It is deliberate and it is called a command knock and the spacing is the point: it is designed to be unmistakably not a neighbour.

I was asleep.

I came out of bed the way you do, which is without any plan, and I got my dressing gown on the second attempt, and I went down the hall barefoot with my heart going so hard that I could hear it in my ears, and I remember the carpet, and I remember the cold of the tile in the entry, and I remember thinking the words his father, because the only thing in the world I could imagine being on the other side of that door at a quarter to seven was something about Julian’s father, who lives two hours away and drives a lot.

I looked through the glass.