The Serpent and the Crow

Book 3: Chapter Seven

Sheriff Martinez crouched over a pool of blood on the cavern floor. He examined as if something was amiss.

"I've seen enough shotgun splatter in my time. But, where's the body?" She said.

Martinez pointed with his hands, and the blood trail led off into the darkness.

"Someone dragged the body off?"

Martinez shook his head in disagreement. He showed Jador that indeed the body had been dragged. The blood trail ended not too far down the tunnels. As if it disappeared. The detective looked around, but there was nowhere the body could have gone. It was as if the body disappeared without any more trail to follow.

Jador shone her light on the cavern walls, and it showed a tableau hidden from the water streaming down the walls. She followed the tableaux to its conclusion.

"What do you suppose that was all about?"

Martinez shrugged his shoulders. The detectives stood there for a while. Transfixed by the painting, when Martinez snatched the shotgun from Jador. Martinez shone the light from the shotgun, right at the end of the tableau. In front of the blackened hues. Jador did not seem to understand why the Sheriff was acting all squirrelly with her shotgun. Then she understood.

She had thought the painting ended with the two-shaman sacrificing the child upon the mound. However, there was a hidden tableau. It was easy to miss if you were not paying attention.

She inched closer while she examined it. She spotted a pair of eyes peering into the painting. But they were not the eyes of men. But that of a snake. Emerald in colour. It unnerved her. She did not see it the first time. Martinez pointed out that there was a second pair of snake's eyes that were faded over the years.

"Where the fuck are we?"