“What is it?” I muttered to myself as I walked down the street against the cold winter wind. “What is my subconscious trying to tell me?”
Eventually I found myself in front of the abandoned factory where Raoul Lupo’s body had been found. It had been warded to prevent intruders, I knew that much, but given as I had been included in the investigation, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would have been added to the list of exceptions to the ward. Sure enough, I walked through the front door no problem and checked the time. I still had fifteen minutes before I was going to meet Andy.
It was dark in the factory, and my eyes took a minute to adjust to the light. Obviously Raoul Lupo’s body had been taken away, but the pile of garbage in the corner remained, as did his jacket and blanket that he had used for warmth while he stayed here. I looked around, willing the scene to tell me something, hoping that by being here my brain would connect the dots that I knew I was looking for.
Lupo had been killed by one of a couple little globes he’d had with him. Where had he stolen them from? Who had he stolen them from? I grabbed the other small globe, the one that matched the murder weapon, and moved it up and down in my hand, feeling its heft.
And then it hit me.
“I know who killed them,” I said aloud to no one.
And that was when everything went black.
Chapter 25
When I came to, my head was pounding, and I opened my eyes, but everything was dark. An acrid stench filled my nostrils, and I recognized it immediately: dirty laundry. I tried to move, but I couldn’t. I was surrounded by fabric. Great. I was in the middle of a giant laundry basket, and I knew exactly where it had come from: Mt. Rheanier Luxe Lodge. And Elvira was probably taking me for a ride to dump my body where no one would find it.
I tried to reach around for my wand, and after a little bit of maneuvering that was so awkward I was pretty sure I came within millimeters of separating my shoulder, I managed to reach my back pocket where I kept it.
Nothing. “Damn it,” I whispered to myself. Had Elvira thought she’d killed me? She must have. My head was killing me. Had she hit me over the head with one of the globes like she had with Raoul? That was what had made me realize it was her: the globes. They fit perfectly in with the other brass and copper knickknacks on display at the Luxe Lodge in the lobby above the fireplace. Raoul must have taken them from there, which meant that Elvira had lied about having seen him. It was just too much of a coincidence.
But I wasn’t worried about that for now. Right now, I needed to get out of here, and I needed to get away from the vampire who probably thought she’d killed me. With the downtown core area of Mt. Rheanier being so small, many of the businesses outsourced some of their work to factories and warehouses on the outskirts. The laundry for the hotels must have been one of those things, and I imagined that was where we were going. I’d seen the large laundry boxes, magically enchanted to float to their destinations, with a hotel worker sitting on top of them going along for the ride.
The question was, how was I going to do it? I couldn’t use magic; I didn’t have a wand. I was going to have to rely on my non-magical skills to get me out of here. There was only one problem with that: I didn’t exactly have a lot of non-magical skills. That was the thing about being able to use magic to do almost everything: you came to depend on it quite a bit.
The main thing I had going for me was the element of surprise. I figured Elvira thought she had killed me and was now dumping my body somewhere it hopefully wouldn’t be found for days, if not weeks. That meant as soon as she got to the warehouse where the washing would be done, I’d have to act fast. If I could run away and get back to town or even find another witch or wizard nearby, I’d be fine. That was the new goal.
I reached around carefully, trying to find my other pocket to see if by some miracle I still had my phone on me. No such luck; I supposed that was too much to ask for. Elvira had probably destroyed it back at the warehouse so that my body couldn’t be tracked.
“Ding dong, the witch is dead,” I heard her singing above me, and I grinned. Little did she know it was going to take a lot more than a hit over the head to kill me, and I had no intention of giving her a second shot at it.
After another couple of minutes, the large laundry container I was in came to a stop, and I closed my eyes, willing my body to go limp. I heard Elvira’s voice calling out to someone.
“Why don’t you take your break now, Kevin? I can handle this load.”
“Are you sure, miss? I can do it.”
“No, it’s fine, I’m sure. I’ve got this.”
“Alright, thanks,” Kevin said. Elvira seemed to be getting rid of anybody who might see my body. A moment later there was a thud. The container had obviously topped hovering and was now on the ground. I waited with bated breath as movement started above me. Eventually, the sheets and towels all around me began to move, and I willed
