Skull Screw Up: A Halloween Helper's Cozy Mystery

by Linnea West

  Francine watched the entire interaction with a slight smile on her lips. When Vinnie glanced at her, Francine gave her a wink. Both of the women seemed to remember being a teenager and were trying not to make Diggy feel even more self-conscious than she already was. The only difference was that Francine seemed like the kind of woman who had always been confident while Vinnie still had tongue tie around handsome men, at least she did when she wasn't working.

  "What in the world was that?" Tucker asked.

  "ItwasaMagicalImpressionSensor," Diggy said, tripping over all of her words.

  "She said that it is a Magical Impression Sensor," Vinnie said. "It was invented by her mother and improved upon by Diggy herself."

  "Aren't you her mother?" Francine asked. "You two look kinda alike."

  "No, no, I'm her aunt," Vinnie said. "Her mother Lavender is, um, unavailable right now."

  "She's been sort of kidnapped by our boss, Norhand," Diggy said.

  Vinnie was about to get upset with Diggy when she realized that the name seemed to ring a bell with Tucker and Francine, who both came out of the apartment and into the hallway. The four of them were standing in a tight circle as they started whispering questions to each other.

  "How do you know Norhand?" they both asked in unison.

  "He's the Overseer of Witch Relations," Vinnie said. "How do you know him?"

  "Norhand used to come visit with Bram," Francine said. "Creepy man with the greasy hair. I never liked him. And he kidnapped your mother? Makes me like him even less."

  "Yeah, he's creepy alright," Diggy said. "Norhand took my mom because he said it was part of some tests we had to do to become Halloween Helpers."

  "I always felt like he was leading Bram astray somehow," Tucker said. "He never talked to any of the rest of us. In fact, I tried to talk to him once just to be friendly and figure out what was going on and he stared at me like I was a piece of trash."

  "I asked Bram about him once and he just told me that Norhand was a friend," Francine said.

  The four of them fell silent and Vinnie looked around the circle. Who knew that Norhand would be the one thing they all had in common? But what did that mean? It was just another thing for Vinnie and Diggy to think about at home.

  "Listen, we are going to head home," Vinnie said. "Honestly, I'm a little weirded out that Norhand has been here. If you guys think of anything else you know about him, let me know. We've been feeling like he's trying to sabotage us, so the more information we can get about him, the better."

  Tucker and Francine both nodded. For one awkward moment, the two witches and two vampires stayed in their little group huddle. Vinnie considered whether she should call for everyone to put their hands in the middle and then yell break, but finally the vampires went back into the apartment. Tucker nodded his head at them as he shut the door.

  For a while, Vinnie had been feeling like she was doing pretty good at her job as Halloween Helper. But now she had solicited help from the main suspects in a murder, which felt like it was breaking some rules. Maybe Vinnie needed to add "sort out priorities" to her to do list tonight.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was a beautiful autumn day when they arrived back at their house in Minnesota and Vinnie hated being cooped up inside, so the first they did was to take a short walk through the forest. Usually in the fall, Vinnie took a walk every day, sometimes two or even three walks. Fall was her favorite season and the best for taking walks. Usually she took walks alone, but this time she invited Diggy along so that they could talk through the case.

  As they meandered along next to a small creek that wound through the forest, they rehashed everything they knew about the case. The timeline, the clues, both confusing and helpful, and the suspects were all laid out as they traipsed along. Every once in a while, they would stop talking and just observe the brilliantly colored leaves as they shook and fell in the wind. It felt so cathartic to reconnect with nature.

  But at the end of the walk, they were right back to where they started. They returned home feeling energized from their walk, which just barely masked the feeling of disappointment they felt at not being further along in the case.

  "I didn't think it would be this hard to be a Halloween Helper," Diggy said. "Actually, I didn't think I'd really be one at all. I figured you and Mom would do most of the work and I would just have to tag along whenever I wanted to."

  "You were sort of thrust into it unexpectedly," Vinnie admitted. "Although I can say that I have really appreciated all of your help. I think you're a more valuable member of this team than I am."

  "I wouldn't go that far," Diggy said. "I think together, our skills make one valuable Halloween Helper."

  Diggy shot an impish smile at her aunt who couldn't help but laugh with her. It was true that at least together, they made a sort of functional investigator. Vinnie still couldn't help but wish that somehow Norhand would have chosen to take her instead of Lavender. They probably would have already solved all four puzzles and had Vinnie back by now.

  "I think we should start searching for the family wand," Vinnie said.

  Together, they agreed to split up the remaining rooms. Vinnie said she would search the library while Diggy would search the kitchen. Vinnie would search Lavender's bedroom while Diggy searched the entrance hall. There weren't many other places it could be and the only other two real rooms in the house were each of their bedrooms, but what would the family wand be doing in there?

  Vinnie wandered into the library and looked at the three walls of books. She briefly thought maybe she should take down every single book to look behind it, but that seemed extraordinarily silly. Why would the wand be behind the books? Although the real question should be why was the wand out of place in the first place?

