Disturbed Earth (Ritual Crime Unit Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

with when you don’t.”
    She straightened up, beginning to get a crick in the neck from watching the excavation. “All right,” she said. “Let’s see what’s going on with this search.”
     
     
    F ULL EXPLORATION OF the site, or at least as wide a region as it was feasible to search, uncovered a total of three skulls, arranged in a triangle. The locations were interesting, one tucked away under the trees, the third one close to the base of the dry stone wall. Awkward places to dig, not the nice convenient patch of open ground that you’d pick if you were free to site your ritual anywhere you chose. It suggested that the arrangement had some significance, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was tied to the field itself or the people who owned it or lived nearby.
    Magic. Always more questions than answers.
    Pierce watched enough of the excavation of the final skull to confirm it matched the others, and then went to join Dawson. He’d moved away from the rest of the group to make a phone call, but as she approached, he lowered the phone from his mouth and pocketed it. She tried not to give in to the momentary flash of paranoia. No reason to think he’d been talking about her, and even less to assume it was more than bitching about the boss being back if he had.
    “So what’s your plan from here?” she asked, careful to take less of an assessing tone than she had with Taylor. She didn’t need to be at war with her DI, especially since he’d had weeks to establish his claim on the loyalties of the two new constables she’d barely met.
    “I’m treating this as a potentially serious ritual curse,” he said. “We need to learn more about these skulls before we try to move them. I’ve called in a necromancer—”
    “A necromancer? Who?” In Pierce’s experience, those who claimed they had an affinity for raising the dead were either fakes, or worse, the kind of dangerous dabblers who knew just enough to get a result but not what to do next.
    Dawson’s eyes narrowed fractionally at the challenge. “Man called Martin Vyner. He’s a local.”
    “Never heard of him.” She frowned.
    “No? Well, you’ve been out of the game for a while,” he said. The dismissive tone set her on edge.
    “Maybe—but I’ve been in it for long enough to know that trying to raise the dead rarely makes a situation better,” she said sharply. “We’ve got the site contained and there’s no immediate danger. No need to escalate things by bringing more magic into the mix.”
    “Not so sure about the lack of immediate danger,” he said. “This is no amateur effort. We need to know what we’re dealing with.”
    “And there are ways to find out without leaping straight to the nuclear option.”
    “Not quickly.” He held her gaze with a challenging stare.
    Pierce would have had plenty more to say, but the DI in charge of the local team, Bowers, was heading towards them. She made a conscious effort to relax and step back, aware that even if he wasn’t close enough to overhear, he could more than likely recognise the body language of two officers having a barney.
    As it was, Bowers seemed to have built up a head of steam of his own. “Some bloke with no police credentials just showed up at the gate saying that you called him in,” he said with a glower. “Who is he? Is he one of your lot? If you want us playing rent-a-guard while your people ponce about, the least you could do is keep us bloody informed.”
    “Outside consultant,” Dawson said. “I called him in to perform a ritual for us.”
    “He’s cleared for RCU work,” Pierce put in, and hoped Dawson wasn’t making her a liar. He must have had this bloke vetted before using him at scenes, surely.
    “Oh, is he, now?” Bowers was not appeased. “Well, maybe your work involves farting about doing rituals, but we have actual police work to get done. Forensics have done their job, or as much of it as you’ll actually let them do, so how long before we can