Skull Screw Up: A Halloween Helper's Cozy Mystery

by Linnea West

  "I don't know where the wand is," Diggy whispered. "We can't finish this puzzle if we can't find the wand."

  "The family wand sounds important," Vinnie said even though she'd never actually heard of it before. "Wouldn't it have a specific spot where it is kept?"

  Diggy shifted around on her chair nervously. The tears had stopped flowing, but her face was still wet. She wiped it with the back of her long sleeve black shirt.

  "It does have a specific spot right in the workshop, but I noticed the other day that it wasn't there," Diggy said. "It is only something that is really used in emergencies, so besides knowing what it is and what it does, I have no idea how to use it. I thought it was a little weird that it was gone, but I didn't think much of it. I figured maybe Mom had used it for something and forgot to put it back. You know how she gets when she is in the middle of working on a project."

  "It's alright, it couldn't have gone far then," Vinnie said. "Now we really have our work cut out for us. We have to find the skull and the wand, and we have to find a murderer and figure out the family spell. First, I think I would like another piece of cake."

  Diggy giggled and jumped up, grabbing both of their plates. As she cut another piece of cake for each of them, Vinnie looked at the girl. Diggy liked to dress like a stereotypical witch, so today she had on a flowy, oversized black shirt and a knee-length black skirt with red and black striped stockings on underneath.

  Vinnie often wondered what made her dress like that. As kids, both Lavender and Vinnie had been desperate to not look like witches. Lavender had always wanted to be a hippie or, since she was magical, more of a woodland fairy creature. Vinnie just didn't want to be a witch at all. If she couldn't do magic, what was the point?

  But Diggy embraced her witch ancestry so closely that she insisted on dressing the part. In a way, Vinnie had to admire that determination. Diggy was not going to shy away and try to hide herself in the mortal world like the coven witches and vampires did. She wanted to show everyone that she was a magical being, even if she couldn't actually show everyone that.

  The girl turned and walked back to the table with two big slices of cake. Apparently going for seconds did not mean cutting smaller slices. But Vinnie figured a day like today called for two slices of cake.

  "How did you make this cake Diggy?" Vinnie asked as she cut into the second piece.

  She figured the answer would be that Diggy had used magic. Even though Vinnie had been sure to show Diggy the mortal way to do almost everything, the girl was so enamored with her magic that she used it for almost everything.

  "I baked it with my own two hands," Diggy said with a wide smile. "The other day while you were working on that autumn jigsaw puzzle, I sneaked in here and made it to surprise you."

  "You certainly did surprise me," Vinnie said. "It is delicious! Maybe you should bake by hand more often."

  Diggy just giggled and speared another piece of cake on her fork. The kitchen was warm and cozy. It had a window that looked out into the forest. Only the glow of the kitchen light illuminated the outside but Vinnie could just barely make out some of the trees. They were starting to turn dazzling shades of red, orange, and yellow. That meant Halloween was coming which meant that they didn't have much time to rescue Lavender from wherever she was.

  But instead of thinking about that, Vinnie tried to focus on the delicious cake, the time with her niece and the beauty of the changing seasons. She couldn't spend all of her time sad or none of their cases would get solved. Being a Halloween Helper meant persevering and pushing on, no matter what was happening in their personal life.

  Or more like no matter who was meddling in their personal lives with his childish poems and stupid unhelpfulness.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The next day dawned and the colors of the leaves outside were even more brilliant in the sunrise. Vinnie laid in bed for a little while, watching the leaves sway in the wind and wishing she could take an extra long walk in the woods.

  But today she needed to go look for the skull at the vampire house. If she could find it, perhaps it would lead her to the killer. And Diggy had to stay behind to look for the family wand. As much as Vinnie liked them to work together, hopefully splitting up would help them cross things off their ever growing to-do list much faster. It did make her a little nervous to be headed alone into a pack of vampires again, but for all they knew she was a magical witch that they didn't want to mess with.