  She figured she should search the same way that she cleaned: top to bottom. So the first thing Vinnie did was to climb all the way to the top of the rolling ladder and scoot along, looking at every shelf and even feeling above the molding up top in case it was hidden up there for some reason. It didn't seem likely, but throughout her life, Vinnie had found that things that were magical were also seemingly random most of the time.

  Scooting the ladder back and forth, she searched the shelves from top to bottom, only finding a few books she was interested in rereading and nothing remotely magical or heirloom-like. Next were the cabinets below the bookshelves. Many of them were also filled with books, but a few held boxes of jigsaw puzzles or a few shelves of vinyl records. None of them had a magic wand.

  Vinnie even crawled around on the floor, looking under and around all of the cozy pieces of furniture stuffed into the room. Unlike Francine's apartment, the library had several things under the couch including two jigsaw pieces from two separate puzzles, an embroidered bookmark that Vinnie figured she had accidentally donated to the second hand store inside of a book, and exactly twelves cents. Still, there was no magic wand.

  After she returned the puzzle pieces to the appropriate boxes, which she had labeled as missing a piece when she had attempted to do them again, she decided to search Lavender's bedroom. Before she opened the door, she took a deep breath, breathing in the smell of her sister. It was mostly a floral smell with a sort of herby undertone that became more pronounced whenever she had been brewing a lot of potions.

  Lavender's bedroom was identical in size and shape to Vinnie's bedroom, but it was decorated radically different. Lavender's four poster bed had gauzy, airy curtains that always seemed to be blowing around even when there was no wind around. Around all four posts and continuing along the top of the room were rows of Christmas lights, magically lit up without the need for an electrical socket.

  The fireplace here didn't have a magical fire like Vinnie's room, but instead was filled with magical burning candles. There were also several plants around that all seemed to be thriving despite the fact that Lavender had been gone for so long. Vinnie had to assume that she had something set up to magically water them every day because eve
n when she was home, Lavender would have forgotten to water them.

  But Lavender didn't actually own much in the way of knick-knacks so there weren't many places to look for the family wand. Vinnie looked around the candles in the fireplace, wondering if she would seem too much like a copycat if she asked her twin to recreate that in her bedroom. Each flowerpot only had a plant and dirt in it, along with a few little gnome statues that Vinnie had picked up from the second hand store. It made her smile to see that Lavender cared enough to keep them. They weren't really her style, after all, but more Vinnie's.

  On the nightstand were two framed pictures. One was of Lavender and Diggy, their arms wrapped around each other and wide smiles on each of their faces. Lavender might be forgetful and dreamy, but she loved her daughter with all of her heart. No matter how happy Norhand said she was, Vinnie had a hard time thinking that she was okay with being away from Diggy for this long.

  The other picture frame held a picture of Vinnie and Lavender together. They each had an arm wrapped around the other's waist and they both had their heads thrown back in laughter, totally unaware that their picture was being taken. Vinnie picked it up and touched the picture, gently stroking Lavender's face.

  Warm tears started sliding down her face. She had spent so long trying to push down how much she missed Lavender because she had to be the strong one for Diggy. But besides those horrible summers Lavender had been forced to spend at summer camp, this was the longest they had been apart.

  She looked one more time at the picture of them and promised herself anew that she would get Lavender back with them, no matter what it took. Vinnie set the picture on the nightstand and used her handkerchief to dry her tears. There was one more place she needed to look.

  Dropping to her hands and knees, Vinnie looked under the bed expecting to find nothing but dust bunnies and perhaps a moldy piece of food. But she was surprised to find a small shoebox. The top only had a small amount of dust on it, so it couldn't have been there long.

  Vinnie pulled it out and looked at the outside. There was nothing special about it and it seemed so out of place under Lavender's bed. It was especially out of place because it had come from a pair of Vinnie's sneakers, which Lavender wouldn't be caught dead wearing.

  Opening the lid, Vinnie was surprised to find it empty except for a folded up piece of paper. She pulled it out and slowly unfolded it. She could hardly breathe as she imagined what it was going to say. Vinnie read it and laughed before she read it again. Then she yelled for Diggy.

  The door slammed open and Diggy came rushing in, looking all around for the family wand. Instead, Vinnie held up the note and waved it before she read it out loud to Diggy.

  Lavinia, why do you think that stick is in your nightstand?

  Vinnie couldn't help but start to laugh like a maniac while Diggy stared at her, trying to figure out if that was some weird twin thing that other people wouldn't get.

  "Okay, let me in on the secret," Diggy finally said.

  "First tell me, is the family wand just a stick?" Vinnie asked. "Like literally it just looks like a stick?"

  "Well yeah, what do you think a wand looks like?" Diggy asked.

  "I'm not sure, but I found it in my nightstand drawer the other day and wondered how in the world a stick had gotten in there," Vinnie said. "Well here's the answer: another one of your mother's future flashes. Who knows why she had to hide it, but come here and I'll get it for you."

  Arm in arm, aunt and niece walked to Vinnie's room where she produced the stick that they had torn apart the house looking for from her nightstand drawer where she had spotted it the other night. At least they could cross one thing off of their to-do list.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  "I have bad news," Diggy said as she walked into the kitchen the next morning for breakfast.

