Skull Screw Up: A Halloween Helper's Cozy Mystery

by Linnea West

  Thistle glanced at the candelabras attached to the wall and laughed.

  "Hey, those are magical candles," Vinnie said, pretending to be defensive. "We like to stick with traditions too, even if we update them a little. But come on into the library, we have some tea waiting."

  Diggy had been silent during this entire exchange, watching Thistle's every move. She walked over to the library and stood by the door, unsure of whether she should go first or wait for the other witches. Diggy finally seemed to settle for holding the door open, despite the fact that it was already propped open.

  Once everyone was in the library and settled around the tea tray, the witches poured themselves some tea. Vinnie made up little plates of snacks for each of them, which was a job she was going to have Diggy do, but Diggy seemed to be out in outer space still. She must have gotten that trait from her mother.

  "So, have you contacted Norhand yet?" Thistle asked as she poured milk into her tea.

  "Oh no, I hadn't even thought about it," Vinnie said. She had been so preoccupied with everything else going on that it hadn't even crossed her mind.

  "I'll do it, hold on," Diggy said.

  The girl jumped out of her chair and rushed out of the library, once again bumping into the chair on the way out. This time she didn't stop to fix it; she was on a mission.

  "She's such a great girl," Thistle said, jerking her head towards the door as she tried not to upset the very full tea cup in her hands.

  "She really is," Vinnie said. "And it is partially thanks to you. Diggy was just coming to a time in her life where she needed to expand and grow beyond our family and you were the perfect person to step in and help her out. I hope you don't mind me casting you into the role of her mentor."

  "Not at all," Thistle said with a smile. "It's exciting to help young people learn more about their powers. But right now, I'd like to hear about what you are working on."

  "Well there are two things, actually," Vinnie said. "The first is the puzzle that you are here to help us solve and the other is another murder investigation."

  Vinnie set to work explaining everything she could about both of the things they were working on. Diggy walked in during the middle of the spiel and sat down, nervously pouring herself a half cup of tea as her hand shook. She sat on the edge of her chair and listened to Vinnie describing everything they had been through, all of the twists and turns of the case including the Magical Impression Sensor not working. At the end, Thistle's eyes lit up.

  "I know what you can do," she said.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  "Let's do one more test of the helmet," Thistle said. "Before, you only had one witch to test it on so you couldn't really test that aspect of it. But now I'm here. So you should switch it to vampire only and test it on Diggy and I to make sure you can't see either of our magical impressions."

  Vinnie looked at Diggy who was grinning ear to ear. That was a great idea that neither of them had thought of. Perhaps Thistle would be open to taking on a sort of advisory role in their Halloween Helper group, seeing as she was part of the family now.

  "That would be great," Vinnie said. "Diggy, go get the helmet and we will try that out."

  As Diggy ran off, Vinnie leaned towards Thistle and whispered to her. She knew Diggy wouldn't be long, so she tried to make it quick.

  "Diggy tweaked the helmet so that she could see the vampire magical impressions, but it didn't seem to work right," Vinnie said. "She was really bummed about it and I gave her a little pep talk, but if there was anything you could do to convince her that she isn't stupid, I would really appreciate it."

  "Of course," Thistle said with a wink.

  Diggy rushed back in with the bag containing the helmet. She brought it out and showed it again to Thistle, explaining to her everything that she had done to tweak it. Thistle looked like she didn't really understand which made sense since she was well skilled in potions, not magical technology, but she put on an understanding face as Diggy explained it to her.

  "So I switched it to the vampire only view," Diggy said. "So put it on and tell us what you see."

  Vinnie turned so that she wasn't facing Diggy and Thistle. She plopped the helmet on her head and buckled the strap under her chin, hoping for Diggy's sake that somehow this test would either show that the helmet was working fine or that they could fix whatever was wrong with it.

  "Okay, I'm going to turn to look at you guys," Vinnie said.

  She felt the need to dictate everything, like maybe it would make the test more official or something. It was also a good stall tactic because while Diggy was obviously nervous, Vinnie felt just as nervous.

  "Go ahead," Thistle said. "We are ready."

  Vinnie shut her eyes and slowly turned around. Once she was facing Thistle and her niece, she slowly opened her eyes, afraid of what she was going to see. What she might see had the potential to crush Diggy's spirit and that was a lot to take on.

  But through the plexiglass shield, there were no colorful outlines or specks of color floating around. There were just two witches standing before her, one mature and self-assured and the other shaking from nerves. Neither of them were ringed with the orange and purple outlines that Vinnie thought they would have.

  "There's no color," Vinnie yelled.

  She tried to rip the helmet off her head but it was still buckled under her chin. Thistle and Diggy were both staring at her as she struggled with the buckle.

  "What did you say?" Diggy asked.

  "I said there's no color," Vinnie said. "It works and it must have worked this entire time."

  Vinnie finally managed to undo the strap and take the helmet off, sure that she had left some sort of permanent damage on her chin from how hard she tried to wrench the helmet off of her head.

  "That can't be right," Diggy said. "Then how was I seeing my orange specks while we were at the vampire headquarters?"

