The Piper

FORTY-THREE




The rest of the day was spent in uneasy alliance, with Olivia, Hugh and McTavish winding through the neighborhood streets around Olivia’s house. The focus was on empty apartments and unoccupied houses up for sale. The economic bust had hit the area hard and there were plenty of candidates for their search. Having McTavish there made things official, it opened doors, and landlords of the tiny, run down complexes brought forth keys and let them into little cubbies that smelled of ancient meals and bygone cats.

McTavish had fliers with Teddy’s picture and everyone, from the man with a cigarette hanging out one side of his mouth and a CAN YOU SEE ME NOW ASSHOLE orange vest, to the teenage boy with a skateboard tucked under one arm and a patch over one eye, gave the picture a serious look and promised to be on the watch.

Olivia imagined Teddy behind every scratched metal door, but the rooms were always empty, with no sign of her little girl. She felt as if Teddy were drifting further and further away.

McTavish put a yellow swatch of police tape on the door of every place they searched, and they ran across other doors with bits of tape. Detective Withers not only kept a list but marked every place the police had checked. Olivia felt a stir of respect.

At five thirty McTavish got a call. He’d gotten several throughout the day, and each time Olivia and Hugh went silent and tense.

‘Anything?’ Hugh said, when McTavish snapped his cell shut.

‘No news. But Donnie has finally agreed to let me come into the magic circle, and he needs me to run a few things down. Look, Livie, you look like death warmed over and it’s starting to get too dark to search. I’m going to drop you guys off at your hotel, okay? I’ll call you if I get anything. And I’ll call you if I don’t.’

Hugh headed for the car. ‘Not the hotel. Drop us off at Naples, and we’ll get a cab back. Stop shaking your head at me, Olivia, it’s past time you had something to eat.’

Olivia stood on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Even from outside she could smell olive oil and garlic. She folded her arms. ‘I told you, Hugh, I don’t want to eat here. Why can’t we just get something at the hotel?’

‘Come on, Olivia. This is a good place for us. Put it down to nostalgia.’

But Olivia was crying. ‘I can’t go in there. It’s the last place I took Teddy, before—’

‘Even better,’ Hugh said, guiding her inside. ‘I want you to tell me about the last night you spent with Teddy. What she ate and the little things you talked about, and I want you to picture her happy and safe and home again.’

‘I can’t do this.’

‘Yes, you can. I know you can.’

They sat across from one another in a red upholstered booth along the side of the restaurant, one down from the table where they’d had their first date. The waiter who had waited on Olivia and Teddy just a few nights before took their order – Veal Marcela for Hugh, lasagna for Olivia, and a half carafe of the house Chianti wine. Olivia waited for the waiter to ask about Teddy, to notice she wasn’t there, but he didn’t. She would not have known what to say if he had.

The bread was warm and soft in the middle and Hugh buttered a slice and handed it to Olivia, and topped off her glass of wine. She noticed he only had a half glass he ignored, and said no to the waiter when he tried to fill it up.

‘This is a lucky place for us, Olivia. You came here every birthday when you were a kid, it’s where we had our first date. This was the first place you brought Teddy when you got to town. What did she talk about that night? Did – does she like her new school?’

‘She’s got a crush on her teacher. She’s made a couple of friends and there’s some kind of lizard in the class.’

‘A gecko. She told me when she called.’ Hugh pointed to a booth across the room. A bigger one, that seated four instead of two. ‘See that booth over there?’

‘Yes, Hugh, I see it.’

‘I want you to see what I see.’

‘Hugh, what—’

‘Go with me on this. Because I see you on the left side and me on the right. And Teddy is sitting beside you bouncing up and down because we just took her to the bookstore and let her buy every single book that caught her eye, and there are eighty-seven thousand, three hundred ninety-seven books in the trunk of the car.’

Olivia tried not to smile. ‘Eighty-seven thousand.’

‘Eighty-seven thousand three hundred ninety-seven. And we had the devil of a time fitting them in. A lot of them are hard covers, so it was one hell of a bill. And let me tell you another reason that Teddy is smiling. She’s got her daddy back.’

‘Hugh, for God’s sake.’

‘Please, just listen. I want to come home, to you and to Teddy. We’ll live anywhere you say. Right here in Knoxville, just not in that f*cking haunted house.’

‘No argument there.’

‘We can find one of those godawful bungalows you love so much, or some house so old and decrepit that you can’t resist falling in love. And we’ll nurture it, and love it, and take our time fixing it up, because we’ll be broke anyway after buying eighty-seven thousand, three hundred ninety-seven books. But we’ll all stay together and never move again no matter what, and I’ll go into business for myself or flip burgers at McDonald’s, or be your assistant while you build your financial empire.’

‘That might be nice. My current assistant is a bitch.’

Hugh smiled at her, that old smile he gave whenever she’d made him laugh. He took her hand across the table and leaned very close. ‘I’m going to find Teddy and bring her back home. That’s what daddies do. And I’m hoping that when I do that, you’ll let me come home too. And that we’ll stay together, no matter how hard things get, no matter how mad we get, because that’s just the way life goes, and families stay together no matter what.’

‘You bring my little girl home safe, Hugh, and I’ll be yours for life.’