Skull Screw Up: A Halloween Helper's Cozy Mystery

by Linnea West

  "Back on that murder investigation while we wait to hear from Thistle," Vinnie said. "I'd like to go search Bram's apartment. I thought we could use the Magical Impression Sensor to just take a looksie and see if anyone was there who shouldn't have been. I have a feeling that maybe some uninvited guests have made their way inside to search for that skull."

  "It seems so stupid," Diggy said. "That skull is causing so much chaos."

  "It is stupid," Vinnie said. "I mean, I think it is unfair for us to cast judgment since we are also immortal beings who age like ten times slower than mortals, but what a lot of trouble just for outward beauty."

  "For how beautiful they all are, they sure are ugly on the inside," Diggy said.

  Vinnie nodded, glad to hear such wise words from her niece. This was one of those times where she didn't worry about the future for Diggy because she seemed to have her priorities straight, even if they did get a little muddled occasionally. Didn't they always for teenagers?

  "That's the only thing I can think of that we haven't already done," Vinnie said. "Honestly, I feel like I'm starting to hit a dead end."

  "What do you think would happen to us if we couldn't solve this murder?" Diggy asked. "Would we get fired?"

  "I don't think we really can be fired," Vinnie said. "But technically we were called in to find a skull and the murder thing only happened after. Even if we can't solve the murder, as long as we find the skull, we have completed the case."

  "But we haven't done that either," Diggy pointed out.

  The sarcastic tone of her voice grated like nails on a chalkboard to Vinnie, but she chose to take a deep breath and once again, ignore the sass. Diggy had enough to deal with. She didn't need her aunt chastising her on her tone.

  "That will be item number two on our list today," Vinnie said. "First, search Bram's apartment, second, find the skull."

  "Third, drop everything if Thistle answers us," Diggy said.

  That sounded about right.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Before they opened the door to Bram's apartment, Vinnie made Diggy stop. Judging by the hopeful look on the girl's face, she needed to warn her that they might not find anything at all in there.

  "Before we go in, I just wanted to say that even if we don't find the skull in here or any clues, I still think it is worth it," Vinnie said. "Because I have a feeling that we won't really find much. Maybe that is just me being negative, but I feel like we have been let down so much during this investigation. Every time we think we find a clue and have it solved, it turns out we don't."

  "Well I'm going to be positive and say that we find something that will totally turn the tides on our investigation," Diggy said with a smile. "But, of course, I recognize that there is definitely a possibility that this will be yet another dead end."

  They opened the door and walked into Bram's apartment, which seemed to be a bit more "maximalist" than Tucker's sparse apartment, but a bit less college bachelor pad than Wayne's apartment had been. It looked like the living room from a generic family sitcom. Either way, it should be easy enough to search because there weren't that many places to look. Vinnie was honestly starting to wonder if somehow Bram could have made the skull invisible. Was that a skill a vampire might have?

  The two witches searched around, doing the ceiling to floor search that Vinnie liked, much to Diggy's dismay. She seemed to prefer a wall to wall search instead. Either way, they searched all over, once again marveling at how clean the floor under the living room furniture was.

  "Nothing," Diggy said.

  "Nope, nothing," Vinnie said.

  "Well, there's always the bedroom," Diggy said. Her voice was hopeful. "Maybe we will find something in there?"

  "It's worth a shot," Vinnie said.

  Diggy stood up and put her hand out to help Vinnie. Grasping her niece's hand, she was sort of grateful for the help to get up off of the floor. She didn't like to admit it, but even though witches didn't age that fast, she felt like she was getting old.

  The bedroom was the same blah sort of style that the living room was. It sort of surprised Vinnie because she thought Bram would have been a bit more luxurious in his decorating style. But once she thought of it, it seemed to be a lot like his relationship with Francine. Only he and Francine really knew what his apartment looked like. He didn't need to impress anyone there whereas all of the public rooms were luxurious. He just needed to be showy and flashy when he was out in public.

