Skull Screw Up: A Halloween Helper's Cozy Mystery Read online

  The two vampires nodded at her as she stood up and continued her search. Tucker took the spot on the couch and he and Francine sat quietly and watched her search, never taking their eyes off of her. It made Vinnie's skin crawl to have two vampires staring so intently at her, but at least they didn't follow her when she went into the bedroom. Soon enough, the search was over. The two vampires were still exactly where she had left them, not seeming to move a muscle.

  "The search is over for now," Vinnie said. "Thank you for allowing me in."

  "I wouldn't really say I allowed you in," Francine pointed out.

  "Well thanks for not throwing me out, I guess," Vinnie said.

  Francine and Tucker both watched her until she left and shut the door behind her. It was almost like she could still feel them staring at her through the door. She needed to go somewhere away from Francine's room for a while. She would go to the one place they weren't allowed to go yet: the ceremony room.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The darkness of the ceremony room was both welcome and unsettling. It was nice to be in a place where Vinnie knew she was all alone. Well, all alone with a dead body, which was where the unsettling feeling came in. But at least it gave her some space and breathing room to think about the exchange with Francine and Tucker.

  She had to wonder about their relationship. Francine was supposed to be Bram's girlfriend, so when had she started seeing Tucker? Had she cheated on Bram? That would certainly pour more gasoline on the fire and give yet another reason why Francine may have killed Bram.

  Bram was still laying at the front of the room. When they found him, Vinnie and Diggy had done a quick once over to look for any clues, but as long as they were re-searching places, she may as well search the body again. She crept through the darkness until she was next to the body, which was bathed in the bright light of the spotlights.

  As a vampire, he had always been pale. He didn't look much different now than what he had looked like when he had been alive. Of course, the wooden stake sticking out of his chest was an unfortunate addition. But besides the death blow, nothing else seemed to have been disturbed. Not a hair on Bram's head was out of place and he was impeccably dressed. Vinnie had to bet that even his fingernails had been buffed at some point before he died. She picked up his hand and noticed that his fingers were wrapped tightly around something.

  Grabbing a pair of tweezers, a plastic bag, and some gloves out of her bag, Vinnie set to work trying to carefully extract whatever it was that Bram had been clutching as he died. As she worked, Bram's hand moved in and out of the spotlight so she couldn't tell what it was she was pulling on. With one more sharp tug, the object was free. Vinnie moved further into the light and held up the object, still clutched in the tweezers.

  It seemed to be a clasp of some sort, like a decorative pin almost. It had a big stone in the middle that looked like a ruby and there was metal scrollwork around it. It didn't look like something someone would just wear on their shirt but perhaps something a vampire would wear to hold a cloak closed. Vinnie made a mental note to figure out if all of the vampires actually wore cloaks and, if they do, who this clasp belonged to.

  Whoever this came from, it seemed like it had been ripped off during some sort of struggle. It mustn't have taken too long because Bram seemed to have died a quick death. Vinnie assumed he must have been fighting against someone strong.

  That seemed to tie back into her new theory about Tucker and Francine working together. Perhaps Francine had distracted Bram while Tucker retrieved the wooden stake and then stabbed him in a surprise attack. That would explain the peaceful corpse.

  But why would they work together? Besides the fact that apparently Tucker and Francine were a couple, what did they have to gain? Tucker could take over as the leader and Francine would presumably benefit from that both because of his power and the fact that the artifacts would then be under his control and she could make herself so young that she would just be an infant in high heels.

  That theory did have its merits. But it also seemed highly improbable for a number of reasons. Would Tucker and Francine really risk both of them being caught? It was bad enough if one or the other were caught sneaking out of the library, but if they were both caught, there was no way their plan would work.

  Perhaps Francine was ready to take the fall for Tucker even though they both had a hand in it because she thought she could get off easier than a man who killed his brother. She was an actress, so perhaps she was planning a big, boohoo confession that would make everyone be on her side and see that she killed Bram out of self-defense or something similar.

  Vinnie was really lost in all of this. She wished Diggy were here to bounce ideas off of. Even if Diggy was thinking on a similar wavelength, at least they could talk through things and figure out if they make sense. Sometimes Vinnie would find herself being so convinced about a theory before Diggy reminded her that she was ignoring a key piece that disproved it.

  What was she missing here? Would there be a clue that would make everything fall into place? Vinnie decided that she needed to have some time to think, so she headed to the empty book library and settled into a chair. Looking around, the fact that all of the books were empty made her so sad. This room was a wonderful library and Vinnie would have loved to spend hours reading books there, but Bram had felt the need to simply make it a showroom instead of making it a room of substance.

  That seemed to speak volumes about him. Maybe his relationship with Francine was the same sort of thing. Perhaps he wanted her around to show her off while not putting much into the background of the information. While Francine seemed like someone who would be okay with that for a while, since she was an actress after all, anyone would be tired of a loveless relationship eventually.

