The Piper

TWENTY-NINE




For the first time since Livie had come home to Knoxville, she was able to clear her mind and concentrate on work. Having Amelia at the house made things better. Amelia was smart, and practical, she loved Teddy like her own, and she had a way of tackling problems that made them seem doable. Olivia did not feel so alone.

If Amelia thought that Teddy was going through a normal phase of adjustment, then Olivia would ride it out. It was parenting. It was life.

The day got off to a wobbly start when Olivia’s assistant called in sick. Olivia had three morning appointments stacked one after the other, and she made a pot of coffee, her thoughts jumping from a tally of the commissions she was going to need to make her bills this month, to kissing McTavish on the front porch the night before, to imagining Amelia and Teddy having ice cream at the soda fountain at Long’s.

But the office was more cheerful without Robbie’s air of disapproval and Olivia relaxed and let the phones go to voice mail. One of the clients, a retired elderly teacher, had a windfall from a lottery ticket, and she wanted to invest.

‘You ought to travel and have some fun,’ Olivia told her.

But the woman shook her head. ‘I’ll be getting some new curtains for the kitchen. But I want a safe little nest egg for my grandchildren. Do you think I should play the market with all that short selling stuff?’

‘No, ma’am, I think we should find you some safe and boring bonds or a guaranteed annuity.’

‘That was a test question, young lady. You are now officially hired.’

Olivia’s lunch hour came and went with no time to eat, but by two the clients had left satisfied and she had miraculously made her sales quota for another month. Time to savor the moment. She closed her office door, leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, and had an entire ninety seconds of peace before the bells jangled on the front door. She reluctantly slid back into her shoes and stuck her head around the corner of her office, thinking she smelled pizza.

McTavish was heading toward her down the little hallway, smiling, hair mussed from the wind and a Red Onion pizza box under one arm. He wore gray flannel trousers and a French blue oxford shirt with white cuffs.

‘I took a chance you might be free for lunch,’ he said, then put the pizza box on the front counter and looked at her over one shoulder. He was giving her that half smile he had, and Olivia wondered if she’d been on his mind that morning as much as he’d been on hers.

Olivia flipped the Open sign to Closed and locked the front door. ‘My stomach was growling so much during my last appointment I had to keep scooting my chair around to cover up the noise. I’m glad to see you. Come on back. I’ve got coffee, bottles of water, and Coke.’

‘Coke it is.’

McTavish had put the pizza box on the side table next to her desk and was hanging his jacket over the back of a chair as she came out of the little kitchenette with two icy red cans of Coke. She could see the gun, holstered at his back. He took the cans out of her hand, and set them on the desk, then pulled her close and moved closer still to kiss her.

‘I’ve been thinking about you all morning,’ he said, voice low in her ear.

Olivia sighed as he planted nibbling little kisses up and down her neck. She pushed in closer, and kicked her shoes off. McTavish sucked her lower lip gently into his mouth and ran his hands down her back, then lifted her skirt.

‘Christ,’ he said, running a finger around the lacy top of her stockings.

He lifted her off her feet, and sat her on the edge of the desk, pushing her skirt up and out of the way, and pressing close, kissing her again, one hand moving up under her sweater and the other moving between her thighs.

‘Oh shit, McTavish.’

‘Oh shit yes, or oh shit no?’

‘Oh shit yes.’ Olivia caught her lip in her teeth, wondering if he was going to do that thing he used to do. She touched him through the cloth of his trousers, and began to unbuckle his belt.

He had her bra unfastened, and the sweater up and over her head, and cupped her breasts in his hands as he put his head between her legs. Olivia bit the edge of the collar of his shirt, leaving little teeth marks where the point of the collar was securely buttoned down. She grabbed hold of his shoulders and shut her eyes tight, and he wrapped his arms around her waist so she could give herself over to the excruciating sweetness of the sensations that rippled like tiny little shocks making her legs tremble.

He grabbed her suddenly, roughly, and pulled her off the desk, turning her so he could take her from behind, thrusting and pulling out slowly, one arm around her stomach pulling her in hard and tight.

‘This is really good pizza,’ Olivia said. ‘What’s in the other box?’

‘Baklava.’

They were sitting side by side with their backs to the desk, clothes back on but with the kind of telltale tangles and creases that could lead to speculation from coworkers.

McTavish rooted through the pizza box for another slice. ‘You know that sweater you had on last night is pretty irresistible. I lay awake half the night thinking about you taking it off.’

‘Really? What about the sweater I have on now. You don’t like this one?’

‘I thought it was the same sweater.’

Olivia winced and shifted sideways, reaching under her leg for whatever it was that was causing her pain, coming up with a white plastic fork. ‘So this is a baklava slash pizza joint?’

McTavish nodded, chewing thoughtfully. ‘Pretty much. They deliver, by the way, and they’re just a couple of blocks from your house. Jamison and I order out there all the time. Oh, hey.’ He reached into his pocket. ‘I got some information for you. You know that guy you asked me to check out last night? That old buddy of your brother’s? That Bennington guy?’ He handed her a scrap of paper from a memo pad. ‘Background check looks fine, he’s married, got a couple kids. Here’s his phone number. I called a couple times around noon, but no luck.’

‘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.’