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“What?” Lenny looked up from K.K. Peabody’sGhosts of Buck Island.

Flip said, “It’s a teaser on YouTube for theHappy Halloweenreboot.”

“Lemme see!” Lenny abandoned Watson and her book to join Flip in front of the fireplace. She watched for a couple of seconds and then started giggling. “That’sbrilliant.”

“Oh, no.” Ellery knewbrilliantwas going to inevitably translate intohighly embarrassing.

“Oh,yes.” Chelsea gave an evil chuckle.

Lenny was still giggling as she handed Chelsea’s phone to Ellery. “It’s actually really fun,” she said consolingly.

Ellery studied the blurred first frame of the trailer, sighed, pressed play.

The wide-eyed wild-haired twenty-three-year-old version of himself appeared, saying with mechanical earnestness, “Guys, hear me out. I know it sounds crazy. But itispossible!”

Ellery groaned in pain as the retro-style voice-over proclaimed, “IT’S NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, IT’S HAPPENING,” followed by quick cuts of the reboot’s stars Fallon Provost and Billie Watson running through a foggy graveyard, kissing in a crypt, and splattered in blood, screaming. Lots of blood, LOTS of screaming.

Since filming had not yet started, these promo clips might not even make it into the final film, but they were effective. The final frame, in the original, now-dated film typography, promised a release date of the Halloween after next.

“It’swaytoo early to start promo,” Ellery objected. He was already starting to get cold feet.

Lenny snatched the phone back. “Here, I have to see that again.”

Guys, hear me out. I know it sounds crazy. But it ispossible!A tiny, tinny voice cried from the bowels of YouTube.

“You had Timothée Chalamet hair before there ever was a Timothée Chalamet.” She was giggling again.

“Before—! How the heck old do you think Iam?” Ellery protested.

Chelsea said, “Oh, myGod. What if they make Fallon’s Noah Junior grow his hair out like the original Noah?”

“He could just wear a wig,” Flip said. “Something similar to what Harpo Marx wore?”

“You are so dead,” Ellery said.

Flip laughed.

“Isn’t that the new franchise title?” Chelsea inquired. “Happy Halloween! You Are SO Dead?”

Eventually, they ran out of material for their standup routines and everyone settled back into their various reading and viewing, interrupted only by an occasional snicker from Chelsea.

Ellery scanned the rest of the Wikipedia entry.

In 1927 the aquamarine was stolen by twenty-four-year-old Cyril Dolph, who had worked briefly as a chauffeur for the Vanderbilts. Although it was believed that Dolph had a confederate within the household staff, no link was ever proven. Two days after the theft, Dolph was arrested in Rhode Island; however, the pendant was never recovered.

In 1932, Dolph was convicted and sentenced to prison. He died a month later of pneumonia. The Dourdos Aquamarine remains missing to this day.

“Hey, I found something on the Dourdos Aquamarine,” Ellery announced. “There’s a Wikipedia entry on it.”

Ignoring the aspersions cast on the source of information, he read the Wikipedia article out loud.

“Okay, he was captured in Rhode Island,” Flip said. “But does that meanhere? Or does that mean the mainland?”

“It doesn’t say.” Ellery considered. “But I know who probably has the answer to that question.”

Nora picked up on the first ring. “I was just about to phone you.”

Ellery felt a spark of alarm as images of leaking roofs, leaking windows, and flooded floors flashed through his mind. “Is everything okay?”