The Piper Read Free Page B

yours.’
    â€˜They actually have percents?’
    â€˜I think your brother’s call would fall into the category of a
crisis
call. That runs to twenty-seven percent.’
    â€˜A crisis phone call? The crisis is over. Chris is dead.’
    â€˜Not him. You.’
    â€˜I’m not
in
a crisis. That’s all done.’
    Amelia put out her hand. ‘Look, I—’ The waiter arrived with the beers, and Amelia paused until he was out of earshot. ‘Don’t take this wrong, and get that mouth of yours all fired up. But maybe this whole thing is some kind of stress reaction. You haven’t slept for months, Liv. Sleep deprivation causes all kinds of . . . reactions. And no wonder. You almost lost everything when you got laid off.’
    Olivia made finger marks on the condensation of her glass. So Amelia had noticed when the car disappeared. She figured people did notice these things, but were too polite to bring it up. In the last few months the thought of being homeless had joined her list of lifetime fears, which included drowning, earthworms and being buried alive. If it hadn’t been for Hugh giving her his battered up Jeep that he kept for off-roading, she’d have had nothing to drive, a virtual death sentence in California.
    A prince among exes. What was that thing he’d told her? That you take care of your child by taking care of her mother. She’d been warned by at least two girlfriends that men were nice like that during the separation if they were hoping you’d change your mind, but to watch out when things went to court.
    â€˜It worked out, though, Amel. I sold the house. I’m taking a new job back in Knoxville, and that’s like a dream come true. I’ll be the rainmaker, the broker, building up my own business instead of working in the back office because I move all the time. I’m going home and I’m going to stay put. I’m happier now than I’ve been in years.’
    â€˜But it’s been hell for you, Livie. And this whole time you’re worried sick about your brother in Tennessee, who is clearly in the middle of some kind of psychological meltdown. How many pounds did he lose before he died?’
    â€˜Sixty. At least.’
    â€˜Acting weird, not sleeping, making his wife and daughters move out of the house. All that worry, coming just a year after you and Hugh got divorced.’ Amelia sat back in the booth. ‘Still here, Liv?’
    â€˜You’re saying I imagined it.’
    â€˜You said you were asleep. Maybe it was part of a dream.’
    Olivia flipped her cell phone open and texted over to incoming calls. ‘Is this a dream?’
    Amelia took the phone, and pulled the glasses up on the chain, using them like a magnifying glass to study the screen. ‘Are these things getting smaller, or am I just getting . . . Jesus, Liv. Twelve twelve p.m. exactly, just like you said. But there’s no number here. It says voice mailbox.’
    â€˜I don’t think they have a category for ghost.’
    â€˜So okay, then, maybe the crisis is now, Livie.’
    Olivia put her elbows on the table, avoiding a smear of catsup next to Teddy’s plate. ‘My take is he was trying to tell me something about my sister. He said
The Mister Man.
I think maybe it was just a . . . a sort of guilt call. Making amends. He said something about it being his fault, and that it was okay he died, because he paid the piper. Maybe he was just reassuring me about that SUNDS thing. You know damn well I’ve been wondering if it wasn’t a suicide.’
    â€˜It was a pretty weird diagnosis for the coroner to make. SUNDS is a pretty fucking rare diagnosis. The general consensus is it doesn’t exist.’
    â€˜So maybe that’s why he called, because it didn’t make sense. He wanted to reassure me. To tell me he didn’t kill himself. What is it, Amelia? You’ve got that