Chapter 22: The Branding House
August 21, 20—
7:49 P.M.
Downtown West Stockton
The Branding House was located on Stafford Street in downtown West Stockton. It was approximately seven blocks from my agency. The brick building was three stories high, looked uninhabited, and lacking eye-appeal. A few bricks were missing from its structure and some of its windows were boarded over. I pushed through a steel door, entered a foyer with a metal stairwell going up and down. I chose up, reached the second floor, and pushed through another steel door.
What opened before me was nothing at all cheap and unglamorous. The Branding House was a giant studio filled with reflective mirrors, glass walls, and spirals of aluminum and tin. The vast room had to be three hundred feet long, and just as wide. I
