This story started here.

We peeked around the edge of the open panel, seeing the interior of the house, the balcony, the dark walls, and the flickering candlelight.

It was not the secret door Ashford had used for his magical appearance, we were on the other side of the house, but if a building had one secret door, it wasn't hard to imagine that it might have more.

Jan closed the hidden door again and grinned. "This is my kind of house," she said. "I always wanted to have a case with at least one secret panel."

I laughed. "I wonder who's in charge of making sure the regular doors creak and the secret panels don't."

"And look," she said, pointing the flash down at the boards beneath her feet, but I had already seen the large bloodstain there.

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