Hexes and X's (Z&C Mysteries, #3) (15 page)

“You okay, Riley?” Slobber called in to him. Everyone was trying to get to him, shining their flashlights through to where he was, hoping for the best.

“Yes. Hand me my light,” he said beyond a large and new dirt mound.

Zo stepped precariously
went over to him, and extended the flashlight to him. The others followed right behind. Jones stood up and put a hand through his hair to shake out the dirt, and then they all three shone their lights beyond him.

“Oh, my, gosh! Look at that!” exclaimed Claire.

“Man!” was all that the deputy said.

“I ain’t never…, and I hope to never ever again. My liver is turnin’ over. Mama!” Slobber was backing up.

“Relax, Slobber. Haven’t you ever seen dead people before?” Zo asked.

“No, Mom…, and especially looking like they was zombies out of a cheap 1950’s thriller.”

Four dusty, decrepit bodies, mostly skeletal, were lying in the rubble behind Deputy Jones. Zo said, “It does look like they’re rather mummified. So it is true. There is Captain Dread, I presume, since he is in his Captain’s hat. I’m not sure who the two beside him are—hostages maybe? According to the legend Matilda re-told, I would say the man with the missing finger there is where we got our finger bone, Claire.” There was a missing pointer finger on his right hand. “He looks a little better than the rest, and is wrapped in a sheet? Hm.” Zo stepped closer to him to inspect further. “Here is a tag hanging off a toe bone.” She bent down and read, “Grindal’s Mortuary. No wonder he looks better—embalming fluid!”

“He still looks disgusting to me!” Claire said.

“So, the finger was not taken off a living man….”

“Ahhh, that’s right.” Claire nodded in thought, and Deputy Jones asked, “What was the story?”

Zo said, “We weren’t told much. We just know that Matilda’s grandfather was threatened by a thief to give up his treasure or they’d start harming hostages—like removing fingers.”

“Looks like the rumor’s true…”

“Which means,” Claire surmised, “the treasure is definitely around somewhere.”

“Yes,” her mother agreed. “It looks there was some sort of dirt avalanche that tightly sealed them all in here. And lucky for us, the storm water eroded everything away so all that had to happen was for Deputy Jones to lean on the shell of the wall that was left.”

“Do you see any treasure?” asked Slobber.

The flashlights beamed everywhere, searching, but there was nothing but soggy walls.

“Eeuuw!” Slobber crinkled up his nose and puckered his lips as Zo dug through the pockets of Captain Dread’s jacket. The jacket’s rotten material crackled as it stuck to the remains of the corpse’s chest bones, revealing black decay.

Zo looked up with a satisfied look, because she retrieved a handful of very large, different-colored pearls. “This is significant proof that more treasure exists. The only rational thought on these pearls here being in his pocket is, he thought maybe he could buy the hostages freedom from the kidnapper. I’d say the thief is probably the one tied with ropes.

“Let’s get back to the house and send people to pick up these bodies as soon as the storm is over. Meanwhile, these pearls here belong to you two guys to divide up. Claire and I have all the pearl necklaces we want. Right, Claire?” She counted out evenly half the pearls and handed the deputy his half, and Slobber’s half was given to Claire since his skirt had no pockets for safe keeping.

“But these are worth a lot of money, ladies,” the deputy reminded.

“We don’t care. We laugh at bloody pearls. Don’t we, Mom?

“Yes. Ha! We don’t want them.”

“Well, I ain’t too proud to accept, so I can buy a tiara to go with my skirt.”

The four of them trudged back through the tunnel, focusing their flashlights ahead of them, and passing by the bodies of Jack and Pat. As they walked out on
to the new peninsula, the sewer lights turned on dimly.

“I’m thinking the generator just kicked in for the city,” said Jones.

Slobber and the deputy walked a little further out on the new finger of land to see what the next way was going to be. Zo could only see lip movements because the river and the falls were so thunderously loud. She decided to walk up to talk with them.

