hand had
rested. Then she sat in his place. “Nothing. Cloth doesn’t hold
anything. Maybe if something really major happened it might leave a
trace behind but there is nothing now.”

He couldn’t help but share her smile. It was
like she had gotten an A on a final exam. Ryan pulled the plastic
off the cloth covered dining room chair. Jackson sat opening the
pizza box.

He wasn’t really all that hungry, until the
steam hit his face smelling of hot cheese, spicy pepperoni, and
sauce. Pulling out a hefty slice he served Ryan then himself
catching the expression on her face. “What did I do?”

“Thanks.”

He smiled. “Don’t thank me it was Tom’s
credit card.” Then he realized he had touched her plate and food.
“Oh. Sorry…”

“No, oh no that was okay. I mean thank you
for treating me like a normal person.”

It struck him at that moment how alone she
had been this past year and some. Shrugging he nudged her with his
elbow lifting his slice. “Don’t you know there’s no such thing as
normal? Good thing too because I don’t fit in that category
either.”

Taking a bite Ryan found herself relaxing.
Detective Prince and his laid back manner helped. “I told you my
dark secret, your turn. Why did you become a cop?”

After downing half the soda he gave her that
shrug again. Maybe it was a nervous habit. “It just seemed to fit.
I graduated high school then a month later joined the academy. I
found out I was good at it and here I am. Why a doctor?”

He noticed the twinkle that appeared in her
eyes. “I come from a long line of them. We all took up different
specialties but all of us took the oath. I think MD is after my
name on the birth certificate.”

She wrapped her hand around the soda can to
pour it over the ice. A flash of a Hispanic man excited, he had
just become a new dad. She let go of the can, gasping like it had
shocked her.

“You okay?” Jackson saw something happen when
she touched the metal. Her eyes glazed over and her breathing
stopped.

Shakily she nodded. “Yeah, that wasn’t a bad
one at least. Nice to know happy gets left behind too.”

He opened the can and poured the soda over
the ice. “Take a couple of drinks, the caffeine will help. You’ve
never had a good… vision before?”

Ryan took the suggestion drinking with a
trembling hand. Once she recovered from the surprise she stood and
started to pace angrily. “I just can’t take much more of this.
Getting surprised every time I grab something with a view of
someone else’s life.”

Wanting to give her some kind of comfort
Jackson grabbed the blanket off the recliner wrapped it around her
holding her close. When no visions came she leaned into the
embrace.

Ryan had forgotten what it was like to
experience tenderness. The grief she fought every night reared its
ugly head and she gave into it.

The sobs were so wrenching Jackson just held
her to his chest as if he could take it away. “You can take it.” He
spoke softly into her hair. “The woman I watched make a hospital
bend to her will over the phone, can take it. Get pissed, throw
something, scream or cry but don’t give up Ryan.”

Chapter 5

Getting control she pushed him away. “Stop,
don’t pity me. I can’t take any more of that. I didn’t ask for
this, I don’t want it and there is nothing I can do about it.
Instead of someone trying to understand I get pity. Poor woman, she
could have been… I’m sick of it. I’m a prisoner in my own home. Oh
God, I am going crazy.”