The Black Heart Crypt

At Aunt Ginny’s request, Zack and Judy rode in the back of the ambulance with her and the paramedic who had bandaged her shoulder wound.

A police car carrying Aunts Hannah and Sophie was right behind them.

“Do I look like a scuba diver, Zack?” asked Aunt Ginny, her voice weak. She had an oxygen tube stuck up her nostrils.

Zack smiled. “Sort of.”

“Good. I always wanted to go scuba diving.”

“Ma’am?” said the paramedic, who was holding her wrist, checking her pulse. “You need to take it easy, okay?”

“Yes, dear. Of course.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Judy?”

“Yes?”

“Take my purse.” She gestured toward the bulging carpetbag.

“I’ll keep an eye on it for you.”

“No. You need to take my place.”

“But …”

“The circle must number three, Judy. You, Sophie, and Hannah.”

Judy nodded. She understood.

“Everything you need is in that bag.”

Aunt Ginny was wheezing now.

“Zack?” He had to lean down to hear her.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“This is why I tricked you and your friends into opening the black heart stone: I knew that I, and my sisters, would one day die, that our confinement spell would then be broken. The Icklebys would escape.… I ’m sorry … I …”

“Okay,” said Judy, touching Zack on his back. “Let Ginny rest, hon.”

Aunt Ginny closed her eyes.

Motion in the front of the ambulance caught Zack’s attention.

Grandpa Jim! Sitting in the passenger seat.

“Shhh,” he said. “Don’t let on you can see and hear me. Ginny and Judy can’t, because I don’t want them to.”

Zack budged his eyebrows up half a millimeter to ask Grandpa Jim what he was doing there.

“You’ve got to find that black heart stone, champ. You need to finish what Ginny started. Listen to what your mother told you.”

Zack still had no idea what Grandpa Jim was talking about.

“Remember everything she said. Everything!”

“Zack?” It was Judy.

“Yeah?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just worried about Aunt Ginny.”

“She’s very lucky,” said the paramedic. “The bullet went clean through her shoulder.”

Zack looked back to the front seat to check out Grandpa Jim’s reaction to the good news.

Only he was gone.

Leaving Zack to wonder: What had his mother said that could help him find the stone?