Claire was about to follow when she was totally confused by something that took hold of her. It wrapped itself around her mouth, preventing a scream. “My death has been seriously over-estimated, my lovely,” said Jack hoarsely in her ear, and coughed. “Now hand over those pearls.”

TWENTY-TWO

Everyone turned to see what the hold-up was, and were stunned to see Jack with a choke hold on Claire. All three started moving forward since he didn’t have a gun anymore.

“Stand still. I only need one lung, which I am doing very well on.” He spit out some blood.

He forced Claire over to the side of the peninsula, where a cloud of dirty mist was rising up above the falls and soaking the two of them. “Take a look, my sweet.”

Claire looked down and saw that the water had eroded much of the mud floor beside the grate, leaving a deep black abyss in which water was plunging into at depths unknown. “You stay where you are or Claire goes over to her death!” Jack yelled over the loud sound of rushing falls.

Slobber stepped a foot forward. “Now look, Jack—if it’s money you want…”

“Jack—you throw Claire over and I will shoot you down a leg at a time.” The deputy never looked more intense.

“I don’t care! I want it one way—my way or I die, and I don’t care!”

Zo stepped out between Slobber and the deputy. “You are mistaken by taking Claire. Look.” She held up a round, black pearl the size of a golf ball.

Jack squeezed his eyes to get a better look in all the muddy mist. “Come forward! Only Zoey Kane!”

Zo came forward, not taking her eyes off of Jack, not once blinking. When she got close enough, she raised her hand and spread her fingers, dropping its contents into his hand. Zo seized the moment by taking hold of her daughter, and yanking her out of his grip.

“That is nothing but a rock, you…”

The lunatic came at them both. The women wrestled him, and Deputy Jones’s voice could be heard yelling above the rushing of the falls. Zo took the
heel of her hand and punched an uppercut. Blood spilled out Jack’s nose, and he broke loose, dragging Claire back to the edge of the falls.

Zo wasn’t going to give up—no, sir! She grabbed her daughter’s leg, pulling her as hard as she could, playing tug-of-war like never before. Jack eventually pushed Claire away and wrenched Zo by the arm. “Okay, you’re the one that goes over, for being a big nuisance!”

Deputy Jones and Slobber surrounded him. “Stop!” Jack yelled at them. “I have Zoey!” He took a step toward the falls. Claire screamed. The two men stepped forward more. Jack put a hand up. “Don’t do it!”

“Look, Jack,” the deputy reasoned, “you really haven’t done so much except drag Claire down to the sewer. You haven’t killed anyone. Your whole life is ahead of you still. You can turn this around. Obviously circumstances are that these things and the storm will all be taken into account!”

Jack stood still a second, his gunshot wound bleeding badly. “Nope.” He shook his head emphatically. “I really don’t care if I die.” He had a great, but crazy, smile on his face.

“Wait!
Wait! Jack, I have the pearls. See?” Claire took them out of her pocket. “There was so much going on that I didn’t have a chance to get them for you. Bring Mom back and take these, and you have a head start to get away. We are not going to stop you. Right, guys?!”

“That would be correct. Right, Riley?” Slobber agreed.

Everyone was soaked, hair flat and dripping. All the yelling in negotiations was still barely heard behind the mammoth noise of the falls and sucking black hole to the pit of the earth.

“Yes. You can go!” Deputy Jones finally nodded.

Claire walked toward Jack and held out the pearls about three feet in front of him.

Jack licked his lips and let go of Zo. Zo moved behind Claire, staring at Jack. Everyone stood motionless waiting for Jack to pick up his treasure and leave.

“I was expecting more!” He picked up the pearls and then did the unthinkable—he lunged forward and grabbed Claire, forcing her toward the falls with great exertion. “You know what?” he yelled. “I did kill that witch Matilda…. Stuck that dagger right in her heart! She was so greedy!”

It caught everyone off guard, but Zo jumped forward, and grabbed her daughter’s arm, jerking her away with such might that Jack’s slimy grip slipped. His loss in the tug-of-war caused him to fall backwards at such a momentum that he slid back over and into the falls. His greedy fingers turned desperate, trying to scratch at something, anything, that would catch him from going down. Ultimately, the raging water swept him into the abyss not unlike being flushed down a gigantic toilet.

