Chapter Nine
Knock-Knock, Who's There
Wilhelmina was determined that night when they were going to bed that she would make contact with the ghosts that night or she would stay up all night trying.-Packed in her suitcase were some books on contacting the spirit world and the list of questions she planned to ask when they were communicating again.
Baby Tommy appeared to have become over stimulated during the evening’s excitement and he cried for a while before he settled down for the night.-Wilhelmina was adamant about staying awake but she didn’t want to get down to serious business until everything quieted for the night.-In spite of her intentions, she found herself drifting off and her eyelids felt too heavy to hold open.-Then, the door to her bedroom slammed shut and when she jerked herself awake, she could see the outline of a ghostly form just inside the door.-
Wilhelmina slowly raised herself to a sitting position and reached for her tiny penlight and her page of questions.
“Will we talk together tonight?” she asked a little hesitantly.-This was the first time she had had visual contact.-When she heard the light single tap, she smiled at the entity and turning on her penlight, she checked the first question on her list, then extinguished the light.
“You indicated there are three of you.-Are you related to each other?”
One tap indicated an affirmative answer.
“Are you all one gender?”
Another single tap.
“Are you all women?”
One tap let her know they were all girls.
“Are you sisters?”
The answer was still yes.
“Do you think we could work out your names using numbers for the letters of the alphabet?-‘A’ would be ‘one’; ‘B’ would be ‘two’ and so on.
One tap still said ‘yes.’
“Please tell me your name.”-Wilhelmina got out her pencil and paper and prepared to make a hash mark for each tap.
Two taps --“B”; Five taps – “E”; Twenty taps – “T”; Another twenty taps – another “T”;-B-E-T-T
“Is your name ‘Betty?’”
One loud knock seemed to mean yes.
“Your last name?”
Fourteen taps – “N”;-Fifteen taps – “O”; Twelve taps – “L”; One single tap – “A”; Fourteen taps again – another “N”.-The tapping stopped and Wilhelmina looked carefully at the letter equivalents she had put down.-N-O-L-A-N.-“’Nolan’.-Your last name was Nolan.-Betty Nolan.-Is that right?”
Again one loud knock.
“Okay, your sister’s name then.-Please tell me her name.
Twelve taps – “L”;-Five taps – “E”;-Twenty taps – “T”;
Wilhelmina interrupted again.-“Is your sister’s name ‘Letty?’”
Another loud single knock.
“Okay.-Two of you were Betty and Letty Nolan.-Let’s do the third sister.”
Fourteen taps – “N”; Five taps – “E”;
“I’ll bet your third sister’s name was ‘Netty.’-Is that right?”
Another loud knock.
“Were you triplets, then?-Betty, Letty and Netty Nolan?”
Again Wilhelmina heard one loud knock.
“Gosh, this is exciting!-You told me before that all three of you died in this house.-Were you killed, murdered here?”
A single knock said ‘yes’ again.
“Were you born in this country?”
One knock.
“Were your parents British?”
Two knocks.
“Were your parents from an Indian tribe?”
Again two knocks.
“Were your parents from France?”
One knock.
“Okay, let me be sure I understand.-You three girls were triplets born to French immigrants.-Your names are Betty, Letty and Netty Nolan.-You were murdered in this house by:-Indians?”
Two loud knocks.
“By the British?”
One very loud knock.
“Did you know about the secret passage in the house?”
One loud knock.-Then a short silence.-Then another loud knock.
“Was that meant to be a double ‘yes’?
Another loud knock.
“Did you use the secret passage?”
They gave another affirmative knock.
“Did you hide in the secret passageway?”
Two knocks.
“No?”
Again, two knocks.
“Oh, this is so slow.-I wish there were some way to hear the whole story from beginning to end.”
One loud knock sounded.-
Wilhelmina didn’t understand.
“You mean there is a way for me to know all about it, all of it?-But how would I do that.-Oh, I know you can’t tell me.-I wish you could.”
Another loud knock sounded.
