Hexes and X's (Z&C Mysteries, #3) Read Online Free

bottles, a tube of toothpaste and a hairbrush. Similar to a builder’s blue print, it showed different levels of the old building. They snacked while walking around the table, not touching anything except to take bites or sips. X’s were inked over four areas—areas hidden in the bowels of the monstrous house. Then there was the lone X in their very bedroom.
    “What do you make of it, Claire dear? Five X’s—one being here?”
    “That is puzzling.” They took a quick scan of their lovely room from their posted positions. “The X’s indicate something all these places have in common, right? Something to find, maybe? Like treasure?”
    “Or clues,” Zo said. “What else does the map show us?”
    “Well, look. There is the picture of the key… and the room under the captain’s walk.”
    “That attic Matilda took us through?”
    “Yes, yes.”
    Zo took a drink of her hot chocolate. “I’ve got that much. This key and the finger have to be serious clues. We need to ask ourselves why somebody was going around with nine fingers so the missing digit could be attached to this map.”
    “You said map.”
    “Did I? Okay.” Zo cocked a brow in interest. “That must be what my subconscious is telling me. This is a map. Perhaps we need to follow the X’s in some order.”
    After walking a circle around the sketch again, Claire noted, “So there is an X in the attic. It looks like it’s the only entryway to get to the other, hidden areas. I think we need to go back up there in the morning and check out what that X could mean.”
    Zo nodded, then felt the soft edge at the top of the map. “It looks torn here. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re missing some important information!”
    A sudden loud clacking vibrated through the high-ceilinged foyer, reverberating up through their bedroom walls. “What on earth?” Zo pressed a hand to her chest. “Is the building falling down?”
    “I think it’s a door knocker, Mom.”

     
     
     
    FOUR
     
    They both headed for the front door, wondering who would be on the other side.
    It was Slobber.
    “So you are here, my beloved,” he said to Claire. “I can’t come in for any kisses.” He tipped his soiled baseball cap at Zo with a “Hello, ma’am,” and continued, “I’m jus’ here to warn you the little round woman is after you. She bein’ my unbetrothed, ’cause I never did say I would marry up with her.”
    Claire quirked her brows at him. “Okay, and what can I expect from that? A yelling at, in public? She’s going to try and slap me? …Slash my tires?”
    “Nothing so sweet as that, my darlin’. That there is Patricia Bule, close friend to Cindy—the scariest psycho-witch in this state.”
    “Are you referring to Cynthia, the ‘evil hag ’?” asked Zo.
    “Ha heh ha,” snorted Slobber. “You called her a hag. Oh, dang! Good one.” His shoulders moved up and down on his thin frame and he lifted a leg as he choked out his laughter. “Wait till she hears that one.” But then, with another thought, he raised an oil-dirty hand and said seriously, “I won’t tell. I won’t tell. I gotta go. I’ll probably get killed, my beloved,” he said, turning to Claire again, and then he ran toward a rusty pickup.
    “You are so brave, Slobber!” Claire extended a hand in his direction, dramatically calling after him.
    “Oh, good! We’ve made friends with a Malevolent Society, daughter.”
    “I like that Slobber,” Claire emphasized.
    “A good man is hard to find in a haystack.”
    “True words, Mother. Too bad I don’t want to live in a haystack.”
    “And, what are the chances I could rent the one next to you?”
    “Yeah. It won’t work.”
    Zo put a sympathetic arm around Claire’s shoulders as they began their climb up the stairs. “It is better to find these things out early.”
    *
    They unpacked their bags, took showers, said a prayer together for the preacher’s wife and for protection from Pat and Cynthia, then climbed into their