The Touch (19 page)

“Yeah sure, whatever you say,” she nodded, stepping back to allow him admittance to the house.  “I’ll be in the kitchen.  Allie?  Detective Ryan is here to see you.”

Grateful that she
let go of the questions for once
, Gabriel hung back in the foyer while Lexi moved deeper into the house.  This was the part of the job he hated; having to tell family members that their loved one had passed on.  It didn’t make it any easier or harder that he used to know
Allie;
experience told him
she’d be devastated, even if they
were
having marital problems. 

“Hello Gabriel, Lexi says you have news?”  Allie looked calm and composed
;
more so than she’d been the last time he
saw
her and he guessed the girls’ night in had done her some good. 

“I do, maybe we should sit down.”  He gestured towards the couch, waiting until they were both seated before he continued. 

“Did you find them?”  Allie sat, her back perfectly straight.

“Allie
,
I’m just gonna come right out and say it.  Neil’s dead, we found him in the trunk of his car in a parking lot on the west side.  So far there’s no sign of Chloe.”  Gabriel made his voice low and sympathetic but the words were blunt and effective and he saw understanding dawn on her face right away. 

“Dead… how?”

“We don’
t know yet, the medical examiner
thinks it might be either drugs or poison
.  T
here wasn’t any sign of a struggle,” he paused to let her process that. 

“Do you know who did it?  Or who took Chloe then?  Oh my God… my baby is out there somewhere… who knows what unspeakable things might be happening to her right now…”  Allie’s face crumpled into tears as the ramifications of the discovery sank in. 

“We’re go
ing to
find out who did this Allie, I promise, but we’re just in the first stages of the investigation.  We’ll need your cooperation to get a better picture of what happened that night.”

“Better picture?  But I told you everything I know.  He didn’t come home that night, I have no idea where he went or what happened to him,” she sniffed, reaching for a tissue.

“That was when we thought he ran off of his own accord, now that it’s a murder investigation we’ll have to go over every detail again.  I’m afraid I have some questions to ask you that you’re not going to like.”

“I don’t think there’s anything you could say that could upset me any
more than I already am,” she laughed bitterly
. 

“Were you aware that your husband was having an affair?”

Allie’s jaw dropped open, no sound coming out before she snapped it shut again, her expression becoming shutte
red.  “What do you mean?” 

Damn.  She was lying.  He might not know all that much about women, but he definitely knew when someone was lying.  It was written all over her face and strengthened by the fact that she wasn’t looking him in the eye.  “What I meant to ask was
,
when did you find out that Neil was having an affair with a coworker?”

Her eyes flicked up to meet his briefly before darting away again and he thought she was giving some serious thought to lying to him again.  But then her shoulders sagged with defeat.  “I’ve known for a few months, I’m not sure when I found out exactly.”

“And was he aware that you knew?”

“God no, I never said anything to him about it.  We weren’t talking a whole lot those last few weeks.”

It never ceased to amaze him what information people held back when being questioned, even when they weren’t guilty of anything.  “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

“Because I knew you’d make the assumption that he ran off with his girlfriend, but I knew that wasn’t the case.  I called her the next day at work before I reported him missing.”

“You talked to her?”
h
is brows climbed in surprise.

“No, I
only
asked for her to see if she was in the office and I hung up as soon as she came onto the line.  But there’s no reason why she would be at work and he wouldn’t if they’d run off together, so I didn’t mention it.  I just… I didn’t want you to look at me the way you’re looking right now.”

“How am I looking at you?” Gabriel’s head canted to one side in confusion. 

“Like I’m the poor wife who couldn’t hold on to her husband.  He might have been a cheating S.O.B. but he was my husband, and I was willing to try and make it work for as long as he stuck around.  Neil had no reason to take off on his own, he had no idea I knew he was cheating.   Whoever killed him, it had to be for some other reason.  What about his girlfriend?  Maybe she did it because he wouldn’t leave
us
? 
M
aybe she even took Chloe, trying to lure him into starting a new family with her?”

“I can assure you, we’ll be talking to her in more depth along with his friends and coworkers.”  There was a lot of legwork to be done coming into it so late in the game.  Everyone’s stories would have to be checked and rechecked, alibis confirmed.  Now they had a lot more leeway into what they could check though.  They’d have access to Neil’s cell phone records and financials going much farther into the past to see if there was any irregular activity.  They’d
interview
everyone
again
as well as neighbors, even distant family to try and come up with a plausible motive. 

The biggest help of all would come with the forensics report; there was bound to be some evidence on the body that could link them to the killer
.
  Unfortunately the longer the clock kept ticking, the less likely the chance was that they would recover Chloe alive.  Most missing children found dead were killed within the first seventy-two hours and Chloe had already been gone longer than that.  If whoever was holding her intended to kill her, her time was running out.  

“Now back to Neil again, has he ever had a history of drug use?  Either prescription or illicit drugs?”

“Drugs?  No, not that I know of.  He didn’t even drink hard alcohol much, just beer and the occasional champagne if we were celebrating something.  Why, do you think he was mixed up in some kind of drug deal?”

“It’s too early to tell, but drugs are a possibility for the cause of death.”

