The Longest Halloween, Book Three: Gabbie Del Toro and the Mystery of the Warlock's Urn. Frank Wood

to do with Lord Jinn Dread, a malevolent villain who had tried on a number of occasions to overthrow Zeldabub and the House of Ghouls? He was now for all intents and purposes thought to be dead, though his influence lived on.

      “And how again did you come by this information?” the female Coach McTavish asked.

      “Well, you’ve heard that the robes of the Night Guard were all that was recovered at the site,” Elton replied.

      “Yes.”

      “It turns out there was more. Show them, Captain,” Elton said.

      Godric pulled out a plastic bag containing the bauble with the school brand on it. “I can’t take credit for this, though,” Godric said. “It was our Walden who originally got this message.”

      “Is that one of our…?”

      “Your teacher baubles.”

      “What’s the significance of this?” asked Linda McTavish. Gabbie couldn’t see what it was that they were bandying around, nor could she see the quick exchange between the two McTavishes. “Clearly a member of the teaching staff was there—either Barister or one of his mentees. I fail to see how that piece is relevant.”

      “Well, the fact that it’s a yellow piece,” Walden spoke up, “indicative, I believe, of a nontenured teacher, disqualifies Barister and his charges as its owner.”

      “Well then, who?”

      “That is precisely what we’re here to determine,” Godric said. “If indeed this was dropped at the site, purposefully or by accident, it may prove to be of critical importance in the resolution of what happened at Pumpkin Hill.”

      “And it was you, Walden, who received this bauble from our late Principal Croft?” Professor Bela asked.

      “Yes, Professor, as sad as it is for me to admit,” Walden replied, “it apparently was delivered to him by a small sprite who happened upon the site before the authorities arrived.”

      “Damned sprites! Always meddling and throwing a wrench into things,” Professor Bela said.

      “There’s something minimally narcissistic about this, don’t you think?” the male Coach McTavish asked. “Our school is to be subjected to this occupation because Her Highness can’t accept the possibility that there may be impropriety in her relative. That bauble notwithstanding—I mean, how can we even know it was pulled from the site and not planted by someone who is squarely on Del Toro’s side? You, for example, being his brother-in-law?”

      Gabbie felt her fists curl. Did Coach McTavish even know her father? How could he be so sure of his guilt?

      “Walden, you have to admit that it does have a bit of insincerity,” Lady Grimm acquiesced.

      “I know how it looks,” Walden replied, totally unruffled. “Happily, it should be a matter easily proven or disproven with a simple canvassing of faculty robes.”

      “Unfortunately the family relations do run deep here,” Godric said, “and yes, the queen is not eager to believe that her brother-in-law could be part of a plot to steal the Everlasting Wick from Jack of the Lantern. As for Walden, yes, he is the queen’s brother, which makes him Barister Del Toro’s brother-in-law as well, but I can vouch for his honesty. He has an impeccable record with the Sentry, and he has said that whatever this bauble provides, and I agree it’s a long shot, it should be easily proven with a simple search of your faculty’s uniforms for a missing yellow button,” Elton said.

      So, Gabbie thought, there might be someone right here at the school involved with what she and her family had already decided was a set-up, and they may have dropped one of their faculty buttons at the crime scene!

      “If I understand this correctly,” Lady Grimm said, “an identifying button from one of our faculty robes that couldn’t possibly belong to Barister or to his charges was recovered under dubious means from the site of the Pumpkin Hill Plunder. The queen wishes to ensure that this is not indicative of anyone on our faculty being, at the most, present on the night in question.”

      “Essentially,” Walden said.

      “Might not be a bad idea,” Professor Bela said, “to search out the faculty as the queen wants, and be done with it.”

      Gabbie felt her heart leap. If Walden and the Warlock Sentry could find the ones who actually burned down Jack of the Lantern’s home on Pumpkin Hill and made off with the Everlasting Wick, it would mean freedom for her father and his students! And if those villains were here at Ghoul School, why she herself would do anything in her power, meager as it was, to help them out.

      “Understand, Lady Grimm, we’ll try to be as discrete and as efficient as possible in our investigation,” the other sentry, the black man named Ethan, tried to reassure her.

      “Of course, I understand the seriousness of the situation,” Lady Grimm said, “and you’ll have our full cooperation in your investigation. But I doubt seriously that you’ll find anyone here who has any information about what happened that night atop Pumpkin Hill, I can assure you of that.”

      “Nevertheless, we’re bonded to search these premises.”

      “It’s quite ironic that you all would be called upon to act on behalf of one of the leaders of your rival organization,” Professor Bela said with a wry smile at Godric.

      “Sir, the so-called Night Guard started by Barister Del Toro and Niall LeGrand is hardly a rival,” Elton snapped. “The Warlock Sentry, on the other hand, is a professional organization highly trained to carry out these affairs. The Night Guard is merely a local rebel group of individuals who failed to make the cut.” Elton looked offended that Professor Bela would even draw that comparison.

      “No need to be uncivil,” Lady Grimm said, rising to her feet. “There are those who think the Night Guard a good thing and that the Warlock Sentry is stretched rather thin these days. But the day is pressing on. Are we done here?”

      “We are,” said Godric, rising to his feet.

      Gabbie used the noise of their rising to their feet as her cue to make it out of her hiding place as quickly as she could. Her mind raced with what she knew about the history of the Night Guard and the Warlock Sentry. She stumbled and knew that once she fell, it would be all over and she would be on punishment for days...but the fall never came. She felt herself stopped mid-fall from behind, then lifted swiftly and pulled outside of the council room and back into the hallway.

      Neville

      “What are you doing, Gabriella?”

      Gabbie looked up into the scowling face of Neville LeGrand, he of the early rising, her next door neighbor and the only one of her friends who called her by her full name. “Neville! You scared the spider juice out of me!”

      “What were you doing in there, in what I’m sure was a private conference?” He put her down.

      “Neville, you’re not going to believe what I just heard.”

      “You’ll have to tell me on the way to class…we’re both late, after all.”

      “That’s right, we are,” Gabbie realized, remembering that she had seen him earlier that day in the front of his house. “What’s your excuse?”

      “I got a late start this morning,” Neville returned, flipping a strand of dark hair back on his normally immaculate coif. “The Goon Brothers are staying with us and the older one snores like a freight train.”

      In addition to his work with the Night Guard, Neville’s father made a living as a gravestone manufacturer. He could fashion any gravestone on demand, from the heavier cement and granite ones to the light foam ones that were popular around Halloween. He sometimes took on apprentices that he would put up in the house for long periods of time. Neville often joked of his brother or brothers of the day, referring to his dad’s latest apprentices.