The Piper

FORTY




McTavish hadn’t wanted to leave her at the hotel, but Olivia had insisted. He had to find Teddy for her. He had to do it. Someone she could trust.

Hugh, flying out of LAX on the redeye, had called while she was being interrogated by Withers. He’d texted her to say he preferred to stay by her side at the house, but if that wasn’t okay, he’d get a room at the Crown Plaza downtown. He’d been in flight when she tried to call back, so she’d left him a message. That she wasn’t at the house. That she’d taken a room at the hotel.

Olivia had taken a shower but not washed her hair. Not even washed herself, just stood under the water, too tired to lift the soap. She’d tried the bed for a while, distracting herself with the drone of cable television, studying the ceiling tiles, the dust caked in one corner, the shape of what might be a dog directly over her head. When the knock came, at the hotel room door, she was on her feet in an instant.

It would be a police officer. Good news or bad?

But it was not a police officer. It was Charlotte. Standing in the hallway, face swollen and red with a tissue crumpled in her fist.

‘McTavish called me,’ she said, when Olivia opened the door. ‘He told me to come.’

Charlotte tried to step forward to give Olivia a hug, but Olivia pushed her back.

‘You stay away from me, Charlotte. And when my little girl comes home safe, you stay away from us.’

‘God, Olivia.’ Tears ran down Charlotte’s face. ‘Don’t do this. I know—’

‘You know nothing. Or everything. If you. And my brother. Hadn’t started this.’

‘Don’t blame him. Don’t blame Chris.’

‘Why not? He’s the one who brought it home. I never want to see you or Janet, or any of you. Ever again.’

Charlotte’s chest was heaving. ‘You don’t mean it, but I’m upsetting you, so I’ll go. If you need me, Livie. You know where I am.’

‘Yes, I know where you are, Charlotte.’ And then she had a thought that made the nausea boil. ‘Have you talked to the police?’

Charlotte nodded. ‘They came to the house.’

‘Charlotte. You didn’t tell the police about Teddy being there, when Amelia died?’

‘I picked Teddy up after school that day, Livie. I was late and I picked her up at the corner of Westwood and Sutherland, it happened just like you said.’

Olivia put her back against the wall. Covered her face with her hands. ‘Thank you. Thank you for that.’

‘We’re family, Livie, like it or not. Like marriage, for better or worse. You can’t be alone right now. You’re not – you’re not safe.’

‘Safe? It’s Teddy that’s not safe. And I’m not alone, Charlotte. I have Teddy. I have Teddy and I’m not alone.’

Charlotte sobbed. ‘Oh, God, Olivia—’

‘Go.’

Olivia folded her arms, listening to the echo of soft crying, growing fainter as Charlotte stumbled down the hall. She waited just long enough for Charlotte to go away. She had to get out of the room.

She settled in the lobby in a deep leather chair, outside the first floor dining room. The scenarios of what might be happening to Teddy paralyzed her – it would be better if she could somehow turn off her brain. The three hour time limit Detective Withers had pointed out was long gone. Teddy was now statistically dead.

Sometime in the early morning hours Olivia dozed, waking to the clatter of plates – the hotel staff setting up the breakfast buffet. Olivia jumped up, feeling cold, trying to make sense of where she was. She had overslept, dammit, and if she didn’t hustle Teddy would be late for school.

And then she remembered. It all came back. Teddy would not be going to school that day.

She punched numbers into her phone, got hold of Detective Teller, who told her in too many words that Teddy had not come home. Teller was so friendly and so sickeningly sympathetic that Olivia knew that she had been instructed to befriend Olivia, gain her confidence, form a f*cking bond. No new developments to share, was how Teller put it. What did she mean by share, Olivia thought.

She sat back down in the leather chair, watching the hotel staff moving in and out of the dining room. She smelled coffee, wondered if she was hungry. It was hard to tell, really, but she did not think she was. She knew from before that there was no shame in eating when your child disappeared, but even wanting a cup of coffee made her feel the shame all the same.

She had just decided to try and call Hugh, when she saw him come into the hotel lobby through the double glass doors.

He wore jeans, a white oxford shirt, expensive slip on loafers, a charcoal blazer, cashmere, she’d bought for him as a Christmas gift five years ago. She and Teddy had shopped together.

His energy was as controlled and precise as a sniper shot, and a man in a work shirt pushing a trash cart stepped out of his way. The desk clerk took a sideways wary stance when Hugh dropped his black leather carryall gently to the floor and set the oversized leather wallet where he kept airline tickets and travel paperwork on the wood partition.

‘I’d like a room. Non smoking, king bed, but if that’s not available, I’ll take any damn thing you’ve got.’ Hugh took a credit card out of the inside pocket of his blazer. His hair was thick and wavy and even after a night on a plane it looked good. Olivia had always loved his hair. The gray was more pronounced these days, but she liked that too.

She ought to call out, to tell Hugh that she was there. But she froze. Hugh needed to check in first, didn’t he? So should she say something or wait? Why couldn’t she make the smallest decision now without this agony of details in her mind? Why couldn’t she think?

She watched Hugh tap a finger on the counter while the desk clerk consulted a computer. Hugh could never be still.

‘Look, my wife is here, Olivia James. She told me what room, but I can’t remember. Can you look it up?’

