Ultimate Dilemma (Justice Again Book 2) by M Comley (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

it will take them to set up.” Charlie peered through the dense area ahead.

“I shouldn’t think it would be too long.”

“Hello again, ladies, nice of you to join us.” Patti startled them both by sneaking up behind them.

Katy spun around, her hand covering her chest. “Holy shit! Thanks, Patti, as if this place isn’t creepy enough already.”

“Sorry. Shall we?” Patti marched ahead, expecting them to join her.

“If I can slow my heart rate down to near normal, yes, we’ll be right with you.”

“Wuss!” Patti shouted over her right shoulder.

The SOCO technicians were organising themselves into a frenzy.

Patti needed to step in and call a halt to the proceedings before things got out of hand. “I appreciate how eager we all are to get started, but let’s stick to protocol, guys. Less haste, more speed and all that. Got it?” She turned to face Katy and Charlie and dipped a hand into her bag. She withdrew a couple of protective suits and flung them in their direction. “You know the drill, even if this does turn out to be an extremely old crime scene.”

Katy and Charlie quickly stepped into their suits and joined Patti a few feet away.

“This appears to be the right area according to the directions you gave me via you know who.” Patti winked at Katy.

Katy raised her crossed fingers and held her breath as two technicians began to dig carefully, half a shovel depth at a time.

They were thirty minutes into the dig when one of the men hit something and alerted Patti.

“All right, John, nice and slowly, scrape back the earth around the object. Try not to disturb it too much.”

Charlie clutched Katy’s arm and then apologised.

“It’s fine,” Katy said. “I feel apprehensive as well. Let’s hope this is the right spot.”

The men scratched the soil away, placing it in a pile on a groundsheet for further analysis later. John beckoned Patti, who in turn gestured for Katy and Charlie to join her.

“What is it?” Katy asked. She stared at some form of material and then gasped as the realisation dawned on her. “Oh. My. God. Is that a rug?”

“Seems to me your assumption is spot on, Inspector. Guys, let’s have some more hands over here now. Gently does it. I couldn’t give a toss if we turn out to be here all day, let’s try not to disturb too much with the shovels, use your hands if necessary.”

Another two men joined in. Twenty minutes later, they had uncovered a rug that was frayed and fragmented. Patti tugged one long piece from the hole and laid it on the groundsheet. This was followed by numerous other six- to eight-inch squares. Katy peered into the hole left behind and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, confused.

“It’s just a rug. There should be bones in there, but there’s nothing. Can you confirm what I’m seeing, Patti?”

“I think your postulation is accurate, Katy. Let’s see what the men can find lower down. My prediction is that the rug was probably wrapped around the woman’s body numerous times. As you say, there are no bones at present. Hopefully that status will change the deeper we dig.”

A bad feeling swept through Katy. The more the men dug, the more her heart sank. “She’s not here,” she leaned over and whispered to Charlie.

“Hang tight. She must be. Where else would she be?”

Katy cocked an eyebrow at her partner. “Have you seen the size of London? Shit, they could have put her anywhere.”

Charlie shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would the men lead us to this location if she’s not buried here? Furthermore, why would the men bury just the rug?”

Katy raised her arms and then slammed them against her thighs. “I don’t frigging know.” Then she gasped. “What if one of them returned to exhume the body?”

“What? Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know. None of this investigation has made any sense so far. I suppose anything and everything is possible, isn’t it?”

“Sadly, yes, that’s true. Should we ring Carol, see if she has anything further to add now that we’re here?”

“It’s worth a shot.”

Charlie took a few steps back and rang her friend. She returned with disappointment clouding her features. “She’s as flummoxed as we are.”

“Brilliant…not. Did she have any luck trying to make contact with the woman’s spirit?”

“She’s tried, but her powers are failing her at the moment. She’s putting it down to exhaustion after summoning up the men earlier.”

“Makes sense. I forgot how draining connecting with spirits can be for her. Maybe we’ll give her a while and then call back, it wouldn’t hurt to give her a nudge later.”

“I’m sure she’ll get in touch with us soon enough.”

Patti joined them, her shoulders slumped in resignation. “My apologies, ladies, I think we’re barking up the wrong tree here. Sorry for the inexcusable poor pun. Forensics will be able to tell if a body had been in the rug, so all is not lost.”

“Are we, though? The rug is here even if her body isn’t. We’re thinking along the lines that maybe one of the men might have returned to dig up the body. Jesus, we need to go and see Keith.”

Patti frowned and thrust her hands on her hips. “Who’s he?”

“He’s the surviving member of the group, the only one still alive. I have him under surveillance in case the murderer goes after him. Come on, Charlie, sod waiting around here for something that’s not going to materialise.”

They ripped off their suits, deposited them in the black bag and raced back to the car.

Once they were on the way, Katy asked Charlie to call Patrick and put it on speaker phone. “Patrick, it’s me. Anything?”

“He’s inside, boss. No sign of him going out, and no one has shown up from what we can tell.”

“Good. We’re on our way over there to see him. We’ve just located the burial site, except the body was nowhere to be seen. I’m banking on him telling us what he knows. We’re