Hexes and X's (Z&C Mysteries, #3) (8 page)

So all the claimants were seated, waiting for Judge Huff to call things to order. He had a stack of papers on his desk, and everyone else sat in rows of chairs, some in over-stuffed comfy ones. “Matilda Dread, please step forward,” he finally looked over his glasses and called.

Heads turned, and eyes scanned the library. There was no Matilda Dread. “If she doesn’t come in the next five minutes, we will have to start without her. And she is the extraordinary claim by right. Such a pity.”

The irascible Judy came in with a sealed envelope on a silver tray. It read, “Give to The Kanes immediately.”

She offered it to Zo. The message inside said, “The game has begun. Now there are two to find. Their safety depends on your swift determination. NOW! Tell no one.”

“Thank you, Judy.” Zo acted cool.

The coven witch looked concerned as she took the tray and stepped away.

After Claire also read the warning, she shot her mother a look and nodded in the direction of the door. They both stood up. Claire said to the judge, “Please excuse us, Your Honor. A bit of an urgent matter. We have no claim or anything pertinent to this hearing and ask to be excused.”

“So excused, Miss Kane, and Mrs. Kane.”

A sudden cracking sound stopped everyone. A silhouette of a tree fell dangerously close to the stained glass window. Another huge cracking sound grated everyone’s nerves as the wind picked up more in strength. The judge stood. “It appears that there is a certain amount of danger to being next to a window. Especially one of this size. We will adjourn until tomorrow.”

The deputy walked into the room, as everyone collected their things and their wits. “We have a category one storm. It is not safe on the roads. Everyone will please find shelter in the bowling alley located on the left side of the stairs. There are no windows there.”

“I need to call home,” someone was heard to say.

“I hope you have better luck. My phone gets no reception,” answered another.

Cynthia walked by the Kanes as they stopped and talked about the storm with Mr. Kendaloaf. “Oops!” she commented coolly to the trio. “Did I do all this?”

“Not on your tintype, blondie,” Zo
answered.

The witch stuck her nose up in the air and started off in a huff. But, before she went through the door, she turned and said, her eyes having large, deep, black holes for pupils in penetrating blue eyes, “You’ll see.”

“You two have made an awful enemy,” said Mr. Kendaloaf.

“Mom will see who blinks first. Won’tcha, Mom?!”

“I’ve got to join my clients,” he said with a smile and departed.

“Let’s get up to the attic, Mom. I take that note seriously.”

TEN

The winding iron staircase “thunged” with each step as they ran up it to the top. On entering the attic, the fury and sound of branches and things hitting the roof and house was amplified. The rain sounded like a constant drum roll. Zo asked, “What stands out to you at this moment?”

“There is another set of long marks on the floor going over to where the X is.”

“I get it now. You know what caused those marks?”

“I think so, Mom. Those are drag marks from shoes.”

“Right you are. Could it be… we are right about where Matilda went? And, for that matter, Jack?”

“Oh, man! My heart just leaped.”

“Okay, we brought a flashlight and my .22. Your cell phone is not going to be able to call out in this colossal storm. Well, no point in postponing any further. Move the box to see the X. Let’s see what we are up against.”

“We have been kneeling at this spot for five minutes. My fingernails don’t find a place to lift. I don’t see anything.”

“The only thing that is at all different here is that little mar right there, dear.” Zo took a hairpin from her hair. “Do you know that I once fixed a car with a hammer and a hairpin?”

Claire said, “So tell me…”

“Well, I owned a little blue Sunbeam convertible. The battery was behind the front seats under the bench. My car wasn’t starting, so I lifted the bench to look at the battery.” Zo began to brush the dirty floor with a hand. “The battery cables were a little corroded and there was not much of a connection between the battery and cable. Well, I took out a bobby pin and went and got a hammer. There was a man standing on the porch of the apartment above mine.” Debris and dust painted her palms black, as the mar revealed little slits. “‘Car not working, huh?’ he said to me, and I said, ‘Yes, but I’m going to fix it’ and waved my hammer. This was amusing to him.

“So I got into the back, stuck my bobby pin between the battery and the cable thing that went around the posts, hammered it to wedge
it secure, closed the bench, got in the driver’s seat, turned the key to a hum of the engine and drove off.

“Look! Give me the silver skeleton key.”

Claire passed it to her, and Zo took the end of the key and pushed it in and a square of the floor dropped and swung under. “Spring lock. It looks awfully black down there. Shine your flashlight.”

“There is a metal ladder down right there.” Claire shined a light to show. “It looks like a floor at the bottom.”

“Okay, we can take this one obstacle at a time. If we don’t like it we will come back up.”

Claire agreed. “I better not find a lot of spiders down here,” she warned. “The lives of Jack and Matilda will lose importance if I do.” She started down the ladder.

Zo could see the light being flashed around down in the hole. “Okay, Mom. You can come down. It seems harmless enough, so far.”

Zo landed, with dust puffing around her red tennies. A chain hung to the side of a door before them.

“Are we going to trust what is too obvious, Mom?”

“The only thing I see for a clue is that there are intermittent footprints in all of this debris that go right up to that entry. So that is the way.”

“Okay, but jump back out of the way of the hatch because we don’t know what will happen,” Claire cautioned.

Zo moved back against the ladder. Claire pulled the chain and then ran to stand with her mom, watching breathlessly. The metal door swung open; nothing else happened. They were looking at each other with some confidence when they heard movement above them. They looked up to see the floor of the attic swing back into place leaving their surroundings without light except for the flash light. Claire ran up the ladder, the glow of the flashlight around her and tried to reopen the door. There was no way.

“Finder beware.” Zo recalled the message on antique paper. “It looks like we have no choice, but to go forward.” Zo headed for the opened hatch door. “There is writing engraved on the rim here, now that it is opened to see.” Claire shined the light on it. It said, “Mother may I? Seven X’s Forward–Freedom.”