“You can tell me?-How?-I don’t know what to ask you so you can answer with taps.-Can you tell me with taps for letters as you did with your names?”
One loud tap sounded.-Then began the tapping out of letters.-Two taps – “B”; Fifteen taps – “O”; Another fifteen taps – another “O”; then Eleven taps – for a “K”.
“BOOK.-A book.-There’s a book that will tell your story.-Is it a history book?”-Wilhelmina was already wracking her brain trying to remember any historical stories or even legends that would maybe point to this succession of events.
Then two knocks sounded and Wilhelmina was trying to remember exactly what she had asked the ghost.-“Oh, yeah.-It’s not a history book.-Then what could it be?” she wondered aloud.
The taps began to sound again and it took Wilhelmina a moment to catch up.-“Oh, okay.-Four taps would be a ‘D’.- Yes, I’m with you.”-Then she counted nine taps which equaled an “I”. One tap (was that a ‘yes’ or an ‘A’—she guessed she’d go with an ‘A’). Eighteen taps followed which indicated an ‘R’ and then Wilhelmina had it.-D-I-A-R-Y.-They had kept a diary and the girls had never had an opportunity to leave here so it had to still be here somewhere.-But where?-It couldn’t have been left in the secret passageway because Ed had said he had completely dismantled it when he re-did the west side of his house.-Wilhelmina was still puzzling over everything when her door suddenly closed and she heard soft whispers and felt the icy cold for a few seconds.-Then all was quiet and warm and she was suddenly extremely sleepy.-She’d learn more in her next inquiry but when she looked at her watch it was a little after three in the morning.-She was snoring softly in only a few moments.
Wilhelmina slept late into Saturday morning.
“Good morning, Aunt Winnie.-I was getting a little concerned.-You hadn’t slept this late before when you were here.-Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Penny.-I stayed up until about three o’clock talking with your ghosts.”
“You’re kidding!-How did you communicate?-What did you find out?-Do you know why they’re here?-Please, tell me about it!”
Wilhelmina told her the details of what she had discovered.-“Are the kids playing with the computer?-If I can get them interested in riding the horses, I’d like to use the computer to type up a summary of all that I found out and try to formulate some more questions to ask next time.”
“We may have to pry them away from it, but they should be out getting some fresh air.-The weather is so nice.-Let’s go talk to them.”
“Hey, Kids!-Good morning.-It sure is a pretty day outside.-Have you been out?”
“Good morning, Aunt Winnie.-No, we’ve been playing with the computer.-We sure do love it.-It’s absolutely mag!-That’s another word for magnificent.-I didn’t know if you’d know that word or not.”--
“When did you last exercise the horses?-You’re not letting them get fat and lazy, are you?”
“It’s only been two or three days.-We haven’t had anybody to saddle them for us.-But we still love Fritter and Jolene and we’ll ride them again soon.”
“Well, how about if I saddle them for you right now?-Then you can ride them down
to the creek near Shadowhawk’s cave and let them get a drink of fresh water.”
“Aunt Winnie, if you and Mom want to play with the computer, it’s okay.”
“And if you want to saddle the horses, we’d love to ride them; but you don’t have to.-We could ride later and you can still play with the computer.”
Penny and Aunt Winnie laughed long and hard at the twins for figuring out that they, the adults, had been planning to bribe the kids so they could use the computer.-Aunt Winnie did go saddle the horses for them and then came back in and began to summarize last night’s findings.-Wilhelmina had been a Records Clerk when she was in the WACS and was an excellent typist.-Penny was amazed at her speed and her familiarity with the computer function keys.-Penny could type fairly well but she had lost a lot of her speed since high school.-And she was totally lost when it came to the computer function keys.-She was watching and learning a lot from Aunt Winnie, though.
That evening Ed read aloud the report Wilhelmina had prepared.-Johnny and Chrissy had come down to hear it also and everyone was enthralled by what she had uncovered and methods she had used to get the ghosts to disclose it.
