The Touch

by Lisa Olsen

  “Gabriel… What is it? Did you find something?”

  This was the part he hated. Bringing people in that he instinctively thought were good, but had found themselves caught up in something well over their heads. “Allison, I’ve got to take you downtown for a while.”

  “Why did you… oh my God, you don’t need me to identify the body do you?” The revulsion was clear in her voice.

  “No, Allie. New evidence has come to light that we need to talk to you about.”

  Her brow puckered in confusion. “Why can’t we just talk here? Come on in, I’ll make us some coffee. I had some coffee cake here before but I think Lexi finished it off before she left.”

  “No, Ma’am.” Gabriel cursed himself for retreating behind formality. “I need you to come with me, and I need to advise you of your rights.”

  “My rights…” she blinked at him.

  “Yes, you have the right to remain silent…” Allie stared at him as if he’d grown another head while he recited her rights and asked if she understood them.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on here,” she frowned, taking a step backwards.

  “We’ll explain more after we get to the station, but do you understand the rights as I have explained them to you?”

  “Well yes, but…”

  “Good, do you have anything you need to bring with you? Your purse maybe or a heavier coat?” It was still mild out, but Gabriel offered her that courtesy.

  “I’ll just get my bag,” Allie moved as if she was going to shut the door but he blocked it with his foot.

  “I’ll need to come with you,” he gave her an apologetic smile.

  “Fine,” she sighed, letting go of the door as she turned and headed for the study. “I don’t know what you hope to gain from this. I’ll come with you but I don’t have anything else to say, I’ve told you everything I know.”

  “I appreciate your cooperation; we’ll try to keep this as brief as possible,” he replied, following her into the house. That was true, but he refrained from mentioning that the briefest it was likely to be was until morning.

  ***

  “You wanna be good cop or bad cop?” Cooper looked up from setting the video camera to record the interrogation room where Allison sat very still, as if she was afraid to touch anything in the room.

  A roll of the eyes was given. “Let’s not play any games tonight, okay Tim? I know this woman. This is gonna be hard enough as it is.” In fact if the Captain got wind of it, he might ask someone else to take the lead, but Bristol was closed up in his office with the door shut and Gabriel intended to give him a wide berth for the time being.

  “I guess that makes you good cop,” Cooper shrugged. “I can dig it, I’ll go all Pacino on her, and you can lend a sympathetic ear, it’ll go smooth as silk.”

  “Pacino was never a cop.”

  “Yeah, but Pacino’s great at intimidating. He’s got those crazy eyes… they scare the crap out of whoever he’s trying to lean on. Work with me here, Ryan.” He stopped fiddling with the camera and reached for the door handle but Gabriel was faster.

  “No crazy eyes, we go by the book on this one, you got me?”

  “Yeah I got you, Kemosabe. We’ll break her the old fashioned way.”

  “I just want the truth.”

  “Does the word ‘duh’ mean anything to you? Now let’s go, I don’t want to spend all night at it.”

  Gabriel took a moment to put his game face on, letting his annoyance with his partner roll off his back before he confronted Allison. When he strode into the interrogation room with Cooper at his side, he had a neutral smile on his face, non-threatening, that seemed to work best for him in situations like this.

  Allie sat a little higher as the door opened; her face anxious. “Are you finally going to tell me what I’m doing here?”

  He took a seat opposite her while Cooper elected to remain standing, leaning against the wall in the corner. “Let’s start with your whereabouts on the night Neil was killed,” he began.

  “I told you, I was home, sitting up waiting for him, once I noticed that he hadn’t come home that night.”

  “And you didn’t leave your home at all?”

  “No, of course not. Why would I?”

  “Ms. Travers, we have a witness who places you at the apartments where Neil’s body was found on the night his body was dumped there.” The formality was calculated this time to get her to realize the gravity of the situation. It must have worked because Allison stared at them, at a loss for words.

  “What do you have to say to that?” Cooper prompted.

  Her brows twitched together in confusion. “I… that’s impossible. I was never there,” she replied with absolute conviction. “Whoever said that is mistaken.”

  Cooper moved forward to place his hands on the table, looming over her. “Actually, he was pretty specific and his dispatch confirms it. Our witness is a cabbie who was called out to the Outlook apartments at one-ten AM, where he remembers picking up a woman matching your description at one-seventeen AM.”

  “There have to be any number of women my height with dark hair cut like mine…”

  “He dropped her off at your address.”

  Allie blinked at them, stunned silent for the second time. Content to let Tim take the lead in discussing the cabbie’s identification, now Gabriel followed up in an easier tone, almost friendly.

  “Allie, why don’t you just save us all a long night, and admit you were there?”

  Her head swiveled to meet his gaze. “What do you want me to say? Whoever the cabbie saw, it wasn’t me. I was home all night. I would never leave Chloe alone with Neil out at night.”

  “He saw you; he picked your picture out,” Gabriel pressed.

  “He must have been mistaken,” she shook her head. “It was in the middle of the night, right? Maybe it was some other brunette?” She was floundering, and he wasn’t sure if she was grasping at straws because she was innocent or guilty.

