A Deadly Compulsion (33 page)

“How do you imagine it could have turned up here?” Joe said.

Both Beverley and Jason shook their heads.  “God knows,” Beverley said.  “Maybe someone in the building was keeping it illegally.  It could have escaped and found its way into the air-conditioning ducts, or into a wall space.”

“That’s all we need.  What will it do?”  Joe asked.

“Spend most of its time in hiding,” Jason said.  “All snakes are cold-blooded and carnivorous.  It will need warmth, and will hunt mice and rats.”

“We suspect that the apartment was broken into,” Joe said.  “So I think that if there was an intruder, he brought it with him.”

“You believe that someone used a venomous snake as a lethal weapon?”  Beverley said.

Joe shrugged.  “Maybe.  And I’d like to believe that the snake was taken back where it came from.  The worst case scenario is that it’s still on the loose.”

Beverley nodded in agreement.  “We’ll search the place, just in case it’s having forty winks down the back of a settee or under the bed.”

“Thanks,” Joe said.  And to Jerry, “Arrange a door-to-door, Jer.  I want uniforms to gain entry to every apartment and look for anything that might have been used to house a critter like this in.”

“If your lab people have any problems identifying the venom, then have them send us a blood sample,” Beverley said.

“I appreciate that,” Joe said, before nodding to Nat, who called in two assistants that were standing by with a body bag, eager to get the late and not lamented remains of Gerald Palmer zipped up and off the premises post-haste.

“Do you have one of these taipans in captivity?” Joe asked Beverley.

“No.  We have very few venomous individuals.  But I’ve got video footage and photographs of one.”

“Would it be possible for me to see them?”

“Uh, yes.  When?”

“How does later today sound?”

“Fine.  Can you make it around three-ish?”

“Yeah.  I’ll look forward to it,” Joe said, shaking her hand again, holding it even longer than the first time, reluctant to let go.  There was some kind of magnetism.

“Come to the reptile house, and I’ll give you a behind the scenes, hands-on tour,” Beverley said, experiencing what felt like a mild electric current passing between them both, which was only broken as the enigmatic cop finally released his grip on her hand.  Accompanied by Jason, Beverley searched the apartment, but found no trace of the snake, and so left the building and drove back to the zoo.

“Good boy,” Lucas said, returning the snake to its vivarium and watching as it slithered over the sand to take cover under a curved section of cork bark.  Closing the lid and latching it, he went across the basement to where he kept his supply of live food in a row of cages against the far wall.  Selecting a plump young rat, he gripped it tightly with a pair of long-handled pincers, unconcerned as the sharp steel jaws punctured the bristling body.  He then returned to the taipan’s vivarium, unfastened and raised the lid again and held the squirming, squeaking rodent at the entrance of the bark tunnel.

The strike was far too quick to see clearly, and within seconds the terrified rat fell onto its side.  Lucas never tired of being a spectator to the process of life and death, as nature – with in this case a little helping hand from him –took its course.

The taipan enveloped the rat’s head with its mouth, and then partially dislocated its jaws to accommodate the warm, comatose morsel.  As always, Lucas watched in glee, excited by the performance.  His breathing quickened as the primeval act sexually aroused him.  And not until the pink back feet vanished to leave just the long tail as evidence of what had taken place, did he move off, to walk along the aisle of glass-fronted vivaria, contemplating which Ophidian to employ as his next assassin.

If you enjoyed these sample chapters, then you can continue reading The Snake Pit in the
Amazon Bookstore
.