Five missing people, five Nights of the Dead and a glass of water nobody ever drank.
Five people had vanished without a trace, and none of them knew the others. They lived in different neighbourhoods, were decades apart in age and shared no job, no parish and no friends. Only one thing linked them: a date. Each of them had disappeared on the night of 31 October, one a year, five years in a row.
Inspector Herbella had had the files open for weeks. There were no signs of violence in any of the houses. The doors were locked from the inside, with the key turned, and the wallets, phones and jewellery were still in their place. It was as if their owners had left without going through the door.
That Night of the Dead, the police station had emptied. When she arrived, Herbella had opened her office window because the heating was stifling her, and she had already forgotten about it. Every now and then, a cold draught lifted the corners of her papers. She poured herself a glass of water, left it by the desk lamp and went back to the photographs without tasting it.
In the first house, dry leaves were scattered across the living-room rug. In the third, a curtain had ended up tangled round a standard lamp. “Trivial details,” the officer who signed the report had written by hand. Herbella circled them in red.
Then she opened the recording from the last victim’s home camera, a retired teacher. The woman was reading in her armchair. At one point she got up and left the frame; when she came back, the pages of her book began to turn by themselves. She went out again, came back with a glass and put it on the side table before carrying on reading. Shortly afterwards there were three knocks.
“Coming,” the woman said, without looking up from her book. The recording ended there.
Herbella went through the neighbours’ statements. In three other cases, someone had heard three sharp knocks that night and, after them, the same reply: “Coming.”
She went back to the photos and, for the first time, compared the furniture instead of the faces. On every table there was a glass of water filled to the brim. She remembered her grandmother’s village and the night her grandfather died, when she was a child. Someone opened the bedroom window “so the soul could leave” and another hand left a glass of water on the bedside table “for the thirst of the journey”. Nobody touched it all night. That glass belonged to the dead man.
Then someone knocked at her office door. Knock, knock, knock. “Coming,” she replied, without taking her eyes off the screen.
She zoomed in on the last photo. The curtains: in every house they were blown inwards. The dry leaves, the tangled curtain, the pages turning by themselves… Herbella felt her blood run cold. She looked at the papers fluttering on her desk, the curtain billowing behind her, the untouched glass by the lamp.
On the other side of the door, three knocks sounded again, more slowly. The inspector grabbed the glass and drank it in one go, down to the last drop. The knocking stopped. A moment later, she heard footsteps moving away down the corridor, unhurried, like those of someone who has come to the wrong house.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
Why did the knocking on Herbella’s door stop? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Herbella didn’t answer “Coming” the second time, and whoever was knocking got tired of waiting for a reply that never came.
- ✓b) By drinking the water, Herbella proved there was no dead person in that office ready to leave: she was alive.
- c) Whoever was knocking was thirsty and had come for the water; seeing the empty glass, it had no reason to stay.
- d) It was a colleague from the station playing a Halloween trick, who gave up when he saw she wasn’t falling for it.
Which clue in the story explains it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: b). That’s it. The untouched glass belongs to the dead; whoever drinks it isn’t dead. That’s why the footsteps leave like someone who came to the wrong house.
Key clue: “In her grandmother’s village, the glass poured beside a dead person was for the thirst of the journey, and no living person touched it.” That’s the key: a glass nobody drinks is a dead person’s glass. By emptying it, Herbella made it clear there was no dead person there.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, from the earliest to the most recent. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 4 Herbella opens the window because the heating is stifling her.
- 1 Someone leaves a glass of water on Herbella’s grandfather’s bedside table.
- 2 The first of the five victims disappears.
- 5 Herbella answers “Coming” without taking her eyes off the screen.
- 3 The pages of the retired teacher’s book turn by themselves.
- 6 Footsteps move away unhurriedly down the station corridor.
Correct order:
- Someone leaves a glass of water on Herbella’s grandfather’s bedside table.
- The first of the five victims disappears.
- The pages of the retired teacher’s book turn by themselves.
- Herbella opens the window because the heating is stifling her.
- Herbella answers “Coming” without taking her eyes off the screen.
- Footsteps move away unhurriedly down the station corridor.
The earliest event is the memory: Herbella was a child when her grandfather died. Then the five disappearances, one a year; the teacher’s recording is from last year, because she was the last victim. On this night, Herbella opens the window when she arrives, answers the knocks and, after drinking, hears the footsteps leave.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
A year later, on the eve of the Night of the Dead, what does Herbella do that fits what she understood? Tick only one option.
- a) She leaves a full glass by her office door, so that whoever knocks can drink and finally leave satisfied.
- b) She shuts herself in her office with the window open, determined not to answer, because she thinks the danger lies in replying.
- ✓c) She shuts the station windows at nightfall and asks that nobody leave a glass of water poured without finishing it.
- d) She goes out into the corridor as soon as the three knocks sound, convinced it’s the same colleague who played the trick.
Answer: c). Exactly: she avoids the open window and the untouched glass. Without them, no house looks like a dead person’s home.
- a) The glass isn’t for whoever knocks: it belongs to the dead. Leaving a full one would repeat the victims’ mistake.
- b) The open window is exactly one of the steps. And keeping quiet didn’t save her: she had already answered. Drinking did.
- d) There was no colleague: the station was empty, and the same knocks sounded in the victims’ houses.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three of these statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) The five missing people didn’t know each other and lived in different parts of the city.That’s right: they shared no job, parish or friends.
- ✗b) In the houses, the doors were locked from the inside, but wallets and phones were missing.The wallets, phones and jewellery were still in their place. Nothing was missing.
- c) The teacher put the glass on the side table after the pages started moving.First she leaves the frame and the pages turn by themselves; then she goes out again and comes back with the glass.
- ✗d) Neighbours heard three knocks and a “Coming” in the four cases no camera recorded.It was three other cases, not four. Of the five, one was on camera and one had no witnesses.
- e) Herbella opened her office window when she arrived, because the heating was stifling her.She did it when she arrived, and then forgot it was open.
- ✗f) When Herbella’s grandfather died, her grandmother drank the glass on the bedside table before dawn.Nobody touched it all night: that glass belonged to the dead man.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which photo from the case file could show the last victim’s living room as the police found it?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Open window, curtains blown inwards, the book on the side table and the glass full, without a single sign of violence.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Herbella understood everything in that last instant. Without knowing it, the five victims had prepared their homes the way you prepare the home of someone who has died: a window open so the soul can leave, and a glass of water poured for the thirst of the journey, the glass no living person touches. On the Night of the Dead, something walks through the city looking for houses where someone is ready to leave. It knocks three times. And whoever answers “Coming” goes.
She had completed all three steps: the window, the untouched glass and the answer. By drinking the water, she proved that there was no dead person waiting in that office: the glass had an owner, and the owner was alive. It wasn’t silence that saved her, because she had already answered the first time, but that one gulp.
The case was closed with nobody charged. Ever since, every 31 October, Inspector Herbella shuts the station windows at eight o’clock and won’t let anyone leave a glass half-drunk. And, just in case, she never answers the door without first checking who’s there.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.