Under the Skin (Ritual Crime Unit) (12 page)

The van was gone from outside the unit when they left; most likely it had belonged to the shapeshifter, and Maitland had taken it as a cover.

“Find that van, and we’ll find the place we’re looking for,” she said to Leo. “The shapeshifter said it was close, and I doubt he cared enough to bother lying. We’ll just have to scout around until we see it.” She eyed the lurid markings of the Armed Response Vehicle that Leo had arrived in and sighed, mourning her confiscated car keys. “On foot,” she added wearily. Best not to go flying full police colours until they knew just what they would be facing.

Leo went over to exchange a few words with the officer in the driver’s seat of the ARV. Without something immediate to focus on, Pierce felt weariness slump over her like a heavy coat. The day had been far too long, especially coming on the heels of a late night raid.

And it wasn’t over yet. As Leo returned from the car, Pierce straightened up, trying to will herself back to alertness. Right now she would have welcomed the North Yorkshire Police’s awful coffee—she’d have welcomed dishwater, if it had added caffeine.

“Baker’s going to wait here with the car until we call for him,” Leo said, though he didn’t look all that happy about it. He shook his head. “If Henderson was here, he wouldn’t be letting me do this. Nobody in Firearms should be running around playing cowboy without authorisation—and don’t tell me I’ve got yours; it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on right now.”

But Pierce wasn’t the only one who’d lost a colleague to this skinbinder and his allies. “If Henderson was here, you wouldn’t need to,” she said, holding his gaze. “These people are killers, and they
will
kill again. And I don’t trust that Maitland cares nearly enough about stopping them from doing it, just as long as he gets what he wants.”

He grunted. “That’s why I’m coming with you. But I’m not going in shooting without a damn good reason, and if this goes bad, I’m calling for backup.”

“Agreed,” she said without hesitation.

They started away from the cars and out onto the main street. Pierce stretched her arms, still sore from where she’d been pinned in place around the pillar. She’d kept the cuffs as a replacement for her own: not silver, but still strong enough to restrain a normal human being. Maitland would be a favourite.

“You eaten?” Leo asked her as they walked.

“In one of my past lives, maybe.” Her stomach growled.

“Figured. I stole Baker’s midnight snacks for you.” He offered her a chocolate bar from one of the pockets of his vest.

“Marry me,” she said, diving in before she’d even fully opened up the wrapper.

“I think my wife would object,” he said, without cracking a smile.

“Well, that’s just picky.”

The brief boost to her mood from welcome sugar and good humour gave her the energy to keep on walking. The road was deserted, the widely spaced streetlights casting diffuse pools of light that were just enough to give shape to the darkness. A slice of moon showed through the heavy clouds cloaking the sky.

Just past full moon; still a powerful time of the month for lunar rituals. The skinbinder’s backers wouldn’t want him to miss out on a night’s work, and she wasn’t sure that Maitland would make too much effort to stop it either. He’d kept a hands-off approach back at the farm, apparently content to watch and learn. Who knew how many murders he might have turned a blind eye to before Pierce had thrown a spanner in the works?

If she had her way, she would throw some more before the night was over.

The businesses they passed were all in darkness, and she had to squint to make out the names on the signs; her penlight was gone with the confiscated car keys, and they didn’t want to court too much attention with the bright beam of Leo’s police torch. There were fewer vehicles remaining in the private car parks, and she saw no sign of the Solomon van. For all they knew, their quarry was long gone.

“Which way?” Leo asked softly as they reached the end of the road.

Buildings were clustered to their left; more promising than the trees she could see off to the right. She nodded that way. As they rounded the corner, the sound of a car approaching from behind made her tense up. No place to hide; she could only try to move to block the driver’s view of Leo in his police gear.

Bright headlights swept over them... and moved on without pausing. Just an innocent passer-by driving down the road. Pierce breathed out.

They followed the rusty fence along. On the opposite side, an access road disappeared around the back of an old yellow brick building. She looked at Leo. “Let’s check it out.”

The access road lacked street lamps, and the glow of the light behind them diminished as they walked along. Partway down the road metal gates should have barred the way, but despite the late hour they stood open. A security light flashed on as they approached, and Pierce froze in the glare. An angled CCTV camera peered down like a curious robot, but closer inspection showed that it was only the casing, the camera removed from the inside.

Tension coiled in her stomach. This had to be the place.

“Camera thief in this area, apparently,” she said. She cocked her head at Leo. “We should probably pop in and check that nobody’s in danger, don’t you think?”

