Only By Your Touch by Catherine Anderson Read Free Book Online

shake hands with you.”
    Jeremy scrunched his shirt in his small fist. “He growled at us yesterday.”
    Ben leaned down to give the wolf a scolding look. “Have you been acting cantankerous? He doesn’t mean anything by it. Mostly it’s when people talk to him using baby talk. Diablo finds it insulting.”
    “Yup. My mom talked baby talk. She called him a nice doggy.”
    “Ah. You see? If you were a big, tough fellow like Diablo, would you want to be called a nice doggy?”
    “She didn’t mean to ’sult him. We just didn’t want him to bite us.”
    “Diablo doesn’t bite.”
    Jeremy turned loose of his T-shirt and gingerly grasped the wolf’s toes. Not much handshaking occurred, but contact was made. Ben promised Jeremy that he’d show him more of Diablo’s tricks later andled his entourage to the back door. Before entering the house, he paused. “What’s your last name, Jeremy?”
    “Evans.”
    “Well, Jeremy Evans, here’s the story. My mother, Nan, has Alzheimer’s, an illness that makes people confused and forgetful. Sometimes she gets things turned around inside her head. If she comes out of her bedroom while you’re here and says funny things, you shouldn’t feel afraid.”
    The child nodded. “My dad gets stuff all turned around inside his head, too. That’s how come me and my mom got a ’vorce.”
    Ben was glad to hear that. Suspecting as he did that the child’s father had a mean streak, Ben figured it was better for Jeremy with the man out of the picture. Once again, Ben’s estimation of the child’s mother went up a notch. It wasn’t easy for a woman to leave a marriage and strike out on her own when there was a child to rear. It was even more difficult when that woman had possibly been battered.
    Now Ben knew where the kid had gotten his backbone.
     
    Chloe knew something awful had happened the instant she parked in her driveway. Before she could pull the keys from the ignition, Tracy flew out the front door and raced down the rickety porch steps. Her eyes were red and swollen from weeping, and she trembled with agitation.
    “What is it?” Chloe got out of the Honda, prepared to hear the worst. “Is the puppy dead?”
    “He’s gone, Chloe, gone. His little friend from across the street came and told me just a couple of minutes ago. I was about to call Daddy when youpulled in. I thought he was out playing. But he took off.”
    “Took off?”
    “I’m so sorry. I was watching him. Truly I was. You said he could go pretty much wherever he wanted in the neighborhood because there isn’t much traffic. He said he wanted to play in Boober’s tree fort, and I believed him!”
    Chloe grasped the girl’s slender shoulders. “Calm down, sweetie.”
    Tracy nodded and gulped. Her eyes welled with fresh tears. “I never thought he’d fib to me. He’s always so good about being where he says he’ll be. Boober says he put the puppy in his bicycle basket and went that way.” She flung her arm to indicate the direction. “After you left this morning, he kept talking about Ben Longtree, that crazy guy up on the ridge. He told me Lucy Gant said he was a vet. I think he took Rowdy up there.”
    “Oh, God.” Chloe spun to look up the road. Every awful thing that Lucy Gant had said yesterday about Ben Longtree came back to haunt her. “Oh, God .”
    Tracy made a mewling sound. “I really was keeping tabs on him, Chloe. I swear I was. You said it was okay for him to go play wherever he wanted in the general neighborhood, that I didn’t have to have my eye on him every second.”
    Chloe tamped down her worry to give the girl a quick hug. In a rural area like this, it was safe for a child to run and play without constant supervision. That was one of the reasons she’d moved here, to give Jeremy that freedom. “Of course you were keeping tabs on him, Tracy. I’m not blaming you.” A picture of the wolf flashed through Chloe’s mind. If Longtree allowed the creature to run loose in a