Hexes and X's (Z&C Mysteries, #3) by Zoey Kane, Claire Kane Page B

of an arm, grabbed the flashlight from her daughter, and rubbed goop off the lens as much as she could before turning it on. Just as they suspected—it shone on a river of sewage, going over a cliff into a fall. She flashed the light around and stopped on another tunnel going off to the right. They stood awhile, considering their only options.
    Zo pointed at herself and then made walking movements with two grimy fingers, motioning that she would take a closer look. She also motioned for Claire to stay put.
    Zo worked her way over and found out it wasn’t a tunnel—just a narrow debit in the wall that went back a ways. When flashing her light around to get a better look of the cranny, she spotted something unusual. In closer inspection, it turned out to be an oilskin pouch crammed into a crack. She pulled at the string to open it. Her eyes widened in delight through the goop on her face, and she tucked her find right away into a bra strap.
    When she got back, she took her daughter’s hand and traced the letters f-o-l-l-o-w t-h-e h-e-x: p-o-o-p. Zo tapped carefully at the bottom of the river floor with the hook-stick for firm footing as she inched up to the edge of the fall. Then she backed up and pushed herself forward as fast as she could, leaping off.
    “NO!” Claire screamed out in fear
    “Run and leap off the falls. It’s safe!” Zo’s voice trailed up to her, followed by a fit of spitting and coughing.
    First shaking her head, Claire ran and took a leap of faith off the falls. She ended up in a roll on a slimy floor. The sewage spilled down a large grate behind her. The stink was horrible. The mist from the river filled the air with methane, making it even harder to breath.
    Zo took Claire’s hand and pulled her into a run while carrying the walking stick under her arm and the flashlight in her other hand. After a couple of turns they could see a dim down-light which illuminated another “squeegee” door. They passed through it with hope, only to find another squeegee door. After passing through that one, they were standing at two flights of stairs up. They went up them because there was nothing left to do.
    At the top , a door stood before them. They leaned their stick and hook against a corner.
    “Give me your key, Claire.”
    Claire reached into her sweater at the neck and pulled out the now grimy thing. Zo pushed the end into the slot and the door dragged slowly open. At the same time the lights blinked several times and all kinds of mechanisms could be heard sounding and rumbling. It was scary because the two didn’t know what to expect. They found a ball rolling at them—a bowling ball. They had entered behind the bowling alley’s lanes; there were two. The duo had to duck the blast of pins from a strike.
    When they stepped forward, through to the other side and between the lanes, a crowd “Ohhh’d.” Different questions were being asked at once: “What is it?” “What is going on?” “Who are they?”
    Zo’s response was, “I realize Claire and I look like slimy versions of The Grinch in this unfortunate filth.”
    “Yes. Get away!” a lady councilor spoke loudly. “I mean, go shower!”
    “Yes. Go clean up and then come back and tell us what you have been up to,” ordered Judge Huff.
    Debbie, the Coven House nurse, came running with plastic bags from behind the refreshment counter. After the two had their feet tied with plastic-bag slippers, Debbie took them back to the mud porch where there was a hand-held shower. She supplied two new bars of soap, shampoo, conditioner, brought large bath towels, two terry robes and slippers. “We keep these in case we get unexpected guests. You don’t mind if I put your clothes in a plastic bag and just… throw them away?” she asked, putting on latex gloves. “You guys stink!”
    “First, let me have that flowerpot right there,” Zo said. “I have a couple of things that need to be washed for examination.”
    Debbie carefully handed the