Only By Your Touch (8 page)

After finishing her sandwich and yogurt, Chloe dug some Tylenol out of her purse and took them with the cold dregs of her latte. Then she found the slip of paper with Ben Longtree’s number on it.
Benjamin Isaiah Longtree
capped the heading. It was a lot of name, she thought, but he was a large man, and somehow it fit.

Stalling
. Why didn’t she just dial the number?
Because
. The man made her nervous. She was also embarrassed. Her behavior that morning had been inexcusable.

She finally worked up the courage to dial. When Longtree answered the phone, his voice was like a rasp of silk. She pictured his dark features and intense blue eyes. “Mr. Longtree? Chloe Evans.”

Long silence. Then he said, “Hi.”

She picked up her paperweight and turned the blue
glass to catch the light. “You have every right to hang up on me. I know I was rude this morning.”

Another stretch of silence. Then he laughed. It was a rusty sound—as if he didn’t do it often. “I’m not in the habit of hanging up on people.”

“That’s good. I got a break at work and thought I’d call to see how Rowdy’s doing.”

“I wish I could say he’s improved.”

Her heart sank. “He isn’t going to make it, is he?”

“He’s not responding to the fluids and antibiotics. Later this evening, I’ll know more. The longer he hangs on, the better his chances.”

“However it turns out, I want to thank you. The puppy means a lot to my little boy.”

“I know.”

Coming from someone else that might have been a polite response, but Chloe had a feeling he meant it. “In the grand scheme of things, a dog isn’t all that important. But he’s become very important to us in a short time.”

She heard a tapping sound. “In the grand scheme, we’re all insignificant.”

Over the last year and a half, Chloe had come face-to-face with her own insignificance. One moment, she’d been sailing through life, everything going her way, and the next, a twist of fate had taken her to her knees. Before that, she’d been so confident, believing she was in control. Six months later, she’d been pacing a hospital corridor, bewildered, in shock, covered with Roger’s blood, and unprepared for what lay ahead.

“My son’s been through a lot. The puppy is a touch of magic in his life.”

“I only wish I could do more.”

It was easier to talk with him over the telephone. There was safety in distance. She could concentrate
on his voice—and the sincerity in it. His raspy baritone soothed her in a way she couldn’t define.

“Mr. Longtree—”

“Mrs. Evans,” he said at precisely the same instant. “I just—”

“About this morning.”

They both laughed. Then silence. She supposed it was only her imagination filling in the blanks, but she sensed that he was searching for words. She found herself holding her breath.

“I, um . . .” The tapping grew louder. She pictured him striking the counter with a pencil or pen. Then it stopped. “I acted like a jerk this morning.”

Chloe grinned. He hadn’t acted like a jerk. It had been her behavior that was deplorable. “I know Diablo scared the blazes out of you, and Methuselah, as well. I’ve heard the stories, and you don’t know me from Adam. I shouldn’t have taken such a hard line.”

“I’m the one who should apologize. You were very nice to my little boy. I was—well, running on adrenaline, I guess. I’d heard rumors, and they all came rushing back when I saw—” She broke off, acutely aware of Sue sitting across the room. “Well, your three-legged sidekick threw me.”

“He has a way of doing that.”

“I panicked, not thinking, just reacting. Your place is a long way from—”

“Help?”

“I meant to say town.”

“Same thing.”

“You’re not making this easy.”

“I hate apologies. Goes against my grain to let anyone else off too easily.”

“You’re a real friend.”

He chuckled. “Apology accepted. Now, it’s my turn.
Confession time. I knew exactly what you were thinking. I, um . . . well, those looks I gave you? I did it on purpose.”

Chloe gave a startled laugh. “You frightened me deliberately?”

“You were already frightened. I got pissed off. I’m sorry about that. After a while, all the witchcraft and lunatic stories get kind of old. You know?”

