by Linnea West
Diggy jumped out of her chair and wrung her hands. Vinnie grabbed her and pulled her in for a quick hug. Holding her by the shoulders, she touched her forehead to Diggy’s and spoke quietly, trying to calm the girl’s nerves.
“Then you go home and focus on brewing the potion,” Vinnie said. “I will stay here and keep investigating. Have you brewed the base potion before?”
“Only with Mom,” Diggy said, her eyes growing wide. “What if I can’t do it?”
“I know that you can,” Vinnie said. “You are an incredibly capable witch when you put your mind to it.”
Diggy took a deep breath and retrieved the potion book from Thistle, who whispered a few helpful tips to her. Vinnie took the book and made a quick note of what the recipe for the Stone Cold potion actually said so that she had the information, while Diggy left a communication coin with her to signal the girl when or if she needed her. Once everything was set, Diggy tucked the potion book under her arm, waved goodbye to Vinnie and Thistle, and touched the travel orb, zooming away back home.
“Is brewing a base potion hard?” Vinnie asked.
“No,” Thistle said hesitantly. “I wouldn’t say it is hard, but it is intentionally made to be a bit touchy so that it stays a secret for each family. If she follows the directions exactly, she should be able to make it.”
So the fate of Lavender rested in the hands of whether or not Diggy could follow directions. And now Vinnie was alone to finish solving this murder. Thistle would be taken to jail soon. They didn’t have much time.
Chapter Twenty
Vinnie put her head in her hands and closed her eyes, trying to take some time to think. There had to be something she was missing. But what was it? Was there something physical she should look for? Or did she just have to piece some things together?
Her eyes shot open. For some reason, she felt like she had to go to the kitchen again. She had been focusing on the potion room, but maybe the kitchen would hold some sort of clue. After all, that was where the potion had actually been put on the food.
Once she had worked her way through the maze to the hidden kitchen, Vinnie took a look around the room. Everything looked just as it had the last time she was here. She made her way over to the cabinet where the spices and herbs were kept.
Opening it up, all of the blue bottles were lined up in neat rows. Nothing looked out of place or odd in any way. All of the ingredients the potion needed looked full, which made sense because they knew the potion had been made in the potion room. Vinnie was going to check there next.
As she turned around to leave, the sight of someone who sneaked up on her made her jump. Ivy was standing silently in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest.
“What are you doing here?” she said with a scowl. “You already looked around in here once.”
“The investigation is not over yet,” Vinnie said, trying to sound authoritative and sure of herself, not nervous like she felt on the inside. “Don’t worry, I didn’t disturb anything. I was just leaving anyway.”
Vinnie walked toward the doorway, but Ivy still stood in it, glaring. Vinnie stopped short and stood up straight, trying to make herself look big and confident. She had read somewhere to do that if she ever came across an aggressive animal in the woods, but she was hoping that it worked for angry witches also.
“You’d better pick a coven leader soon,” Ivy said. “The witches are growing restless.”
“I’m working on it,” Vinnie said, trying not to sound annoyed. They just wouldn’t stop pestering her about it.
“Before Plant died, she had discussed making me her successor,” Ivy said. “You should keep that in mind. I was practically her second in command. And then maybe I could get out of this kitchen for once and do something useful.”
“I thought you liked cooking,” Vinnie said, remembering Thistle’s story about wanting to be the cook but not being able to because Ivy already had that position.
Ivy shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She looked like she was weighing in her mind whether to keep talking to Vinnie or not.
“In the mortal world, I’m a world class chef,” Ivy said. “And I’m very proud of that, but it doesn’t mean I want to cook here too. When I started in the coven kitchen, I was young and needed to practice my cooking. I don’t need that anymore but I’m still trapped here.”
“Can’t you just ask to leave and have a different job?” Vinnie asked, feeling totally unprepared for dealing with covens. Even though she had read that book, it had not talked much about jobs within the coven.
