Page 26 of Vortex

“You know what? My mistake, Pres said if I saw you to send you right in. He even told me to leave the door open for you.” I look at Bank’s office door and knock. When he says ‘enter’ I walk in, leave the door open and put a finger to my lips to silence him.

It is a matter of seconds before we both hear Cannon’s voice boom out. “For fuck’s sake! What the fuck is that stench? Jesus Christ and all that’s holy!” This is followed by coughing, gagging, and retching.

“Shut the door quick. I don’t want any of that creeping in here,” Bank says. “I smelled that when I came to my office earlier, but didn’t know where it was coming from. What is it?”

“That putrid odor is coming from our president. More accurately from our Pres’s ass. He says he has a sickly stomach, but I think he has gangrene somewhere inside him. Maybe even a gangrenous, decomposing skunk. If he dies from it, I suggest we don’t cremate him. He could destroy a city block if a naked flame got to that.”

“Wow. You should go have a shower and burn those clothes. I can still smell it on you. Get out of here before you pollute my air any further.” Bank looks at me with his nose turned up, and I don’t think he’s joking.

“Just a quick question and then I’ll go. Would you, or the club, be able to help Allegra and me with the purchase of the ranch from Silas? Things being as they are, I don’t want to trust to luck that a lawyer or anyone else involved is on the payroll of Cottonwood Glades.”

“Dumbass. Of course, we’ll deal with it. Just because you don’t want to share your good fortune with the club, doesn’t mean we’ll hold it against you.” Ouch. That is a cutting remark, and I must look shocked as Bank continues, “Joking. Just yanking your chain. Now get out and take that godawful smell with you.”

I just reach the rec room, on my way to shower and burn my clothes because Bank may be right, when Cannon rushes past and grabs me, dragging me with him.

“Vortex, you’re with me.“

Rushing out, he points to his truck, and I only just have my ass on the passenger seat when he takes off. I flinch as I think he’s going to drive right through the gate, but it slides open wide enough for us to navigate safely.

“Where are we going?” I ask him.

“The pet crem. Prophet has just opened the place up and he’s found a dead body,” Cannon answers.

I want to say, ‘Isn’t it normal for a crematorium to have dead bodies?’ But by the look on Cannon’s face, this isn’t something normal.

Arriving at the pet crem’s rear parking lot, we see that a police cruiser and Jamie’s pickup are already here. Now I’m truly intrigued.

Walking into the rear of the building, we see Prophet, Jamie, and Twang, or should I call him Officer Tanner in this scenario, kneeling by a blanket covering something.

Cannon reaches them before I do and asks the obvious question. “What happened, Prophet?”

“I got nothing to add, Cannon, it’s like I told Pres. I opened up as usual, walked into the back here, and this guy was just laid here. That’s it. That’s all I got about this guy. There’s a fuel can outside the rear door, but no vehicle anywhere nearby. The rear door lock has been picked and the security system was deactivated. I wondered why when I opened up, but I didn’t lock up last night, so was going to ask Zion what he was playing at.” Prophet then shrugs.

Twang goes through the guy's pockets but finds no ID or wallet. Cannon turns his attention to Jamie. “How did he die, Doc?”

“He died of asphyxiation as far as I can tell from a quick examination, but he didn’t choke and he wasn’t strangled.” She stands up and looks at all of us, as we look blankly back at her.

“If he didn’t choke and wasn’t strangled, then how did he die of asphyxiation? Gas?”

“I’d say he met Percy. He has puncture wounds that look like bite marks on his leg. He has bruising around his body that, although I’m no expert, I would say matches the coils of an enormous snake, and he has classic signs of cyanosis. His face is enlarged, which would indicate extreme vascular pressure.” She looks at us one at a time and then adds, “You can shut your mouths now boys.”

Mine snaps shut with a loud click as my teeth crack against each other. Percy killed the stupid ass?

“So, what do we think happened?” I ask no one in particular, but Twang answers.

“I’d say that someone wants the land next door, that you apparently own but they’ve paid someone for, so they sent this dumbass to torch the place. It seems he was good at getting in unnoticed by the technical side of things but wasn’t much good in zoology. He must have disturbed Percy during one of his nocturnal wanderings and got too close, or maybe stepped on him. Percy did what Percy does, and hey presto. This is the result. Hell, if he had a taste for humans, we might not have known where the gas can came from or what had gone down here at all.”

Prophet looks shaken, and I don’t blame him when I realize what he is pointing out. “I can tell you one thing, Cannon. While ever Percy is loose and roaming free, we should not be opening or closing this place alone from now on.”

“What do we do with this sorry son of a bitch now? Report the break-in or just get rid of the body and mum’s the word?” I’m surprised that this is Jamie talking. I wouldn’t have thought she’d want to keep quiet about this sort of thing in her line of work. “They’ll already know he fucked up, but not what happened. If we report it through the proper channels, they’ll know immediately. If he disappears, we keep them guessing.”

“I say we put him in the furnace and be done with it. Then we find something as a reward for Percy. He done good, the old boy.” As I say this my phone rings, and I see it’s Ghost.

“Yeah, Ghost. What’s up, man?”

“We’ve had visitors. You might want to get here fast.” The call ends, and I grab Cannon.

“We need to get to the ranch fast. They’ve had visitors. That’s all Ghost said.” With that, we run for his truck.