The Piper (17 page)

‘Yeah,' McTavish said. ‘I kind of do. It's that place in Louisville, Livie, you know.'

‘You mean . . . that
institute
? That crazy place? It's an old abandoned tuberculosis hospital, right? The haunted one?'

‘Yeah. Chris never told you about it?'

‘Told me what?'

‘About what happened up there. At the Waverly. When they were all up in Louisville, you know, at that wrestling competition. Remember?'

‘I was five then, McTavish. But I do sort of remember the wrestling competition. Because that was when Emily disappeared.'

O
livia settled Teddy and Jamison in front of the television set with a movie, an old favorite of Teddy's,
Return from Witch Mountain
, while she and Amelia and McTavish huddled around the sunroom table looking at the screen of her laptop.

The Waverly had a website. And webcams up and down the dark corridors of the old empty buildings. Amelia was hunched over Livie's laptop, scrolling. ‘This place is all over the Internet.' She began to read aloud.

‘“The Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky is known as The Holy Grail of the Paranormal
.
”' Amelia looked up at Livie, then back down to the screen. ‘It looks like the land was bought for a school and named for Scott's Waverley novels. Evidently the hospital kept the name when they opened in 1910.'

‘The place is massive,' McTavish said, looking over Amelia's shoulder. ‘They had beds for over four hundred patients.'

‘They treated thousands of tuberculosis patients, over the years,' Olivia said, reading
.
‘They called it the white plague. Almost none of them survived?'

‘No antibiotics then,' Amelia said. ‘Look at the treatments they had. Fresh air and bed rest. Good nutrition and diet. Heliotherapy. So basically they kept the windows open even in the winter and sat the patients outside to soak up the sun. Looks like they used sunlamps too.'

‘But didn't they get pneumonia or something?' Olivia said.

‘Keep reading, it gets better.' Amelia squinted at the screen. ‘Their cutting edge surgical treatments were brutal. Collapsing parts of the lung. Removing rib bones, one or two at a time. Sweet Jesus God, they've got pictures of the doctors performing this stuff.'

Olivia looked at the pictures. Tiled rooms and men draped in white bent over patients who did not have a chance.

‘It looked like Frankenstein's lab without the technology,' McTavish said looking over her shoulder.

‘Medical science in the dark ages,' Olivia said.

Amelia covered her eyes with her hands. ‘I'm not sure we're any less barbaric today.'

‘Listen to the part about the Body Chute, guys.' McTavish put a hand on Olivia's shoulder and squinted down at the screen. ‘It was an underground tunnel for transporting bodies so the living patients wouldn't be upset. They went under the hospital and down the hill and the hearses were waiting for them when they came out. Five hundred feet long, and it wasn't wired, so there was no electricity.'

‘Five hundred feet in the dark?' Amelia said.

‘I guess they had lanterns,' McTavish said. ‘And some kind of rail and winch system to get the bodies through.'

Olivia closed her eyes, imagining the dark tunnels, the echoes. Then she looked up at McTavish. ‘What does the Waverly have to do with all those names upstairs? What does this have to do with Jamison and Chris?'

‘What I know is kind of hazy, Liv.' McTavish ran a hand through his hair. ‘Remember how little you and I were at the time, right? But Jamison talks about it sometimes, he has nightmares. From what I can piece together, from things Jamison has said to me over the years, they went there. Jamison, Bennington and Chris.'

‘There? At Waverly Hills? And who was Bennington?' Olivia asked.

‘He was one of the guys on the Bearden High School wrestling team. They were the stars, you know, the A-Team. There were eight of them that made the trip. It was for the National High School Wrestling Championships – which were pretty new then, but now they're the crown jewel of high school wrestling. I mean, these days, they cover it on ESPN, and bring in wrestlers from all over the US and Europe.'

‘But what's that got to do with the Waverly?'

‘They went there, the three of them. Snuck out of their hotel room because they were teenage guys and goofy, and thought it would be cool to see the notorious haunted sanatorium. These days you can go on a ghost tour, but back then it was strictly No Trespassing.

