One licked her lips. “Wonder what they’ll do for us now that the spider is dead?”
The other looked down at the table. “Maybe we should take extras to stock up on.”
I frowned down at the vial in my hand. “What is this stuff?”
The woman with sparkly eyes grinned. “Don’t worry—it’s safe. Li Fan makes… well, used to make her spider’s venom into this special potion. It helps block pain and gives you a little boost—helps us get through these eighteen-hour days.”
I raised my brows at the swirling potion. That explained why no one else seemed as uncomfortable on their stools as I was. While the women were distracted, I slipped the vial into my pocket to give to Peter later. It clinked against the earpiece he’d given me earlier and reminded me that without my magic, I was truly on my own here. I gulped. And if the potion truly did contain the giant spider’s venom, it meant that lots of people had easy access to what had killed both Li Fan and Bel Hahn. It made nearly everyone around me a suspect.
The two ladies made to leave. The one with sparkly eyes grinned at me, a few of her teeth missing. “Since you’re new, a word of advice—steer clear of Xiu’s bad side and don’t lose focus—accidents happen.”
With that, the ladies left, chatting happily together, while my stomach flooded with ice. Snakes! Was that a threat, or just the reality of working in the sweatshop?
17
THE PHOTOGRAPH
“Cheep! Squeak!” Alright, hand it over, little guy. I crouched down and stuck my palm out.
The little white mouse, my buddy who’d clued me in on the hidden room the other day, shook its head. “Squeak!” You pay up first.
I rolled my eyes. Who knew mice drove such hard bargains? I shoved my hand into my pocket and fished out the packet of crackers I’d brought from home as a snack. I held it up between my thumb and forefinger, lifted a brow, then peeled back the wrapper and set it down on the concrete floor between us.
I glanced around. We still had the hall to ourselves, but it would be just my luck that some lady would come around the corner and find me bargaining with vermin.
The white mouse scuttled forward, whiskers twitching, and sniffed the packet. Then it dropped the small iron key it held with its tail, grabbed the crackers with its big front teeth, and scurried off along the edge of the wall. I sighed and gave a half-hearted wave. Good doing business with you, too.
Earlier in my shift, I’d watched Xiu use that key to enter Li Fan’s office. When I’d asked to take a look around, she’d stared me down and wordlessly pointed for me to get back to my workstation. I mean—she had to know that all I was accomplishing was making a mess of some fabric pieces and thread. And she knew I was here to get answers, which made me wonder—why wasn’t she letting me into her dead boss’s office?
The women I’d spoken with earlier had given me the heebie jeebies about Xiu—even more so given her stoic, sour demeanor. I could easily picture her offing her boss. She’d been the one to find the body, and we only had her word that she hadn’t done it. Of course, Daisy thought she was being truthful, but Daisy’s brain was also the size of a sand dollar, so there was that.
I rose and closed my fist around the key. Thankfully, my abilities to speak with animals came in handy on occasion. I’d tracked my mouse friend down and bribed it into stealing this key from Xiu.
The little guy had waited until Xiu sat down (which frankly only came after hours of standing—this woman had stamina). Then it’d scurried up the chair leg, shimmied the key off the ring, and run off with it. All for a packet of crackers. What a little dumb dumb.
My stomach rumbled, and I groaned. Except those crackers had been my snack. Who was the dumb dumb now?
I crept through the halls, passing workers diligent at their stations, and peeked out onto the main factory floor. Xiu paced at the front, barking out orders, the stairs to the second story office behind her. There was no way I’d be able to get in from the factory side. I’d have to find the entrance from the second floor.
I meandered about the cold, dark industrial space for a while until I found the stairs up, and then finally found the long hall that ended in the door to Li Fan’s office. I looked around, slid my key into the lock, then turned.
I blinked in surprise when the latch didn’t catch. It was already unlocked. I slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open. The big office stretched out in front of me, the curtains drawn over the windows. I breathed a sigh of relief—it meant no one on the factory floor would be able to see my snooping. There were the huge webs strewn across the ceiling, the big cluttered desk in the center, and—
I gasped.
The middle-aged lady with the kerchief over her hair that I’d seen whispering in the hall crouched behind the desk, rifling through files in an open drawer.
She whipped her head around to look at me, her dark eyes wide. I froze, too. What was this lady doing in here? Was the young girl in the office, also? Were they the murderers and I was about to be next?
Her eyes swept me up and down, then she sat back on her haunches, one arm draped casually over her knee, and chuckled.
“Oh, thank the sands it’s you.” She blew a loose strand of jet-black hair out of her face. “I thought it was Xiu.” She gave an exaggerated grimace.
I frowned down at her, then glanced back