  Vinnie set down her teacup and braced for impact. From a teenager, that could mean anything from a pimple to imminent death. She folded her hands in front of her on the table and waited.

  "We have the wand, but we can't use it to do the spell like we have to," Diggy said.

  "What, why not?" Vinnie asked. "I know I'm not magical, but you are. Why can't you just cast it and we can be done with it?"

  "Because it is a family spell, not just a one person spell," Diggy said. "And the way 'family' is interpreted in this case means that at least three people must be present to bind together their magic and cast the spell."

  Vinnie let out a groan as she slid down in her chair. Norhand had to be working against them. There was no other explanation. He knew that they would need three people, so he purposefully took away their third. Plus, Vinnie wasn't even sure she counted.

  "If we found a third person, could we cast it?" Vinnie asked. "I'm not magical, but do I still count?"

  "I think so," Diggy said. "There were no specifications about being magical, but they were very specific about everyone being from the same ancestral family."

  Well that was it, the end of their Halloween Helper career. They were the last of the Daggerwood lineage. There weren't any sort of extended family left like third cousins or great-great aunts that they could search out to help them. The only reason they had gotten this job was because they had been literally the only option.

  Vinnie sighed and stood up to make breakfast. As she wearily took the ingredients for omelets out, Diggy shuffled up next to her and held up her fingers in a snap position. Vinnie nodded and Diggy snapped, letting her magic cook up two perfectly cooked omelets while the witches nursed their morning tea.

  They had gone from the highest of highs when they found where Lavender had hidden the wand to the lowest of lows when they realized they couldn't use it. Did that mean they wouldn't get Lavender back? Norhand had said they would only get it back if they solved all four puzzles and they had only solved one and a half. That was a failing grade.

  Vinnie tried to focus on the sunrise that was peeking through the kitchen window and not on wondering what would happen to Lavender. There had to be a way to cast this spell together. They just needed a third witch. But where could they get another witch? Then, it dawned on her.

  "Diggy, did your research say that the witches all had to be originally from the same ancestral family?" Vinnie asked.

  "What?" Diggy asked.

  Vinnie knew she wasn't making much sense, but she wasn't sure how to explain her idea. She decided to start from the beginning.

  "So when we were investigating the murder at the coven, I remember learning about how before covens were a big thing, non-ancestral witches could only really practice magic if they were adopted by an ancestral family," Vinnie said. "What if we adopted a witch?"

  "Like a baby?" Diggy said with a screech. "I am not going to deal with a baby and I am certainly not going to change nasty diapers."

  "No, not like a baby," Vinnie said even though she would have loved to have another baby around the house. "I meant like a coven witch who could join our family solely for spell casting purposes. Maybe a witch that we have helped significantly in the past?"

  Diggy's eyes lit up as she suddenly realized what Vinnie was talking about.

  "Thistle!" she squealed. "She did tell us that she would help us out if we needed her."

  "And I would say this is a situation where we need her, wouldn't you?" Vinnie asked. "Let's send her a note."

  Even though their omelets were done, Vinnie and Diggy just had to write the note first. After a few rough starts, they finally were able to make the note say what they needed without rambling on for pages. Vinnie read it over one more time.

  Thistle,

  Remember when you offered your help if we needed it? Well we are in desperate need. Please read the entire note before you respond.

  We have to solve four puzzles in order to get Lavender back and we are in the middle of the second one. We are in a situation where we must use our family wand to cast a spell in order to get the next puzzle to solve, but the problem is that we only have two people and
we need three to cast the spell.

  If it is not too weird, we were wondering if we could adopt you into our family so that you could assist us in casting the spell? We are desperate!

  Thank you for your consideration,

  Vinnie and Diggy

  There wasn't really any other way to explain the situation, so they sealed up the letter and Diggy sent it by magic. Hopefully Thistle would respond in a timely manner.

  "I never really asked, but what spell do we need to cast?" Vinnie asked.

  "Really any spell, the intensity will just be magnified three times," Diggy said.

  She pulled her plate towards her and cut into her omelet. Vinnie grabbed her plate and cut into hers too, a little sad that she had ignored the delicious breakfast while she drafted the note, but a plate of cold eggs would just be their burden to bear. Surprisingly, the omelet was still warm and judging by the smile on Diggy's face, she had used a little magic to make them like that.

  All through breakfast, any little sound would make both witches jump, whipping their heads around as they looked for a letter to be magically delivered. But even though they took their time to eat their omelets, no letter appeared. Vinnie tried not to take that as a bad sign; maybe Thistle just needed more time to think about it.

  At one point, Vinnie had the horrible thought that maybe the problem was being adopted into their family meant she couldn't be in her coven anymore. And she had just been made the leader of her coven, so she wasn't just going to abandon it. Sweet Thistle was probably taking time to draft a letter back that wouldn't absolutely shatter their hopes and dreams.

  "So what is our plan for the day?" Diggy asked once both of their breakfast plates were empty.