Free Cruise to Murder (Z & C Mysteries, #2) by Zoey Kane, Claire Kane

including the friend of Larry or the waiters.”
    “What is there about that pin that makes everyone want it? !” Claire asked. “Do you remember what it looked like? It had an island-looking house and a well, with the words ‘Go the second mile.’”
    “Yes, I can tell you every detail. I’ve looked it over well enough. Look it up on your phone’s Internet. It looked like it could have been carved bone or shell.”
    Claire pulled out her cell phone and began typing and moving images on the screen. “So far there is nothing that even remotely is the same as that design.”
    “I want to go back to the cave again,” said Zo. “Everything happens in that cave. Well, except for the blondes; and, yet, one of them was found down in the ocean. It all seems to go back to the cave.”
    “We still have the afternoon. Let’s you and I go back and look together, and really analyze that place.” Claire signaled for their server.
    “The bill has been taken care of , including the tip, ma’am,” the waiter informed.
     
    They asked the cabby to drop them off at the area where they went down to the beach and found Mrs. Belmont. They would walk from there toward the Koona Caves.
    “I don’t know what we are looking for , sweetie, so look at everything.”
    “I’ve got my best smooth-ray sunglasses on , so everything will be clear. Nothing will escape my eyes, even to a can bobbing in the ocean.”
    As they walked and walked toward the caves, they n oticed what people were wearing—or barely wearing—in sun and swim get-ups. There were boats near and far, lots and lots of footprinted sand and as they got close to the caves, they heard insistent barks and snarls of a nearby dog.
    “It sounds like a dog fight. It’s coming from way up there.” Claire started walking up a thin trail, to where an excluded beach house was perched behind the top of the caves.
    “Do you hear the viciousness in that dog’s bark and growl? What are you doing?!”
    “I just want to make sure that there is no one in trouble.”
    As Claire stood at the top of the hill, she waved her mother up. “Mother, you have got to see this.”
    When Zo reached the top, Claire was surprised that in spite of the dog’s maniacal barks, her mother’s eyes were fixed somewhere else. “What are you looking at?”
    “That is the picture on my pin!”
    The big, black, curly -haired dog was now in a frenzy behind a tall rail fence. He couldn’t quite push his head through, although he was trying. It pulled his eyelids back to slits, as his teeth flashed like a spiky bear trap chomping and drooling at them.
    The two walked up closer toward the property (and by extension, the dog). Zo, when close enough, began to speak to the dog in a high pitch, toddlerish tone. “Who’s a cutie? Oh, yes, a little pooky poo, babykins. You little cooty-cooty, sweetums!”
    The dog stopped moving and snarling a moment to look at Zo with a look of disbelief across his eyes. Then he took a couple of steps back and leaned forward again. Hair standing up on his back, he growled while gnashing his fangs, throwing spit.
    The duo stood with hands on hips , looking at the dog, when he suddenly exploded into flames.
    “What the…?” Zo’s mouth dropped open.
    Neither one of them had found words yet as they looked at each other and then at the remains of the dog. Amidst the smoke and ash was a collar.
    “Mom, you really ticked that dog off!”
    “He did seem to have anger management problems,” she agreed, then began to laugh.
    “It’s too bad that Butch isn’t here to see this.” Claire began to laugh, too; maybe because of nerves from the bizarre incident.
    The laughter was getting higher and higher, where it was hard for either of them to say their words.
    “I don’t think he could take any more, heee’d probably have a heart attack. Aghaha ha.” They were wiping away tears and bending over in laugh-weakness.
    “ Should we… tell him?”
    In an exceedingly high