The Piper

FIFTY




Bennington Murphy had been a pain to get hold of. Olivia had spent the last two days leaving message after urgent message, never catching him home. But miraculously and at long last, when she woke up that morning, she had a message from the front desk that a Bennington Murphy had called, and would meet her that day at noon. He lived in a small town called Valden, in the far southeastern edges of Tennessee, and according to MapQuest, it was going to be a two hour and fifteen minute drive. Olivia was leaving an hour early in case she got lost.

She was heading across the hotel lobby, briefcase slung over one shoulder, debating whether or not to show Bennington the video of Hugh’s death, when McTavish came in through the revolving front door. Olivia dropped her briefcase and froze. A tissue fell out of the side flap of the briefcase to the floor.

‘Livie?’ McTavish bent down absently and returned the tissue, then took her hands and squeezed. ‘Nothing on Teddy. Where are you heading?’

He was looking at her jeans. She had not been into her office since Teddy disappeared.

‘Five days now,’ she said.

‘I know.’

‘Five days.’

‘Look, I know I’ve caught you on your way out, but can you sit down with me a little while? We need to talk.’

‘I’m meeting someone, but I can give you a half hour. You want to go up to the room?’

He led her toward the dining room. ‘Let’s do the breakfast buffet. I’m starving. Livie, I can feel every little bone in your hand. Have you been eating at all?’

‘I eat a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips every night and drink a beer and fall asleep.’

‘That’s it?’

‘It’s the jumbo bag, economy size. And it’s the only time I’m hungry.’

He led her into the dining room. ‘Whatever works.’

The buffet had everything that Olivia liked – shredded hash brown potatoes, melon slices, corned beef hash. McTavish helped himself to sausage links, biscuits and gravy, and Olivia sat down at a table with a glass of orange juice, thinking that if Hugh had been there, he’d have had the salmon and brie. But Hugh wasn’t there. Hugh was gone. Just like everybody else.

A waiter brought coffee in a silver pot, and waited for Olivia to signal when to stop pouring cream. She began her new routine by lining up the salt and pepper shakers, then organizing the various sugars and artificial sweeteners, by color, in the bowl.

McTavish sat across from her and frowned, putting a napkin into his lap. ‘Don’t you want anything other than coffee and juice?’

‘What I want is to know if Teddy had anything to eat today. If she got breakfast. If she’s hungry, or . . . you know.’

McTavish rubbed his forehead. ‘I know.’

He knew, Olivia thought, but he was still able to eat. She watched him cut up sausages and wolf them down.

‘Sorry kiddo, but I’ve been working twenty-four seven, and eating burgers from a bag, and this is the first hot meal I’ve had in days.’

‘What did you want to talk to me about, McTavish?’

‘Several things, but first off, I just needed to see you in person and make sure you’re okay.’

‘I’m as okay as I can be.’

‘Yeah, I know, but Jamison. He’s staying with me right now – and by the way he keeps asking about you, he seems to think you’re going to be moving in too. You could, you know. It would be better than being alone.’

‘I’m not leaving the hotel until I find Teddy. I’ll go home with my little girl.’

‘I’m not going to argue with you about it, Livie. Just know the offer holds. The main thing is, Jamison was up last night with nightmares, and he was frantic. He kept saying you were in some kind of trouble. I tried to make him understand that it was Teddy who was missing, but he kept talking about you.’

‘I was in the hotel all night.’

‘Yeah, I know, I called and confirmed, sorry, he was pretty frantic. I had to promise I would check on you in person this morning. He’s acting really weird, and he’s hard to calm down.’

‘What does he say?’

‘It’s not anything I can really make sense of, Livie. He’s been anxious for weeks, but last night it was different. Last night he seemed scared, and worried about you.’

‘As you see. Fine.’

‘I thought you might be staying with Charlotte.’

‘Charlotte and I are . . . complicated right now.’

‘Do you think there’s any chance—’

‘None. She had nothing to do with this.’

‘You’re probably right. She checks out okay.’

‘You guys have been investigating Charlotte?’

