‘It’s looking over your shoulder, or breathing down your neck,’ Hugh said.
They looked at him.
‘Sorry. I want to see it too,’ Hugh said. ‘The house.’
Olivia rubbed her eyes. ‘I don’t guess either of you are going to listen to me when I tell you the house is a very bad place. You guys will just think I’m nuts.’
McTavish touched Olivia’s hand. ‘Livie, you knew Amelia. Do you think there’s any chance she killed herself? She was pretty upset about that little girl, what was her name, Marianne?’
‘Amelia didn’t kill herself. Amelia made a deal.’
‘A deal?’ Hugh leaned close from the back seat. ‘What kind of deal?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Olivia?’
But Olivia folded her arms. She was not going to talk anymore. She should be outside, going through the neighborhood looking for Teddy. Or maybe she should stay there, stay in the house. Wait for Teddy there. Wait for something, God knew what.
Of the three of them, Olivia knew she was the only one who hoped nothing would happen, that whatever was there in the house would stay in the background. But she knew it would be there. She knew it would watch. She was like Teddy now. She believed.
The driveway was empty and McTavish frowned.
‘What is it?’ Olivia asked him.
‘There ought to be a patrol car out front. Teller said Donnie was going to have someone watch the place.’
‘They took my Jeep,’ Olivia said, as McTavish parked the car.
He shut the door of his Caddy very gently. ‘They had to. After what happened with that little girl who went missing in Florida—’
‘Please don’t,’ Olivia said. ‘Not now.’
Hugh stepped backward from the walk, taking in the depth and breadth of the house. ‘I forgot how pretty it is here, Olivia.’
‘Don’t let it charm you,’ Olivia said.
But it was already too late. Hugh was bewitched. Olivia knew he was imagining them all together again, she and Teddy, Hugh and Winston, living together in the storybook cottage house.
‘And no mortgage payments,’ Hugh said. ‘What do the utilities run?’
He’d be thinking about going out on his own again, Olivia knew it. All those nights they’d discussed it, Olivia thinking that if he did go that way they could live anywhere they wanted, unable to control the buzz of excitement in the pit of her stomach. He’d drawn up business plan after business plan, but never pulled the trigger.
The door was locked, and Olivia handed Hugh the key.
‘Aren’t you coming in?’ he asked.
‘In a minute. You guys go ahead.’
‘You want to wait out here, it’s okay,’ McTavish said. ‘Just tell us where your stuff is.’
‘I’ve got a couple of suitcases out in the hall. And I—’ Olivia put her hands over her face, felt the tears spill over her fingers. ‘I was going to ask you to get Winston’s food bowls.’
‘Of course we’ll get Winston’s food bowls. And his squeaky toys. He’s going to need them when we find him. And we will find him, Olivia, he and Teddy, we’ll get them back.’ Hugh gave her a quick hug, and went inside the house, McTavish following.
It was a tedious thing, waiting, and Olivia was glad when Hugh and McTavish came out with suitcases and dog toys and piled them into the trunk of the Cadillac. But then they went back into the house, and were gone for a long time.
Olivia decided to go inside. She could go and get Teddy’s school papers. She knew her obsession with the school papers made absolutely no sense, but she would take her comfort where she could find it.
She felt oddly self conscious, walking into her own kitchen, everything familiar but strange. She fingered the broken shards of glass from the window. It would need to be fixed or boarded up. She listened for the men, and heard them. In the basement, for God’s sake. Olivia wished they would not make so much noise. That they would be quiet, that they would be quick, that they would get out.
She went into the living room, walking quietly, so as not to disturb. Teddy’s papers were right where she had left them, and she gathered them up, reached for the one on the coffee table as well, adding it to the stack. She had folded them in half and was just cramming them into her purse when she began to feel it. The foglike sensation that permeated the house. Whatever it was that watched them, it was watching now.
Olivia went to the top of the basement stairs. She had to make Hugh and McTavish leave the house, leave right now. She could hear them talking, tapping the basement windows, checking the dryer vent. One of them actually laughed. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She knew that whatever watched wanted her attention, but she pretended she did not notice. She would ignore it. It was not there.
Hugh was first back up the stairs, holding her net bag of lingerie in one hand, and from the other, dangling the red leather belt.
Olivia stumbled backwards. ‘Hugh, dammit to hell, put that down.’
‘Is this it? The famous red leather belt?’
‘Don’t touch it, Hugh, why did you have to pick it up? Get rid of it, get rid of it.’
‘Bring it on, baby,’ Hugh bellowed. ‘You think you’re going to threaten my daughter? You think you’re going to threaten my wife? I’ll hang you from the attic fan, you disgusting—’
Upstairs a door slammed very hard. None of them said anything for a full minute.
‘A door doesn’t just shut like that,’ Hugh said. Finally.
Olivia backed toward the kitchen door. ‘Put that fucking belt down and let’s go. Please.’
McTavish grabbed the belt out of Hugh’s hands.
‘What are you doing?’ Olivia said.
‘Taking it outside. To the garbage.’ McTavish headed out the back. ‘Let’s just throw it away and be done with it.’
‘Fine by me,’ Hugh said. ‘I’m going upstairs to see what slammed that door.’
‘The hell you are.’ Olivia grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the back door. ‘Let’s just go. Please. Who cares why the stupid door slammed?’
The grind of a motor starting up made them both go still.