“I tried that but Plant wouldn’t let me,” Ivy said. “She liked to keep control over people because it gave her power. She had decided I was the cook, so I was going to stay the cook. Besides, she enjoyed my cooking and didn’t want to have to give that up.”
Vinnie nodded, not sure what else to say. She was sure of one thing, though. She was glad she had never met Plant because Plant sounded like a nasty piece of work.
“Well I’m sorry about that and no matter how things turn out, I hope you are able to escape the kitchen and find happiness,” Vinnie said. “For now, I need to continue my investigation.”
Ivy nodded and stepped out of the doorway, letting Vinnie walk out towards the hallway. Once she was next to Ivy, Vinnie stopped to ask one more question.
“Last thing, I get the sense that the kitchen isn’t exactly a popular area to hang out?” Vinnie asked.
“No, I’m usually the only one who steps foot in here until the night of the meeting and then whoever is working as the servers very reluctantly traipse back here to help. The solitude is the one thing I like about this place.”
Vinnie nodded and continued her exit. Once she was safely out of the kitchen, Vinnie turned and looked once more at the kitchen. Ivy was still just staring at her from the doorway. Vinnie almost waved at her, but then thought better of it. A Halloween Helper had to be professional. Instead, she just turned and scurried off down the hallway and through the dining room, making her way once again to the potion room.
The potion room still looked the same and Vinnie was glad she had kept it bigger the last time she came in. It confirmed that no one else really used this room if no one had come by and returned it to the normal, closet size that it was supposed to be when not in use.
A fire crackled in the fireplace and Vinnie took a seat on one of the stools at the table in the middle of the room. The book was still missing and the table was empty. It almost looked a little sad. Vinnie always made sure that her kitchen was cozy, but the potion room felt almost empty right now because of the bare tabletop.
After a moment to look in the fire and contemplate her next move, Vinnie realized that she should check the ingredients in this room also. All of the spices and herbs here were in green bottles instead of the blue bottles that were used in the kitchen. As she poked through them, trying hard not to disturb them too much or knock anything down onto the stone floor, one bottle jumped out at her.
Picking it up, Vinnie could immediately see why. This bottle was blue. It belonged in the kitchen, so what was it doing in the potion room? Checking the label, she confirmed that it was crushed limestone, one of the ingredients needed for the potion.
She set it on the table and started looking through the rest of the bottles until she found the green bottle of crushed limestone. It was empty. So whoever had made the Stone Cold potion had discovered one of the bottles was empty and went to the kitchen to get some to use.
Who would have done that? Would Thistle have possibly done that on a different day and forgotten? Or was the suspect someone who had entered two odd areas in one day to commit this murder?
Once more, Vinnie headed back to Thistle to confront her with another clue. This time, Vinnie wasn’t sure if this clue pointed to Thistle as the suspect or not. The more things they discovered, the more confusing this situation became.
Vinnie pushed open the door to the room but when she walked in, she found herself alo
ne. Scanning the room, Thistle was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t like there were many places to hide. The bathroom attached to the room was tiny and a quick look showed that it was empty. Under the bed maybe? Vinnie dropped to the floor and peered under the bed, feeling a bit ridiculous like she was playing hide and go seek with an adult.
But the area was clear. There was nowhere else to go. All of the dressers and things were certainly not big enough to hide in. And Thistle was supposedly under room arrest, which meant that she could only do very limited magic and she shouldn’t be able to step foot out the door unless she was with someone else.
This didn’t bode well for Vinnie or Thistle. Vinnie’s first Halloween Helper case and she accidentally let the main suspect go free, even if she wasn’t exactly sure how she had done it. And a murder suspect didn’t just disappear if they had nothing to hide. It wasn’t looking good for Thistle at this point.
Chapter Twenty-One
“So why did I have to come get you?” Diggy asked as Vinnie once again picked herself up off of the entryway floor. She really needed to get a thicker carpet on the floor if they were going to keep traveling back and forth so much.
