The Piper (19 page)

‘He's probably at work,' Olivia said.

McTavish frowned. ‘Maybe.'

Olivia cocked her head sideways. ‘What aren't you telling me?'

‘It's nothing. Just that the first time I called somebody actually picked up, but didn't say anything. The second time, no answer. But, you know, sometimes people get freaked when they see Knoxville PD on the caller ID. Maybe
you
should call him,' McTavish said. ‘Or better yet, just leave the whole Waverly thing alone.'

‘Why?'

‘Well, come on, Olivia. You're home, you got a new job. A beautiful daughter, and me bringing you pizza for lunch. What more could a woman want?'

Olivia stuck the scrap of paper under her desk blotter, thinking maybe McTavish was right.

McTavish was gone by three thirty, and though Olivia unlocked the front door and turned the
Open
sign back around, nobody wandered in, and the phones were quiet. She waited till the market closed at four, imagining Teddy and Amelia at Long's Drug Store, digging into hot fudge sundaes. Something chocolate would be good right about now. Right about anytime, actually. If they were still there, she could join them. She'd pulled her weight in the office today.

But Amelia didn't answer the phone.

Olivia changed to her walking shoes, leaving her heels under the desk. Gathered up the trail of tissues she had somehow shed from doorway to desk. Long's was just a block and a half away. She'd surprise them.

She locked the office up, double checking both the front and back door, then headed down to the corner, waiting for the light to change. Her briefcase was heavy. When the walk signal came on, she hesitated. It bothered her that Amelia hadn't answered the phone. And she'd confiscated Teddy's cell phone, so she could not call her daughter direct. She dialed Amelia's number again.

The connection was jumpy – it was windy out, but the sky was clear. The phone rang six times, with no answer.

The light changed again, and Olivia went left instead of right, turning the corner and heading down the wide sidewalk to her house. She was being ridiculous, of course. Stupid to be worried on an afternoon when the sun was shining. A man walking a mastiff passed her by, and grinned and said sorry
when the dog tried to put a nose up her skirt. Olivia thought about McTavish and felt her cheeks go pink. A man and a woman, both in motorized wheelchairs, swooped past her like lovebirds in flight. There were section eight apartments up the road, niches for the disabled, and those struggling with the recession and keeping their children fed on jobs that paid minimum wage. Jamison lived there, two blocks northeast.

Which meant McTavish would be close by quite a lot, Olivia thought.

Olivia passed the stone wall next to her house and hesitated. Her car was parked right next to the garage, canted a bit to the left, where she'd left it the night before. Olivia headed up the steep asphalt drive. Could Amelia possibly still be asleep? Had she remembered to pick Teddy up after school?

Olivia began to run toward the house, catching a flash of movement from the front porch. Maybe the stray dog she and Teddy had seen, but it was gone by the time she made it up to the door.

Which was closed, but unlocked.

Olivia went in slowly, warily. It felt somehow wrong in the house. Her heartbeat picked up and the mom fear, always a breath away, was making her stomach clench. Olivia could hear Winston barking in the backyard and the scrabble of his toenails as he whined at the back kitchen door. Teddy's backpack was on the floor next to the coffee table, along with her pale yellow sweatshirt, that had been wadded and tossed on the couch. She took a breath. So Teddy was home then. Home safe from school.

‘Teddy?' Olivia said. ‘Amelia?'

Olivia picked Teddy's backpack up, to set it on the couch, and something fell out of the side pocket and hit the floor. Chalk. A piece of blue chalk. Olivia thought about Teddy's name newly scribbled on the ceiling stud in the bathroom upstairs. Could Teddy have done that? How? Even with a ladder she wouldn't be tall enough.

The house was quiet, but oddly present. Olivia thought about what Teddy had said the night before, that she and Winston were being watched. She was glad for Winston's sake that he was out in the yard, but it was strange that Teddy had not let him back in. She dropped her briefcase to the floor and headed up the hardwood stairs. It was dim upstairs, no lights on at all. Amelia's orange flip flops were in the hallway, right outside the bathroom door. Amelia was obsessively neat. It was odd for her to leave her shoes like that, out in the hall.