  Vinnie and Diggy looked everywhere that they could think of in the bedroom, but the skull still wasn't in there. Even though Vinnie had been going into this entire search with a negative attitude, she had still had a glimmer of hope that they would find something. Instead, this bedroom seemed as impersonal as a hotel room. It was like Bram hung up his clothes and slept here, but otherwise didn't come in.

  Then, a thought hit Vinnie. If she was going to hide something, she would hide it somewhere that she cared about and spent a lot of time. Even though she would probably hide something in her library, of course Bram wouldn't hide it in the library he didn't even care enough about to buy real books for. He also wouldn't keep it in the apartment he didn't seem to hardly step foot in.

  "I have an idea," Diggy said. "Why don't we use the Magical Impression Sensor to look around in here too. Maybe someone else paid Bram a visit that we should know about."

  Vinnie dug the helmet out of the bag and handed it to Diggy. She put it on and fired it up, strapping the strap underneath her chin. She stood up and walked to the front door, sweeping the area with her eyes. As she walked through the small apartment, Vinnie could tell something wasn't quite right. She let the girl finish her walk and come back to her.

  "I don't get it, I set it to just see vampire impressions, but I am seeing flecks of orange," Diggy said. "I shouldn't' see my own impression if it is set to just vampire."

  "Let's try again," Vinnie said. "Why don't you check everything and then I'll wear it and tell you what I see."

  Diggy fiddled with the helmet a little more before handing it to Vinnie. Putting it on, Vinnie saw the same as Diggy, flecks of orange and lots of black flecks. Obviously the black must be Bram, which would explain why they couldn't see his magical impression in the pitch black ceremony room.

  "You're right, I'm seeing a lot of orange," Vinnie said. "Maybe switch it back so that I can see all magical impressions, like vampires and witches."

  Vinnie knelt down and held onto the helmet with both hands while Diggy fiddled with it. Finally, Diggy tapped twice on the helmet and Vinnie stood back up.

  "I fixed a few things," Diggy said. "Now it is set to all kinds of paranormal creatures. What do you see?"

  Turning in a small circle, Vinnie still saw the same thing: a lot of black and some flecks of orange here and there. She almost didn't want to tell Diggy because Diggy had worked so hard on the helmet. And not that Vinnie wanted to doubt her niece, but if it was getting it wrong here, maybe it had gotten it wrong down in the ceremony room also.

  "I still see both colors," Vinnie said. "I see Bram's black flecks and your orange ones."

  "Darn it," Diggy said, stamping her foot on the ground.

  "I have one more idea," Vinnie said. "Turn it back to just vampire and I'll make sure it still has the same colors."

  Once more, Vinnie knelt down and Diggy tuned it up again, this time only taking a few seconds to do whatever it was she did to switch the sensor over. Feeling Diggy's tap one the helmet, Vinnie stood up once more.

  It was still the same: black and orange. And while usually that combination of colors made Vinnie feel all sorts of happy because it reminded her of Halloween, in this instance it was definitely not the colors she wanted to see. She turned to face Diggy, whose youthful face was full of hope that was about to come crashing down. Vinnie slowly unbuckled the helmet and took it off before she could tell Diggy what she had seen.

  "It was still black and orange," Vinnie said.

  "I don't know what I did wrong,
" Diggy said.

  She looked upset and for a moment, Vinnie wondered if Diggy was about to cry. But Diggy gently took the Magical Impression Sensor out of Vinnie's hands and slowly turned it around, looking at it from all sides and angles as if she might find the piece that was out of place. Instead, she slowly packed it back into the bag.

  "I guess I just didn't do it right," Diggy said. "Here I thought I was so clever and I had really managed to tweak it. But I'm just stupid. When Mom comes back, she'll have to fix it because I probably just ruined it."

  Vinnie wondered if she should comfort the girl, but Diggy didn't seem sad. Diggy seemed more like she was angry at herself and if Vinnie tried to comfort her, she would just be pushed away. Instead, Vinnie just helped her put the sensor back in the bag.