After discovering that Thistle was gone, Vinnie had used her Communication Coin to call Diggy and the travel orb back to her. She didn’t want to explain in the coven headquarters, so she had insisted Diggy get them home first. A steady rain was pounding on the window of the entryway, which just served to set the scene of woe.
“Thistle is missing!” Vinnie squealed as she rubbed her hip. A bruise was blooming there and she was not ready to keep her cool about anything that was going on. “I went to investigate and when I came back to her room, she was gone. I checked everywhere but I have no idea what happened to her.”
“Did you ask some of the other witches where she was?” Diggy asked.
“And alert them to the fact that I’m not only non-magical, but also a completely incompetent Halloween Helper and I’ve lost the main murder suspect just as I found another clue that may or may not point to her?” Vinnie screeched. “No, I figured that might doom us to a terrible fate.”
“Show me the clue and we’ll go from there,” Diggy said.
Vinnie dug the bottle out of her pocket, which thankfully had been on the side she had not landed on. She explained the colors of the bottles and that the kitchen one had replaced the empty bottle from the potion room.
“Thistle had been in the kitchen that day as the server,” Vinnie said. “And she may have taken it to use in the potion, thinking she could sneak it back into the kitchen at a later time. She’s the only one that uses the potion room, so no one would have noticed a kitchen bottle in there but her.”
Diggy was standing absolutely still, but her eyes were flicking all around the room as she took in the information. Vinnie noticed that her sweater was the right way around now and wondered when Diggy had figured it out.
“So, Thistle was the murderer all along,” Diggy said under her breath. “I was actually starting to look up to her. Just my luck that I pick the murderer to be my mentor.”
“Well you’re in good company because I let that murderer get away,” Vinnie said.
A crack of lightning sounded behind them and the women turned to see Norhand standing behind them. He was dressed in long robes again and had a smug look on his face. It was the same expression he was wearing in the picture Vinnie had found.
“What’s that I heard?” Norhand asked. “Did you say that you let the murderer get away? Tsk tsk, that is not a good sign that you’ll get your sister back.”
Diggy’s eyes narrowed and Vinnie stepped towards her, ready to physically restrain her if she suddenly lunged at Norhand. Not that she wanted to protect Norhand, but she did need to protect their livelihood which was in Norhand’s hands.
“No, that isn’t what I said,” Vinnie said, trying to think fast. She hated to lie, but she wasn’t sure what else to do in this situation. “I said that I knew who did it and I wasn’t going to let her get away.”
Diggy shot a look at Vinnie, who tried to surreptitiously send her one back. They would just have to find Thistle once Norhand left so that what she said wasn’t a lie. At this point, she just added it to the list of things they needed to worry about. She would prioritize all of those impossible tasks later.
“Oh that’s good,” Norhand said. “I would hate for you sister to have to stay in the Magic Universe with me. Just think if you never got to see her ever again. Tragic.”
A sneer curled up his face as Vinnie wondered exactly what he was thinking. Vinnie hoped she could get through the next few minutes without slugging him in the face, but she was even more concerned with Diggy’s clenched fists and heavy breathing right now.
“Well I just stopped by to see how you were doing and assure you that Lavender is having a great time with me,” Norhand said with a wink. He turned to leave before he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “By the way, your suspect is still that same tragic, coven witch who was shunned to the potion room, right?”
The hair stood up on Vinnie’s neck. She wasn’t sure why, but this felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back for her. Picking on Lavender was bad enough, but now bringing Thistle into it in such a mean way was just too much. Vinnie opened her mouth to start tearing into Norhand when Diggy jumped in first.
“Yeah, it’s her,” Diggy said. “Now if you’ll leave, we are still working hard on this case. We aren’t done yet you know.”
“That’s right, you aren’t done yet,” Norhand said. “And I can’t leave yet. Silly me! Would you mind terribly making me a cup of tea and then I can tell you what I came to say. Non-magical people can still make tea, right?”
