“Correct.” She took an envelope from her purse and handed it to him. “Here’s eight hundred dollars as a deposit.”

Mickey counted the cash and then turned to Wahoo. “Son, go show this fine lady whatever she wants to see.”

Because it was going to be an Everglades show, Raven Stark was keenly interested in Alice the alligator. Wahoo led her to the pond and unlocked the gate.

Raven whistled. “That’s a monster, eh?”

“Twelve feet,” said Wahoo.

“How much?”

“One hundred and fifty dollars a foot, so that’s…”

“Eighteen hundred even,” Raven said. “No problem.”

Wahoo couldn’t wait to tell his father.

“Do you have another one that’s smaller?” asked Raven.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Something Derek could wrestle?”

“Wrestle?”

“Maybe a four-footer,” Raven said. “Five feet, max.”

“I’ll have to check with Pop.” Wahoo foresaw trouble. His father didn’t like anybody messing with the animals.

“Where are your pythons?” Raven asked.

Wahoo led her to the heavy glass tanks where the constrictors were kept. South Florida had become infested with huge exotic snakes that, like the iguanas, had been imported for the pet trade. Hurricane Andrew had blown apart several large reptile farms and scattered baby pythons and boa constrictors all over the place.

“Derek wants a beast,” Raven stated.

Wahoo showed her a fourteen-footer that had been captured while devouring an opossum in a Dumpster behind the Dadeland Mall. The man who’d found the snake was supposed to turn it over to state game officers, but instead he’d sold it to Mickey Cray for three hundred bucks.

Raven agreed it was an impressive specimen. “But can he be handled safely?”

“It’s a she,” Wahoo said, “and she’s a biter.”

“Oh.”