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  Once the world settled down a little bit, Vinnie was a little surprised to find herself in a very modern looking room. It was stark white except for black leather furniture that was sparsely placed around the room. There were just enough chairs for each member of the coven to have one. Each chair contained a beautiful, model-like woman who was dressed in some kind of sleek pants suit or black dress. Every single coven witch that Vinnie had ever met was exceptionally beautiful.

  The only thing that didn’t look like it belonged was a big, throne-like chair on the other end of the room. It was a big gold chair with scroll work around it and the cushion was purple velvet. It was empty and Vinnie had to assume that it belonged to the leader of the coven.

  One of the women had gotten out of her chair and was striding towards them. She extended a hand and insisted on shaking everyone’s hand, even Diggy’s. Her bright red hair was pulled back into a perfect french twist that complimented the black blazer and pants she was wearing. These witches took their jobs seriously.

  “Hello there,” the woman said. “My name is Wisteria and I’m the de-facto leader. Unfortunately when Plant died, she had not named a successor so we are in a bit of a tizzy. I’ve been here the longest, so I stepped in to keep things going while we figure it all out. You must be the Halloween Helpers?”

  “Yes, my name is Vinnie, I mean Lavinia,” Vinnie said, remembering she should be somewhat professional. “This is my sister Lavender and our helper Indigo.”

  “I go by Diggy,” the teenage girl piped up.

  Wisteria narrowed her eyes at Diggy, as if not sure whether the teenager who seemed to be almost wearing a witch costume would actually be able to help them. Diggy stood her ground and stared right back at the powerful woman.

  “Diggy?” Wisteria said. “I think we will stick with Indigo. Either way, follow me.”

  As soon as Wisteria turned her back, Diggy stuck her tongue out at it. Vinnie reached over and pinched Diggy’s arm, just enough to let her know that something like that was not acceptable and would not be tolerated. Lavender didn’t seem to notice any of this, instead looking slowly around the room. As beautiful as all of the coven witches were, Lavender had an aura about her that made her even more beautiful. That would account for all of the jealous looks they were getting.

  The three Halloween Helpers and Wisteria walked through the large room of chairs and once they were at the other end, Wisteria waved her arm, making a doorway appear in the wall. It was a large metal sliding door, the kind that looked like it should be in a machine shop somewhere instead of inexplicably in the headquarters for a coven of witches. It wasn’t like the Daggerwood sisters knew what was and was not fashionable when it came to the world of interior design. They lived in a drafty, rickety old castle house that would scare the daylights out of mortal children, if they ever let a mortal child see it, of course.

  Wisteria turned and faced the trio of women again. She searched each of their faces in turn before speaking.

  “This is our dining room,” she said. “Plant is still in here. We left her where she dropped, not wanting to disturb her any further once we realized she had moved on.”

  In the magic world, there were two types of moving on. The first was what Aunt Jemima had done, which meant that she moved to the Magic Universe and was nearing the end of her life. She eschewed all things mortal in order to finish out her magical existence. The other was what would be considered death to a mortal. The witch was dead and gone with no way of coming back to either of the universes.

  It was hard to fully kill a witch. Usually, witches died when their magical clock ran out. The magical clock was a metaphor and it wasn’t until one moved on to the Magic Universe that it would become a physical object showing the remaining time. To kill a witch in both universes took a lot of magical skill. A potion could force a witch to move on to the other universe, but not many things could kill them outright.

  The big metal door slid open silently and there on the other side was the figure of a woman, who must be Plant. She was dressed in a long black robe and hunched over the head of a very long table. The woman had the top half of her body on the table, but her head was turned the other way so that only the back of her head and her long chestnut hair could be seen from the doorway.

  The only other thing on the table was what must have been the place setting Plant had been using at dinner before she died. The air over it shimmered just slightly and Vinnie could tell an enchantment had been put in place in order to not sully the crime scene.

  “Could you please tell us what happened?” Vinnie asked.

  “Last night, we were sitting down to our monthly coven dinner,” Wisteria said. “Plant was served first, as is customary for the leader. We all had our food and we were waiting for her to take her first bite. After she eats a bit of food, then it is usually our turn to eat. But instead, Plant swallowed one bite of food and her face turned gray. She slowly laid her head down on the table and she turned to stone.”

  Vinnie sneaked around Plant’s chair and took a look at her face. It was gray and looked like a piece of limestone. Wisteria was not just using a metaphor. Of course there were plenty of spells and potions that could do something like this but as the leader of a coven, Plant should have been powerful enough to counteract it immediately. Whoever had killed her had been just as powerful as she was.

  Lavender held her hands up in the air and closed her eyes, feeling the room for magical vibrations. As the magical twin, her extra magic allowed her to do things a regular witch couldn’t do. Vinnie had a feeling that this was going to come in extra helpful as Halloween Helpers. She tried not to smile as she thought of the three of them working together on cases. She just hoped they wouldn’t be doing a lot of murder cases.

  “You are right that she is totally gone,” Lavender said with a frown when she opened her eyes. “She is nowhere here or in the Magic Universe.”