‘Jamison talks about the Body Chute sometimes, when he has bad dreams. The impression I get was that he was actually in there. That the three of them went down some kind of vent shaft to get inside the tunnel. Something bad happened, I just don't know exactly what. Jamison never really makes sense when he tries to talk about it.'

‘But what's the big deal?' Amelia said. She was clicking her way through the website. ‘Did it make them freak out and lose the wrestling match?'

‘No, just the opposite. Championship wins for all three. They all got big fat scholarship offers from the NHSCA.'

‘Look at this,' Amelia said. ‘It's a web cam, set up at the edge of the Body Chute. There's stuff written on the walls.'

‘They'd have graffiti in hell,' McTavish said. ‘For a good time call six six six.'

Amelia peered close at the screen. ‘What is that? Decan Ludde. Is that a name?'

McTavish sat forward. ‘Does it really say that? Decan Ludde?'

Amelia pointed. ‘See, right there, at the edge of the screen.'

‘How weird. Jamison used to say that over and over, in his sleep.'

‘Decan Ludde,' Olivia whispered. Thinking how close it sounded to
Duncan Lee.
‘Google it, Amelia.'

But Amelia wasn't listening. She twisted her head sideways, staring at something on the screen. ‘So did they get their scholarships, and go to college and—'

‘Live happily ever after?' McTavish said. ‘Jamison didn't. He had his car wreck two days later, went through the windshield, closed head injury. It's taken fifteen years of daily therapy just for him to be able to walk, and talk, and live on his own. For Jamison, after the accident he had, being able to hold down a job stacking shelves at Long's Drug Store, and volunteering at the animal shelter are genius level. This for a guy who had it all. A star athlete who scored in the ninety-ninth percentile across the board. I mean, he was going to have a future. Now he has a life.'

‘What about Chris?' Amelia asked.

Olivia shook her head. ‘No, he didn't take the scholarship, and my parents were furious with him, I remember a lot of arguing.'

‘But why not?'

‘Because. The night they came back. That was the night that Emily disappeared and our whole family just fell apart. Chris didn't want to go to college until they found her. He said he wouldn't go until she came home. My parents tried threatening him, then they moved to bribes, they even promised to buy him a car if he'd go. But he wouldn't. He just dropped out of everything – barely finished his last year of high school. Stayed home and around the house for the next couple of years. Lost about eighty pounds. I could show you pictures.

‘But then he came out of it. We all did. We got counseling. We moved on. Chris went to UT and got a degree in science and education and started teaching at Bearden Middle School, even coaching the wrestling team. He married Charlotte and had three little girls. He was really okay, until about a year ago. When he started acting weird and losing all that weight again.'

Amelia rubbed the back of her neck. ‘Why don't you—
shit.
Do you see that? On the screen?'

‘What is it?'

‘There. You see how there's something kind of dark, standing at the edge of the camera? Never mind, it's gone. Probably my imagination. I'm getting seriously creeped out with this Waverly stuff.' Amelia logged off the computer. Put the screen to sleep.

‘So what about this Bennington?' Olivia said. ‘And McTavish, do you have any idea who Allison is? And why their names are up there in my ceiling?'

‘Not a clue. But I'm a cop. I could find out who they are. Why the names are up in the ceiling is anybody's guess.'

T
hat night, Olivia dreamed of McTavish, who had doubled back to the front door after getting Jamison settled into the front seat of the car. He had kissed her under the porch light while Amelia took the empty bottles and glasses into the kitchen, and Teddy stumbled up the stairs, Winston trailing, to put on a nightshirt and sprawl back to front in her bed. McTavish had touched Olivia's cheek afterward and smiled, catching her hand for a quick squeeze before heading back down the walk to the car.

The martinis had put Olivia under in a deep, engulfing sleep, but she woke up instantly at the sudden flash of light streaming in under her bedroom door.

‘
Stop
.' Amelia's voice from the next room. Sounding odd. The light went out. Then came back on again. ‘
I said stop
.'

Olivia swung her legs over the side of the mattress, pulled her sweat pants on. And again, her toes slid in yet another puddle of water, collecting at the side of her bed. She was going to have to get that dehumidifier ASAP. She tiptoed out into the hallway, and flipped the hall light.