Ex wife, Olivia thought to herself. It was odd of Hugh not to remember the room number. He wrote everything down, he remembered details.

‘I’m sorry, sir, I can’t give out that kind of information.’

Hugh just nodded. ‘I’ll call her cell.’

Olivia stood up and waved a hand in the air. ‘Hugh? I’m over here.’

He turned and caught sight of her. He looked familiar yet different, face thinner than ever, that sharp beak of a nose. He’d lost weight, and he looked years older.

He crossed the lobby in a sort of lope. ‘Olivia.’

‘Hugh, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t keep her safe.’

She let him hug her, and it felt very much like he was holding on to her for dear life. She was sobbing now, in the lobby, in public, and that embarrassed them both.

‘Anything?’ he asked.

‘No. I talked to Detective Teller fifteen minutes ago. Nothing new, no leads, except a fresh oil stain in the driveway that didn’t come from my car.’

‘Let’s talk upstairs.’

She nodded. Waited for him to finish checking in, then they went to the elevators hand in hand. She led him to her room, motioned him inside. He sat his bag down, looked around and blinked.

‘Where are your things?’

‘I don’t have anything. It’s all at the house.’

‘We’ll go later and get what you need.’

Olivia hugged her arms to her chest. ‘I don’t want to go back there.’

‘To the house? I don’t understand.’

‘You better sit down, Hugh. I have a lot of things to explain.’

He sat with his hands on his knees and both feet flat on the floor and listened to every word she said, with no comment and no interruption, eyes narrowed like they did when he was thinking. Telling Hugh was a sort of test. He was highly intelligent and annoyingly logical and he had a way of sorting things straight. Slice and dice, they called him at work. Olivia thought that if Hugh looked at her like she was crazy, she might accept that verdict. She wasn’t sure she cared.

She was not at all prepared for his reaction.

‘I want to go to the house. If there’s a ghost there, let’s root it out.’

‘You’re humoring me?’

‘I don’t believe in ghosts, Olivia. But you seem to right now and something strange is going on. So I say we face it off together and rule it out in your head, then go to the next logical step. Olivia?’ He took her hand. ‘It’s going to be okay, sweet. Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘Just thinking how . . . how useful you are. So what is it, Hugh? The next logical step?’

He ran a hand through his hair. ‘Hell if I know. But we’ve got two deaths. Amelia – and God I’m sorry about that, sweet. Your brother. And two disappearances. Your sister, twenty-five years ago. And now—’ His voice cracked. ‘Now our baby girl. There’s some common denominator here that we’re missing. The police are following the conventional route. I say you and I focus on this.’

Hugh stood up and began to pace, just as there was a knock at the door. Olivia and Hugh both froze. They stared at each other, thinking there was news now. Good or bad.

Olivia looked out the peephole. ‘It’s McTavish,’ she said, opening the door.

He was in the clothes he’d worn the night before. ‘Livie. Nothing yet on Teddy but—’

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Hugh said, moving across the room.

‘Looking for your daughter, a*shole.’

Hugh blinked. Took a step back. ‘Of course. Sorry. It’s just – how did you know where to find us?’

‘Livie didn’t tell you they impounded her car? I’m the one who dropped her off. Look, guys, we’ve had a little thing come up. Maybe a lead, maybe not. Officer Rodriguez was up at the crack of dawn today, canvassing up and down your neighborhood, Livie, and he got a hit on the dog.’

Hugh went up on his toes. ‘Winston? You found Winston?’

‘No, the other one. The German shepherd. Teller told you about the oil stain in the driveway, right? It’s not much of a theory, but Rodriguez and I were thinking about something Livie told me last night. That she and Teddy kept seeing this stray dog around their house. And we were thinking if somebody was watching the house, maybe it’s not a stray. Maybe it’s his dog.’

Hugh folded his arms. ‘What are you saying here? Mr Stranger Danger is watching my wife and my daughter, and he takes his dog along, while he’s peeping?’

‘Like I said, it’s a theory. Anyway, Rodriguez was doing door to doors, asking about Teddy and Winston, strange cars around the house, and about a stray German shepherd. And early this morning he gets a hit. Seems one of the women in your neighborhood has seen it too.’

‘Who was it? The couple next door?’ Olivia said.

‘No, a woman who lives a few streets over. A Patsy Ackerman.’

‘Patsy Ackerman?’ Olivia said.

Hugh took her arm. ‘You know her?’

‘I know of her.’

‘She lists her occupation as artist,’ McTavish said, ‘but she’s also the local woo woo woman.’

‘Woo woo woman?’ Hugh said.

McTavish rocked back and forth on his heels. ‘She’s a renowned local psychic. She’s pretty well known.’

‘Listen to me, McTavish. Charlotte said my brother was working with Patsy Ackerman, right before he died. I know it’s early, but can I talk to her? Will you go with me, to see what she has to say?’

‘We can go now if you like.’

‘Oh, this is great,’ Hugh said. ‘My little girl disappears, and the only thing anybody comes up with is a mysterious dog, a haunted house, and the local version of one-nine hundred-psychic around the block. Jesus Christ, Olivia, and you say Los Angeles is full of shit.’

‘Just this once, Hugh,’ Olivia said, ‘would you not be a total prick?’

‘Fine, Livie. But I’m going too. We can get your suitcases from the house, and stop and say hi to Mr Duncan Lee.’