  Vinnie finally forced herself out of her nice, warm bed. At least her room wasn't freezing because the magical fire in the fireplace that Lavender had conjured for her kept her room at a pretty good temperature. It didn't give off a ton of heat, but it was enough that she wasn't freezing in the morning. Her flannel nightgown and pile of quilts helped with that also. She slipped her cozy slippers on her feet and traipsed to the closet.

  Normally, she didn't have any problems picking out an outfit to wear. Most of what was in her wardrobe was mix and match, a combination of long, flowy skirts, hand knit sweaters, some neutral shirts, and a few pairs of jeans for when she went hiking.

  But this morning was more difficult. Instead of picking something that she enjoyed and wanted to wear, Vinnie felt herself bogged down. She wanted to wear something to show her professionalism to the vampires but she also wanted to feel comfortable.

  Vinnie pulled outfit after outfit out of the closet and laid them on her bed, plagued with indecision. Finally, she decided enough was enough and she blindly picked a few items and hurriedly put them on. Vinnie ended up in a rust orange skirt and a white button up blouse with a collar that she had embroidered little leaves on. She also tossed a gray cardigan on in case it was cold.

  Looking in the mirror, Vinnie nodded at her outfit. It felt like an ode to autumn. It was her favorite season after all, so she may as well celebrate it even if there wasn't much she felt like celebrating right now. She kept her warm slippers on her feet and shuffled down to the kitchen.

  Diggy was already in the kitchen, a white apron tied over her black, lacy gown. She was frying up eggs and a plate on the counter showed she had already made up some bacon and sausage for them. Turning to face her aunt, she cracked a big smile.

  "See? I can cook the mortal way too," Diggy said.

  "So you can," Vinnie smiled.

  "You were taking a super long time," Diggy said. "I knew you were up because I could hear you, but you just weren't coming down, so I thought it would be a nice surprise to try and cook up our breakfast the mortal way."

  "It's a great surprise," Vinnie said. "Everything looks and smells great. I'll get some tea going."

  A few minutes later, the two witches sat down to eat. Even though they were busy eating, Vinnie could feel the love and warmth of the kitchen. It was her second favorite room in the house, after the library of course. It was the center of their home with delicious food, wonderful conversation, and a large window that seemed to connect them with nature.

  "We should probably make a plan today," Vinnie said. "I'm going to the vampire house and you are staying here. But what are the specifics?"

  "I'll use the travel orb to go drop you off," Diggy said. "So we should decide when you want me to come back. I do have something I can give you to send me a message if you need me sooner. I'll have to grab it out of the workshop. I think Mom made it specifically for you."

  "Oh really?" Vinnie asked. "How does it work? Is it better than a Communication Coin?"

  "Yes it is better and No, it's not too complicated," Diggy said. She had a piece of sausage on the fork that she was using to gesture and Vinnie was afraid it was going to fall off. "It looks like a normal piece of paper but it's magical. And when you need to send it to me, you write a message on one side and then you write my name on the other and it will poof itself to me. That way you can actually send me a message instead of just signaling me."

  "It can't be that simple," Vinnie said.

  "Well it isn't," Diggy said. "See, before you go, I'll put the specific
spell on it to make sure it gets to me. It's a hard one, but I can do it. Then you can contact me whenever you need to."

  Vinnie took another bite of her egg and pondered that. She was grateful that they had the workaround of magical objects.

  "Good, then I will have that in case of an emergency," Vinnie said, trying not to imagine the vampires finding out she wasn't magical and then biting her in anger. "Otherwise maybe you should come back at lunch so we can check in on any progress we've made. I plan on once again searching the house for that skull. I think I'm going to search extra hard in Francine's room this time."

  "That makes sense," Diggy said. "I'm going to search for the family wand in the workshop first. Maybe Mom just accidentally covered it with other stuff while she was working. If it isn't there, I suppose I'll just start searching everywhere."

