The Piper Read Online Free

look.’
    â€˜No look.’
    â€˜Come on.’
    â€˜Well, okay, but be logical here, Livie. If he didn’t kill himself, why does he feel guilty? Why does he need to make amends?’
    â€˜He always felt guilty. About Emily.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜God only knows. We all did, a little bit.’
    â€˜Could Chris have had anything to do with it?’
    â€˜Hell no, Amel. He was seventeen. He was in Louisville, Kentucky on an overnight trip with the wrestling team, some kind of national competition, he was totally absorbed in that.’
    â€˜And they never found out anything? About what happened to your sister?’
    â€˜Nothing. My mom and dad were out with friends, playing bridge. They called to check on us a little after eleven. Emily was babysitting, I was five and she was fifteen. I was asleep on the couch, and she told my dad she was taking the dog, Hunter, outside for his late night wee wee, and then she would tuck me into bed. My parents get home and there I am on the couch in my little jammies, sound asleep. The back door is unlocked, the gate is open in the backyard, and Emily and Hunter are gone. Both of them. And Hunter was no ordinary dog. He was a German shepherd, and very protective. People were scared of him. So they figured she took him out like she said, and never made it back in the house. And both of them disappeared. Just like they say. Without a trace.’
    Amelia had heard it all before but she listened as if for the first time.
    â€˜We named him The Mister Man – whoever it was who took Emily. That’s what Chris and I always called him. And that’s what he said in the call. To watch out for The Mister Man. You know, that’s actually strange.’
    â€˜The whole thing is strange.’
    â€˜No, I mean, if you saw a picture of my brother after it happened. Well, all of us. We looked . . . sad. But Chris, he’d been this kind of hefty guy, I mean, he was on the wrestling team and he was big boned and bulked up. But after Emily disappeared he started losing weight, just like he did this last year. If you look at pictures, before and after, you can’t even recognize him. Emily was gone three years before he stopped looking like he’d spent his life in some kind of concentration camp.’
    â€˜Didn’t you say that Chris said he wanted to warn you?’
    â€˜There was a lot of static, Amel, it was hard to understand. Maybe I heard it wrong.’
    â€˜Maybe you did. They did mention that, on the website. Bad connections, and sometimes the sound of bells.’
    â€˜Bells? Really? I heard that. Like wind chimes, but a long way off.’
    â€˜Yeah, well, if it was your brother, it
was
a long way off. It’s just—’
    â€˜
What?
’
    â€˜I can’t help but wonder what he meant by
warn
.’

FOUR
    N o one was expecting them, when Olivia and Teddy took the I-75 split and headed north into Knoxville, one day ahead of schedule, arriving in that last magnificent blaze of sunlight and breezy coolness that comes at the end of fading summer days. For Olivia, it was a
moment.
She had been homesick for such a long time.
    Back in the day, Olivia had left home willingly, unaware how hard it would be to get back. Hugh’s work in the manufacturing management of anything metallic and noisy led them to more places than Olivia could remember, the highlights being Fort Smith, Arkansas, Madison, Wisconsin, a short stint on the outskirts of Memphis, followed by a living hell called Endicott, New York.
    Hugh had talked a lot about the work ethic of Americans, the only people in the world who dropped family, friends and homes without a second thought, moving regularly and willingly for the sake of a job. He talked about it like it was a religion, but Olivia had come to the conclusion that this corporate culture was a scam. In the early days, Hugh had changed jobs at the beckoning dollar signs dangled by the