  The three witches stared at each other for a moment. Vinnie finally sat down and poured three more cups of tea. Thistle followed her lead and divvied up the remaining snacks. If they were going to think through this problem, they would need nourishment.

  Chewing through a few cookies, Vinnie set her mind to the task of figuring out what in the world was going on. But she was drawing a blank. Nothing seemed to make sense. Every once in a while, Diggy would open her mouth to say something before muttering 'never mind' and continuing on. Finally, Thistle came to their rescue once again.

  "I've got it!" she said. "Well, I think I do. I'm not entirely sure, but I do have an idea of maybe what is going on."

  "So spill," Diggy said, just about falling off of the edge of her chair in anticipation.

  "I believe you when you said that you saw orange specks," Thistle said. "But what if you were just seeing a vampire's orange specks. There aren't that many colors in the world and it was bound to happen at some point that someone else would have orange assigned to their magical impression."

  "Can that happen?" Vinnie asked, turning to Diggy.

  The girl sat dumbfounded for a moment while she thought through the conundrum. Vinnie and Thistle kept quiet, sipping their tea and waiting for Diggy to say something. The girl seemed to deflate a bit before she finally spoke.

  "I don't know, but I guess so," Diggy said with a shrug. "I didn't invent the object, I just tried to make it better."

  "Let's take it to the vampire headquarters, gather them all, and find out," Thistle said.

  Her eyes were sparkling and while Vinnie admired her spirit of adventure, she suddenly felt very unsure. She wasn't sure if she or Diggy could take another blow. If this theory turned out to be incorrect, they really didn't have any other options with this case.

  "Let's do it," Diggy said. "To the travel orb!"

  The girl stuffed the helmet in the sack and lead the charge through the doors and back to the entrance hall where the green travel orb was levitating, just waiting for them to need to use it again. The three witches put their hands on it and were su
cked through time and space to the vampire headquarters.

  Vinnie had braced herself for her usual fall, but instead she only tipped sideways a bit. Thistle had a firm hold of her elbow and was counter balancing her. Once Vinnie found her feet again, she thanked Thistle for her help.

  "No worries," Thistle said with a wink. "I remember your little problems with the travel orb from all of the times you crash landed at the coven headquarters. Now, where do we go from here?"

  Diggy took charge and all three of them walked to the library where Diggy delighted in showing Thistle the empty books while Vinnie left to try and figure out how to gather all of the vampires. The entrance hall seemed to be empty as Vinnie walked through, but passing a pillar, Tucker suddenly seemed to appear from the other side of it. Vinnie jumped back, stopping herself just in time from letting out a blood curdling scream.

  "Whoa, someone is a little antsy," Tucker said. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

  Vinnie wanted to ring his neck and remind him that usually having a vampire pop out of the shadows was incredibly frightening, but she settled for just asking for help.

  "Actually, there is," Vinnie said. "We need all of the vampires to gather in the library."

  "For what?" Tucker asked.

  "We have one more test to run and then hopefully we will be able to tell you all who killed Bram and where the skull is," Vinnie said. "But it is very important that we have all of the vampires come to the library."

  "Sure thing," Tucker said.

  He sauntered off and up the stairs to the apartments while Vinnie headed back to the library. They needed to make sure that they did this right or else it might not work. They had to be able to tell who gave off an orange magical impression without tipping the killer off. If the killer thought the witches had figured them out, they might try to leave or worse, attack.

  Vinnie had just enough time to tell Diggy and Thistle that all of the vampires would be coming before they started to trickle in. None of them looked very happy to be there and Vinnie couldn't really blame them. It had been several days and their leader was dead, his killer was unknown, and the ancient artifact that had gone missing was still missing. But hopefully, this would be the beginning to the end. At least, Vinnie hoped it would be.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Vinnie couldn't remember exactly how many vampires lived in this place, but once most of them seemed to be there, she thought they could at least start the test. Tucker still had not come in, so Vinnie figured there must still be a few vampires out there that he was bringing towards the library.

  The plan was that Diggy would put on the helmet while Vinnie explained in great detail everything they knew about the case this far. If she could speak about it slowly enough and really draw out the details, it would allow Diggy to get a really good look at everyone's impressions and find whoever was the same orange that she was.

  "Hello everyone," Vinnie said with a smile. "I'm so glad you've all been able to join us here."

  "We're still trapped here," a vampire named Claudia said. "Did you forget that the magical shield was still around our house?"

  "No, I didn't," Vinnie said even though she totally had forgotten about that. She made a mental note to make sure that was lifted the instant they caught the killer. "Either way, we needed to gather you all here for some very important announcements."

  Before she could continue on, a boy who appeared to be a teenager raised his hand. Vinnie tripped over her words. She hadn't planned on taking any questions, but she may as well. It would help draw things out a little longer.

  "Yes, you," she said, pointing to the freckled boy with the shaggy brown hair.

  "My name is Dylan," the boy said. "I was just wondering why that girl is wearing that weird helmet on her head?"

  Vinnie looked at Diggy, whose face was bright red even from behind the plexiglass. Diggy's eyes were shooting from side to side and Vinnie assumed she was looking for somewhere to hide. Maybe having her wear the helmet wasn't the best idea after all.

