Free McCann's Manor by Charlotte Holley

Then he picked up a bunch of things off the desk and left in a hurry."
    "And he didn't see you?"
    "No."
    "But you were peeping through the door; how could he not see you?"
    She looked hurt. “Don't you believe me?” She didn't wait for an answer, but then seemed to understand what I was asking and continued, “I wasn't in the hall, Elizabeth. There is a secret entrance to the library; I was peeping through the secret door. I'm the only one who knew about it. I didn't even tell Daddy about it."
    "Will you show it to me sometime?"
    "Why? Elizabeth, you don't believe me, either, do you?"
    "Oh, Missy, it's not that. It is a selfish thing; I have always been intrigued with the thought of secret passages."
    She smiled and seemed relieved, “This house has lots of them. Maybe I will show you."
    "I would love that,” I told her. It was the truth. “So after Ptarmigan left, what happened then?"
    "It was late. I went up and woke Mother. It was the weekend, you know; the servants always left before dark, so we were the only ones in the house. I tried to tell her what I had seen, but she was overcome with grief, I suppose. She kept saying it was all her fault. She said she should have tried harder to explain her relationship with Mr. Carter to Daddy. She sort of lost her mind, I think, for a time. But the harder I tried to tell her about Ptarmigan, the more she said I was the one who was deranged.
    "She sent me to my grandparents, but I couldn't stay there, knowing the monster was free and that he might try to blackmail my mother the same way he had Daddy. I kept thinking if she refused to pay him money, would he just kill her too? Then what would become of me?"
    "You poor dear. It must have been terrible for you. But who is Ptarmigan? Is he still alive?"
    "Oh, he is alive and about the same age as John, I would think. He wasn't much older than I. I must have heard his name at some point, but all I know him by is Ptarmigan."
    "Do you know where he is?"
    Her eyes took on an eerie glow when I asked and for a minute I thought I was talking to someone else, but it was still Missy. She whispered, “Oh, he is around, you can bet on that. He is always close-by whenever John brings someone to the house. Don't trust anyone."
    "What about John?” I asked, but I was talking to myself. Missy was gone. I still have dozens of questions. If Ptarmigan had killed her father, had he approached Betty, tried to blackmail her or John, Sr.? What was he blackmailing Leonard about? Or was Missy mistaken? If it had been a question of Betty's fidelity, it would seem more natural to have blackmailed Betty, not Leonard. Was Ptarmigan in New York at the institution where Missy had been sent, and was his purpose for being there to kill her, and if so, why? Ptarmigan—why would she call him Ptarmigan? Who was he?
    And John—what about John? Had Betty and his father had a fling? Did John know about it? Had John and Missy been close, or merely friends—actors’ kids, thrown together by circumstance? How can I ask John these things without telling him the whole story? Can I trust him enough to tell him? Is there anything to tell him, or am I just working my imagination overtime? I will have to share all this with Kim in the morning, get her feedback on it.

Chapter 6
    It was four-fifteen in the morning when Liz gave up on trying to sleep and groped in the dark for the light. She reread the notes she had taken from her dream of Missy, then donned her slippers and robe before making her way to the door and down the stairs toward the library. She turned on the lights inside the library door, drenching the octagonal room in bright illumination. She blinked against the glare and waited for her eyes to adjust to the light. Missy had mentioned secret passages and Liz couldn't get the thought out of her mind.
    She tiptoed into the library, shut the door behind her and stood in the center of the compelling octagonal room. After a few seconds, it occurred to her she was