“What I’d like is to have some suggestions as to what questions I can ask to help them help me find the diary.-Remember, they need to be questions they can answer ‘yes or no’ to or maybe one-word answers.-We have to also remember that all of this took place in the late seventeen hundreds, even before Kentucky became a state or had any organized type of law enforcement.”
“Could you ask them who killed them?”-Andy was thinking back to his experiences with Shadowhawk.
“That could require a complicated answer, Andy.-I could ask, ‘Were you killed by the Indians?’ and that would let the answer be ‘yes’ or ‘no.’-But if the answer is ‘no’ where do I go from there?-Do you see my problem?”
“It would seem to me, the most important problem to solve is ‘Where is the diary?’ but I understand you can’t ask it with that phrasing.-Could you begin by asking, ‘Is the diary in the house?’”-Ed was trying to organize his thoughts.-“If the answer is ‘yes,’ then you could begin asking if it’s on the first floor, second floor and so on.-Then you could go on to pinpoint the room on that floor in the same manner.-‘Is it in the family room?-The library?-etc.’-If the answer is ‘no,’ you could begin naming each building until you find the right one.-Do you think that might work?”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for.-But, what if it’s hidden somewhere I don’t think about mentioning?-Your idea would take us so far but then what?-Those were good questions, though.-Anybody else got one?”
“You said you had been talking to Betty.-I wonder why Letty and Netty never participate.-You said they were triplets.-Do you suppose Betty was born first like Andy was and so he’s a few minutes older than me?-Maybe they let her be the boss because she’s the oldest.”
“Older than ‘I’, Candy.-You should have said Andy is older than I.-Finish out the sentence to see which one to use.-Andy is older than I am old.-See, it wouldn’t sound right to say ‘Andy is older than me am old.’-Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mama.-Andy is older than I.-But somehow or other it sounds high- fallutin’ to say it that way.”
“Your Mama is right, Candy, and it may sound odd at the beginning but it always makes a person sound better if he or she speaks correctly.-I can ask Betty next time if she is the eldest.-It would be good to know that.-When we find the diary, I hope it will tell us something about their parents and maybe their ancestors.-If we had a place to start, we might be able to come up with a family tree for them.-Since she said all three last names were ‘Nolan’ I’m thinking none of them was married or had children.-
“You might ask them if they had any siblings.-They could have had a brother who would have carried on the family name.-We might even find someone alive who would remember about them as great-great-great aunts or whatever.”-
“Hey, that’s a good thought, Johnny.-I’ll definitely put that on the list.-I’m wondering if they’ll talk to me tonight.”-Two doors slammed upstairs.-
“I wonder if that means ‘no.’” Chrissy turned out to be correct.-Wilhelmina stayed two more nights and tried everything to induce them into connecting with her; but the silence continued and she finally went back to Frankfort.
November arrived with cold, bleak days and rainy, sullen nights.-It seemed the moon was too tired to show his face and hid night after night between heavy blankets of clouds.-Daytime found leafless trees waving their arms in defiance at the weak, watered-down light of the absconding sun.-Winter came early and seemed to have the whole region chained beneath the dull, dreary sameness of barren, colorless vistas.
They were trying to raise enough enthusiasm to have a combination Thanksgiving celebration and a surprise birthday dinner for Janet.-Johnny’s mother’s birthday was November twenty-eighth and Thanksgiving this year would be on the twenty-seventh.-So it shouldn’t be a big problem to surprise Janet a day early on Thanksgiving.-Maybe that would lift everybody’s spirits.-Wilhelmina would be coming down from Frankfort, too, and that should add to the festive aura.-Now if they could just have some snow……
“Shall we have Thanksgiving here or at my house?” Chrissy queried.-“Whichever place we have it, I still want you to do the turkey.-You’ve had so much more experience than I and I want everything to be perfect, even more so, since we’re planning to have the other thing, too.”-The twins would be home from school in a few minutes so she didn’t want to say anything that would let them know what was going on.-They were good kids and they would do their best to keep the secret, but she was afraid they’d say something without intending to that would give it away.-It was going to be hard enough for her to keep it quiet and she knew they would be too excited to not show it.
