by Rose Pressey
Now I was starting to panic. Someone really had taken her and she’d probably put up a struggle.
“What is that?” my mother asked.
I looked at where she was pointing. A piece of rope was on the ground.
“Do you think they used that to tie her up?” I asked.
“I’d be willing to bet it was probably used for that.”
I picked up the rope. “We just need to find out who did this.”
Since my number had been the last one on her phone I knew that she hadn’t tried to call for any kind of emergency help. This meant she’d never had time and never seen the person who attacked her. That witch moved awfully fast. It could have been her and she was the most likely suspect, considering the witch had taken Liam, Nicolas, and Annabelle.
“This is a crime scene,” I said.
“Halloween, we need to call the police.”
“Well, I am the leader. I should be able to handle this, not have to call the cops. The Underworld detectives will be enough for now. Once we find them then the police can arrest whoever is responsible for this.”
“You need to contact someone so they can find her. Plus they can help you find Annabelle, Nicolas, and Liam. They can’t arrest anyone until they find them,” she said.
“I’m going to. It just seems like it would take them forever to get started and I didn’t want to wait.”
She sighed. “If you say so.”
“Let’s go back into the building and tell the receptionist about this,” I said as we hurried back with the building.
“I doubt she’ll care where the woman is,” my mother said.
“You’re right, but maybe we can figure out if they have any kind of video surveillance in the parking lot.”
“Good thinking,” my mother said.
We reached the building and I pushed the button again.
She didn’t look thrilled when she saw us standing at the door again. “Did you forget something?” she asked in an exasperated tone.
“We think that Cassandra has been taken,” I said.
She quirked an eyebrow. “Taken? What makes you think that?”
“Well, considering I found her cell phone lying on the ground, the door to her car open, and one of her shoes on the ground, plus some rope, that’s a pretty good indication.”
Now that I thought about it, the witch hadn’t used rope to get Annabelle, Liam, and Nicolas. She had only used witchcraft. Wouldn’t she have done this with the vampire leader as well?
“So what am I supposed to do about that?” She shrugged.
“Wow, you’ve been much help. Do you have any video surveillance of the parking lot?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think there is, but I don’t have access to it.”
“Who does?”
“The only one who has access is Cassandra.”
“I refuse to believe that she’s the only one that can get that information. I refuse to believe it,” I said.
“Refuse all you want, but it’s the truth.”
My mother grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. Yes, I was getting ready to let this girl have it. Right now would be a good time to use that toad spell. We left her standing there and headed back over to the car. It was just as I had left it, but what did I expect? For Cassandra to be there now and everything would be fine?
“We just need to calm down and think about this rationally and maybe that will give us the clues we need,” my mother said.
“In the meantime, we’ll have some detectives look in on this,” I said, pulling out my phone.
“You’re right, that’s a good idea,” my mother said. “You call them and tell them to get over here right away.”
I nodded. “I’ll make sure to do that.”
I had to call Jon. He was the closest detective to take care of this. Annabelle had dated him once.
Chapter 17
I placed the call and got through to the detective right away. I explained to him what had happened and he said that he could meet me in about ten minutes. That wasn’t fast enough, but I would have to deal with it.
“I’ll see you soon,” I said and then ended the call.
“Thank goodness he’s on his way.” My mother blew out a deep breath. “Not that you can’t handle it.” She added that at the last second.
In the meantime, there was no way that we were going to leave the scene of the crime. This place needed to be secured. The Enchantment Pointe Police Department would know that this was the Underworld’s jurisdiction too. I looked at my watch. It had only been a minute. I still had a while to go before Jon showed up. If I had help then it would be less nerve-racking. Sometimes I just couldn’t handle it all on my own. As much as I wanted to, it just wasn’t possible.
“I don’t want to just stand around here while we wait. I have to do something,” I said.
“What is there to do?” my mother asked.
“We have Annabelle and the leader’s phones. I have to look through them to see if there’s any unusual messages or phone calls. Anything at all.”
First I started with Annabelle’s. I wanted to see who she had been in contact with before she had lost her phone. The numbers for all the calls placed were either to my number, her mother’s, my mother’s or other friends’. There was one number that I didn’t recognize, so I would have to come back to that. Then I looked at Cassandra’s phone. Of course I wouldn’t recognize the numbers on her calls, but I did recognize the same number that was on Annabelle’s phone. That meant I had to call this number right away. There had to be a connection.
I dialed the number, but no one answered. Why was I not surprised? I didn’t leave a message because, yeah, if it was the killer he wasn’t likely to call me back. I would have to keep trying. Also, I would have to find out whose number it was.