‘We’ve been investigating everyone. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.’

Olivia leaned forward in her chair. ‘You’ve got a suspect?’

McTavish put his fork down. ‘No. Sorry, but no. The thing is. Donnie Withers is looking really hard at you right now.’

‘Yeah. He made that very clear the night Hugh died.’

‘Livie, look—’

‘You know what this means, if I’m the best he’s got? Me? It means he’s got nothing, it means he can’t find my little girl. It means he’s getting nowhere, if the best he can do is come up with bullshit like this. And it’s my take he’s given up on Teddy. He thinks she’s dead.’

‘He’s got some legitimate concerns.’

‘Such as?’

‘You expect me to just tell you?’

‘Hell, yes, I expect you to tell me.’

‘Yeah, okay, twist my arm. Here’s the thing. He’s found out about that hospital report my ex wife made.’

‘Annabelle?’

‘Yeah. About her suspicions that there was something odd going on between you and Teddy. That Teddy might be at risk.’

‘Put it in writing, did she?’

‘Yes, ma’am, she did. So give him his due, he does his homework. He goes to Teddy’s pediatrician in Los Angeles, and finds out that the physician on record is a PA named Amelia Wainwright. Your friend, Amelia, who died by drowning in the bathtub in your house. And you were the one who found her. Lots of water on the floor, like maybe she was thrashing around or there could have been a struggle.’

‘McTavish—’

‘Let me finish. It gets worse. Then we get Hugh. Dead by hanging, and you’re the one who called it in.’

‘Is he honestly saying I strung Hugh up?’

‘No. He doesn’t think you could have overpowered Hugh, or that you’re strong enough for something like that. And it’s clear that Hugh put up a hell of a fight. So it’s either a murder by persons unknown or suicide—’

‘Suicide? Did you see that hallway? Hugh was fighting for his life, his finger was broken, and so were his ribs.’

‘Yeah. I got to say the suicide idea is pretty thin ice. But here’s the thing, Olivia. One, you got laid off from your job eighteen months ago and you’ve had a rocky time since, financially.’

‘Me and the rest of America.’

‘True. But Teddy is Hugh’s beneficiary. He left life insurance. And if something happens to Teddy, it all goes to you. You see how it all adds up?’

‘Yeah, to a big fat crock of shit.’

‘They tracked down the airport shuttle guy, so you’ve got an alibi for when Hugh died. But Donnie, he’s thinking maybe an accomplice.’

‘Am I following this? I am slowly killing Teddy, I murder her doctor when she figures it out, then I make Teddy disappear, and then kill Hugh for the money? Don’t you think that sequence is a little out of whack?’

‘Not if you were really smart. There’s another thing that Donnie is puzzling over.’

‘God. What?’

‘That report you gave the night Teddy disappeared. Your description of the mysterious German shepherd hanging around your house. And the physical description, brindle markings, all of that. It dovetails exactly with your family dog that disappeared when Emily died.’

‘I know already. Donnie was obsessing about it the night Hugh died.’

‘Livie, when someone is lying to the police, they often describe something they know, and just substitute. Like if I were asking you to describe an assailant, and you were lying, you might just sit there and describe me. People do it all the time, describe the cop sitting right across the table. So he’s thinking, it’s a really weird coincidence unless you’re lying. And if you’re lying . . . that kind of opens everything up.’

‘And you, McTavish? Do you think I had anything to do with this?’

‘You know better. But I have to admit you were really funny about things when Amelia died.’

Olivia looked down at her hands. She reached for her coffee, but her fingers were trembling too hard to pick up the cup.

‘Another thing. Hugh’s Blackberry is missing. Do you know where it is?’

‘In my briefcase.’

‘You’ve got it? Why didn’t you give it to the police?’

‘I found it that night. When he died, when the paramedics were working on him. It was on video record and I knew that if I gave it to the police they’d take it away and I’d never see what was—’

‘Are you telling me you have a video record of Hugh’s death?’

Olivia nodded.

‘Son of a bitch. You’re saying Hugh had the presence of mind to record the whole thing?’

Olivia nodded.