McTavish came back in from the driveway, looked from Olivia to Hugh. ‘What is it? Did the door slam again?’
‘Listen,’ Olivia said.
They were quiet, all of them, barely breathing.
‘It’s the attic fan,’ McTavish said.
Hugh leaned close to Olivia, raised a hand to barely touch her cheek. He was whispering. ‘We are by God not putting up with this.’
He turned and headed through the sunroom, and Olivia heard his step on the first stair.
‘He’s right,’ McTavish said. And followed.
Olivia hesitated. She admired Hugh very much, but she knew he was wrong.
But she went upstairs behind them. It was fear and not courage that made her go. She did not want to be alone. Not even outside the house. Outside was where Teddy disappeared.
She went up the stairs slowly, hanging onto the rail, careful in case something pushed her, or tried to make her fall. The noise of the fan dominated the house, and Olivia remembered how impossible it was to sleep with that kind of racket in the hall outside the bedroom doors.
McTavish was staring up, and Hugh was flipping the switch. On. Off. On again. Nothing happened. The fan continued to run.
‘Where’s the breaker box?’ Hugh said.
‘Right next to the back door. I’ll go,’ McTavish said. But as soon as he turned to go back down the stairs the attic fan stopped. He looked over his shoulder at Hugh. ‘Turn it back on again.’
Hugh worked the switch but the fan stayed dead. ‘Could be a short, maybe a loose connection.’
Olivia folded her arms. ‘Right, Hugh. And a loose connection slammed the door, and wrote the names in the bathroom ceiling.’
‘Let me see those,’ Hugh said.
The three of them piled into the bathroom, and this time Olivia led the way. The stepladder was folded into th
e bathroom closet, and she got to it before McTavish did, set it up and began to climb. She wanted to see for herself. If the names were written in blue chalk. If she really had remembered it right.
‘Let me go,’ Hugh said.
‘Just hand me the flashlight. It’s under the sink.’
McTavish held the ladder steady, which Olivia really did not need. Hugh handed her the light. This time she knew exactly where to look.
Just like she remembered, the newer names in blue chalk. And now, one more added to the list.
Olivia dropped the flashlight, and the front cover smashed. She could barely catch her breath, and she was glad of Hugh’s hand, helping her back down the steps.
‘Olivia? What is it? What did you see?’
‘Nothing, it’s just . . . a panic attack. I need to get out of here. Please.’
Hugh caught her up in both arms. ‘What did you see, Olivia?’
‘I told you, nothing.’
But McTavish was already climbing the ladder, shaking the flashlight, miraculously getting it to work. He paused for a moment, then poked his head back out of the ceiling. ‘It’s your name, dude.’
‘Mine?’ Hugh said.
‘Written upside down in blue chalk. H-U-G-H.’
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 fucking 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.’
FORTY-FOUR
There was a very bad moment in the lobby of the hotel when Olivia saw Teddy disappearing around the corner into the hotel gift shop. She had called out, and started to run, held back by Hugh’s firm grip round her shoulders. He had shaken his head but not argued, led her gently into the gift shop, so she could see and know for sure that the little girl was not Teddy. Olivia had tried to tell the girl’s parents to be careful, that their child was not safe, but he had hushed her and pulled her away, throwing an apology over one shoulder as he forced Olivia to the elevators.
‘I’m sorry,’ Olivia said, as they stood outside her hotel room. She fished her card key out of her purse, touching Teddy’s school papers.
‘You have nothing to be sorry for,’ Hugh said.
Olivia looked up, expecting him to come in, to tell her that neither one o
f them should be alone at night, but he kissed her gently on the cheek and turned away.
‘If you need me, or you hear anything,’ he said, ‘I’ll be right down the hall.’
Olivia shut the door in his face and put the chain lock on. She kicked her shoes off and pulled the spread off the bed, propping herself on the pillow and wondering if her mind would ever be still enough for sleep. She attached her cell phone to the charger and set it on the bedside table. There was a ballpoint pen and notepad with the hotel logo. She turned the lamp on and closed her eyes a moment, thinking to make a list of new places to search. She fell asleep with the pen in her hand.
The light hurt her eyes almost immediately, which was strange since she only had the lamp switched on, and it was a three-way, with the setting on low. And it wasn’t really lamplight, it was more like the sun, shining so hard her eyes watered, and she had to squint. The front door to the stone cottage was unlocked, which was lucky, and she went inside, only this time it was like it used to be when she was a little girl and she didn’t feel afraid. The old upright piano was still there and the living room was just like it had been when she was growing up. She was drawn immediately to the woman who sat with her back to the door on the old, nubby green couch.
‘Mama?’ Olivia said. ‘But you’re dead, how can you be here?’
‘I thought you needed to see me, hon.’
Her mother smiled and Olivia thought how pretty she looked. She had on that chocolate linen dress that Olivia remembered. Olivia had loved that dress, her mother always wore it when she went somewhere special.
Her mother held out a hand. ‘I’m sorry, honey. You’ve had such a hard time.’
Olivia settled at her mother’s feet and let the tears come, sobbing hard in her mother’s lap. Her mother stroked the top of her head and let her cry it out.
And when she was done, Olivia sat up on her knees, and looked at her mother, content just to see her face.
‘You have to go now, Olivia.’
‘I don’t want to go.’
The Piper Page 21