  Together, they walked out of the apartment and shut the door, heading back to the entrance hall. Vinnie snuck a look at her niece's face. Diggy was scowling and looking at the floor as they headed downstairs. She seemed to be muttering to herself and Vinnie's heart broke as she caught a few of the words.

  "So stupid...I'll never be good at magic," Diggy was saying to herself. "I probably broke it."

  Once they got to the entrance hall, Vinnie grabbed Diggy by the elbow and practically dragged her to the library, shutting the door behind them and forcing her niece to sit in one of the comfortable armchairs.

  "You listen to me," Vinnie said. "I don't ever want to hear you talking that negative self-talk ever again. So what you made might not work. So what? Then go back, try again, and make it work. In this family, we do not let things like this bring us down. When life knocks us down, we help each other back up and we try again. This is me, helping you back up to try again."

  Diggy sat absolutely still in the chair, her eyes wide like she couldn't decide if her aunt had finally succumbed to madness or if this tirade was somehow normal. Vinnie took that as a sign that she was doing something right and continued on.

  "I get it, life has taken a sudden left turn on us this month," Vinnie said. "But it was bound to do that. You've had a pretty charmed life, but take it from me: life can really suck and it can make you feel like the scum of the earth. I tried for years to use magic and it took me almost a decade to accept that I couldn't. In fact, let me share my deepest darkest secret with you: sometimes I still try to do magic. Because I'm supposed to be able to do it and for some reason that has nothing to do with me, I just can't."

  Vinnie could feel hot tears running down her face. Diggy's face had softened and she seemed to be trying to decide how to respond, but Vinnie wasn't quite done yet.

  "The most we can do is to pivot," Vinnie said. "I can't do magic, but I can contribute other things to our household and to our job as the Halloween Helpers. You mother wasn't planning on being a mom, but when it happened, we pivoted and our lives got so much better with you in it."

  Taking a breath, Vinnie sat down on the ottoman in front of Diggy's chair. She took the girl's two hands in hers, feeling the soft, thin hands tremble in her work-worn ones.

  "This mistake was not life-altering," Vinnie said. "If anything, it was life-building. Take what you've learned and grow from it. Pivot to try the next thing. I am here for you and soon enough, your mother will be here to support you too."

  Diggy collapsed into Vinnie's arms and for a while, the two witches cried tears of sadness and loss into each other's hair, one for her mother and the other for her sister, until they were strong enough to stand back up and keep going.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Once the two women broke away from their hug, they noticed a piece of paper floating in midair. It was addressed to both of them and they wondered how long it had been there. Vinnie was a little embarrassed that she let her emotions take over her so much, but hopefully that helped Diggy.

  Diggy grabbed the piece of paper and opened it up, reading it to herself before she let out a squeal. The girl walked over and plopped back down on the armchair, handing the paper to Vinnie.

  Vinnie and Diggy,

  Of course I will help you. Your help was invaluable to me in my time of need and I want to offer you the same. I looked into how that works and apparently I can be both in the coven and adopted into an ancestral family, so no worries about that.

  I will be arriving as soon as I can and I will meet you at your house. Make sure you know exactly what we need to do for Norhand. That man gives me the creeps, so the less time I am around him, the better.

  Thistle

  P.S. Now that I'm part of the family, I'll be expecting a birthday present each year. Haha

  Vinnie read the note twice all the way through. Thistle was going to come through for them and be the third person they needed for the spell. She had figured that the coven witch would agree, as long as it didn't threaten her status as the coven leader, but having the letter saying so was a giant relief.

  "We should get back home," Diggy said. "Thistle could be there right now since we don't know exactly when that letter came."

  "You're right," Vinnie said. "Let's pack up and head out for now."

  The two witches grabbed their things and walked to the entrance hall for another wild trip home. Well Vinnie's trips were always wild. She would pop out the other side with the travel orb looking like she'd just flown a broom through a hurricane but Diggy always looked like she had just come back from a refreshing forest walk. How their experiences could be so different was baffling to Vinnie. How did the travel orb know she was not magical?