  “We already checked that,” Wisteria said with a scowl. “We aren’t total idiots. We may be coven witches, but we do know how to do that.”

  “My sister wasn’t suggesting that it was something you hadn’t done,” Vinnie said, trying to play the peacemaker. “She was simply following the proper steps for our investigation. The next step would be for you or any of your fellow witches to tell us where you think the magic that killed Plant came from.”

  Wisteria turned and walked back into the room full of chairs, the three witches following behind her. With a wave of her hand, the large metal door slammed shut and the chairs started to rearrange with the witches sitting in them. They moved gracefully around the room like ballerinas until all of the chairs were in a horseshoe shape with all of the Sisters of the Beating Heart facing in towards where Lavinia, Lavender, and Indigo were now standing.

  This was it. The new band of Halloween Helpers were being put to the test. They had to prove themselves on this first case.

  Chapter Four

  As intimidating as it was to be standing up in front of all of those beautiful women, Vinnie knew that she had to see this as her job and thus she just had to plow forward. But the magic was practically vibrating off of all of the coven witches, who wore their abilities like they were a luxury coat. That was more intimidating than anything else.

  “Let’s see a show of hands, who was here last night?” Diggy suddenly shouted, not willing to wait for her mother or aunt.

  Tentatively the coven witches looked back and forth at each other as they all stuck a hand up into the air. One of the witches, a short brunette who looked thinner than Vinnie’s arm stood up and cleared her throat.

  “Every single one of us was here,” she said. “Every member of the coven must attend every monthly meeting or risk being kicked out. And I know you ancestral witches don’t really understand, but the coven is our family. No one is going to miss a meeting and risk being shunned for life.”

  Vinnie knew the tiny witch was right. They didn’t really know what being a coven witch was like. Vinnie didn�
�t even really know what being a magical witch was like, but she was hoping to keep that from the knowledge of anyone they were helping.

  “What is your name?” Lavender asked.

  “My name is Willow,” the woman said.

  “And she’s one of the main suspects,” another woman said. “Only three witches were part of the food crew last night and she was one of them.”

  Suddenly everyone started yelling. Vinnie wondered if all of the witches had been sitting separately when they arrived because otherwise they would have all been arguing like this. Lavender put her hands up and attempted to quiet them down, but none of the witches were even looking at her. They were all busy arguing in small groups of two or three around the room.

  “That’s enough,” Vinnie finally said, loud enough to be forceful but not loud enough to be considered angry. She was trying to make sure she stayed authoritative. “We don’t have any suspects yet because we’ve only just begun our investigation. Now we will need all of you to stay here in the coven headquarters while we investigate. We can’t risk anyone leaving and having whoever did this running loose.”

  The group was silent, but no one was happy about it. Coven witches tended to have high-powered corporate jobs outside of their magical abilities. They used magic to help them move up the corporate ladder and to make it so that they didn’t even really have to work, using charms and spells to make others do most of the work for them. It was a bit unscrupulous, in Vinnie’s opinion, but none of it was actually against the Magical Charter so it wasn’t actually illegal.

  “Before we begin looking for clues, I would like to ask all of you if there is anything you think we should know,” Vinnie asked.

  Everyone was silent for a moment as they all looked surreptitiously around the room, waiting for someone, anyone to stand up and say something. Finally, Willow stood up again.

  “I think you should know that the coven is already convinced that one of the food crew from last night did it,” she said. “Thistle and I were wait staff and Ivy was the chef. If the spell came from a potion, that meant that only the three of us had contact with the food.”

  Whispers started to go around the circle. Diggy was quietly watching all of the interactions, scribbling with her quill on a sheet of paper. Vinnie made a note to ask what exactly she was writing down later. She hoped it was notes on what was happening and not a new story idea.

  “One more thing,” Willow said. “Thistle is the potion keeper for our coven. You might want to start with talking to her.”

  All of the coven witches heads snapped to look at a witch with her black hair cut into a severe bob. She was wearing a figure hugging, black dress. Thistle crossed her arms and stuck her chin up into the air in defiance. Vinnie hoped that didn’t mean that she would be difficult to question because Thistle had just become suspect number one in this case.

  But the Halloween Helpers were getting ahead of themselves. They really should investigate the physical clues and the crime scene first. Detectives never started with questioning suspects. Vinnie didn’t watch much mortal television but when she did, she watched crime shows.

  “Thank you Willow,” Vinnie said. “We will keep that in mind. But right now we really need to investigate the dining room. The three of us will be the only ones allowed in there for now. The rest of you must stay out here.”

  Wisteria stood up and snapped her fingers. The chairs with the witches in them started floating around the room again, never bumping into each other, until each witch had their own spot away from the others.

  Turning around, the large metal door slid open again and the three women walked inside. As Vinnie took a deep breath, the door slid shut behind them.

  “We should investigate the body and the food first,” Lavender said. “I’m not sure how much time I’ll have.”

