Chapter 13

  The initial investigation into the locked rooms was not nearly as productive as anyone would have hoped. With my condition showing no signs of improvement, Joan was left to do the investigating by herself. Any time she would attempt to bring me indoors had caused me to desperately fight for my life. Inside was where the hounds could get me.

  Since Joan had to leave me outside, the situation turned into that riddle where you have to cross a river with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. If left alone, the goat would eat the cabbage, or the cabbage would eat the wolf... You know, I was never able to figure out how it all worked, but you probably know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I couldn't be inside the apartment, but I couldn't be left outside by myself. Joan needed to be inside the apartment so she could investigate. If Raif was left alone with me, everyone agreed that bad things would happen. If Raif was left alone with Joan, we'd likely wind up with Raif doing something that would warrant Joan's expert use of the pen. At the same time, if Tara was left alone with me, Raif would throw one of his epic fits anyway, so even if we trusted Joan to not harm Raif, Raif would never allow me to be alone with Tara. The final solution was to leave both Raif and Tara outside with me while Joan investigated by herself. Nobody was happy. Nobody. But it was the only option at the time.

  Luckily, Raif behaved himself well enough. In fact, without me really functioning, he actually opened up a little. I couldn't really say if it was because he was trying to look good for Joan, or if even he found it difficult to bully someone who didn't even respond to his verbal attacks. Either way, he mostly took the time to complain about Tara and Joan as if he was somehow a victim in the whole situation regarding the love life that only existed in his own head. If I had been coherent, I probably would have felt more pity than rage at the clearly delusional man. Of course, that doesn't imply there wouldn't be a fair amount of rage, after all he was clearly abusing Tara (at least emotionally), and sexually harassing Joan constantly. I just meant that not only was he the scum of the universe, but he was also incredibly pitiful.

  After every apartment Joan investigated, she would sit down and relay her findings to me. I'm not sure if she thought I might provide some input, if she felt it might help me to feel included, or if it helped ease her stress to be able to act like I was improving. Either way, locked away inside my own mind, I could vaguely make out the things she would tell me. It was almost like hearing the person in the apartment next to yours talking on their phone through a wall. You're aware they're talking, but unless you really try to focus, it sounds more like the idea of talking than actual coherent words.

  Occasionally, my mind was able to focus on what she was trying to say.

  Here's the essential breakdown from what she found.

  (I'd have jotted this down in my journal under normal circumstances.)

  1) All rooms were either locked, or had witnesses vouch that nobody had entered or exited the room after the victim last entered.

  2) All windows were locked from the inside.

  3) There were no secret passages or alternate exits found.

  4) There was no evidence of the missing people. No blood, hair, or clothes left behind.

  5) Some cases included signs of a struggle.

  6) The earlier cases in the timeline all included a single disappearance.

  7) More recent cases included between one to three missing individuals.

  8) No disappearances occurred within a room with more than three people.

  If you could read between the lines, nearly a week had passed since the start of our investigation. As time progressed, the disappearances increased and the perpetrator grew more and more bold, targeting more populated rooms or homes. Also, during this time Sheriff Placeholder was being notified by the town doctor of any instances with cursed townspeople transforming. The agreement was to keep them in a safe house in town and make sure they were all taken care of until after the investigation, at that point they would decide the best course of action to move forward.

  Even if we were to consider the option that some of the disappearances were just cursed townspeople transforming without seeking help from the doctor, the facts just didn't back up the curse being a possible cause for all of the unsolved disappearances. Prior to Sheriff Placeholder holding Mayor Night in one of his cells, there were no instances where multiple members of the same family were cursed. Mayor Night even admitted that in accounts left by the former mayors, the curse never targeted the same family twice. With many of the new cases including multiple family members disappearing without a trace, unless the curse suddenly changed its modus operandi after a century, the cause of these locked room scenarios had to be something entirely different.

  Of course Joan had looked into the idea that the same hounds that terrorized me in the settlement might be the culprit. Afterall, Tindalos Hounds were capable of entering closed spaces through corners. Out of any potential suspect, they were the most likely to infiltrate a room and exit without alerting anyone outside or showing evidence of tampering with locks. Oddly enough, the reason the hounds were ruled out as a likely suspect was due to the way they hunted. The Tindalos Hounds were a vicious murderous predator. They did not have the finesse or restraint to kill without leaving obvious traces of their act at the scene of their attack. In fact, the Tindalos Hounds didn't even appear to need to feed off their targets, they simply killed for the sake of it. When Joan and Sheriff Placeholder had inspected the settlement a couple days after my traumatizing experience inside, they found corpses of Deep Ones strewn randomly throughout the entire space. All of the gore was left behind, so much so that if a really disturbed person wanted to put them back together all of the pieces seemed to be present... somewhere. So just like ruling out the curse, the idea that the Hounds of Tindalos suddenly completely changing their style of killing was unlikely enough to rule them out as a suspect.

