Chapter 3 - Three Knocks)
Winnie created a system.
One knock meant yes.
Two meant no.
Three meant danger.
She invented the system on the fourth night after Eleanor disappeared.
At first she was not certain the person above understood.
She stood on a dining chair beneath the attic hatch after everyone was asleep.
"Are you Grandma?"
One knock.
Winnie's heart slammed against her ribs.
"Are you hurt?"
One knock.
"Did you go to Florida?"
Two knocks.
Her hands began shaking.
"Is Sybil lying?"
Silence.
Winnie waited.
Then three knocks came through the ceiling.
She climbed down from the chair so quickly she nearly fell.
She ran upstairs.
Daniel's bedroom door was closed.
Her hand reached for the handle.
Then she stopped.
Sybil slept in there too.
Winnie returned to her room.
The next morning she tried to tell Daniel while he made coffee.
"I talked to the attic."
He looked at her over his mug.
"You what?"
"Grandma answered."
Daniel sighed.
"Winnie."
"She knocked."
"Wood expands when temperatures change."
"Wood does not answer questions."
Daniel set down the mug.
"Show me."
They went to the dining room.
Winnie stood under the hatch.
"Grandma?"
Nothing.
She asked again.
Silence.
Daniel waited almost a minute.
"Winnie, I know you miss her."
"She is there."
"Maybe the sounds made you think about her."
"I am not making it up."
"I did not say you were."
"You think I am."
Daniel crouched beside her.
"I think you are worried because Grandma left suddenly."
"Then call her."
"I have."
"Call again."
He did.
The phone rang once.
Then voicemail.
Daniel frowned.
Winnie watched him.
"See?"
"It means she is busy."
Sybil entered the dining room.
"What are you two doing?"
Winnie immediately stopped talking.
Daniel noticed.
"Trying to contact Mom."
Sybil's expression remained pleasant.
"Again?"
"She is not answering."
"Margaret said they are spending a lot of time at the hospital."
"You spoke to Margaret?"
"Yesterday."
"Can I have her number?"
For the first time, Sybil looked irritated.
Only for a fraction of a second.
"I will send it to you."
She never did.
That afternoon Daniel's office called.
A problem had developed with one of his clients.
He left the house shortly before two.
Sybil went shopping at three.
Winnie was left with a sitter named Claire who spent most of the afternoon studying at the kitchen island.
Winnie used the opportunity.
She entered the garage.
The attic ladder in the dining room had disappeared after her first complaints.
Sybil said it was dangerous to leave it inside.
Winnie knew where Daniel kept tools.
She could not lift most of them.
But she found the red and black crowbar.
It was heavier than she expected.
She dragged it through the hallway.
Claire looked up.
"What are you doing with that?"
"Science."
Claire stared at her.
"What kind of science?"
"House science."
Claire put down her book.
"I do not think your dad wants you using a crowbar."
Winnie thought quickly.
"There is a mouse behind the wall."
"That makes this worse."
Claire took the crowbar away.
Winnie failed.
But she learned something important.
The next evening she heard voices in the upstairs hallway.
Daniel was on the phone in his study.
Sybil was speaking quietly near Eleanor's bedroom.
Winnie hid behind the linen closet door.
"I told you I cannot keep this going forever," Sybil whispered.
A man's voice responded through her phone.
Winnie could not hear the words.
Sybil looked toward the staircase.
"She keeps hearing things."
A pause.
"No. Daniel still believes Florida."
Another pause.
"I need the key."
Winnie held her breath.
Sybil lowered her voice further.
"If Eleanor gives it to the girl, we have a problem."
Winnie touched the locket hidden under her shirt.
That morning she had found it inside Eleanor's sewing basket.
A plain silver locket.
Not the brass key Eleanor would later reveal in the attic.
This one contained a tiny photograph.
A young Daniel stood beside a woman Winnie recognized as her biological mother, Rebecca.
Rebecca had died when Winnie was two.
Behind the photo was a folded piece of paper.
Winnie had opened it.
There was only one sentence.
The attic remembers what the family forgets.
Winnie did not understand it.
But she understood Sybil was afraid of a key.
When Sybil walked away, Winnie entered Eleanor's room.
She searched drawers.
Closets.
Under the bed.
Behind books.
No key.
Then she saw the glasses again.
She picked them up.
Something rattled inside the hard glasses case.
She opened it.
Beneath the cleaning cloth was a tiny rolled piece of paper.
Three numbers were written on it.
11 4 19.
Winnie copied them into her own notebook.
That night the knocking returned.
She climbed onto the dining chair.
"Grandma?"
One knock.
Winnie swallowed.
"I found your glasses."
One knock.
"I found numbers."
Silence.
She read them aloud.
"Eleven. Four. Nineteen."
The response came immediately.
Three knocks.
Winnie almost dropped the notebook.
"Is that bad?"
One knock.
"Is it a room?"
Two knocks.
"A date?"
One knock.
Winnie thought.
November 4, 2019.
She was only a baby then.
"What happened?"
No answer.
"Did Sybil do something?"
A long silence.
Then one knock.
Winnie climbed down.
She did not know what happened on November 4, 2019.
She did not know why her grandmother had hidden the date inside her glasses case.
But she knew someone was trapped above the ceiling.
She knew Sybil was lying about Florida.
And now she knew the lie had begun years before Eleanor disappeared.
The next morning, Winnie found Daniel in the kitchen.
This time she did not mention the attic.
She placed the piece of paper in front of him.
"What happened on November fourth, 2019?"
Daniel looked at the date.
All the color drained from his face.
"Where did you get this?"
"Grandma."
Daniel stared at the numbers.
Winnie waited.
May you like
Finally he whispered.
"That was the night your mother died."
