The Piper

by Lynn Hightower

  She headed down Kingston Pike, looking for familiarity and comfort, and turned into the local Barnes & Noble. She bought a cup of coffee that was not as good as the gas station coffee but came in a prettier cup. She sat in one of the green striped upholstered armchairs, and set her purse on the little coffee table, and sat still, trying to think.

  The first thing that came to mind was Hugh, and the way he had made her laugh, saying he would buy Teddy 87,397 books. She could use Hugh here, right about now. For all his faults, she missed him.

  But it was peaceful in the bookstore, and she did not feel so alone. And it was surprisingly busy, tables filled with people hunched over computers, the café tables full, the smell of baked chocolate cookies, and the whir of the latte machines. With so many people out of work right now, it had become a hot place to hang out.

  Olivia understood now like she hadn’t before, how boxed in her brother Chris had felt. Had Decan Ludde brought these same pressures to bear on Chris till he had no options but to make a deal? The choice for Olivia was clear. Do nothing, and live in the uncertainty loop of hell. Teddy would never come home. Or she would turn up dead. And Olivia herself might spend the rest of her life in jail. Dodging the police for one night was perfectly fine, but after that, she’d have to give herself up. She wouldn’t get Teddy home by running away.

  No Teddy and a lifetime in jail. These were the threats. These were her malign troubles, provoked. Was she going out of her mind, or could Decan Ludde make good on these threats? She felt like a rat in a maze with nowhere to go – just the Pied Piper leading her on.

  And she knew him now, this Pied Piper, sure to her core that he’d been the man without fingerprints inside Bennington Murphy’s house. She had met the elusive Decan Ludde – unexpectedly blond and mild looking, watching her and sipping tea, urging her to make a deal while the bodies of Bennington and his family decomposed beneath streaks of their own dried blood.

  It had not gone well for Bennington, this making a deal. What good was a high paying job to support a family that was now dead? Patsy Ackerman was right, the price was too high.

  And what other choice did she have?

  Making a deal was the only play she had left, and it would have to happen before Donnie Withers hauled her off. Patsy Ackerman would have to stop meditating and prepping and working up her nerve. Patsy Ackerman would have to get her into the Waverly, where Decan Ludde invited her to go.

  Before she left she had one small thing to do.

  Olivia went to the children’s book section, and found their selection of Nancy Drew. She could not afford 87,397 books but she could afford one, and she would pay in cash. No paper trail for Donnie Withers. She studied the titles, looking for one that Teddy had not read. Selected The Secret of the Ninety-Nine Steps. Teddy would love having a new book to read. Because Olivia was bringing her little girl home. No matter what the cost.

  FIFTY-SIX

  There were lights on in Patsy Ackerman’s house, and the bungalow looked so homey, there in the dark, so safe and pretty, that it made Olivia homesick for the days when she had been a little girl, and the stone cottage where she’d grown up had made her feel safe and secure. Maybe it had never been safe. Maybe safety was an illusion that helped you sleep.

  Patsy Ackerman was slow to come to the door, but did not seem surprised to see Olivia on the step.

  ‘I see you got my message,’ Ack said.

  ‘What message?’

  ‘Your cell phone was off, so I left you three messages at the hotel. Just to call me, you didn’t have to come.’

  ‘Can I come in?’ Olivia said.

  ‘Of course. I’m not sure what it means—’

  ‘You’re not sure what what means?’ Olivia said.

  ‘Sorry. Come on back in the studio and I’ll explain.’ Ack led her through the kitchen. There was something simmering in a crock pot, and the scent of stewing onions and roasting meat.

  Elliot the parrot was lively, stretching his wings and skittering up and down the bar of his perch. ‘He’s dancing,’ Ack said. ‘He loves the Backstreet Boys and one of their songs was on the oldies station this afternoon. It got him all stirred up. He’d love it, if you’d applaud.’

  Olivia clapped her hands. It was full dark now, the dark pressing into the French windows that led to the backyard.

  Ack paused in the doorway, watching them, arms folded. ‘Elliot woke me up last night. Usually, when his cage is covered at night, he’s very quiet, he just sleeps. But last night he got really agitated and started talking. About your daughter. He said Teddy’s name.’