‘And you didn’t tell anyone?’

‘I told Patsy Ackerman.’

‘Patsy Ackerman? Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Because I thought it might get you in trouble for withholding evidence.’

‘There isn’t going to be any withholding evidence. Give it to me. Right now. What’s on there?’

‘I told you, Hugh’s death.’

‘Then how did it happen? Was there someone there?’

‘Watch it yourself, McTavish, it’s pretty weird shit. If you can sort it out let me know.’ Olivia opened her briefcase and took the phone. Slid it to McTavish across the table.

He put his head in his hands.

‘McTavish?’

‘Olivia. I can take this in myself, or you can hand it over through an attorney.’

‘Which should I do?’

‘I don’t know. Look, let me take it. Let’s see how it plays. There’s nothing incriminating on there?’

‘You mean a video of my secret lover killing my ex? No, nothing like that.’

‘Do you have a secret lover?’

‘Just you.’

‘I’m not secret, babe. Donnie has tossed me off the case three times already, and I’ve got no official standing.’

‘You should know that Hugh wanted to get back together. He asked me if he brought Teddy home, would I take him back. In the nature of full disclosure, I told him yes.’

‘Of course you did. Manipulative bastard. And if I bring Teddy back, you’re going to marry me. Look, Livie. There’s something else. Donnie has been looking back into the disappearance of your sister, Emily. The coincidence – girl disappearing with family dog – he was thinking that was what might have given you the idea for what happened to Teddy. If you set all this up. But when we were looking into it, we ran across a guy.’

‘A guy?’

‘He’s a snitch, said he had information about Emily years ago, but when the cops pursued it, it didn’t pan out. He couldn’t have had anything to do with her disappearance himself, he was in jail at the time, he just said he heard something. Like they do. The case got a lot of press, cops figured he was just cashing in. So we had somebody talk to him, just to cover every lead, but he made ridiculous demands and it didn’t go anywhere. Soon as he was out of jail, he killed a guy, so he’s back in again, only this time he’s on death row. So Donnie sends a guy out to talk to him up in Eddyville, and he’s still saying he’s got information. Says he knows what happened to Emily, and he knows where she is. But he’s not going to talk without a reprieve. Which we all know he ain’t going to get.’

Olivia shook her head, gripped the arms of her chair. ‘McTavish, you don’t think . . . you don’t think Emily could still be alive?’

‘No, Livie, I don’t. I think we’re being played by a sociopath. But I wanted to let you know what was going on.’

‘But think about the way he worded that. He knew what happened to her. He knows where she is.’

‘Sure. He put it that way on purpose. That’s how these guys work.’

‘I used to sit on the front porch every afternoon after school and wait for Emily to come home. Did you know that?’

‘We all knew that, Livie.’

‘I don’t understand how all of this can be happening right now. I don’t know . . . I don’t know what to do.’

‘We find Teddy.’

‘Right. But it’s all so confusing. It’s like some kind of maze in hell.’ Olivia snapped the latch on her briefcase. ‘Look, McTavish. I’ve got to stay focused. I’ve got to go, sorry, there’s somebody I need to see.’

‘Who?’

‘Bennington Murphy.’

‘So you got him on the phone then?’

‘Yeah. I’m going to see him today.’

‘There’s nothing spooky there, Olivia. His wife is a school teacher, they’ve got two kids, he’s a computer IT guy, works out of his home. Regular suburban dad. Married late, though, wife is ten years younger, his kids are grade school age.’ McTavish looked down at his sausages.

‘You stay and eat, McTavish. I’m sorry, I need to go, I can’t sit still right now.’ Olivia motioned to the waiter for the bill. ‘Breakfast is on Hugh, I’m using his credit card right now. Until you guys haul me off to jail.’

‘I don’t get what you think you can accomplish with Bennington. I don’t see how he connects.’

Olivia slung her briefcase over her shoulder. ‘See, the difference between you and me is this, McTavish. You’re looking for a bad guy. I’m looking for . . . something else.’

‘What else, Livie?’

‘If I knew, honey child, I’d tell you.’