The four remaining stood looking at each other. The deputy’s head went down. Slobber walked over and put his arms around both ladies; he said, “The only way out is to jump over the part of the falls where there’s no abyss.”

Jones jumped first. Then Slobber hiked his skirt up and jumped second, so that if something went wrong, he and the deputy could grab hold of whomever’s jump was too short. All made it.

TWENTY-THREE

When the foursome came walking through the bowling alley door, muddy, stinky and wet, a voice was heard to say, “Not again!”

Deputy Jones gave an instant rundown of what happened. Everyone agreed that they were so happy that Claire was retrieved safe and sound. They were surprised to hear about Pat Bule and Jack’s death, but no tears could be detected.

Judy said, “If you guys go clean up, there will be food for you in the kitchen.”

So there was a line-up at the mud porch, to take turns showering the filth off. The coven sisters brought robes and slippers and gave them to each as they waited. Claire went first, and when she came out, it was Zo, then Slobber and then the deputy.

The mother and daughter eventually departed for their bedroom, but Slobber and the deputy had to have shots, and their clothing washed, not having ever thought there would be any nights over; so, they just hung around the kitchen in their robes and slippers.

After the ladies returned downstairs, and ate some very tasty stew and biscuits, Slobber said, “Ladies, I noticed that there was logs by the fireplace in the library. What say, we pull up some overstuffed chairs in front there and roast those marshmallows I saw in the cupboard?!” Everyone was tired but thought that was a great idea to wind down and take some deep breaths after the high-adrenalin episode earlier.

*

The guys moved a plush couch a comfortable distance in front of the fireplace. Zo sat down immediately. Jones approached her, asking, “Do you mind if I sit next to you?”

Zo’s face felt suddenly flushed as a butterfly took a dive to the pit of her stomach. The very next thing, he put an arm around her and pulled her into his shoulder where she could rest her head. She thought about this moment, where she felt so self-conscious of his presence this close to her. It was kind of like,
Um, my head is against his… shirt… thick chest… breathing… warmth. I know he is looking at me, if I look up…

Sam Spade would say, if her,
“He was radiating manliness head to toe, making it hard for me to breathe, but I did anyway, not wanting to miss anything. This was dangerous stuff being so close to such a young, eager man with eyes that weakened all a woman’s toughest resistance. I knew the risk; but, it was like standing on a high building when you have the urge to jump. He was talking. It was just echoes in the middle of my dream, when I was surprised by the pressure of a moist warm kiss that was full, but soft…”

“You are so beautiful. I hope you don’t mind my kiss. I couldn’t help myself.”

“Oh. Uh, no. Actually it was wonderful.”

“I watched you in life-threatening action today. You and Claire. You are cool-headed and an amazing fighter. You two are every bit the fabric of heroes. You saved each other’s life, when I could
n’t do anything safely for you. I’m still traumatized by that. To think either of you could have been thrown down a hole into the earth and buried by raging falls.”

“Yeah, I might dream about that tonight.”

“I can’t stand the thought of it, honey.” The flames of the fire reflected off his eyes when he looked into hers, and he pulled Zo into another kiss that she held her breath through.

The other couple was sitting on the floor leaning up against the couch. “I like mine burnt. It kind of puffs up your cheeks and you have to lick your teeth for a while.” Slobber pushed three marshmallows onto a wire that used to be a clothes hanger. Pretty soon he pulled them away from the fire, as they were burning blue. “I am an expert at this. One time I was by a lake’s edge roastin’ marshmallows in the evenin’ and a big ol’ fish jumped right out of the water and snapped my marshmallow right off the stick and then run’d off with it into the lake. The next thing you know there was ten fish lining up in the water. Well, I doused the fire, grabbed my marshmallows and went further up on the shore. I was very happy there until I saw ten pairs of green glowy fish eyes in the dark and spiky fish teeth smiling at me. True story.”