  Olivia turned with a hand over her mouth.

  ‘Let’s see if I can get him to repeat it for you.’ Ack headed to the cage and opened the door. She held a finger out to Elliot, inviting him out and onto her shoulder. ‘Tell us, sweetie. Tell us about Teddy. What do you have to say?’

  Elliot tucked his head into his wing.

  Ackerman chucked to him softly. ‘What’s the matter, baby? Do you have something to tell me, little man?’

  The parrot teetered on his perch. ‘Teddy, three fifteen, three fifteen. Teddy, three fifteen, three fifteen.’

  ‘Good baby. Good boy,’ Ackerman chucked. Kept her finger out, but Elliot backed further into his cage. ‘He’s upset.’

  ‘So am I,’ Olivia said. She moved closer to the parrot. ‘What does that mean? Teddy, three fifteen?’

  ‘Three fifteen, three fifteen,’ Elliot said.

  ‘We get it, baby, three fifteen.’ Ack shrugged, and closed the cage. ‘I don’t know. It could be a time. It could be a date.’

  ‘March fifteenth is two days from now.’

  ‘Yeah. Or it could be three fifteen a.m., or three fifteen in the afternoon.’

  ‘Are you drawing, do you have any pictures in your mind, are you getting anything else?’ Olivia said.

  ‘No. Sorry, this is it. And I have no idea what Elliot means.’

  Olivia sat down on the edge of the worn leather chair. ‘It sounds like a deadline to me.’

  ‘A deadline? Why would you say that?’

  ‘Isn’t it what makes the most sense? I’m being pressured, Ack. I’m being warned.’

  ‘About what? To do what?’

  ‘To go to the Waverly.’

  ‘What? That would be crazy. You shouldn’t go within a mile of that place.’

  ‘Yeah, well, before you say that, let me tell you about my day. Because I think I’ve had a personal invitation.’

  ‘From who?’

  ‘Duncan Lee. Decan Ludde. The piper himself, whatever you want to call him. Look, will you take a drive with me? I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be here, at the house.’

  ‘Why the hell not?’

  ‘The police are going to be looking for me. To question me, and they’ll start at my hotel. And if they find out you’ve left me three messages today, the next place they’ll come is here.’

  ‘Why would they take you in like that? You didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Teddy, anybody with a brain can see that.’

  ‘Look, please, just come with me, in the car, okay? I’ll feel safer that way.’

  ‘Let me get my boots.’

  Olivia headed back out into the neighborhood, took a side street and wound up on Papermill Drive.

  ‘I don’t think I can talk about this and drive, do you mind if we just pull over for a bit?’

  ‘Okay. No, not there,’ she said, as Olivia started to turn into the weedy parking lot of a defunct Mexican restaurant. ‘Go up the hill there, to McKay’s Used Bookstore, their parking lot is always full, you won’t be conspicuous there. Why, is that funny somehow?’

  ‘No, I just hide out at bookstores a lot.’

  Olivia signaled left, passing the pool supply store as she went up the hill, and headed around to the back of the bookstore, away from the lights. They would be nicely hidden there. She understood now, why Patsy Ackerman and Bennington Murphy lived behind a tangle of greenery.
Hiding was becoming automatic to her now, a new way of life. Hiding from things that could find you in the dark.

  Olivia turned the engine off on the Jeep, unbuckled her seatbelt, and faced Patsy Ackerman. There were no streetlights behind the bookstore. Both of them were shrouded in dark.

  ‘So. Ack. Let me tell you about my day.’

  And when she was done, Patsy Ackerman put her head in her hands and Olivia could not see her face, could not tell if she was trying not to cry. Ack crying made her nervous.

  ‘Bennington Murphy. Another one dead, and I can’t help feeling like some of this is my fault.’

  Olivia put an elbow on the steering wheel. She felt matter of fact and curious and wondered where her compassion was. ‘You didn’t kill him, you didn’t shoot their family dog. So why is it you’re at fault? Because you didn’t help? Do you feel guilty because you didn’t help either Bennington or Chris?’