  Who else could infiltrate a space without leaving evidence behind? Another one of the prime suspects had made themself comfortable in our party, Raif. He had not only admitted to having an ability that allowed the ability's target to infiltrate a locked space, but he had proven it. I was literally the proof that he had the ability to bypass locked doors. Of course, as we found out during the incident at the settlement, the ability had a chance to alert all residents of the infiltrated space. Since nobody other than Raif could look at his journal to see the exact ability and its description, we had to take his word for anything he would reveal, and his word was questionable at best. Still, it brought into question whether it would have been possible to commit the acts at such a high frequency without a single instance of failure.

  There was also the question of what Raif would have done with the victims. If he was the culprit, he would have had to dispose of all of the bodies without leaving a single trace behind, which would have been a tall order.

  Adding to speculation of the likelihood of Raif being the culprit was the fact that Joan had kept a close eye on him at almost all times. The disappearances all took place at night, and Joan had made the decision for our party to stay together in a tent outside due to my intense phobia of indoor spaces. Could he have waited until Joan went to sleep every night to act? Yes, although it would also mean that he would have to have managed to return every time before Joan woke up from her sleep. During that time, he'd have had to commit multiple infiltrations, dispose the bodies, and return before Joan awoke each night. We couldn't fully trust Tara to be reliable in her accounts of the source of her codependence, and I was completely useless in doing anything but create more trouble for everyone. Still, it would have been very difficult.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  We couldn't fully rule out the possibility that Raif or Tara had abilities hidden from us that would have allowed any combination of the two of them to commit the acts each night. But we had no evidence. Despite all efforts for Joan to rule out the option that the guilty party or parties were members of our own group, since only a player could see their own abilities, there was no current way to fully prove anything. Everything was based on trust. At the same time, there was no evidence of abilities that would allow Raif or Tara to do everything required to be behind the disappearances.

  Joan had been thorough in her investigation. I can't say she turned over every rock the same way I would have, but had I been anything other than a functionless burden, I wouldn't have seen flaws in her logic. Joan was beyond capable as an investigator on her own. Honestly, the only real thing I ever brought to the table regarding moving an investigation along was my ability to think illogically. While my chaos was a great annoyance to those around me, it would also cause things to come to light that might have never been discovered with conventional methods. It was a part of myself that I gave very little value.

  It was Joan who held my ability in the highest regard. When backed against a wall, she understood that she would not be able to move forward on her own. From the moment I stumbled out of the settlement and removed myself from the investigation, Joan had taken on the burden herself.

  Backed into a corner, she attempted the only option she had left.

  Joan propped me up against a stone retaining wall near the beach. She had asked Raif and Tara to grab a bite to eat at The Gene while she played the last card in her deck, The Fool.

  "I don't know if you can hear me. I can't begin to imagine what you're going through. I wanted to let you recover on your own without having to burden you. I planned on taking everything on by myself." Her words directed at me held a different tone than anything I had experienced. She was pleading. She was showing weakness.

  "Clay, I don't know what to do. I've tried everything. I am lost. You always think so poorly of your abilities. I probably haven't helped your sense of self worth, I have trouble being honest with myself, and I have trouble communicating my honest feelings to the people who are most important to me." My body didn't respond to her words, she would have to hope that she was reaching me.

  "You aren't worthless, Clay. You're special. I don't know why, but you can see things that others can't. Sometimes it's really stupid things that end up annoying everyone around you, but sometimes you can see the impossible. You're the Sherlock Holmes to my Doctor Watson. Do you hear that?! I'm admitting it out loud. You're Holmes! Okay?" She continued telling me what I needed to hear, or at least what I'd want to hear in any other situation. Still, there was no response.

  "I could go on about how you might be able to help. I could tell you how much your buddy Riff hopes for your recovery. There are a million things I could say to try to convince you, but they wouldn't be the real reason I'm talking to you right now." Her words penetrate me, gripping at my chest, but nothing has succeeded in pulling my mind out of its cage.

  "I need you, Clay. Anything else I say would just be lying about my true feelings. I can't do this without you. I need you. Clay, I need you. Please... Clay. Come back." I could feel her slowly dragging me to the surface. She was reaching me. But no matter what she said, how much my heart ached at her words, it fell short. If only there was...

