Ah, but it was useless, wasn’t it? The wallet and the keys were far too heavy to have blown away. He’d taken them! Possibly he’d even come back for them! The petty little monster, and when I realized that he’d been in my body, my splendid powerful preternatural body, when he did this, I was absolutely paralyzed with rage.

All right, you thought this might happen, didn’t you? It was in his nature. And you’re freezing again, you’re shivering. Get back into the dining room and close the door.

I did just that, though I had to wait on Mojo, who took his time, as if he were utterly indifferent to the snowy wind. Now the dining room was cold from my having left the door open. Indeed, as I hurried back upstairs, I realized that the temperature of the entire house had been lowered by this little trip to the kitchen. I had to remember to shut doors.

I went into the first of the unused rooms, where I’d hidden the money in the chimney, and as I reached up, I felt not the envelope which I’d lodged there, but a single sheet of paper. I removed it, already in a fury, before I even turned on the light so that I could see the words:

You really are a silly fool to think that a man of my abilities wouldn’t find your little stash. One does not have to be a vampire to detect a bit of telltale moisture on the floor and on the wall. Have a pleasant adventure. I shall see you Friday. Take care of yourself! Raglan James.

I was too angry for a moment to move. I was positively fuming. My hands were knotted into fists. “You petty little miscreant!” I said in this miserable, heavy, opaque, brittle voice.

I went into the bathroom. Of course the second stash of money wasn’t behind the mirror. There was only another note.

What is human life without difficulty? You must realize I cannot resist such little discoveries. It’s like leaving bottles of wine around for an alcoholic. I shall see you Friday. Please walk carefully on the icy sidewalks. Wouldn’t want you to break a leg.

Before I could stop myself I slammed my fist into the mirror! Ah, well. There was a blessing for you. Not a great gaping hole in the wall, as it would have been if Lestat le Vampire had done it; just a lot of broken glass. And bad luck, bad luck for seven years!

I turned around, went downstairs, and back into the kitchen, bolting the door behind me this time, and opened the refrigerator. Nothing inside! Nothing!

Ah, this little devil, what I was going to do to him! How could he think he would get away with this? Did he think I was incapable of giving him twenty million dollars and then wringing his neck? What in the world was he thinking …

Hmmm.

Was it as hard to figure out as all that? He wasn’t coming back, was he? Of course he wasn’t.