Zo, took the flashlight, leaned down cautiously, and stepped through. “I’m okay. You can come through.” Once Claire was standing with her, looking around at what looked like a tunnel of a wood shored mine shaft she said, “I hope you’ve got our Exes map.”

“Yes. Right here.” Claire reached into the back pocket of her black slender-fit jeans. “It looks like the next room has another X.”

“We have no choice. We’re locked in. Seven X’s Forward–Freedom.”

“Seven—not five?”

“Hmmm, though there are five X’s on your map, this sign tells us there are seven. That is puzzling.”

“Maybe it has to do with what’s been torn off the map?”

“Could be.” Zo mulled that over a moment, before her attention was caught by a stick leaning against the wall of the tunnel, somewhat blending with the wood beams. She pointed her flashlight at it. Everything smelled like old, damp wood. Even the floor was made of wooden planks.

Claire walked over to the object, but didn’t touch it. “We have to remember, Mother, that we are in a game,” she said with great soberness. “Anything could be a trap, even with death as a consequence.” The two stood looking over the piece of wood leaning against the tunnel wall.

“It looks like a walking stick, since it actually has some carving at the top
,” surmised Zo.

“Yes, that is what I would think—ordinarily. I trust nothing. In fact this tunnel can change at any place.”

“Keep your eyes open for movement and be ready to leap in any direction. This object was placed here for a reason—for the game.” Zo reached forward a hand ready to take hold. Then she looked at Claire in the eyes to determine readiness. Claire nodded. Zo grabbed the five-foot, tapered pole, then they both looked around wildly. Nothing happened.

“Here’s your flashlight
, keep us lighted up ahead with as much floor to ceiling light that is possible.”

They walked carefully along, looking everything over and shortly reached an opening. They stopped and shined the light all around. “Up there!” Claire pointed. “It looks like a switch of some kind.” It seemed to be a switch plate high above the door. “Too high to reach.”

“Not if you have a tall walking stick.” Zo pushed the head of the pole under the switch and up. Lights blinked on. “Well, there is our reward and we have made it through one level. I’m pretty sure we are about to enter another, going through that opening.” The two of them stared at it wishing they didn’t have to.

“Okay, off we go. Me first,” Zo said.

Having walked through, with Claire close behind, Zo continued down the tunnel until it took a sharp turn to the left. They walked several more feet, and it sharply turned to the right where a cave-like opening gaped open at them.

“Point your flashlight right in there,” Zo said. “Watch the floor on your way over. I don’t know if there is a booby-trap there. Still, in a true game, there will always be some sort of clue for a warning or it would be no fun for the good or the wicked perpetrator. That is my theory anyway.”

“My theory is, anything goes, Mom.”

“Yeah, and then there’s that.”

Zo used the walking stick to test the floor all the way over to the dark cavern. When Claire flashed the light in, they were shocked to see three forms, two behind bars. One stood headless just outside the prison. The other two were lying on the cell floor, looking like square-headed rag dolls.

One of the dolls moved its raggy head. At that Zo called in, “What goes here?!”

Claire added, “And what is Millicent doing here?”

“Claire?” a man’s voice trembled, as the doll raised its squared head.

Claire looked around to see if anyone threatening was coming up behind them, afraid she and her mom could end up in a like situation. “Jack? Is that you?”

“Yes!” The weak voice continued, “I’d say run for your life but… everything is a trap.”

“Help!” the other voice whimpered.

“Can you roll this way to the bars? I will untie you and remove those gunnysack bags off your heads.” Zo wondered how they could breathe with those things tied at their necks.

Jack didn’t move, but the other prisoner rocked into a roll until the bars were reached.

Zo bent down and reached through the bars and tried to untie the rope around the neck to pull the bag off. It wasn’t easy. After wrenching it a while side to side to loosen the knot, it finally gave. “What do you want to bet this is Matilda,” she said as she pulled the burlap off over the face and hair.

Matilda’s face was dirty and marked by tear trails. “It was dreadful. I was grabbed from behind. This sack was forced over my head and then I was lifted by two people, feet and shoulders up the attic stairs, and then thrown down into a hole.”

She spoke urgently
. “I stood up eventually when I thought I was alone. I felt my way around with my hands tied behind my back and discovered Jack when I fell over him. I felt around some more and fingers found a chain. I sat down and pulled my bound hands under my rear and over my feet until they were in front of me. It was difficult over my rear, for obvious reasons. I am still limber and got the hands over my bent knees and feet. But my hands are arthritic and I couldn’t get the knot undone.”

Zo worked to undo the rope’s knots from off of Matilda’s wrists as the woman gushed forth more of her traumatic experience. “So, I pulled on the chain. I heard the overhead entrance close. There was no light. I couldn’t see anything, and then there was a whoosh and a draft of another opening.”

Tears began to roll again. Matilda asked, “Are we ever going to get out of here?”

“Yes. Yes, we will,” Claire coaxed, even though she hadn’t a clue. Zo was almost done freeing her wrists.

“So I helped Jack by letting him lean against me. We struggled a lot because of his injury until we went through another door, struggled some more till we got here, when suddenly something slammed down against the floor behind me. I felt for it, discovering it was a gate of bars. You two better be careful,” she lowered her voice. “You are our only hope to get out alive.”

“Jack, aren’t you going to roll over here?” Claire asked, wondering what the holdup was.

“Too sick,” came the whisper of a hoarse, stressed voice. “I think… I think I broke,” a hard swallow interrupted his words, “… broke my leg at the thigh.”

Zo, Claire and Matilda looked him over with the help of the flashlight. Blood was soaking out his pant leg and there was a deep stench of urine from a stain down his trousers.