  "FOCUS!"

  "Sorry about that, I don't know what came over me. It was like in Being John Malkovich where they were just a passenger inside his head. I think that's what that movie was about. It's been a really long time. John Cusack, Cameron Diaz..."

  A huge smile formed across Joan's face. "Focus, you idiot. You're really insufferable, do you know that? Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused because of your little vacation?"

  "That's strange, because I could have sworn I heard you asking for my help. And something about needing me?"

  "That must have been some crazy dream you were having. There's no way I would have ever said anything like that. Idiot." Her smile completely betrayed her words.

  "I never thought I'd meet a real tsundere out in the wild."

  "I know some of those words."

  "So, you need Holmes to swoop in at the last moment and solve the case?"

  "I'm beginning to think I liked it better before. How do I make you go back to how you were before?" Joan teased. It would have been much more believable if her arms weren't wrapped tightly around me.

  "Catch me up to the investigation."

  ___

  Shortly before sunset, a few hours after Joan successfully sprung me from my mind prison, I stood inside the sheriff's office with a handful of other individuals. I was still not comfortable being indoors, but this part was absolutely essential. Since a certain suspect was locked in a cell, we couldn't really risk releasing completely. Riff had him in cuffs for the time being.

  With Joan at my side, I looked around the room. Everyone else was lined up with looks that spanned from confused to annoyed.

  "So it looks like we're all here." I began to pace in front of the line of individuals, indicating each of them as I passed. "Mayor Night, how are the cuffs treating you? We already know you were involved in the other disappearances, it wouldn't be too big of a leap to think you were at least an accomplice in these new cases."

  "You think you can just wake up and start accusing me of things? You have some nerve." The gaunt mayor glared at me, but I had already moved to the next person in line.

  "Zuul..."

  "Who is Zuul? My name's..."

  "Zuul. Other than the mayor and the doctor, you were the only other person to have information on the disappearances. Before the mayor's scheme was brought to light, you were the most likely person to be able to hide a separate group of disappearances among the cursed townspeople."

  "Why do you refuse to call me De..." Zuul began to interject with some sort of pointless babble, but I had moved on again.

  "Ray. For someone who is supposed to be unrelated to everything, you seemed to really know the mayor's schedule. You also knew we were in charge of the investigation when that hadn't been made public knowledge. It would be hard to think you didn't know even more than you volunteered back at The Gene."

  "Who the heck is this guy?! I've never seen him. And what's The Gene?" Raif interrupted.

  "My dear Raif..."

  "Don't call me that."

  "My dear Raif, surely you recognize Ray Elrode."

  "We've never met. Nice to meet'cha, I'm Ray Elrode." Ray extended his tattooed arm to shake hands with the only other person present who could rival his number of tattoos. Raif refused. "I'm just happy to help."

  "Odd, I would have figured you knew each other because of your shared love of tattoos." I stepped onward, "That brings us to Raif. We know you're capable of breaking into locked rooms, but even more than that, I heard you don't even know who Betty White is. That's suspicious by itself."

  "Clay, focus." Joan cut in to my brilliant deductive reasoning.

  "Right. So that brings us to Tara. Honestly, Joan told me you should be up here. I know you had nothing to do with this. But don't tell Joan I threw her under the bus."

  "You're speaking loud enough so we can all hear you." Once again, Joan interjected.

  "And last but not least, the owner of my favorite mustache. Riff, you seemed pretty dead set on targeting Mayor Night from the start. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that you knew more than what you were letting on. If that were the case, you'd have had more than enough opportunity to hide your actions among the other missing persons cases."

  "I understand. I would have suspected me too." Riff responded.

  "And to be honest, your accent just comes and goes, and it's never consistent. It's just weird." I pushed back with my most damning evidence.

  "If I'm up here, why isn't the doctor up here too? Townsperson #48 is just as suspicious as me." The criticism came from Mayor Night.

  "Honestly? I couldn't remember his name, so I didn't bother hunting him down. My bad." With a wide grin, I slapped his words down like they were nothing.

  "So what are you trying to say? Just lining us all up here to run your mouth?" Raif protested, growing more annoyed by the second.

  "It's very simple. I've already solved the case. I know exactly what happened. And more importantly..."

  All eyes watched me with great interest. The moment I had waited for my entire life was moments away.

  "The killer is in this very room!"

  I was met with a chorus of gasps.

  Nailed it!