  “Some other brunette who just happened to take the cab ride from your husband’s dead body, to your address?” Cooper’s tone left no question that it was anything but a ludicrous supposition.

  “What about that woman from his work that he was seeing, does she look at all like me?”

  “Not even close, she’s a blonde.”

  “She could have worn a wig.”

  Gabriel’s head canted to one side, “Why would she do that?”

  “To put suspicion on me? I don’t know; you guys are the detectives.”

  “That’s all you’re going to say on the subject?”

  “I told you, it wasn’t me, I have no idea who it could have been, but it wasn’t me,” she insisted.

  “Okay, fair enough.” Gabriel wasn’t about to brow beat her on the subject. At the end of the day it didn’t matter whether she copped to it or not, the evidence would play out.

  “So I’m okay to go then?” relief spread across her face.

  “I’m afraid not. This is a fairly serious accusation; we’ll need you to participate in a lineup to see if the cabbie can identify you.”

  “Like a criminal?”

  “Like a suspect,” Cooper amended. “I’ll go see if he can come down now or if this has to wait until morning.”

  “Until morning? Maybe that would be better. I can go home and get some rest and come back?” Allie nodded her approval.

  Gabriel gave Tim a nod as he exited, leaving him to explain just how this was going to go down. “Allie, you’re not getting it. You’re in police custody right now. You’re not going anywhere for the moment. Now, we’ll try to get the lineup done tonight, hopefully this cabbie’s able to come in and do his part. But if not, we’ll have to put you up for the night in a holding cell until morning.”

  “You’re arresting me?” she balked, clearly shocked.

  His eyes narrowed in disbelief, “What did you think that was all about, me reading you your rights and bringing you down for questioning?” Did
n’t she watch TV? Just because he’d decided the cuffs weren’t necessary didn’t mean this wasn’t a formal process.

  “I thought you wanted to ask me some more questions. Gabriel, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “We did want to ask you more questions, but depending on what the cabbie says, we’re more than likely charging you for the murder of your husband, or criminal conspiracy to commit murder at the very least.”

  “But that’s crazy, why would I kill Neil? I loved him!” Starting to look truly panicked, Allison gripped the edge of the table, her knuckles standing white against her skin.

  “Well let’s see, you knew he was having an affair, maybe he asked you for a divorce and you snapped?”

  “I told you, I wasn’t going to confront him over it…”

  “I know what you said Allie, but you have to realize what this looks like on paper. Cold, hard facts; that’s all the DA is interested in. Right now I have motive, I have opportunity, I have a witness that places you at the scene and you have no alibi. That’s enough to charge you. I’m sorry, now you’ll have to come with me,” he rose to his feet feeling tired and hungry. Idly he wondered if Lexi still awaited him back at his apartment? That was sounding less and less likely.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “A holding cell for now. I’ll come and tell you if we’ll do the lineup tonight, or if it’ll be in the morning.”

  “But you can’t keep me here indefinitely… should I call a lawyer?”

  “No, not indefinitely,” he allowed, “but for the time being I do have enough to hold you. Once we have the lineup, we’ll book you and then hopefully we’ll get an arraignment tomorrow. You can call for a lawyer now if you want, or you can wait until morning. Do you have an attorney?”

  “No,” she frowned, rising to her feet. “Neil had someone he used to draw up our wills, but I don’t think he’s a criminal attorney.”

  “I can give you a list of some local guys who are pretty good if you want.”

  “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Allison’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “You can have a public defender if you’d rather, but I don’t recommend it. It’s best to have someone with you at the arraignment. Or you can call Lexi instead; have her make some arrangements for you.”

  “Lexi… I doubt she knows any attorneys, but she could make some calls for me. Can I call her now?”

  “There’s a phone in the cell, you can call from there, we’ll have to check your phone and purse in before I put you in there.”

  “You’re really arresting me,” she murmured, as if it was only just now hitting her.

  “I’m sorry Allison, I really am.”

  ***

  Allison stood in the number three spot of the lineup, her head held high, but Gabriel could see the fear gathering around her eyes. The cab driver, Manno Jassal, had agreed to come in that night, and stood at the window, looking with growing uncertainty at the five women on the other side of the glass. “I don’t know… a few of them look alike,” he shrugged helplessly.

  Gabriel turned to Cooper, accusation in his voice. “I thought you showed him her picture and he picked her right out?”

  “I did,” Cooper frowned. “Mr. Jassal, you said you remembered her from that night when I showed you the stack of pictures, remember?”

  “That was easy to see from the pictures you showed me; the brown hair, the dark eyes, light complexion. But these women… there are three of them the same,” he shook his head.

  “What kind of pictures did you show him; an albino, a mime and a circus midget?” Gabriel hissed.

  “They might have been off types,” Cooper admitted sheepishly.

  Damn, but he didn’t need this fogging up his already battered sense of what was right and wrong. “Alright Mr. Jassal, please take another look, and tell us who it definitely isn’t, how about that?”