Teddy was there, standing in the doorway of Amelia's bedroom. She was holding a worn stuffed Eeyore she had not pulled off the shelf since she was two and still taking naps.

‘What are you doing out of bed, Teddy?' Olivia said. ‘What's going on out here?'

Amelia was sitting up in bed, her red hair sticking up, her face pale and strange without the familiar makeup. She shoved the blankets off her legs. ‘My light keeps going on and off. I would say a loose connection but hell, it wouldn't
keep
going off and on like that.'

‘Teddy, were you messing with Amelia's light?' Olivia asked.

‘It wasn't her,' Amelia said.

‘I didn't, Mommy.'

‘Somebody did, and you're the one standing there.'

‘
I didn't do it.
' Teddy threw Eeyore and hit Olivia full in the chest. ‘You always blame me for everything.'

Olivia took Teddy's arm. ‘Come with me, right now, move it.' She led Teddy into her bedroom, looking over her shoulder. ‘Hang on a minute, will you, Amel? I'll be right back.'

‘Don't kill the kid,' Amelia called after them. ‘She didn't do it. She wasn't even there when it started up.'

Winston followed them into Olivia's bedroom, and Olivia shut the door.

‘Sit,' Olivia said.

Teddy perched on the edge of the bed and looked at the floor.

Olivia folded her arms. ‘Just tell me the truth, Teddy. I don't want
any more lies.
Were you messing with the light in Dr Amelia's room?'

‘Nope.'

‘Then what were you doing? You were standing right there.'

‘He told me to get out of bed and watch.'

‘Who told you, Teddy?'

‘You know who.
He
wanted me to watch.'

‘
To watch what?
'

‘The lights. I don't know. He just told me.'

Olivia folded her arms. ‘
Who
told you, Teddy?'

Teddy's shoulders went stiff, and she looked at Olivia out of the corner of one eye. She lowered her voice, so much so that Olivia had to bend close to hear.

‘He has lots of names. Duncan Lee. Decan Ludde.'

‘Did you say Decan Ludde?' Olivia felt a flutter of strange fear in the pit of her stomach. Decan Ludde was the name in graffiti on the walls at the Waverly. Had Teddy overheard them talking? She'd been in the same room, watching a movie. Of course she'd heard.

‘Don't say it, Mommy. Please don't say it. He knows about you and Winston. He watches you all the time.'

Olivia sat on the side of the bed next to her daughter. ‘I don't know what to say to you, Teddy. I don't know what to think.'

‘Do you believe me, Mommy?'

Olivia sat on the edge of her bed and put her head in her hands.

O
livia and Amelia headed down to the kitchen for coffee.

‘You got any Advil, Olivia? I don't know what possessed me to drink all those martinis, but I'm paying for it now.'

‘Maybe it was
you
turning the lights on and off.'

‘It wasn't. And it wasn't Teddy either.'

The kitchen was still a wreck, and Olivia had to move glasses and sticky barbecue plates just to get to the coffee maker. She ground fresh beans, and Amelia rummaged through the cabinet over the microwave, looking for the Advil.

They slumped side by side in the sunroom, and neither of them started the conversation till the coffee was ready. There was almost too much to say.

Amelia stirred half and half into her cup, an oversized mug with paw prints on the front that said
Bark Less Wag More
. A Christmas gift from Teddy and Winston the year before.

‘It wasn't Teddy messing with the lights, Olivia. She wasn't there when it started. I got woken up twice before I saw her standing by the door. And I heard when she got up. I sleep light.'

‘Not after that many martinis.'

‘There is that.'

‘You were right when you told me things would get worse with her before they got better. So can you tell me when better will come? Because right now she's got me so tied up in knots. And it's getting serious now, Amel. Look what happened at the hospital. Her telling the nurse she was afraid to go home. I came that close to having Child Protective Services on my back. And what if there
is
something wrong with her, Amel. She keeps talking about this Duncan Lee like he's a real person. Only now she says he has another name. Decan Ludde.'