The Serpent and the Crow

Book 1: Chapter Eleven

Trepidation, Arizona was once part of Solemn, but now part of New Mexico. State boundaries, and county lines, changed from time to time.

Anything could be got. It had been that way since slavery was a thing. Trafficking continued into the civil war, with guns to the confederate militia and with outlaws.

The gangsters rolled in with their barrels of hooch. The outbreak of marijuana turned to coke. Coke turned to crack. Crack turned to Meth.

Constant changing state lines, lead to all states not wholly supporting or condoning what happened in this town. Every state believed the other should police it. So, no one did. Outlaws, gangs, slavers, and smugglers, own it.

Trepidation Zoo. The design of it made it looked like it was an open safari. It looked abandoned; nature reclaimed most of it, and by the end of the year, most likely all of it.

Douglas and Wade saw a short man. He was sixty years old, with thick-rimmed glasses gripping the head of a python.

Douglas asked, "Doctor Ray Lee? Wayne Ray Lee?

The man held up a hand as if it to say wait a moment. He held a glass vial with a rubber lid. He squeezed. The snake struck and latched on to the vial. The python's fangs excreted venom. The man threw the snake back into a glass tank with difficulty. It had wrapped its body around his forearm.

Wade said, "Sorry, sir, you called us because you had..."

The man looked agitated. He said, "One moment, please."

The man held a grey mouse, squirming, pleading, frightened. The man dropped it into the glass enclosure. The python snatched it in the air. Its little legs kicked. The python's mandible stretched to accommodate the enormous mouse. Wade and Douglas shared a look of disgust.

"Did you know some snakes can eat alligators, even whole calves? Its mandible accommodates, and its body stretches. Snakes can go for a few months, even a year, without eating. It can control its metabolism to survive. In fact, snakes were like humans once, being bipedal. Pythons still have remnants, parts not discarded in the evolutionary process. I've forgotten who are you?"

The pair pulled out the detective badges. The old man motioned with his fingers, and they held their badges closer to him. He gestured again, and Wade shoved his ID right to the glasses on his head.

"Detective Derringer and I are working the Katie Harding case."

"Good Gracious, that's very sad. My condolences to the family, of course. Well, yes, Detectives. I oversaw analysing the samples Elmer bought from the coroner. Fascinating. Very fascinating indeed."

Ray held up a vile with a hatchling. He said, "Gentleman. Do you know what this is?"

Wade and Douglas responded, "A snake?"

"Gez, you are detectives. Have you ever seen one like this? I'm telling in all the years working in different countries I have never seen any hatchling or grown snake that resembles this?"

Douglas said, "So why are we here?"

"The Diamond head, that ain't a Diamond head, that you blew apart it, it had something on it. Snakes do not have eyelids, but they have a thin layer of skin. A delicate tissue, almost like scales that protect the eye. Forensics lifted from it A left-index print. I have made a match. I gave my results to the other Detectives."

Wade said, "What other detectives?"