The Piper by Lynn Hightower Read Free Book Online Page A

the Moorpark Station when she heard about the crash.’
    â€˜God. How terrible.’
    â€˜He called her, Livie. It’s all documented. He had two grown sons, and his family was together waiting to find out if he survived the crash. We’re talking about a fiancée, two sons, a brother and sister, stepmom. The first call was to the fiancée, I think.’
    â€˜The
first
call?’
    â€˜The caller ID showed this guy’s number. And when his fiancée answered, all she could hear was static. And then one of the sons gets a call. Then all their cell phones start ringing and eventually all of them get calls. They try to call him back, because all they get is static on the line, but when they call back, the calls just go to voice mail.’
    Olivia shivered. Please tell me this ends well, she thought. ‘So he was injured then? Calling for help?’
    â€˜That’s what his family thought. So they get with the rescue workers, who start tracing the signal from his phone, trying to locate him in the wreckage. It’s carnage there, remember. The emergency services are overwhelmed. But for a period of eleven hours, this family keeps getting his calls. Thirty-five calls in all, Livie, all documented. Then at three twenty-eight a.m., all the calls stop.’
    â€˜Did they save him?’ Olivia said.
    â€˜They found him one hour after the calls stopped, twelve hours after the crash. According to the coroner, he died instantly, on impact – the Metro link engine car got shoved back into the first passenger car, he never had a chance.’
    â€˜Are you telling me he was dead when he made the calls? Because maybe he was hurt and called till he died, or somebody else was using his phone.’
    â€˜Nope. They traced the phone signal to where his body was, in the first car, so nobody else had the phone. And the autopsy confirmed that he wasn’t alive after the crash. All of the calls came in after he died.’
    Olivia paced the living room. ‘I don’t know, Amelia. It sort of has that urban legend flavor.’
    â€˜Look it up yourself. I found stories in the
LA Times
, and the whole incident has a
true and authenticated
status on SNOPES.’
    â€˜SNOPES?’
    â€˜That website, Livie. You know, the one that checks out urban legends and those dumb-ass warning emails people forward. But they authenticate this story. And I think this guy was trying to tell his family goodbye, that he loved them and all that jazz.’
    Olivia sat down. ‘Yeah, I hear you. And I do think you’re right – I’ve been doing my own research and I can believe he was telling his family that he was somehow okay, trying to comfort them and give them peace. Don’t you think that’s why Chris called? To comfort me, and let me know he’s okay?’
    â€˜Partly. But he was warning you too, Liv.’
    â€˜Yeah, I know, you told me, and I wish you’d just let it go.’
    â€˜Let it go? Don’t go into that southern denial thing, Livie. Think about what he said – The Mister Man. That was your nickname for whoever took your sister, twenty-five years ago. Maybe he’s around.’
    â€˜After twenty-five years? You know what, Amelia, I don’t tell people about Emily, and this is the main reason why. To you, it’s a scary story, to me it’s real life and real hell.’
    â€˜That’s not fair. I
do
understand. And I’m a good enough friend to tell you what you
need
to hear instead of what you
want
to hear.’
    â€˜The Queen of Tough Love. If you want to be a good friend, Amelia, don’t bring Emily up again. It’s private and it’s painful and unless you’ve been through it you can’t know anything about what it’s like.’
    â€˜Oh, come on, Livie. When you ask me about Marianne, do I rub your nose in that
nobody knows how I feel
kind of shit?’
    Olivia’s voice went small.