Snakes writhed in a wicker basket and the blood that dripped down from a hole in the ceiling only incensed them and made them bite more. A boy, Candit, reached in to touch the human body that was curled under the snakes but they struck at him and he withdrew his hand just in time. There were some footsteps upstairs- heavy boots, it must be Carmen stomping around- looking for more soldiers to kill. Candit stared into the basket, keeping his distance from the snakes, trying to see if the girl in there was dead or just hiding. There was the thunder of large boots stamping down the steps and Carmen was in the room, a towering giant, with a torch in one hand. He looked around, not seeing Candit cowering by the basket. He swung his torch this way and that, kicking a few of the corpses that lay crumpled and maimed on the floor. He went and stood silhouetted in front of the window, staring out at the snowy fields blue in the dusk.

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The stream flowed from one end of the wood to the other, rushing over rocks, slowing down in a few areas where it widened to allow a little black fish to swim around. They floated in one place and then darted back and forth. Some crayfish hid under the rocks. The cops had wading boots on and smoked cigarettes which they tossed directly into the stream when the butts became too short to smoke any more. The cops were looking for something in the stream-bed, poking around in the water with long sticks with hooks on the end. After several hours of not finding anything except a brassiere and a condom, both unrelated to the case, they stood and sat on the bank, smoking, and Martin passed a flask of whiskey around. “What day you say the wedding was?” Martin asked Pike. “September 30th,” Pike answered.

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Marla stood in front of the mirror, combing her hair. She had no makeup on but her lips stained slightly in the corners when she sipped her wine. Her cell phone rang. “I’m still up here,” she said into the phone. “Give me one second.” She set down the brush on the dresser and watched herself sip the red wine in the mirror. She pulled open a drawer in the dresser. There were two strange, curved daggers hidden under her lingerie and she took these out. They fit in her purse with the handles sticking out.

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