  The two witches chatted about the changing leaves and the fact that they needed to make another trip to the New to You Boutique again soon as they were finishing up their breakfast. It took their minds off of the tasks at hand and Vinnie felt much more relaxed as she watched the autumn leaves outside and sipped the last of her tea.

  Once they were both ready, they used the travel orb to get to the vampire house. As expected, Vinnie was slammed to the floor, something she was used to but still embarrassed by. At least this time there wasn't anyone on the other end to see it happen. A Halloween Helper was supposed to be dignified, not someone who couldn't even manage a travel orb.

  Vinnie and Diggy went over their plan once more. Vinnie would stay and look for the skull, possibly doing a few more interviews if necessary. She had the magic paper thing to write for help if she got herself into a sticky situation. Diggy would take the travel orb back to the house and search for the family wand. She would come back at lunch or sooner if she found the wand or if Vinnie wrote and said she needed help.

  Giving the girl one more small hug, each of the witches took a deep, calming breath together. It was hard to split up, but necessary. Vinnie watched Diggy take the travel orb back home, disappearing with a little pop sound. She was on her own now.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The first place Vinnie thought she should look was Francine's room, since she was the top suspect after all. But there was something that was holding her back. Instead, she decided to play it safe and look around the entrance hall while she worked up the nerve to go upstairs again.

  Vinnie had to admit that the entrance hall was spectacular. It was two stories with a glass roof, which was specially made to filter out the UV rays for the vampires. It let in brilliant sunlight, which made all of the gold details in the room sparkle and shine. The large, sweeping staircase was made of marble with gold banisters. It was sumptuous and impressive. It was almost the exact opposite of the dark, almost gloomy entrance to the house that the witches lived in.

  But there wasn't really any place to hide anything. And even though it had happened to be empty when Vinnie crashed down to earth here, there were constantly vampires coming and going. It would have been almost impossible for Bram to hide it here without being seen. And if he had been seen, the skull would have been immediately retrieved, seeing as everyone here was apparently desperate to use it.

  Finally, she had to admit to herself that the skull definitely wasn't in the entrance hall and that she really should be using her time wisely instead of being scared for some reason. Vinnie sat down in a red velvet chair for just a moment to regroup.

  She was going to march up those stairs and straight to Francine's apartment. Once there, she would search the inside thoroughly. Not just a cursory glance like she had before, but looking under everything and anything and in every nook and cranny, even though there were a lot of them in that place.

  Taking another deep breath, she stood up and slowly made her way up the stairs. Her footsteps echoed in the large space and she wondered if she should try to be a bit quieter. Vinnie shook her head. She had to keep herself on task, not worrying about her footsteps.

  All of the apartments around the top level were labeled, which Vinnie found funny. One of the things that stuck in her mind from the first part of the investigation was when someone reminded them that it had to be an inside job. Who would sneak into a vampire house to steal something? So the fact that all of the rooms were labeled was funny. Who were they labeled for? Although it did come in handy for Vinnie.

  Finally she found herself in front of Francine's door. There was music playing inside, so Vinnie assumed that the vampire was home. She knocked on the door and waited. The music inside still played and it sounded like some sort of big band record, which Vinnie enjoyed. She found herself swaying to the music and wished she could hear it a little better so she knew what it was.

  Vinnie realized she was just standing in the hallway, swaying by herself. She knocked again, hoping someone would come to the door. She really felt like she needed to start her search here and if Francine or whoever was in there didn't come answer the door soon, she thought maybe she would just walk in there by herself.

  She checked her watch. It had been five minutes of her standing out there. That's it. She was just going to try the door. Twisting the knob, it was not locked. Vinnie peeked her head around the door. No one was in the living room.

  "Hello?" Vinnie called. "Halloween Helper here to conduct a search. Please come out."

  There was no movement in the apartment and the only sound was the music playing. Vinnie opened the door further and took a step inside. She didn't know what was worse, sneaking into an apartment and catching someone unawares or sneaking into an apartment and scaring the living daylights out of the resident when they return.

