The Serpent and the Crow

Book 2: Chapter Thirteen

Douglas signaled to Cortez, and she pressed up against the doorway to the Redfern Mansion. Lock and Loaded. He breeched the door, and it flew off the rickety hinges as Cortez swept the corners of the room with her weapon.

He said, "Hands up."

A large man presided over another man's body. He was motionless. Although he was not a statue, he may as well have been. Douglas moved in closer as Cortez checked that the grand staircase leading to the floors above held no surprise ambush. It was clear.

"Put your hands up right now. Don't fucking try me, asshole. I'll lay you out in a casket."

The man held his hands up. Douglas saw the dead man on the floor wearing clothes suited to a janitor. It covered him in a viscous sludge tainted with the man's own blood.

"Please, don't hurt me," The man said in a childlike voice, "I discovered my buddy like this."

Cortez uses an electrical tie to bind his wrists. Douglas brushed the barrel of his shotgun into the man's scalp.

"Watch this fucker."

"Got it."

Douglas inspected the body. He saw from the flesh was missing, peeled off. The thick ooze made his nostrils twitch. Douglas wanted to hurl. Whatever transpired had happened only hours ago. His eyeballs remained open in terror. At least, that happens when a body has no eyelids.

"What the fuck happened here?" Douglas said.

"I don't know. Sweet lord. I swear on all that is good in the King James Bible. I found him like this."

Douglas noticed the branding on the janitor's overalls. He saw the same branding on the back of the dead man. It read Trepidation Zoo.

"What's your name? Stand him up, Cortez."

Douglas saw his eyes. He had seen this man before.

"My name is Braithwaite. "

"Your full name, Son?"

"Elmore Willard Braithwaite. But people call me Elmer."