  Before Vinnie could ask what she meant, Lavender walked slowly over to the table and with a flourish of her hand, lifted the enchantment off of the place setting full of food. The plate was piled high with a large turkey leg, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a pile of sauteed vegetables. There was also a small bowl full of salad and a plate with a dinner roll on it. Two glasses were sitting above the plate, one full of water and the other full of red wine. Vinnie wondered if coven witches always ate like this or just at their monthly meeting? Maybe they had the right idea.

  “Could one of you hand me the Magiscope?” Lavender said, sticking out her hand towards the other two women.

  Diggy and Vinnie both looked at each other, their confused expressions mirroring each other. Then all at once, their eyes grew wide.

  “We didn’t bring any investigative tools!” Vinnie exclaimed, slapping her hand to her head. “How could we be so dumb? How are we supposed to investigate without anything to use. We should have packed a bag of things to help us.”

  Diggy started to laugh, first a small giggle that quickly rippled into a guffaw. Vinnie felt annoyed at first, but she couldn’t help it as she started to laugh along. She knew it would take them a little while to get into the swing of being a Halloween Helper, but she didn’t think they were going to be quite this inept.

  “To be fair, the instructions never said to gather supplies,” Diggy said once she had caught her breath enough to talk. “If they ever ask our feedback on the transition to being a Halloween Helper, we may want to suggest that they start with that.”

  Lavender put her hand down and looked back at the table. She was too lost in thought to laugh along with Diggy and Vinnie right now.

  “Lavender, is there a way to magic us some supplies?” Vinnie asked. She was never quite sure about the rules of magic because they seemed to have a lot of uncertainty. “Or maybe at least some gloves so we can touch the table and things?”

  For a moment, it appeared like Lavender hadn’t heard her, but Vinnie knew better. Lavender always heard her, she just didn’t always process the words right away. Lavender lifted a hand and snapped her fingers. Latex gloves appeared on Vinnie’s hands.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Looking over, she noticed her niece had a pair on too. She didn’t really want Diggy to help her with what she was about to do, but she knew that Diggy was going to join in no matter what.

  “I’m just going to do a quick inspection of the body,” Vinnie said. “We need to be extra careful.”

  Creeping up to the table, Vinnie slowly reached out and touched Plant’s head. It was not just cold, but extra cold which meant she definitely had been turned to stone through and through. Vinnie tried to pick up her head, but it was so heavy that she couldn’t do it by herself. Diggy jumped forward and grabbed onto the witch’s head also, heaving away until it was a few inches off of the table.

  “Lavender, quick,” Vinnie said. “Is there anything under her head or anything that looks suspicious?”

  Slowly turning her head, Lavender blinked at her sister and daughter who were both straining under the weight of the large stone witch. Then she slowly raised up her hand. Plant’s body slowly lifted up into the air and right out of Vinnie and Diggy’s hands until it was floating above the table, seemingly weightless.

  “You know we can use magic for all of these things, right?” Lavender asked. “We are supposed to. That’s why they don’t make mortals Halloween Helpers.”

  Vinnie scowled at her sister. Somehow, Lavender always seemed to forget that she was the only twin that could do magic. Vinnie could feel herself getting a bit huffy, but then she felt Diggy’s hand on her shoulder and she took a deep breath.

  Lavender never meant to hurt people when she was like this. She was often just in her own plane of existence and even though she was physically right here, her internal self was floating off somewhere else.

  “Let’s always hope you are around to help us with the magic then,” Vinnie said. “Or at least until Diggy here does a bit more studying.”

  Lavender looked back at the pair with a sad look on her face and Vinnie wondered what was wrong. She briefly consid
ered if her sister had seen a flash of the future, but she pushed that idea aside and decided that Lavender was simply upset about Diggy’s lack of studiousness.

  Diggy looked at the floor, a sheepish look on her face. Magic did not come naturally to her like it did to her mother, much to her frustration. She found it hard to have to study and practice something that came so easily to others. It was especially hard because her mother just didn’t understand why Diggy couldn’t do things right away like she had been able to. Learning magic was hard, but it was even harder when learning from someone who wasn’t a particularly good teacher.

  While Lavender did whatever she was doing, Diggy and Vinnie inspected Plant. Besides being made of stone, nothing else appeared to be wrong with her. There wasn’t much else they could do until they went home and got some supplies.

  Vinnie found Wisteria and explained that they would be leaving, but would come back right away. Wisteria scowled at them but gave a brisk nod before heading back to her chair.

  “Magic us home,” Vinnie said.

  The three women touched the orb and Lavender muttered the spell under her breath before they were all sucked into some sort of wormhole and transported back to their cozy home.

  Chapter Five

  A moment later, the women were standing in their entryway. Vinnie felt a rush of relief that she was now home in her own cozy place instead of in that coven headquarters. Even though no one had questioned her, she could tell that all of those beautiful witches knew she didn’t have a magical bone in her body and that scared her to death.

  Vinnie almost didn’t want to go back, but she knew they had to. Hopefully once they gathered supplies, they would be able to solve this case fast and come back home. Vinnie had already decided she would cook up a big pot of vegetable soup this evening along with some fresh bread and maybe even an apple pie for dessert, but only if they finished solving this case soon.