  "Hello?" she called one more time. "I need to do a search. Francine, are you here?"

  But there was still no answer. Vinnie took a few more steps in and without thinking, turned and shut the door behind her, something she instantly regretted. That was not a smart move. Now she was really going to scare Francine. The only solution would be to search fast and hopefully leave by the time the vampire came back.

  The living room was just full of massive furniture and piles of old magazines. It was neat, but definitely not tidy. Vinnie started to look underneath the couches and chairs, around all of the piles of magazines. But not only was the skull not there, there was nothing hidden back there at all. No spare change, no tissues that had floated away and, most surprising of all, no crumbs or dust bunnies.

  Vinnie stood back up. Were there any other hiding places in here? The living room seemed clear and Vinnie felt a bit uneasy about checking someone's bedroom without their knowledge. As she considered her options, the door out to the hallway started to open up.

  Should she hide? That seemed too creepy. Should she say something? What would she say? This was a terrible, horrible idea and Vinnie suddenly wished she hadn't gone through with it.

  Francine and Tucker walked in, slamming the door shut behind them. Vinnie covered her eyes, but realized that instead of looking into the room, the two vampires had been looking at each other. And now, they definitely couldn't see her because they were leaned against the door, locked in a passionate kiss.

  Vinnie tried to calm herself down so that she wouldn't panic. What should she do? By the way things were looking, it was about to get intimate in here.

  "Eh hem," Vinnie loudly cleared her throat.

  Both vampires jumped to face her, baring their fangs and hissing at her. Vinnie couldn't help it, she screamed and jumped on top of the oversized fainting sofa, hoping this wouldn't be the end of everything. She couldn't leave Diggy behind at a time like this.

  "I came to find you and the door wasn't locked," Vinnie said. "I figured you couldn't hear me because there was music playing so I came in to find you but you weren't here and then you and Tucker came in. I'm sorry. It definitely was a dumb thing to do."

  Francine and Tucker both put their hands down and started to laugh. Vinnie chuckled along nervously, hoping this wasn't some strange vampire thing they did bef
ore biting someone and draining them of all of their blood.

  "I don't know about you Tucker, but my immediate thought was that Bram had risen from the dead," Francine said.

  "I'm not sure I was thinking that," Tucker said. "But this whole thing does have me a bit more on edge than usual."

  "What did you say you were here for?" Francine asked.

  As the female vampire sat down in a chair, Vinnie realized she was still standing on the sofa. She climbed off and sat down on it instead. Tucker stayed standing, exuding an air of anger that he was trying to cover with a smile. Vinnie wasn't sure if he was mad she had interrupted what was about to happen or if she should connect it back to the murder.

  "I came to do one more search," Vinnie said. "I know it seems silly, but we just really want to make sure we are being thorough with our investigation."

  "It is silly," Tucker said. "I wish you would stop harassing Francine."

  "Oh hush Tucker, it isn't a big deal," Francine said. Her eyes seemed to be pleading with him, but Vinnie wasn't sure what that was about. "I understand the need to search again. Will you just be searching my room?"

  "I'm not sure," Vinnie said. "We will search wherever we need to search."

  Where Francine had once seemed flighty but friendly, now she seemed cool and calculated. She was casual with her question, but Vinnie could feel that the undertone was prying for more information. Perhaps she had already found the skull and re-hidden it somewhere else. No one would be stupid enough to hide it in their own apartment, right?

  Vinnie looked at the pair of vampires again but they were busy staring at each other. They seemed to be almost communicating telepathically and Vinnie wondered if they had some sort of plot together. Maybe it had taken two of them to kill Bram. Or maybe Francine was covering for Tucker. But why would she do that? It just didn't make any sense.

  "Well, I'm going to keep searching," Vinnie said, standing up from the couch. "I'm almost done with the living room and then I'll search the bedroom. It won't take long and I'll be out of your hair."