  Thistle had not arrived yet, so Vinnie started to bustle around tidying up. Whenever the Halloween Helpers got a case, Vinnie would neglect the housekeeping more than normal. That meant she didn't keep up with her daily dusting schedule, which this old rickety house needed. The spiders knew they were welcome here and they took full advantage.

  "Go to the kitchen and make up a tea tray," Vinnie said. "I'm going to clean up a little."

  Diggy stared at her for a moment with a confused expression on her face before Vinnie realized that she didn't know what a tea tray was.

  "Let's try this again," Vinnie said. "Go to the kitchen. Make tea. Get some snacks. Put them all on a tray and bring them to the library. Tea tray."

  A smile appeared on Diggy's face and she nodded as she understood what Vinnie wanted. The girl scurried away to the kitchen while Vinnie grabbed her magical duster and went to work on the giant cobwebs. As she pointed the duster to each corner that she wanted dusted, she was trying to ignore the fact that apparently she was ancient and people didn't talk about tea trays anymore.

  After a quick dust of the entrance hall and the library, Vinnie set the robot vacuum to vacuum up the big rug in the entry. She didn't really know how to work it, but Diggy had bought it for her as a Christmas present last year and then set it up so that all she had to do was put it somewhere and turn it on. It made Vinnie a little nervous because what if it ate up the fringe on the end of the rug and then started to eat the rug. She had visions of it growing larger, like a monster vacuum. It may seem silly, but in a magical house, a lot of weird things can and do happen.

  The little vacuum happily ran up and down the rug, seeming like it would stay out of trouble this time, so Vinnie went back to the library. She put a few books away and fluffed the pillows on the chairs. As always, the magical fire was roaring away. Everything seemed to be ready.

  Diggy walked in holding an artfully arranged tea tray that looked like it was out of one of the magazines Vinnie liked to take out of the recycling bin at the New to You Boutique in town. The old ladies who worked at the store liked to read magazines about tea and tea parties and the pictures inside were always wonderful. Vinnie didn't have the artistic quality needed to make her cooking look beautiful, so she would collect a magazine or two each time she went. At first, the old ladies thought she was odd to take them out of the recycling bin, but now Vinnie was pretty sure they would wait to recycle their magazines until they saw Vinnie coming in. Vinnie repaid their favor by bringing them treats each tim
e she stopped by.

  "You haven't seen her yet, right?" Diggy asked as she set the tray down carefully on the coffee table.

  "Not yet, but she said she would be here soon," Vinnie said.

  Diggy kept smoothing out her long, black skirt and primping her hair. Ever since Thistle had helped them with the last clue, Diggy had been enamored with her. Vinnie could understand why. Thistle was a powerful witch who didn't seem to have some of the more negative qualities that Lavender had. Lavender was not a very good teacher and while she had been fine teaching the basics to Diggy, they had come to a point where Lavender was a bit out of sorts when it came to teaching the more advanced things. But Thistle seemed to be a natural born teacher, which was also why she made a great coven leader.

  Vinnie smiled at Diggy's nervousness at once again meeting her idol. It was just another sweet reminder of just how young Diggy actually was. Although Vinnie had to admit that she was also excited to see Thistle again. She already knew that Vinnie wasn't magical and besides family, Thistle was the first witch who had accepted Vinnie the way she was. Not many witches would do that.

  "I'm going to go wait in the entry," Diggy said.

  She walked quickly out of the library, bumping into a chair on the way. Diggy stopped to put it back in the right place, her face starting to turn red from embarrassment. Vinnie made sure not to laugh out loud, even though she really wanted to.

  Vinnie followed her niece out of the library and both were astonished to see Thistle waiting for them in the entry. Wearing a sleek, white dress with small black polka dots and sky high black high heels, her hair was still cut into a short, sleek haircut that suited her role as the leader of a witch coven. Thistle was staring at the vacuum that was still chugging along up and down the rug.

  "I never thought I'd see one of these in a witch's house," Thistle laughed. "I figured they were only for coven witches."

  "So did I," Vinnie said with a laugh. "But we ancestral witches do like to be up with the times sometimes."