Chloe imagined they would. Bobby Lee swore up and down this man was unstable and dangerous, and Lucy Gant seconded that opinion. Chloe no longer knew what to believe. “I know it can’t be an easy situation for you.”

“Most of the time, I ignore it. Today—well, I don’t know what happened.”

She ran a hand over the blotter. “I guess we both did things we regret.”

“Yeah. Can we just call it even?”

She grinned. “Well, you really stepped over the line with that last look you gave me.”

She could feel the warmth of his chuckle coming over the wire. Recalling his burnished countenance, she had to admit that she found him sexy in a dark, dangerous way. That was okay. His dangerous edge was all the motivation she needed to keep her distance.

“That last look was a good one, wasn’t it? If it’s any consolation, you got yours. When you threw the door open, the knob knocked a hole in my wall.”

Chloe gasped. “Oh, no. It did?”

He chuckled. “Not a big deal. I’m slick with mud and tape.”

“I feel terrible.”

“Yeah, well, don’t. It wasn’t your fault. Methuselah has knocked most of the doorstops off the mopboards.
He likes the twanging sound they make when he swats them, and he gets a little carried away.”

Chloe pictured the half-blind, decrepit cougar swatting the doorstops. “How on earth does he find them?”

“He seems to know they’re stock equipment for all doors. He’s working on the one in my mom’s room now. When he disappears, I follow the twangs.”

A cougar, playing like a kitten. Ben Longtree definitely kept eccentric company.

“What time do you get off work?” he suddenly asked.

“Why do you ask?”

He gave another rusty laugh. “I have that coming, I guess. I was just thinking I could call with an update on the puppy, is all.”

Chloe felt silly. “Oh, of course. I get off at eleven.”

“I’ll give you a ring about thirty past if that’s not too late. Maybe there’ll be a change in his condition by then.”

Chloe dreaded receiving that phone call. She didn’t expect the news to be good. “I’m always up until about one. Eleven-thirty isn’t too late.”

“Until then.”

She let the receiver slip into its cradle. For several seconds, she just sat there, going back over the conversation. Neither of them had said very much, but it felt as if they’d said a great deal. Chloe was relieved. He hadn’t sounded like a killer, and nothing she’d seen so far indicated that he was a raving lunatic, either. So why did so many people seem to distrust him?

She began putting things on her desk back in order. The task reminded her of the talk she’d had with Bobby Lee.

“Do you know Ben Longtree very well, Sue?”

“As well as anyone, I guess. He’s not exactly a social butterfly.”

“I get the impression that Bobby Lee dislikes him.”

“They’ve never been what you’d call chummy. Even as far back as grade school, they had it in for each other.” Sue rose from her desk to get a cup of water from the corner dispenser. “I was a year behind them, so I don’t know what happened to cause the rift.”

“How can two adults still be at odds over a childhood rift?”

“I hear you.” Sue narrowed an eye, took careful aim, and threw the empty cup into the trash can by her desk. “Testosterone. Who can figure men?”

“Did you hear Bobby Lee grilling me about Cinnamon Ridge?”

“Yeah. Sorry. He’s a nice enough guy, and a good deputy. He’s just a little overzealous when it comes to Ben Longtree.”

“That doesn’t strike me as being very professional. I was under the impression that personal issues were taboo in law enforcement.”

“Strictly speaking, personal issues shouldn’t interfere with a police officer’s performance, but this is not a perfect world. You should’ve been here right after Deputy Joe Samples caught his wife in bed with the preacher.”

Chloe gulped back a horrified laugh. “You’re kidding.”

“That got
really
ugly. Joe kept his cool when he found them. Didn’t do anything except kick the guy out of his house. It was only the next day, after Joe had packed his bags and left, that he really lost it. For the next six months, his wife couldn’t drive anywhere without Joe pulling her over. I bet she could have wallpapered her living room with traffic citations.”

“He’s still a deputy. I guess that means he got over it?”