Olivia thought to call out again, but didn't. She moved quietly. Not even a creak of the floor. She listened for voices. Maybe Amelia and Teddy had simply walked. It was, after all, a beautiful day. Maybe they'd forgotten Winston, and left him out in the yard.

Olivia paused in the hallway, listening. Something – the tiniest gurgle of noise, like water lapping against the side of the tub. The bathroom door was open.

It took a full moment for her brain to register and her mind to accept everything that she saw. Water on the floor, a lot of it, as if someone had struggled mightily to get out of the tub. Amelia, naked, twisted sideways, her head under water, her hair undulating gently. And Teddy. Standing at the foot of the bathtub. Holding tight to Amelia's feet.

‘
Oh my sweet Jesus God
.'

Olivia's words broke the spell. Teddy began to sob and shake, and Olivia pushed her out of the way and stepped into the tub, the water drenching her shoes, her panty hose and the bottom of her skirt.

‘Oh, Mommy, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. I think Dr Amelia is dead.'

‘Call nine one one, Teddy. My phone's in my purse, it's in the living room downstairs.'

Teddy was wearing her monkey shirt today, a worn out favorite her father had given her, with a circle of chimps throwing bananas. Her hair was in pigtails and her shirtfront was drenched. Olivia was aware of every detail as she listened to her daughter's frantic scramble down the stairs.

Teddy was sorry. So so sorry. What had her little girl done?

It was going to be too late for Amelia. She was definitively dead, and Olivia knew it, though she strained and hauled Amelia up and out of the tub, wincing when she lost her grip and the body thudded and hit the floor. She tried CPR. The breath of life. But Amelia's skin was cold, her limbs heavy and unwieldy, as if they were filled with sand. There was a froth of white foam in her nostrils and mouth, and her eyes were rolled back into her head, showing white. Olivia listened for the sound of sirens, and help, aware when Teddy ran back up the stairs, aware when she stood in the hall outside the bathroom, staring.

‘Did you make the call?' Olivia asked.

Teddy shook her head. ‘I couldn't find the phone. It wasn't in your purse.'

‘No, I said it was in my briefcase, Teddy.'

‘I thought you said purse. Mommy, is she—'

‘Teddy. Go into the bedroom. Just sit on the bed and I'll be right there.'

‘
I can bring the phone
.'

But Olivia was remembering an old movie she and Hugh had watched. A movie where a man had murdered wife after wife, by running them a bubble bath, then creeping into the bathroom, jerking their feet to submerge them suddenly in water. There was some term for this kind of drowning, vagal inhalation? Her mind wasn't working right, she could not get the details straight. But Teddy had not seen the movie. Teddy would not know how to do such a thing. Teddy loved Dr Amelia. Teddy was just a little girl.

‘No, Teddy. Don't do that. Not yet. I want you to tell me what you meant when you said you were sorry.'

Teddy went very still. ‘Mommy, I'm afraid.'

‘It's okay, Teddy. You need to know that no matter what happened, I love you. I'll take care of you,
always
. But you need to tell me what you did.'

‘But aren't you going to call an ambulance? Will I have to tell the police?'

‘Tell them what, Teddy?'

‘Tell them what happened to Dr Amelia.' Teddy put her hands over her face. ‘I think she drowned.'

‘Teddy, why were you holding her feet?' There were red marks on Amelia's ankles. Teddy had been holding her hard.

‘I don't know. He told me to.'

Olivia felt queasy. But she had half expected this was what Teddy would say. ‘Who told you, Teddy?'

‘You know who, Mommy, you know, and it's bad to say his name.'

‘What else did he tell you, Teddy?'

Teddy took a step backward. ‘He tells me lots of things, Mommy. I won't talk about it anymore.'

Olivia felt the last hope wither. There would be no more quiet joy, no pleasure in coming home. Her dreams for the job, her pleasure in the little stone house, were nothing, out of reach, her focus must be on only one thing. Teddy. Olivia loved her so much right now, maybe more than ever before, because the love felt so sad. She did not think for one moment that Teddy had hurt Amelia, she was too little, just a baby girl. But something had happened, and she didn't want Teddy within one mile of questions from the police. She wanted no rumors, no publicity, no locals speculating about the little girl who found the body in the tub. And clearly, Teddy needed help, counseling of some kind. Whatever Teddy had seen or not seen, done or not done, it had to be dealt with, but in private, on Olivia's terms, as a mother who knew the dangers of letting a child get chewed raw by officialdom and the system. Teddy was already fragile, and finding Amelia's body this way, on top of everything else, was too much for an adult, much less a little girl of eight.

