Sergeant Rocky La Roche, Jake’s Marine sergeant in Vietnam, shows up at Van’s 1885 Bar and Grill in the tiny town of Naches, Washington looking for Jake Gunderson. Jake looks up from his lunch and the two men make contact, shed a few tears and sit together while Rocky talks to Jake..

There is a serial killer in Rocky’s town of St. Martinville, Louisiana and he wants Jake and Levi to follow him to South Louisiana to work with Sheriff LeBlanc in finding the person who is killing young town leaders. Within one year, two victims were murdered then hung by their heels from an oak tree alongside a bayou.

Marie Mascarade, proprietor of Gator Woman’s Reptile Extravaganza, becomes a person of interest along with her brother Dimitri, a giant who wrestles alligators in her reptile show. She has a Museum of Slavery on her compound and all fingers point to her vendetta against slave owners of the past.

The closer the four men come to the truth, the more evil comes to each person on the investigative team.

“She’s the opposite of a saint? She’s an evil socerer?” Jake snorted. “Getreal! Are you saying we’ve been cursed by that little woman? What is she? Some kinda witch?”

Jake Gunderson’s conversation with Sergeant Rocky La Roche