“With some coercive persuasion from the sheriff, he went to counseling. It helped that his wife and the preacher had a falling out, and she left town.”

“The moral?”

Sue’s green eyes danced with laughter. “That Bobby Lee may have a grudge against Longtree, but so far, he hasn’t stepped over the line to get something on him. If Bobby Lee ever does, the sheriff will jerk him up short.”

“So I wasn’t imagining that Bobby Lee has it in for Ben.”

“Definitely not.”

Line one on Chloe’s phone started blinking. The call was from the bar up the road. Two men in the billiard room were cracking each other’s skulls with pool cues. After the call had been dispatched, Chloe filled out the customary report. By the time she had finished, Sue was busy. It was a few minutes later before either of them was free to resume their conversation.

“There has to be some reason why Bobby Lee and Ben dislike each other,” Chloe mused aloud. “People don’t hold lifelong grudges over nothing.”

Sue tossed her report into a basket on her desk. “Maybe it’s because Ben’s better looking, and Bobby Lee doesn’t like the competition. Who knows? Ben was a loner and marched to his own drumbeat. There were always stories circulating in school—off-the-wall stuff—that made him a favorite topic of gossip. It was negative attention, but I think Bobby Lee resented him because of it.”

“What kind of off-the-wall stories?”

“My favorite was the cat story. It got hit by a car. A tire had supposedly run over its hips, and it was trying to drag itself off the road. Several kids were standing around wondering what to do when Ben
showed up. The story went that he laid his hands over the poor thing’s hindquarters, and the cat took off running like it had never been hurt. My friend Sally swore she saw it happen. Ben claimed the cat was just stunned, not hurt, but the more popular version was that he performed Shoshone magic and healed the poor thing.”

“Which story did you buy?”

“Which one do you think? Ben was born here. He’s what, a quarter Indian? I think the poor cat was just stunned. Unfortunately, the truth’s never as exciting as fiction. Bobby Lee always craved the limelight. He sweat blood to excel in school, pulling high grades, campaigning for student body president, and becoming a star quarterback. Compared with Ben’s Shoshone magic, all his accomplishments seemed pretty mundane.”

“So he grew to resent Ben.”

“That’s just my take.”

“And your take on Ben? Do you like him?”

“The truth? I used to have the world’s worst crush on him. I can’t remember what grade it was, but I was a big-time pain in the neck, I’m sure. A lot of boys would’ve told me to get lost, but Ben was kind to me.” A distant expression entered her eyes. “When we were growing up, I felt sad for him.”

“Why is that?”

“His father, Hap, was a drunk. A mean drunk, by all accounts—the kind who liked to fight and always picked on smaller men so he’d be sure to kick ass. A guy like that doesn’t turn into a pussycat when he walks in the door at night. Ben’s mother, Nan, rarely came to town, but folks claim she always had bruises when she did. I don’t imagine Ben and his sister escaped the abuse entirely.”

Chloe thought of Nan, with her sweet smile and
gentle manner. “How sad. If things were that bad, I wonder why she didn’t leave him.”

“Chances are she never went to college or even had a job before she got married.”

“We’ve come a long way, I guess.”

“Thank God. Even nowadays, though, it takes a lot of guts to strike out on your own when you’ve got kids to keep in shoes.”

Chloe could testify to the truth of that.

“What was Ben like as a boy?”

“Gentle. Or maybe
kindhearted
would be a better word. He didn’t have it in him to hurt anyone or anything—unless he got pushed into it.”

“Pushed?”

“Yeah. For example, we had a retarded girl at our school named Mandy Jean. Her parents didn’t make her bathe, so she was dirty, and the boys on the bus used to torment her. One day, they knocked her books out of her arms when we got off at the stop, and every time she tried to pick one up, someone would kick it farther up the sidewalk. Ben lived out of town, so he didn’t get off there, but evidently he saw what was happening as the bus pulled away, got off at the next stop, and ran all the way back.”