“I’ll be glad to do the turkey, but you know you’re going to have to learn sometime.”
“I know, but just not this year, okay?”
“Okay,” Penny laughed.-She looked at Lorrie Anne and tickled her tummy.-“Don’t you be telling anybody, either, little girl.-I might have to take a bite out of you if you did.”- Lorrie giggled joyously and blew bubbles through her baby lips.-Then Tommy squealed as if to say, “Hey, what about me?”
“Or you, either, my little man.-Mum’s the word.”-At three months, they were generally accepted to be not only the best-looking babies in the world but also the smartest—at least according to the Wroes and the O’Reillys, anyway.
“Oh, there’s someone out front.-I don’t recognize the vehicle, do you?”
“And there’s Johnny and Dad pulling in beside them.-Isn’t that the detective who was investigating Ramon’s murder?-I think his first name was Bernie but I don’t remember his last name—something Italian, I think.”
“I believe you’re right and there’re the twins, too.-Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.”-Without realizing it, they were genuinely laughing for the first time in quite a while.
They all came trooping into the house at the same time, stomping mud from their feet and scraping dead leaves and twigs from the soles of their shoes.
“Hi, All.-You remember Bernie Tavalerio, the detective who helped us find out who killed Ramon.-He has a report for us and I figured there was no need for him to have to repeat it two or three times.-Good, Chrissy’s here, too. And there’re Daddy’s and Grandpapa’s babies.”
“What adorable young’uns,” Bernie acknowledged everyone’s presence.-“I wanted to come by and let you know that the whole gang were arrested, locked up, tried, and convicted and are now in prison serving long sentences.-I- knew you would be able to enjoy the holidays more if you knew Ramon’s death has been avenged.”
“Who done—er—did it?”-Andy wanted to know and his Mom was extremely proud that he had corrected his own grammar.
“Well, as you know, Jorge Laquidera actually pulled the trigger; but the orders were passed down about three levels.-Carl Forrester gave the order to Jorge; Carl got the word f
rom none other than our local sheriff (I despise crooked cops) who in turn got the command from Texas' ‘beloved’ state senator.-It seems he was the ring leader of the entire operation.-There were seventeen who were found guilty and put in prison.”
“Score one for the good guys,” Johnny commented.-“Do I owe you any more money? There’s still a balance due from the last paycheck Ramon didn’t get of somewhere around five hundred dollars.”
“You don’t owe me another thing, Johnny.-I’ve been on the payroll of the Drug Enforcement Administration, so I’m fine.”
“Then I’ll just send the rest of the funds that belonged to Ramon to his family in Nueva Laredo, Mexico.-Does everyone agree that we should do that?”
There was a chorus of yeses and then Bernie took his leave with a promise to come back and see them sometime soon.
“Isn’t it my turn on the computer, Andy?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got some homework to do and I need to look up some stuff on the internet.”
“Well, get it done as soon as you can.-I have some homework, too.-But meanwhile, I need to do some math homework and I haven’t figured out how to do it on the computer, yet.”
When they had gone into the library, Chrissy commented, “But he’ll be trying to find a way, I’d bet.”-Again, everybody laughed.
That night while they all slept, it snowed about four inches.-The kids heard the good news early the next morning—no school!!-
Andy and Candy had a family snowball fight planned for that afternoon; Chrissy and Penny talked on the phone while they nursed their babies and planned out the rest of the Thanksgiving/Dinner Party; Ed and Johnny were deciding how to use the computer to design their flyers for their Spring Thing Fix-It Campaign.-Lydia was looking forward into December and the twins’ birthdays and what she could get them.-Fred had said he might come back for a visit just before the twins’ birthday and maybe stay for Christmas and New Years.-She was thrilled about that, too.-Bruce and Janet were planning the re-decorating of the room that would be Kathleen’s domain at least on week ends while she was in college.-
In Frankfort, Wilhelmina was trying to decide again what she would do when she finally found the ghosts’ diary—and she would find it.-She was sure of it.
THE END
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