Chapter 9

“There’s a step up to the walkway leading to the house.”

“Gotcha.”

“How do you do this by yourself from a taxi?”

“There’s a special driver that people like me use. He directs me to the door. If it looks complicated, he sometimes helps me, like you’re doing.”

A few moments later, he said, “Now there’s three, no, four steps up to the stoop.”

I could hear a piano playing, and a deep bass voice singing from somewhere in the house. “Must be the right place,” I said. “I hear music.”

“Yeah. I’m ringing the bell now.”

The singing stopped, and after a few minutes, I heard the door open.

“Dr. Foster?” I said.

“You must be Josh,” a man said

“That would be me. This is Zeke—he’s a friend of mine who offered to drive me here in place of the usual cab.”

“Hello, Zeke,” the voice said. “Please call me Tom, both of you. Come on in.”

“One step up,” Zeke said.

The door closed behind us. “To your right and straight ahead,” Tom said. “You can actually see the piano from here, Zeke.”