  "That is a very important piece of magical equipment, young man," Vinnie said, trying to sound stern. "My niece Indigo is doing very important work with it. It is, after all, very important."

  "Yeah, I got that idea," Dylan said, rolling his eyes.

  Vinnie shot another look at Diggy, who was looking slightly less red, but still just as embarrassed. At least this time she seemed to be embarrassed of her aunt rather than the helmet she was kind of being forced to wear. Vinnie turned back to face the crowd.

  "Now, pay no attention to her and her helmet," Vinnie said. "I am going to tell you everything we know so far and maybe someone out there will be able to help us."

  A few of the vampires seemed to perk up, almost like they were excited to hear all of the gory details. Vinnie felt like she sort of wanted to judge them, but then she remembered that it was the same sort of thing as enjoying crime shows like she did. Bram hadn't been a well-liked man and since none of them had good feelings towards him, the details of his murder weren't as hard to stomach.

  But they were soon disappointed when Vinnie drug on and on, detailing every last thing they had done, even the details that the vampires already knew. Vinnie tried to make it interesting, but by the end of the first day's details, most of the vampires had totally zoned out. Every once in a while, another vampire would walk in to find a seat, but Tucker still didn't come.

  Wrapping up the first day of details, Vinnie paused and glanced at Diggy. Giving a small shake of her head, Vinnie assumed she meant that no one here gave off an orange glow. At least, no one did yet. Tucker was still not here and Vinnie had to assume that he would come when all of the other vampires had been rounded up. If he wasn't here, there were still other vampires missing.

  Vinnie launched into the second day of details. She tried to make it as interesting as possible, but of course when she was telling them what they did minute by minute, it was hard for most of them to continue paying attention.

  A few more vampire stragglers came in and Vinnie knew they had to be coming to the end. There couldn't possibly be that many more vampires who lived in this house, no matter how big it was. Vinnie decided she needed a break to regroup.

  "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I need a drink of water," Vinnie said. "Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I have a drink."

  The crowd stared at Vinnie for a moment before they started murmuring to each other. Most of them looked annoyed, so Vinnie could only imagine that they were probably calling her all sorts of names and she didn't really blame them. She turned her back to the audience and took a few steps towards Thistle and Diggy.

  "Nothing yet?" she asked.

  Diggy shook her head, the helmet wiggling back and forth before she put her head up to stop it. Thistle put her hand out and a bottle of water appeared in it that she handed to Vinnie. As Vinnie opened it and took a drink, Diggy started to whisper.

  "There is no one with the same dark orange as me," Diggy said. "At one point, that Claudia came in and her color is orange, but like a light orange yellow and I almost panicked until Thistle reminded me that we were looking for dark orange. But no one is that color. What are we going to do?"

  "I don't think everyone is here yet," Vinnie said as she put the cap back on her water bottle. "There have still been people coming in here and there. Tucker was the one who was rounding people up and I think as long as he isn't here, I think that there are still vampires out there."

  "I hope you're right," Diggy said.

  "Let's all take a calming breath together," Thistle said.

  The three witches held hands and took a deep breath together. After they all exhaled, Vinnie was feeling much calmer and by the look on Diggy's face, she was too. The calming breath was about the only witch tradition that Vinnie could fully participate in and she was glad that it worked.

  Handing her water bottle back to Thistle, Vinnie turned back around to face the audience of vampires. She almost felt bad for ma
king them sit through everything so far and she felt even worse that she was only going to extend their suffering more.

  "If everyone could quiet down, I'll continue," Vinnie said.

  "Do you have to?" came a voice from the back. "Haven't we been through enough already?"

  "I know most of these facts and details are a bit dry," Vinnie said, knowing full well how boring it actually was. "But I guarantee that before we all walk out of here, we will all know who Bram's killer is."

  The audience din picked up a bit as people began whispering to their neighbors again. Vinnie felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see that Diggy had sidled up next to her, still wearing the Magical Impression Sensor despite her earlier humiliation.

  "Umm, can we really promise that?" Diggy whispered.

  "I just did, so we better figure it out and deliver on that promise," Vinnie said.

  Diggy searched Vinnie's face with her eyes, but it was hard to have a meaningful connection through the plexiglass screen of the Sensor. Finally, Diggy took a few steps back and Vinnie addressed the crowd again.

  "Let's just get through this last bit and then we can reveal the killer," Vinnie said.

  She launched into the next part of her diatribe, going minute by minute again and even including some of the off-screen stuff like having dinner with Diggy and deciding to call in Thistle, anything to make it just a bit more interesting.

  Some movement at the door drew her attention because no one had come in for a while. Wayne walked in and Tucker was close behind him. She caught Tucker's eye and he flashed her a thumbs up. That was it. These were all of the vampires in this pack. If there was no orange here, they were back to square one.

  A flurry of activity was happening behind Vinnie and as she spoke, she turned to see Diggy take off the helmet and pass it to Thistle. They were whispering fast, both covering their mouths so that no one could see them. Both of them looked concerned and Vinnie could only hope that it was because they had finally spotted the vampire with the orange glow.