‘Teddy, I want you to come with me.'

But Teddy backed away. ‘Why? Where are you taking me?'

‘To your Aunt Charlotte's house. It's going to be upsetting here for a while, when the emergency people come. I want you to be safe with Charlotte, while all of that is going on.'

Teddy grabbed Olivia around the waist, and the tears came, with hiccups and sobs. ‘Mommy, I feel so bad.'

‘I know you do, Teddy. I feel bad too. We'll talk about this later. In private. Right now I only want you to discuss this with me, and a friend I'm going to introduce you to. His name is Dr Raymond, and he helped me a lot when I was a little girl. We can trust him, Teddy. He can help you too.'

Teddy looked up. ‘Mommy? What if Aunt Charlotte won't let us in?'

‘She's family, Teddy. Of course she'll let us in.'

T
eddy was hiccuping softly when they pulled into the driveway of Charlotte's house. The garage doors were open, and both cars were there. Charlotte was home. Olivia took a deep and steadying breath.

‘She wasn't there when I got out of school,' Teddy said softly. She had a hand on Winston's collar, as if she were afraid to let him go.

‘Do you mean Dr Amelia?' Olivia asked.

‘She was supposed to pick me up after school, but she didn't come. I waited and waited.'

‘Did that make you mad at her?' Olivia asked.

Teddy gave her a puzzled look, and shook her head.

‘Why didn't you call me, Teddy? How did you get home?'

‘I walked.'

Olivia dug her fingernails into her palms. Waited. But Teddy seemed to have nothing else to say.

‘Come on, Teddy, out of the car.' Teddy needed to be there with her, standing at the door. That would make it hard for Charlotte to turn them away.

But Charlotte was holding the front door open as they came up the walk. Opening the screen door. Beckoning them in.

‘I thought I heard a car,' Charlotte said. She was looking at them oddly, taking them in, the two of them, desolate and desperate and on her front porch.

Olivia tried to pull Teddy through the open door, but Teddy hung back. ‘Are you sure you want me here, Aunt Charlotte?' Teddy said.

Charlotte winced. ‘Yes, honey, I'm sure.' Her eyes were circled and dark, and she crouched down to give Teddy a hug and pat Winston. ‘We need a dog around this place to cheer things up and—
Teddy, you're drenched
. What happened?'

‘Teddy, take Winston and go in the house,' Olivia said.

‘The girls are in the backyard on the trampoline.' Charlotte waited until Teddy was out of earshot. ‘I know you're mad at me, Olivia, and I'm sorry I didn't return your call about coming to dinner Sunday night. I've been thinking and – look, come on in the house and let's talk this out. I know I treated you like hell the other day. I panicked. I just didn't want . . . I just didn't know what to do.'

‘I can't come in right now, Charlotte.'

‘Oh, come on, Olivia, at least hear me out. We can—' Charlotte paused and put a hand to her mouth. ‘Your skirt is wet and you look like hell. Something's happened. What is it, Livie?'

‘I
need
you, Charlotte. I need you to do what I say and not ask me any questions.'

Something in Olivia's voice made Charlotte go very still. ‘So it's starting up again, isn't it?'

‘Just listen to me, Charlotte. Please. For Chris's sake, if nothing else.'

Charlotte put an arm around Olivia's shoulders. ‘Come on in, sweetie.'

‘I can't. Look. Teddy has been here, with you and the girls, all afternoon.' Olivia held up a hand. ‘Don't interrupt, just listen. You picked her up from school. You were late, so she started home and you picked her up at the curb right at the stop sign at the intersection of Sutherland and Westside Drive.'

‘Olivia, please tell me what's going on.'

‘Amelia's dead. My friend from California? The PA?'

‘Yeah. I met her, remember – but what happened? Was she in an accident?'

‘She's been visiting us and she died at the house.'

‘Oh my God. Another one.' Charlotte put a hand to her mouth. ‘Did it happen in the night? Did she die in her sleep?'