  ‘Oh, God. It killed their dog too?’

  ‘Yeah. It left his body at the kitchen door. And you know as well as I do that whoever actually killed that family, it was all because of the Pied Piper. It was all because of Decan Ludde.’

  ‘Yes, I agree.’

  Olivia took a breath. ‘So you think I’m right? That’s who I was talking to, there in the house?’

  ‘Yes. In some form or another. No fingerprints, right? It doesn’t come breathing fire, Olivia. Not when it wants to lure you in.’

  ‘So now I have a choice.’

  ‘It isn’t a choice.’

  ‘Of course it is. I can save my daughter. How can I say no?’

  ‘Somebody has to say no.’

  ‘And suffer the consequences.’

  ‘Life is consequences. Nobody gets away from that.’

  ‘If the consequences mean my little girl dies, then I’d rather make a deal.’

  ‘Yeah, look at Bennington Murphy. He gets his finances taken care of and his entire family is dead.’

  ‘Amelia made a deal and Marianne Butler is alive. My brother. He got his little girl healed. He may be dead but Janet is okay.’

  ‘Really? Does Janet look okay to you?’

  ‘She looks alive. She looks like a girl who does not have cancer.’

  ‘Maybe she never did. Or maybe she did, Olivia. Life is like that, it’s good and it’s bad. You have to accept that.’

  Something in her voice made Olivia cock her head. ‘You aren’t telling me everything, are you, Ack?’

  Ackerman pulled a knee up, and gave Olivia a sideways look. ‘No, I’m not. There’s a reason I didn’t help your brother, or Bennington Murphy, or anyone else who’s asked me over the last fifteen years.’

  ‘Does it have something to do with when you went to the Waverly?’

  ‘Yeah. Because after that night, I started having dreams. Visions. Being led, like always, to what I’m supposed to do. Only this time, I don’t want to do it.’

  ‘What are you supposed to do, Ack? How could you just leave my brother out there, Bennington out there, to go up against something evil like this, when you have . . . gifts that would help.’

  ‘Because it’s not them I’m supposed to help.’

  ‘I don’t get it.’

  ‘No, of course you don’t. I don’t get it either, really. Because what I keep getting, over and over, what the universe keeps telling me in its unique and annoying way, is that I’m supposed to help it.’

  ‘It?’

  ‘The Pied Piper. Decan Ludde.’

  Olivia leaned back against the door.

  ‘Yeah. See what I mean?’ Ack said. ‘See why I haven’t been bending over backward to make that happen.’

  ‘But didn’t you tell me that the dark things, entities, whatever you call them, like Decan Ludde . . . They’re afraid, and in pain, and that’s why they go to the light. Isn’t that the compassionate viewpoint?’

  ‘Sure. But did you forget the part about what happens when they accept help? It means to all points and purposes, they die. Decan Ludde doesn’t want to die, Olivia. You can take my word on that.’

  ‘How could you even do that? How could you help that thing?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve been waiting for a plan, and nothing.’

  ‘Fifteen years you’ve been waiting for a plan?’

  ‘Hey, I didn’t say this was something I was anxious to do. But it won’t leave me alone. I’ve got Hugh on my doorstep. Dead. I’ve got your brother and Bennington begging me for help. Dead. Now I’ve got you, and I can tell you’re on your way to the Waverly—’

  ‘So I’m next up. Dead.’ Olivia shrugged. ‘If Teddy comes back alive, I don’t care. Wherever she is right now. It can’t be good. It even promised me . . . it promised me that Emily would come home.’

  ‘Your long lost sister? The one who disappeared like Teddy did, twenty-five years ago?’

  ‘We never found out what happened. Do you know how hard that is? I keep waiting . . . thinking it might be possible. She could come home. It happens sometimes.’

  ‘Decan Ludde is just upping the ante on you, Olivia. Sure you don’t want to wait for an even better deal?’

  ‘I don’t think there is going to be a better deal,’ Olivia said. ‘Three fifteen sounds like a deadline to me. Look, Ackerman. I’m going. Come to the Waverly with me. They know you there, you’re a respected psychic. They’ll let you in. We can go up to Louisville tonight and go first thing in the morning, in daylight, not the dark.’