The sound of a car pulling up caught my attention and I spun around. Thank goodness it was Jon, the detective. Though he wore mirrored sunglasses, I recognized his strong jawline and short dark hair. He got out of the car and walked over to us. As usual he wore a black suit with red tie. Every time I’d seen him he’d been dressed the same. There were other detectives with him. They looked like similar versions of Jon. All Underworld detectives were witches and had the power to cast spells.
“Is this the car you were talking about?” Jon lowered his sunglasses and peered over the top.
“Yes,” I said.
“We’ll get to work.”
So they blocked off the car with crime scene tape so that we could look for more clues. Sure, a little magic was involved too. We had to use everything at our disposal. I showed them the phones and the number that I had found. We would address this while they continued to look around for other clues. I tried the number I’d found again, but there was no answer. After a while of looking, the detectives didn’t find any new clues. My only other option was to tell them about the surveillance video.
“Did you look at the video yet?” Jon asked.
“No, the receptionist said that only Cassandra could access that,” I said.
“I find that hard to believe,” he said.
“I did too.”
“Me too!” My mother’s voice was full of a little too much excitement.
“I can tell you how to look at it. They just have to show me where it is,” Jon said.
“We can try asking, but getting the receptionist to do anything is difficult, to say the least.” I gestured toward the building.
“We’ll give her a shot,” he said.
Jon, my mother, and I walked back to the building while the other detectives continued to look over the scene. Even though I had little hope of finding anything else, I was hoping we would get the video. Plus, we also needed to trace this number. We reached the building once again and I pushed the button, summoning the receptionist. She would probably be livid this time when she realized it was me yet again. Wasn’t she starting to get worried about Cassandra? I’d told the receptionist that she wasn’t around and abo
ut the shoe. She hadn’t seemed concerned. I supposed this was just a job to her and she had no connection to her co-workers. How cold-hearted of her.
We waited for what seemed like forever and she never came to the door. I tried to open it, but of course there was no way I could get in.
“What do you think’s going on in there?” I said.
Jon removed his sunglasses and stuffed them into his shirt pocket. “I don’t know. Is there another way to get in?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we can try some of the windows, but I have a really bad feeling about this.”
Before she’d come right to the door every time and now she didn’t even answer. And that was after she found out that her boss was missing.
“Maybe everyone left for the day,” my mother said.
“Could be, I guess,” I said. “But there are still cars here and I never saw anyone leave.”
“We need to get into the building.” Jon tried the door handle again.
Only problem was that all the windows were covered. They had some windows on the building, they just kept them covered with some sort of steel-like shield. It was doubtful we would be able to get in.
“Maybe we should do a spell and try to break into one of those windows,” I said.
“Sounds like that’s the only option,” Jon said.
“This sounds dangerous,” my mother said with wide eyes.
I gestured for her to give me her hand. “It’ll be okay… think of Annabelle. We have to find her.”
“The poor thing. She just can’t catch a break. Maybe she should reevaluate her friendship with you.” My mother took my hand.
“Thanks,” I said wryly.
My mother was right though. Annabelle needed to distance herself from me. I was bad news.
We gathered with the other detectives and recited a spell that I had made specifically for this purpose. As the spell continued the energy circled around us. I had a good feeling that this was going to work and let us in. Once the energy died down we walked over to the first window. Each one of us took turns trying to open the window. Nothing happened—it wouldn’t budge. We moved to the second one, and then all of a sudden, the metal shield lifted up. I wasn’t sure how, but the spell had worked. I couldn’t believe we had to go through all of this just to get inside. They should leave me a key for emergencies such as this, although I guessed they’d figured this would never come up.
I motioned. “It’s open. Let’s go.”
I poked my head through just to see what room we would be entering. It looked like I had found the conference room with the long table and chairs. It seemed like such a long time ago since I’d met the vampires in this room. I jumped through the window into the room and the guys followed me. My mother waited outside with the cat. I rushed across the room to the door and opened it, stepping out into that dark hallway. There was no one around. Where was everyone hiding? I was just glad that I had the detectives behind me.
“Do you have any clue where it might be?” he asked.
“Not really. I assume in the leader’s office.” I pointed down the hallway.
“Do you know which one that is?”
Was it to the left? Maybe it was to the right? I was a little turned around, but I thought I could find it again. Moving to the right, I headed down the hall in the direction where I hoped to find her office. When I reached the door it was closed. It had been open before. I wondered why the receptionist had closed it now when she had assumed Cassandra would be back like she’d told us. I turned the knob, but it didn’t move. The door was locked now.
“We need to get into this room,” I said.
We could to do it the easy way by finding a key. Or I would have to try another spell.
“I can always try to knock the door down,” he said.
“You may have to if that’s the only way we’ll get access inside. First we’ll look for the key.
He motioned. “Whatever it takes to get inside.”
“We’ll go down to the reception desk and see if she’s there. She obviously had a key if she locked the room,” I said.
