Only By Your Touch Read Free Page A

the fellow who about knocked you down.”
    “Oh! I really couldn’t say. I spoke with him only briefly.”
    Lucy’s mouth thinned. “I’m not your mama, but I’ll give you a piece of advice anyway. Watch your step with that one.”
    Chloe lifted a rubber chew bone from the cart. “No worries. I’ll probably never see him again.”
    “Trust me, honey, you’ll see him again. When a man gets that look in his eye, he always comes back around for another sniff.”
    A cold sensation moved through Chloe. “Oh, I don’t—”
    “Cash or charge?” Lucy interrupted.
    Thanks to her ex-husband, Roger, Chloe’s credit cards were all maxed out. “Cash—or rather a check. You do take checks, I hope?”
    “Sure. If it bounces, I know where to find you. That’s forty-two dollars and ninety-three cents. The advice is free.” While Chloe fished through thejumbled contents of the purse for her checkbook, Lucy rattled on about Ben Longtree. “I always did say he’d come to no good. Wasn’t no surprise to me when he up and killed a man a few years back.”
    Chloe gave the clerk a startled look.
    “Figured that’d get your attention. One blow of his fist—next stop, the funeral parlor. Happened down in Riverview. I figure Ben was probably drunk. Quarter-breed Shoshone, you know. Mix Injuns with booze, and you get trouble every time. Not that I’m racist or anything.”
    Chloe glanced over her shoulder to make sure Jeremy was still out of earshot. “He actually killed someone?”
    “Deader than a doornail. Highfalutin lawyer got him off. Self-defense and lack of malice, they said. Ha. Money talks. That’s the truth of it. A cold-blooded killer’s walking our streets, all because he could buy himself an innocent verdict.”
    Recalling the burning anger that had flashed in Ben Longtree’s eyes, Chloe had no trouble believing he had a hot temper. “How terrible.”
    “He’s a mean one—make no mistake,” Lucy continued. “His father beat on his mama every day of their marriage. The apple never falls far from the tree. I could tell you some stories that’d curl your hair.”
    “I’d better pass. My little boy is sensitive.”
    Lucy went on as if Chloe hadn’t spoken. “There’s some real strange happenings up on that ridge.”
    “What ridge?”
    “Cinnamon Ridge, where Longtree lives. You don’t know nothin’ about nothin’, do you? I take it you’ve never driven out that way. Beautiful place. A quarter section of Ponderosa pines, bordered on three sides by forestland. From the house, you can see clear into next week. Isolated, too. Not many people venture upthat way, but those that have can tell you some mighty spooky stories. Wild animals milling around everywhere. And rumor has it that Ben has been seen walking a grown cougar on a leash.”
    “A grown what? ”
    “A mountain lion. We got a lot of them in these parts, but most folks don’t make pets of them.”
    “I don’t imagine so.”
    “There’s something strange going on up there—mark my words.” Lucy rubbed her sleeves and shivered. “Take that wolf of his, for instance. Who in his right mind would have a dangerous critter like that for a pet? Claims it’s a hybrid, but no one believes it. Looks like a real wolf, don’t it?”
    Chloe recalled the creature that she and Jeremy had encountered in the parking lot. She wasn’t surprised to learn that Ben Longtree was its owner.
    “What if the thing attacks someone?” Well into gossip mode, Lucy ignored the check Chloe laid by the register. “Mandy Prince over at the Clip and Curl thinks Ben is dabbling in witchcraft. She got into all that hocus-pocus stuff at college, and she thinks that cougar could be his familiar.”
    Chloe struggled not to smile. Granted, Ben Longtree had been surly, but it struck her as being a little outrageous to accuse him of practicing witchcraft.
    “He’s a big man,” Lucy went on. “If he’s a witch, maybe a regular-size house cat isn’t big enough to