“I just don’t know anymore.  It seems like there was a whole part of his life that I didn’t know all that much about.  It’s possible I guess.”  She was silent for a few moments, lost to her own thoughts.  “I can’t help but feel like something awful is happening to Chloe, right this very minute.”  Allison’s voice sounded far away, her eyes staring sightlessly out the window. 

Gabriel laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.  “Hey, the good news is that Chloe’s going to be escalated onto the Amber Alert and there will be a new feature on her going out tonight.  Neil’s death gives us a much bigger pool of assets to pull from, and we’ll be canvassing a much larger area than we were able to look at before.  CSU is gonna have to come and process the entire house as this is officially a crime scene now.  In fact, it might be a good idea if you went to stay with Lexi for a few days.”

“No
,” Allison’s gaze returned to him instantly.  “If you need to cordon everything off I can stay in the guest bedroom, but I’m not leaving my own home.”  

“I’m not so sure it’s safe for the two of you to be here all alone,” he disagreed.

“I’ve been fine here this whole time
.
”

“I’m serious Allie, your husband is dead, your child is missing; what if you’re the next target?”

“I thought you were pursuing me as a suspect?” 

Gabriel knew better than to rise to
that
bait.  “Fine, stay then, I was just passing the warning along.”  They were done for the moment, at least he was.  “I’ll go have a few words with Lexi.  You should expect a team to arrive later to do another sweep of the house like I said.  If you need anything
,
just call.”  Not really sure why he felt prickly now, it was better to end the interview before he said
anything
he might regret later.  Lexi was waiting in the kitchen, her fingers tapping on the edge of her coffee mug with impatience.  “Too much caffeine?”

“Too much curiosity.  You can’t drop a bomb on me like that and not expect me to be climbing the walls trying to figure out what happened to Neil.”

“
I have a few questions to go over with you if you don’t mind.”

“Not
at all
,
I told you he was dead,
”
a
smug smile
appeared on her face
.

“Yeah I know, listen about that...  Where were you on the night Neil disappeared?”

“Seriously?”
h
er brows came up in surprise.

“Seriously.”  Gabriel hoped she wouldn’t take offense, but he wasn’t exactly batting a thousand so far.

“I was home I guess.”

“Was anyone else home to corroborate that?”

Lexi paused to think for a moment.  “I’m pretty sure Maddie was home too.  Tuesday… we watched TV; she has a crush on Michael Weatherly,” she added with a grin.  “Paul came home later
,
about eleven o’clock; I’m not sure where he was before that.  I went to bed around eleven-thirty.”

“Alone?”

Her lips curved into another smile.  “Alone,” she nodded. 

“When did you find out about Neil’s affair with Monica?”

“The next day here, when Allie called me to see if I could get a read on him.  I sure wish I could un-see that particular vision.”

Gabriel did his best to keep a straight face but the corner of his mouth twitched into an almost smile before he continued.  “You never
had
any indication before that he was cheating on her?”

“Well… I had my suspicions but I’d never gone looking for it before, no,” she admitted.  “Why, is that important?”

“At this stage we don’t know what’s important and what’s not.  I’m just gathering information.  Speaking of which,” he took a deep breath, “I’ll need to get your prints and Allie’s for elimination on the car.”

“Not because we’re suspects?”  Lexi’s tone was mild and he was grateful for that.

“I guess you could look at it that way,” he allowed, “but like I said, we’re just collecting data at this stage.”

“It’s fine, I don’t think I’ve ever been in Neil’s car, I have nothing to hide.”

“I thought you said everyone has something to hide?”  Gabriel couldn’t help but throw her own words back in her face. 
Wasn’t
that the reason she
didn’t
want to touch him?  Because she didn’t want to know what he had to hide?

“Okay, I don’t have anything to hide about Neil’s death,” she amended.  “How long until you know what it was that killed him?”

“That depends on what kind of a rush job the M.E. can swing.  It could take a few hours or a couple of days.  Were you aware of any kind of drug habit Neil might have had?”

“Not really, but then again we didn’t spend all that much quality time together.  I saw him with a beer in his hand most of the time, but that’s about it.  Are you gonna talk to that Monica woman?”

“We’re going to talk to everyone,” he nodded.

“What about Chloe, wha
t happens now that we know
Neil doesn’t have her?”

Gabriel realized he’d lost control of the conversation; she was interrogating him
again
, not the other way around.  “Hey, who’s running this investigation?”
h
e scolded her gently.

“Sorry,” Lexi gave a sheepish grin.  “I guess I got carried away.  I just… I want to help a
nd now I feel like the rug
got pulled out from under me.  I thought maybe Neil was in an accident or something, you know?  I never would have guessed murder.”

“And it still might not be.  It could be a drug overdose and whoever he was with got cold feet.  We’re looking into every option right now.”  Speaking of which, Gabriel needed to wrap it up and get back to the office to go over the preliminary reports and divvy up the upcoming interviews before Cooper got the best picks. 

“I’ve got to get back to the
station
, it’s gonna be a lon
g night.  CSU
will
be coming through here to take another look at the place, they’ll
ask
for your fingerprints.  Are you planning on being here later or should I have them swing by your place?”

“No, I should be here.  I think that’s for the best, don’t you?”

Gabriel came around the corner
of the counter
, fingers stretching out to tug lightly at the bottom of her glove
, pulling her closer
.  “Actually
,
I think it’s better for the two of you to get out of here and stay somewhere else, but do what you think is best.”