Vinnie started pushing up her sleeve. She usually practiced peace and she’d never hit someone before in her life, but there was a first time for everything.
“Of course she can,” Diggy said, grabbing Vinnie by the arms and shoving her towards the kitchen. “But I’ll go with her just in case she forgets. Have a seat please.”
Vinnie let Diggy steer her into the kitchen, plopping her on a stool before heading over to put the kettle over the fire. She gratefully watched her niece start to make tea the mortal way, noting how nice it was that someone magical could do things the mortal way sometimes and ignoring the fact that maybe Diggy just didn’t know how to do it the magical way yet.
Diggy sat on the stool next to Vinnie, who could sense that she was feeling uneasy. She fiddled with the mugs she had gotten down. Vinnie had been planning on showing her the picture that had fallen out of the potion book, but this was definitely not the time.
“What’s wrong?” Vinnie asked. “Besides the obvious, I mean.”
“You just got really upset at Norhand,” Diggy said quietly. “I’ve never seen you get mad like that before. Normally you are so even keeled. It kind of made it seem like maybe things weren’t going well.”
Diggy’s words hit Vinnie in the heart like a knife. She was right, of course, and Vinnie knew that. Vinnie had always been the down to earth, dependable one that Diggy could turn to when Lavender was too busy floating up in the clouds. If she couldn’t keep her cool, who was going to be there to help Diggy through what was the hardest thing she’d faced so far in her young life? Vinnie made a vow to herself to work harder on controlling her own emotions although honestly, this was probably the toughest thing she had faced in her life also.
“I’m sorry Diggy, this has just been a lot for me to deal with,” Vinnie said. “Between the murder, picking a coven leader, and having to do it all without your mother, I have had a lot set squarely on my shoulders and I’m not used to that. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve somehow managed to lose the main suspect.”
“I know it’s a lot,” Diggy said. “I’m sorry you have to deal with me too.”
“Deal with you?” Vinnie said. “You’ve been such an extraordinary help that I kind of forget you’re so young and just in training. I appreciate you more now than
I ever have because suddenly you aren’t a kid I have to make sure to look out for, you are an adult I can rely on to help me when I need it.”
Diggy’s face lit up, looking happier than she had looked for a while which was a long time considering she was firmly in her sullen teenage years. At that point, the sound of the teapot exploded into the air like a train whistle, breaking through all of the good feelings and love to alert them to come remove it from heat.
Vinnie jumped out of her seat and rushed to the tea kettle, forgetting to grab anything to cushion the hot handle of the kettle. Turning around, Diggy tossed a pair of pot holders to her that she easily caught. Apparently it just took a cup of tea to make them work like a team again.
After pouring the water over the tea bags, Vinnie put the kettle down while Diggy put two of the tea cups on a tray with a pitcher of milk from the fridge and a little bowl of sugar cubes.
The two pieces were a matching set that Vinnie had found at the second hand store in Danner. Back before they were Halloween Helpers, Vinnie didn’t have much to do with her time. After she cleaned up and did the laundry, she was left with ample spare time. She filled much of it with handicrafts and walks in the woods, but after awhile she just had to get away from home. The shop in town was called the New to You Boutique and while it sounded a bit chic, it was more like the knick-knack type of second hand shop which made Vinnie love it all the more. She loved filling their not so cozy mansion with ceramic statues of ducks in bonnets and dishes with teddy bears on them.
“We need to get back to Norhand,” Diggy said.
Before Diggy could pick up her tea cup, Vinnie gave her a big hug. No matter what, they couldn’t let these cases or the anxiety they were feeling get in the way of their relationship.
Vinnie grabbed the tray while Diggy grabbed her own tea cup and the door. They walked back out to the entryway where Norhand had taken it upon himself to make a living room set appear. Apparently their mortal furniture wasn’t good enough for him. Vinnie set the tray down on the new table and made herself comfortable in one of the chairs. Unlike most tea parties she attended, Vinnie was not looking forward to this one.