The Enigma of the Old Manor House

Everyone's heard stories about the old mansion on the hill. Decades ago, they say, old Doctor Black lived up there all alone. Until something happened-nobody knows what-and he vanished without a trace. The house belongs to the Historical Society now, it's turned into a little sort of local museum. But the south wing has always been closed to the public, and they say that's where it happened. Where he was murdered.

You don't really *believe* in the ghost stories any more, of course. You're too old for that. He probably just had a heart attack. But it *is* Halloween coming up, and Abby started telling the story, and you'd read that book and you told her it sounded like a *poltergeist*, a ghost that throws things around. Which means it has to be real and physical, right? Something you could find and trap.

And then Dylan made it a *dare* and nobody wanted to back down. And that's how you ended up here, in the dead of night on Halloween, prying one of the boards off the window next to the door and squirming your way in.

None of the others showed up. But you are *not* afraid of ghost stories, and you are *not* going to chicken out like your friends did. One way or another, you're determined to find out the truth, just like the detectives in the books always do.