  ‘Do you have any clue how hard it is to get into that place? Every curiosity seeker, nutcase and ghost hunter in the country is banging on the doors. You have to make arrangements, you have to schedule a tour. They’re booked for the next six months.’

  ‘You checked?’

  ‘Yeah, I checked. The only way to get in there now is to do what your brother did. Trespass.’

  ‘I’m going to be arrested tomorrow,’ Olivia said. ‘But I’ve got some free time tonight. If you’re ready. If you want to face it. Don’t you think it’s time to stop running from this? Aren’t you tired of living under a shadow? Maybe we were meant to do this together, you and me.’

  ‘You’d say anything to get me up there. The only thing you’re worried about is Teddy, not me.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘But you’re good, Olivia. You should be in sales.’

  ‘I’m in the mom business right now. I can take you home or I can take you with me.’

  ‘Look, give me some time—’

  ‘I’m out of time, Ack, and I’m scared as hell that Teddy is out of time too. For all we know three fifteen means tonight, or tomorrow afternoon. And I’m going to be in police custody very soon. If you haven’t come up with a plan in fifteen years, you won’t come up with one tonight. Just drive up there with me, okay? Show me how to get in. You want to wait in the car, you wait in the car.’

  ‘I’m not promising I’m going in there with you, Olivia.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Olivia started the Jeep, and backed out of her parking place, heading back down the hill. The Papermill exit was right by the interstate and five minutes later they were on their way.

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was located in the southeastern edge of Louisville, and from Knoxville, it was a solid four hour drive. By eleven eleven p.m. Olivia and Ackerman were just a mile away. Ack looked at the clock on the dash and snorted.

  ‘Well, we timed it perfectly, didn’t we?’ she said. ‘We should be heading into the tunnel right about midnight.’

  ‘If it matters to you, we can get a hotel room, and go in the morning. Early, before it opens.’

  ‘We can’t go in daylight, Olivia. There are security cameras and volunteer security guards, workmen all over the place doing renovations. They’ll be there tonight too, but it will be a skeleton staff. We’ll have a better chance in the dark. If we’re going to do it, let’s get it done.’

  ‘So you’re coming in with me?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ack said. ‘I’m coming in. If for
no other reason than my butt is getting tired of being jolted around in this Jeep. You got any shocks on this thing?’

  ‘It’s one of the older models. You get used to it.’

  ‘You get used to it, I just want out. I’ve been nauseous the whole way. Look, there’s a Pilot station a couple blocks from here. Let’s stop for coffee, before we face our doom.’

  ‘Are you being funny or serious?’ Olivia said.

  ‘I haven’t decided yet.’

  Even the pictures on the website had not prepared Olivia for how big the sanatorium was. Spotlights on redbrick and white concrete, several stories high, a monster. An institution. Inaccessible behind a gate that was padlocked and brightly lit. It stretched out like a castle, and Olivia realized the size was a serious advantage. The grounds took up acres, and even with an army of security guards, there was simply too much property to watch.

  ‘Don’t stop here, Olivia, keep on going. If I remember right, there’s a dirt access road in the woods behind the north wing. You don’t happen to have a flashlight do you?’

  ‘I’ve got this little pig light on my key chain. Teddy gave it to me for Christmas, but it makes little oinking noises when it’s on.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Ack said. ‘We’re like a couple of goof butts out of an Elmore Leonard novel. Do you get that we’re totally unprepared?’

  ‘Do you get that I’m totally out of time? And you’re prepared for this, Ack. You’ve been prepping for this for the last fifteen years.’

  ‘Yeah, but . . . wait, go back, Olivia. There it is. There’s the road, see, on the right?’

  Olivia backed up and went right. The dirt road doglegged, then wound through the woods on the north end of the estate, and Ack had Olivia follow it for three and a half miles before she was satisfied they had driven as far as they could.

  ‘We’ll go the rest of the way on foot. How good are you at climbing fences, by the way?’

  ‘As long as there isn’t barbed wire, I’m not too bad.’