  “It’s not number five or number two,” Jassal replied with confidence, eliminating the two women who didn’t share Allison’s physical type. “The other three… maybe not number one.”

  Cooper pressed the button on the wall, “One, two and five, step back, three and four step forward please.” The women did as he instructed, and Allison lost some of her bravado, clutching her hands together to keep from shaking. “So? Which one is she?”

  “I don’t know, it was late, it was dark, I wasn’t paying all that much attention…”

  “What if you heard her speak?” Gabriel asked suddenly. “Would you recognize her voice?”

  “Maybe…”

  Cooper hit the button again. “Number four, please recite your name, date of birth and address, when she’s done number three please do the same.” The women spoke, number four in a bored tone of voice. Allie’s voice was a little shaky but she managed to get it out.

  “Maybe number three… I can’t be sure though.”

  “Maybe number three, okay thanks Mr. Jassal. Come with me and we’ll get you to sign a statement and we’ll get you out of here, okay?” Cooper led him from the room, leaving Gabriel to send the women back to holding. The cabbie’s identification wasn’t as airtight as he would have liked, leaving him less certain how to proceed. But a quick check with Captain Bristol found the path laid out for him.

  The Captain didn’t even look up from the file he was reviewing. “Charge her anyway. Let the DA decide if it’s enough to prosecute. We’ve got enough other work piling up; we can’t keep spinning our wheels on this one.”

  “What about the little girl?” They might have enough to charge Allison on for Neil’s murder, but there was nothing to indicate she had anything to do with Chloe’s disappearance, except maybe the absence of evidence that she’d been snatched in the first place.

  “Maybe the DA’s office can work some kind of deal on the murder rap if she tells us where the girl’s body is?”

  Gabriel flinched as if he’d been hit, but Bristol was right. After all this time, it was as if she’d disappeared off the face of the earth. The chances that Chloe was still alive were slim indeed. “Okay, you’re the boss,” he nodded.

  “That’s what the sign on the door says.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  In the end, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to eat Gabriel’s pizza. Maybe it was petty of her, but Lexi couldn’t relax and hang out at his place as if there was nothing wrong. Nor did she want to take his car, and luckily Maddie didn’t have a problem coming to pick her up.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Maddie asked, after several minutes of silence in the car on the way home.

  “I can’t, I promised I wouldn’t discuss it,” Lexi sighed morosely.

  “Promised who, the cop?”

  “Yep, but I can tell you, it’s not good.”

  “Something to do with Neil’s case or Chloe’s?”

  “Neil’s, and that’s all I’m gonna say, so stop asking,” she scowled.

  “Still nothing on Chloe’s disappearance, huh? That’s gotta be rough,” Maddie darted a quick, sympathetic smile at her.

  “Tell me about it. I can’t believe I haven’t been able to get a line on her; just that stuff with all the missing children.”

  “Maybe it’s somehow related?”

  “How could that be? That was back in the forties, that woman has to be dead and gone by now.”

  Maddie gave a half shrug, “Stranger things have happened. For all you know, a family member of one of those murdered kids might be seeking revenge on whoever lives in the house now.”

  “You’ve been watching too much Sleuth TV,” Lexi snorted, but she appreciated the effort Maddie was making to draw her out. Then again, all of the normal routes of investigation had come up with dead ends; maybe it was time to start thinking outside the box? Not that she really thought a ghost was responsible, or any far fetched revenge motive from the family of long dead children, but it was a strange coincidence that other children had been kidnapped by a former owner of the house. Was there a connection?
“Hey Maddie, do you think you could help me with some research tonight, or do you have other plans?”

  “No I’m free, what’s up?”

  “I need to find out as much as possible about what happened in that house.”

  ***

  “Hey this is really sad, listen to this,” Maddie looked up from her laptop where she was stretched out on the couch. “You were right about the woman Sophia living in the house and being wrapped up in a string of child abductions. She didn’t have any family out here, just their daughter Bianca, who had a slew of health problems. It looks like the mother went nuts after her husband died in the war, and there were some problems with her family in Italy, but it doesn’t talk much about that; mostly this is focused on the investigation. Apparently she kidnapped those kids to keep her daughter company after the little girl was bedridden.”

  “Ick, that’s so twisted,” Lexi grimaced. “What happened to the kids?”

  “Oh God…” Maddie gasped, eyes rapidly scanning ahead.

  “What is it?”

  “They found them all dead, except for one girl who succumbed to her injuries a week after they found her, and get this; the daughter Bianca was the first one to die.”

  “Christ… what did she do to them?”

  “It doesn’t say and I don’t think I wanna know,” Maddie grimaced.

  “Did she go to prison then?”

  “The woman hung herself in custody before it could go to trial.”

  “God, the whole thing is awful.” To think the woman she’d seen taking such loving care of her daughter had gone so completely whacko…

  “I’ll say. Lexi, those kids all died in that house. No wonder they keep paying you visits, trying to get your attention.”

  “Yeah, I guess if there was ever a reason for a spirit to be at unrest, this qualifies.”