“Over here, in the trees!” John said.
Handley and Young Anson came through the trees and stopped beside the others.
Randall pointed at the large pot and said, “Soup’s on.”
The young boys’ eyes bulged like they had swallowed golf balls.
Randall winked at them, “It’s cop humor, how we deal with bad stuff. You two understand, right?”
They looked at each other, then nodded and tried to hide their grins, as if they just heard something naughty.
Young Anson asked everyone to let him look first. He walked the perimeter, checking each painting, each hanging figure, and the rattlesnake, then worked his way to the center fire in an ever-decreasing pattern. He checked the head in the pot last, then rejoined John and Randall and said, “This is dark magic, the first one I’ve seen outside my home country that is organized in this way.”
“What’s it for?” Randall asked.
Young looked at the clearing again, “this is incomplete, but it is to build power. Power that will be used against their enemies.”
John asked, “How’s it incomplete?”
“For one, the skull isn’t clean. This was stopped before they finished the process.”
Randall asked, “Why didn’t they use acid or something else to clean it? That would have been faster.”
“Boiling increases the finished skull’s power. Acid leaves the bones clean, but the surface is not as smooth. Unless I miss my guess, there will be several plants that were in the water to help make the ceremony stronger.”
“You said, ‘for one thing’, what else besides the skull is incomplete?”
“I’m not exactly sure. There are several possibilities. It could be that they simply didn’t finish with this site.”
They all heard an approaching car, then car doors closing after it parked with the others. Hunter yelled, “You guys here?”
“In the trees!”
As they approached through the trees and neared the clearing, Ariel slowed. Hunter said, “What’s the matter?”
She shook her head, but continued forward. When all three stepped into the clearing, Ariel said, “We should not stay here. This is a bad place.”
Hunter said, “You can wait in the car if you want.”
“No.” She stayed with Andre and Hunter as they joined the others.
The two young boys gawked at Hunter and Ariel, and Randall said to the women, “Looks like you two have some new fans.”
John said, “Young’s been checking this out, and we’ve got a human head in the pot over there.”
Andre said, “Where’s the body?”
“Don’t know. We’ve looked over every inch of this place.”
Ariel knelt on one knee, looking at the carpet of leaves.
Hunter frowned and made a circle around the perimeter. Randall asked, “What is it?”
“This is not right.” Hunter said.
“What’s not right?”
“The leaves are too evenly spread, too neat.”