  Vinnie let herself wander down that road of inquiry. Maybe Bram and Francine didn't really have a loving relationship, but more of a transactional friendship. Bram would get to say that Francine was his girlfriend which would boost his status even more. But what did Francine get? Obviously Bram was the leader, so she got access to his power, but it must have been limited. What else could he offer her?

  Closing her eyes and twisting her blonde braids while she thought, Vinnie tried to think through everything she knew about Francine. Her relationship with Bram and apparently also Tucker, her turn as a movie star in Old Hollywood, even her over the top apartment, everything presented a certain sort of character.

  Sitting up suddenly, Vinnie remembered something Francine had said. When Vinnie and Diggy had first arrived at the vampire house, Francine had said 'He doesn't want me to use it anymore.' At the time, Vinnie hadn't thought much about it because she was too busy being nervous about vampires and trying to figure out exactly what they should do to find the lost skull. It hadn't clicked until now that her statement might be a clue.

  If Bram had been so stringent about them only using the skull together, then why had Francine said he didn't allow her specifically to use it anymore? If Vinnie was interpreting it right, that meant that Bram had been letting Francine use the skull on her own in exchange for being his girlfriend. Or, at least, that would make the most sense in this context.

  Vinnie pulled out the special magical paper and wondered if she should send a message to Diggy telling her the two clues she had come across. Was that important enough to make her stop her search for the family wand? She glanced at her watch and noticed it was already eleven which meant that no matter what, Diggy would be coming to check on her in about an hour. She could wait it out.

  Or she could go question Tucker and Francine again. Was it too intrusive if she just kept barging in on them? Vinnie tried to remember just how many times the detectives in the shows she watched did that. Of course, their circumstances were vastly different from hers.

  But she just had to know more about the clasp and what Francine had said. Those two clues might just be the way they crack this case.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As Vinnie went back
and forth about barging in on the vampires' personal time, the door to the library swung open and her decision was made for her. Tucker and Francine came in, although this time they were expecting to see her there.

  "We figured you'd be here," Francine said. "You do seem like the bookworm type, although worming your way through these books would leave you rather empty."

  She giggled to herself as Tucker and Vinnie politely laughed. The vampires moved effortlessly through the library towards Vinnie. Francine settled herself into the other armchair while Tucker pulled up a footstool to sit on. He put his hands on his knees and leaned towards Vinnie, almost too close for comfort.

  "We also figured you would want to know a little bit more about our relationship," Tucker said. "We have nothing to hide."

  "I did want to ask you a few questions about that," Vinnie said. "Why don't you tell me your side of things and then I will see if I have any additional questions."

  Butterflies started to flutter in Vinnie's stomach as the nerves of being this close to a pair of vampires got more pronounced. She had grown quite comfortable amongst the vampires, but this was different. These two seemed shifty and the more Vinnie was learning, the less she thought she could trust them. She repositioned herself in her chair, trying to get further away from them without looking like she was getting further away from them.

  "My relationship with Bram was not exactly one based on love," Francine said, picking her words carefully. "I mean, sure he was handsome and at first, I was a bit lusty toward him, but he didn't really want that from me. All he wanted was for me to sit back and look pretty. Once I realized that, I told him I would stay with him, for a price."

  Tucker stared at Vinnie as Francine talked, seeming to never blink. It was unsettling enough to make Vinnie wonder if the not blinking was a vampire thing or a just a creepy man thing. Francine, on the other hand, was once again putting on a show. She had a way of talking that sounded like she had memorized a script, which was actually better than the way she had delivered her lines in all of the movies she had starred in.

  "I told him that I had no problem being his girlfriend and being there for him as long as he would do one little thing for me," Francine said. "I told him he could date me as long as he let me use the skull to enhance my youthful beauty twice a month on my own, which was in addition to the once a month we all used it together. And he agreed."

  "He agreed to that?" Vinnie asked. She had kind of figured that, but it seemed strange considering the Bram she had met when she first arrived.

  "Yes, he did and for a long time, our arrangement worked just fine," Francine said. "But then he started to get greedy and power hungry and when he had squeezed everything he could out of the other vampires, he wanted a way to control me more. So he cut me off from using the skull on my own and then apparently he hid it somewhere to really make sure I didn't use it."

  "That was when things spiraled out of control," Tucker said. He still had his intense stare focused on Vinnie. "A few months ago, Bram started to try to control every single aspect of all of our lives. He controlled what we ate and how we spent our free time and money. It got to the point of ridiculous. Then he tried to cut back our ceremonies from happening once a month to every other month and that is when everyone rebelled."

  "How did they rebel?" Vinnie asked.

  "It wasn't anything physical," Tucker said. "But we all got together and figured out ways around his rules. He couldn't stop us from leaving and as long as we worked together, he wasn't going to go up against all of us at once. So we were able to maintain the status quo for a while. Bram still said he was the leader and we let him think that while we really only let him have a small sliver of power."

  "But then he figured out a way to get power back, right?" Vinnie asked, thinking about the skull.

  "That jerk figured out the one thing that he could control," Francine said. "He knew that if he had one of the artifacts, he could have more control over us. And the skull is the most powerful one of all, so he took that one. Not only did he take it, but he pretended like someone else had stolen it."

