“Where’s my bill?” another woman said.
“I’ll find it,” Julia said. She placed the order on the kitchen turnstile, rang the bell, and asked about the missing pancakes. Big Al pushed a pile of pancakes through the window and wiped his forehead on the back of his arm, glowering at her. Julia took the hot plate and delivered it to the customer. When she went back to the other end of counter, the man in the pin-striped suit was there, standing behind the stools. She dropped off the woman’s bill and went over to see what he wanted.
“Can I help you?” she said.
“I’m looking for Julia Coralline Blackwood,” he said.
Julia’s mouth went dry. Is this guy a cop? Is he here to arrest me for stealing from the supermarket? With a knot in her chest, she smiled. “She’s not working today. Can I can give her a message for you?”
The man reached into the breast pocket inside his suit, pulled out a photograph, and turned it around so she could see it. Julia felt the blood drain from her face. It was her high school picture, taken the year she left home. How did he get it? And what did he want?
“I’m a private investigator, Miss Blackwood,” the man said. “Hired by your parents’ attorney.” He reached into his pocket again and pulled out an envelope. “I’ve been searching for you for nearly a year. This is for you.” He handed her the envelope. “Have a good day.” He tipped his hat and left the diner.
Julia stared at the envelope in her shaking hands. Mother had found her.
CHAPTER 3
LILLY
Lilly stepped out of her attic bedroom, her teeth chattering and her breath wheezing in her chest. She didn’t want to go to the circus, especially without Daddy, but she had to do what she was told. Momma followed her out the door, then closed it behind them and started across the room. The light from Momma’s oil lamp flickered off an empty bookcase, three broken chairs, and the high walls of the other part of the attic, where Daddy sometimes let Lilly play when Momma went to church.
Lilly wrapped her arms around herself and followed Momma, counting every step, then waited while Momma unlocked another door. Momma opened the door and held it, frowning and glaring at her as if to say “move it along.” Lilly stepped into a part of the attic she had never seen before and hunched her shoulders to make herself smaller. The room felt gigantic—at least four times bigger than the other side—but too close at the same time, as if she were inside a whale with a belly full of fish and boats and rocks, waiting to be crushed and swallowed. She stood trembling in a walkway between piles of dusty boxes and books and trunks. Momma locked the door behind her, then led the way through a rug-lined maze of cobweb-covered dressers, wooden chests, empty picture frames, and broken lamps. A set of rusty bicycles leaned up against a crooked wardrobe, and dirty dishes and books lined grimy stands and shelves. The rugs felt crumbly beneath Lilly’s shoes.
At the far end of the room, a long, narrow hole in the floor opened to a staircase. Momma went down the wooden steps, her lantern light disappearing into the tight space. At the bottom, she stopped in front of a short door and looked up at Lilly.
Lilly couldn’t move. She felt like she was going to throw up.
“Hang on to the railing and take one step at a time,” Momma said.
With shaky hands, Lilly gripped the railing and lowered her foot over the edge to the first step. She had never walked down a staircase before and her head felt light and woozy. It was a little bit like stepping down from the stool she used when she was younger to see out the dormer window, but this was a whole row of stools. She felt like was about to fall forward and tumble down the stairs. She swallowed and glanced down at Momma, who was watching with a scowl. It was either move down the steps, or make Momma madder.
“Let’s go,” Momma said. “We don’t have all night.”
Lilly put both feet on the first step. One. Then she took another, putting both feet on that step before taking the next. Two. Three. Slowly but surely, she made her way to the bottom. When Lilly reached the last stair, Momma ducked and went out a short door. Lilly followed her into a narrow space about twice the size of her water closet. On the other end, another door led into another room. Momma told Lilly to wait, then locked the door to the staircase and reached up to pull a red string. A shiny cloth decorated with a house and flower gardens fell over the top half of the door. Then Momma moved a small table with feet that looked like claws beneath the shiny cloth, and, like magic, the door disappeared. Momma put her ring of keys in the table drawer and led Lilly out into another room with an enormous bed and odd, sheet-draped figures.
What is beneath those sheets? Lilly wondered. She stayed close to Momma, fighting the urge to hold on to her arm. But Momma didn’t like to be touched, so Lilly didn’t do it. She wanted to close her eyes, but then she’d trip and Momma wouldn’t like that either.
After the bedroom, they went into a long, thin space with shiny floors and walls lined with pictures and decorations. What was it called? Lilly tried to remember but couldn’t. One side of the space had a swirly metal railing instead of a wall, like the swirly metal bars outside her window. She stayed close to the wall and away from the railing, feeling mixed up and dizzy, like she was going to fall. Everything felt too big, too wide, too long. Her breath rattled in her chest. She touched her thumbs to her fingers and tried to count, but kept losing track of her numbers. She coughed and Momma gave her a stern look.
If she had known the bottom part of the house was going to feel like a giant pit waiting to swallow her whole, she never would have wished to leave her room. She wanted to run back up there now, but that would make Momma really mad. As they made their way toward a staircase with more swirly railings, Momma’s lantern reflected off the high ceiling and cast marching shadows above her head, making the walls seem like they were moving. Lilly gripped the railing tight in her fists and made her way down the steps, certain she was going to cartwheel and tumble, end over end, to the bottom. On one hand, she wanted to see everything, to explore and inspect every part of Blackwood Manor. On the other, she wanted to close her eyes and make it all go away.