The Piper by Lynn Hightower Page A

Winston in a UT football jersey would help.
    â€˜Can we go back to California, Mommy?’
    â€˜No, Teddy, we live here now.’
    â€˜I miss Daddy.’
    Olivia nodded. ‘I know you do. Why don’t you call him tonight, after we get home from work.’
    Olivia’s cell phone rang.
    â€˜Maybe that’s Daddy. Maybe he knows I needed him to call.’
    â€˜No, it’s Dr Amelia. She told me she wanted to talk to you today, when you got home from school.’ Olivia handed Teddy the phone.
    â€˜Hello?’ Teddy stood at attention right by Olivia’s desk. ‘Yes. Yes. Okay. Uh huh. His name is Mr Ogden.’ Teddy turned pink. ‘You might say so.’
    Olivia wondered what Amelia had said.
    â€˜We have a lizard in our class room, his name is Eduardo. No, he doesn’t have a last name, or if he does, Mr Ogden didn’t tell us. What?’ Teddy crossed the room and picked up her book. ‘No, it’s
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
, I finished
The Secret of the Old Clock
ages ago.’
    Teddy slumped suddenly, shoulders sagging, little tummy poked out. ‘No, ma’am. No, ma’am. No, there aren’t any red leather belts in the book.
They don’t hurt animals in Nancy Drew
.’
    Teddy snapped the phone shut and slammed it down on the edge of Olivia’s desk.
    â€˜Didn’t she want to talk to me?’ Olivia asked.
    â€˜I hung up.’
    â€˜
Teddy.
’
    Teddy grabbed her Nancy Drew book and threw it at the wall.
    Olivia stood up. ‘
Teddy
. What’s the matter with you?’
    â€˜You told her, Mommy. You told Dr Amelia about Duncan Lee and she said it was all a dream. It was supposed to be private, just between you and me, and now we’re all going to get it,
because he told me not to tell
.’

EIGHTEEN
    T uesday night was the spaghetti special at Naples Italian Restaurant, so Olivia told Teddy they’d have dinner out. It would have been a matter of five minutes to stop at the house and drop Winston off, along with Teddy’s backpack, to give Olivia a chance to put on a pair of jeans. But somehow, they didn’t. Olivia told herself that her fantasy of cuddly dinners with Teddy in the little sunroom off the kitchen would have to wait until all the kitchen boxes were unpacked, and they were better settled in.
    Naples was a block down the road, on Kingston Pike, and their parking lot was half full. Olivia and Teddy giggled about how close the restaurant was. They’d done a lot of driving in LA. They parked the Jeep on the left hand side of the restaurant, and left the windows down a double snout length. Winston seemed content to curl up and sleep and Teddy promised him a share of her spaghetti for later on.
    The restaurant was small, and had not changed, which made Olivia feel nostalgic and relieved. This was where she’d celebrated birthday dinners as she grew up, where she and Hugh had their first date. She and Teddy could smell garlic sautéed in olive oil, and freshly baked bread. Wooden booths with red upholstery, darkly papered walls, two tiny alcoves in the corner for private, intimate dinners – a traditional family Italian restaurant right down to the wine bottles along the wall.
    Olivia and Teddy slathered herb studded butter on warm bread from a basket, ate spaghetti with meat sauce, and ended by splitting an order of tiramisu. Normally Olivia would have had a glass of Chianti or Shiraz, but for some reason it didn’t seem wise. She was glad, later, that she had passed.
    Teddy ate a good dinner. Olivia was relieved. They took the leftovers with them for Winston. But eventually, they had to go home.
    Olivia was sure she had left a light on in the kitchen, but the house was dark when they pulled into the drive. The dog was barking again, the one Olivia had heard the night before. Winston stuck his head in the crack of the window and growled.
    â€˜Mommy, do you hear that dog? I think