It was late-October and Forest Park Private Detective Sam Diamond sat in his shabby Madison Street office. His buzzer announced he had visitors, a middle-aged mother and her 12-year-old son. They introduced themselves as Blanche and Tommy.
Blanche opened her purse and pulled out a piece of paper, “Mr. Diamond, someone put this inside our pumpkin.”
Diamond read the simple message, “To save Halloween, you must come to the circle!”
“I don’t understand,” Sam said, “is something wrong with Halloween?”
“Oh, Mr. Diamond,” Blanche implored, “we thought if anyone in town could figure out what this note means, it would be you.”
“OK, I’ll take the case,” Diamond agreed, “If you can’t afford my fee, you can pay me in peanut butter cups.”
The next morning, Diamond set off to save Halloween. The only clue in the note was “circle” so he headed to the Circle Bridge. It was covered with artwork but none of it had to do with Halloween.
He walked into the Circle Inn. It was too early for a beer but not too early for a question.
“Do you guys have any plans to save Halloween?”
The bartender looked at him sadly. “We barely saved St. Patrick’s Day. How are we supposed to save Halloween?”
Diamond crossed the street to Circle Lanes. He asked the guy behind the counter if they had any special plans for Halloween. They were putting up some decorations but that was about it.
“No scary stuff?”
“We’ve had some customers get really scary splits on Halloween.”
“The 7-10 split?”
“Worse than that, the 4-6-7-10 split.”
“Grandma’s teeth?” Diamond exclaimed in horror, “You’re giving me chills.”
After exhausting his circle leads, Diamond called Blanche, “Maybe that note wasn’t meant to scare you. Do you have any really nice people on your block?”
“Oh yes, we have the nicest couple. We don’t even ask him but Mr. Hain snowblows our sidewalk. His wife plays the accordion at our block parties. Every Halloween, she gives out big boxes of Lemonheads.
Diamond drove over to stake out Hain’s address. He watched Sam and Ruth loading the trunk of their car. Diamond could see they were up to too much good! They filled their trunk with jack-o-lanterns, candy and two brown choir robes.
Diamond followed them to Forest Home Cemetery, where they parked near the United Ancient Order of Druids monument. Mrs. Hain lit candles inside the jack-o-lanterns and placed them in a circle around the monument. She placed a large box of Lemonheads next to each jack-o-lantern. Then they put on their brown robes.
Diamond sprang from behind a headstone to ask them what they were doing.
“We’re saving Halloween, Mr. Diamond,” Ruth explained.
“But why the note? Why not just invite people?”
“We thought it would be more fun as a mystery,” Sam Hain explained. “Besides, we knew you needed the work.”
Diamond called Blanche right away and told her Tommy could invite his friends to the cemetery. Tommy and his friends rushed there by bike, rollerblade and scooter. They were happy to see the candy and jack-o-lanterns.
Mr. Hain explained how the Druids celebrated Oct. 31st as their day of the dead. They lit fires and sacrificed animals. They even dressed in costumes and went door-to-door to beg for food. While he spoke, his wife played the theme from Halloween on her accordion. Accordions were already scary instruments but that haunting music? Diamond felt reassured, though, by the smiles on the faces of Tommy and his friends.
He hurried back to his office, hoping to find some peanut butter cups waiting for him.