  "I think he wanted to be the triumphant hero when he all of a sudden found it somewhere," Tucker said. "But now he's dead and we still don't know where the skull is."

  Vinnie couldn't tell if Tucker was lying to her or not. The skull was still the giant missing piece of the puzzle. Was it still hidden wherever Bram had put it? Or had the murderer taken it when they killed Bram? If Tucker was the murderer, then he might have rehidden the skull and then lied to her. Once again, the picture of what actually happened was fuzzy and out of focus.

  "So what do you two think happened?" Vinnie asked.

  She hoped that they would either have an extremely good theory or, if they were the murderers, that they would be terrible liars and she could proceed down that path. The vampires looked at each other, but Vinnie couldn't read what their glance meant.

  "I think that Bram hid the skull somewhere stupidly simple," Francine said. "Somewhere so simple that we have glossed right over it. And I think someone killed him to try to get it back except they killed him before they could figure out where he hid it."

  "I think whoever killed Bram took the skull and rehid it," Tucker said. "And now they will want to take over as leader. I think there is going to be a fight brewing and I'll be ready when it explodes."

  Neither of the vampires seemed to be lying, although Tucker's story seemed like he was telling it about himself. As Vinnie wondered where to go next, the image of the clasp suddenly popped into her mind.

  "I have one more thing to ask you about vampires," Vinnie said. "I found one more clue, but before I show it to you, I'd like to ask a question that I hope isn't a stupid one."

  "There's no stupid questions," Francine said. "I'm happy to educate about my paranormal race."

  "It isn't that in-depth," Vinnie said. "But I was wondering if all vampires still wore cloaks? Like the capes that you always see them in if you watch the old monster movies. I noticed a few people wearing them when I first got here."

  "I assume you are talking about our sacred ceremonial capes," Tucker said. "Which yes, we do wear. We don't all gallivant around in them at night or while we are running our errands, but traditionally, we do put them on in order to perform our ceremonies."

  Vinnie relaxed a little, feeling like she was on the right track.

  "What makes you ask about the capes?" Francine asked.

  "I found something in the ceremony room that looks like it came from one of the capes," Vinnie said. "I'm going to show it to you and perhaps you could tell me more about it."

  Vinnie reached into her bag and pulled out the evidence bag with the clasp in it. She held it out in the palm of her hand. Francine snatched it up and held it up so that she could see it better. She squinted at it, turning it this way and that as she examined it.

  Tucker stuck his hand out and as Francine gave it to him, Vinnie just barely made out what she said.

  "This is the clasp from your cape, Tucker."

  Chapter Twenty

  Tucker frowned and gingerly picked up the bag, looking at the clasp inside. He silently examined it as Francine stared at him, her mouth agape as she waited for him to say something. Vinnie felt like she was on pins and needles waiting for his reply. She could barely breath.

  "There are many of us who use this kind," Tucker said. "Different vampire ranks are given different clasps. That is how we tell who is what rank. Yes, this is the same kind of clasp I have, but it is definitely not mine."

  "Can you tell me more about the clasps?" Vinnie asked. She wasn't sure if she should believe Tucker or not.

  "The biggest difference in the clasps is the color of the jewel," Tucker said. "The leader of the vampire pack will have a large, diamond like stone. The second level has red, the third had purple and the fourth has green."

  "How do you know your level?" Vinnie asked.

  "You just sorta do," Francine said with a shrug before Tucker could ans
wer. He glared a bit at her before giving his own answer.

  "It is all a bit of a sham," Tucker admitted. "The leader part is obvious and everyone starts out with a green jewel, but moving up the next levels has to do with where the leader puts you. Obviously the stronger or more powerful you are, the higher up you should be. Then if something happens to the leader, it is more obvious where the pack should look for the next leader."

  "What are your ranks?" Vinnie asked. She felt like she was being nosy because she mostly asked out of curiosity. Obviously, Tucker was the second rank because they had already admitted that his jewel was red.

  "Tucker is the second rank," Francine said. "And I'm the third rank which I love because purple is one of my favorite colors. It is indicative of royalty, after all."

  "Are there other differences in the clasps?" Vinnie asked. "Do they all look like this except for the different jewels?"

  "The metal outside that holds the jewel is different depending on how long you've been in the group," Tucker said. "It doesn't mean much besides that."

  "And yours has the same scrollwork as this one?" Vinnie said. She held up the bag with the clasp in it from where Tucker had set it down on the table.

  "Yes it does," Tucker said, gritting his teeth. "But that one is not mine. There are several others who have the same clasp."

  "It might be Tucker's but it wasn't from when he killed Bram, just from when they had a fight," Francine said.

  Tucker turned to face Francine, glaring so hard that Vinnie wondered if fire was going to actually shoot out of his eyes. Vinnie took a few breaths, reminding herself to tread carefully. The two vampires seemed like they were trying to turn on each other and Vinnie did not want to be caught in the middle.

  "You and Bram had a fight?" Vinnie asked. "Was that the same day that we were searching for the skull?"