“Unless Cassandra came back.”
“I guess it is possible, but I think she would probably have called me.”
I knew something was amiss. The receptionist knew that Cassandra was missing, so she should want to help us. I motioned for him to follow me down the hall. “The desk is down this way.” The guys followed me down the hallway to the reception desk. I couldn’t believe that no one was in the building—it seemed like it had been evacuated. This gave me the creeps.
When we reached the desk, the woman was gone. Had something happened to everyone in the building? An eerie feeling tingled along my spine. I moved behind the desk to look around. The top was neat with everything straight and in order. Earlier I’d spotted a laptop and other items, now they’d been removed. However, there was a ring with keys on it. I scooped up the keys and hoped that one of them would unlock the leader’s office. Now I had to worry whether once we got in there her computer would still be there.
“I have a feeling the surveillance would be accessible through that computer,” I said as we raced back down the hallway.
I tried several of the keys and none of them fit until about the fifth one. It slipped right inside the lock.
“Yes,” I said as I turned the knob.
After opening the door we rushed inside. I raced over to the desk for the laptop.
“No!” I said when I discovered the desktop empty.
I opened some of the drawers, hoping to find it stashed away, but it wasn’t there. There was a door on the side wall. Jon followed me as I rushed over and yanked it open. Again there was nothing in there. Everything looked as if it had been cleaned up.
“This is disappointing.” I released a deep breath. “We need to find where everyone is and then maybe we can get answers. This is creepy and I get a really uneasy feeling being in here.”
“I don’t get creeped out often, but I have to agree with you. I have that same feeling now,” Jon said.
And I had hoped that this was all in my head and that there would be nothing to worry about. I gave the room one last look around to see if maybe I was missing anything. That was when I heard footsteps coming down the hallway.
“Someone is coming,” he said.
Chapter 18
We rushed over to the door and peered out into the hallway. No one was there.
“That’s strange,” I said.
We exchanged a look, trying to figure out if we had imagined the noise.
“I know I heard it,” he said. “Do you think they have a ghost?”
“I guess anything is possible,” I said.
As soon as we stepped back into the office the footsteps sounded again. This time I knew for sure what I’d heard. It definitely was someone walking down the hallway. Was someone playing tricks on us? I wouldn’t let them get away with that. I would catch them somehow. They couldn’t hide. I rushed back over to the door to peek outside. There was someone there this time. And I was definitely surprised to see this person.
Thomas was in the hallway. He had stopped when he saw me peer outside the door. He held his hands up as if he was surrendering.
“I think that’s the murderer.” I pointed.
The detective pulled out his gun and pointed it at Thomas. “Freeze and put your hands above your head.”
Thomas did as he was told.
“Now get up against the wall and put your hands on the wall.” The detective directed with a wave of his hand.
As he was placing Thomas in handcuffs, I walked over to him. “Do you have anything to say?”
“Yeah, you can tell me why I’m in handcuffs,” Thomas said.
“Absolutely I can tell you. You murdered a vampire and possibly more than one,” I said.
“I murdered someone?” His eyes widened. “Am I being arrested for that? You have to have proof before you can arrest me.”
Yes, I supposed he was r
ight about that. Leave it to him to correct the detective on police procedure.
The detective looked at me. “You’re the leader so you have the call right now.”
“No, I guess you’re not arrested. Yet,” I said.
Of course I didn’t have enough evidence to prove that he murdered the vampire. In order to charge him I would have to prove it. I hoped I was doing the right thing.
“Then do you mind releasing me from the handcuffs?” He wiggled his hands.
“First of all, what are you doing in here?” I asked.
“I came to find you,” Thomas said.
“Find me for what?”
“Because I wanted to help you. I realized that Annabelle was missing… plus Nicolas and Liam.”
“How did you know they were missing?”
“A detective outside told me.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Where have you been?”
“I was visiting with a friend.” His answer came quickly, as if he’d been waiting for me to ask.
“Just out of nowhere? You didn’t say anything to anyone. You left the club right when someone was murdered.”
“Look, I knew you were upset with me, so I thought I would give you a chance to cool off a little bit. I had no idea that there was a murder at the club that night.”
“How coincidental,” I said.
I figured by my tone he knew that I wasn’t buying it.
“I’m telling the truth. You have to believe me. I can help you find them.”
“Oh? Now you can help me find them?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth.”
“I know, you didn’t like me from the moment you saw me.”
“Well, you tried to attack me.” I waved my hand.
“I did not try to attack you. I was simply sitting in the car,” he said.
“Same difference in my book.”
“You are really one tough cookie,” he said.
“Yeah, and don’t forget it. Tell me how you got in here. This place is secure,” I said.
“It’s not so secure,” he said. “There’s an open window for me to crawl right in. Isn’t that how you got in?” he asked.