He grunted in response, his posture shifting subtly into something more alert, more dangerous. He was too much of a pro to draw his gun without good reason, but she sensed the mental switch from a policeman on patrol to a Firearms Officer ready to go in.

She let him take the lead as they continued up the hill. They were hemmed in by a steep bank on the left, a line of metal fencing on the right. It made her think of animals being herded towards slaughter pens. Loose gravel on the rough road surface crunched under their feet.

The light clicked off behind them, plunging them into darkness. She didn’t argue as Leo pulled out his torch and switched it on. The element of surprise might have been helpful, but only if it wasn’t turned on them. They didn’t know who or what might be waiting in ambush.

They crept along the road. No signs of life so far, a fact that only made her nervous. If this was the place, then there should be the chaos of a raid in progress, or else they should have found the scene sealed off against intruders. This dark, stifling silence wasn’t right.

The road curved round a corner towards a large brick warehouse. There were vehicles parked up on the verge to the right. Two black vans, and in front of them another with the Solomon logo. Maitland’s team?

There were no engines running and no lights on. Had they abandoned the vehicles? She motioned to Leo, and he shone his torch into the window of the nearest.

Empty. They moved on to the next one. Also empty. An odd move to leave their transport unattended. Had the team been overstretched, called the drivers in for back up when they ran into resistance?

Leo went to check the Solomon Solutions van, then paused, shining his torch beam on the back end of the vehicle. “Door’s not shut,” he said. The windowless white rear doors were a fraction out of flush, the left allowed to fall back into place instead of slammed shut.

Pierce glanced at him. He gave her a nod and drew his pistol, taking up a position to the right of the doors. She stood to the left, out of the line of fire, and rapped on the door. “Police! Identify yourself and come out of the vehicle with your hands up.”

No response.

“I am armed and prepared to fire if you make a hostile move,” Leo said loudly. “If you cannot speak for some reason, then make a noise to let us know you’re in there.”

Still nothing. Could be empty—could be trouble. Her chest was tight as she took hold of the door handle. She waited for Leo’s acknowledging look, then mouthed a countdown to him.
Three. Two. One
... She yanked the door open and leapt out of the way.

Something dark flopped down from inside of the van. She flinched, anticipating the sharp bark of the Glock, but Leo didn’t share her trigger-happy instincts. He let out a slow breath and reholstered the gun as she registered just what had fallen out.

A dangling arm, attached to the body that lay slumped on the floor of the van.

Emphasis on the word ‘body.’ Judging by the bloody wounds that had made rags of the man’s clothes, checking for a pulse would be a waste of time.

Pierce climbed inside the van to do it anyway. The only heartbeat to be found was hers, thumping hard enough in her chest she’d swear it echoed in the closed space. She turned to look at Leo, shaking her head. “Dead.” Probably one of Maitland’s men. He was dressed all in black, outfitted for a stealth infiltration.

Clearly hadn’t been stealthy enough.

Leo reached for the radio on his vest. “Okay, this is the point where we stop doing things off the record,” he said. “I’m going to call Baker to bring the car up, and—” He broke off, aware that she’d stopped listening. “Claire?”

Her eyes were on the shadowy shape of the black van behind them; a shape that had suddenly grown deformed as
something
huge and grotesquely misshapen rose from the roof.

“Leo, look out!” she shouted as it sprang.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

L
EO BARELY HAD
time to turn before the monstrous beast slammed into him. The impact knocked him backwards into the van, and he sprawled across the corpse. Pierce grabbed his ballistic vest to drag him along with her as she retreated towards the van’s front seats. The torch clipped to his vest bounced all around, light flickering across the nightmare creature crouched outside.

The pieces the light revealed looked like nothing that should be part of a whole. A bulky, bear-like body, feline paws, vicious curved horns... no creature that had ever walked the Earth had looked like this. Pierce would have sworn out loud if she’d had any breath to do it.

A chimaera pelt. They were the stuff of legend; the one supposed real-life example that she’d seen was a threadbare museum piece most people thought was a hoax. There might be stories of skinbinders with the skill to stitch multiple animal skins into single working pelt, but no reputable source could claim they’d ever seen it done.

Well, if she got out of this alive and with a sliver of her reputation intact, that had changed.

Leo gave a sharp grunt of pain as the thing’s claws raked his leg, and she cursed as she hauled him frantically backwards. He wasn’t a big man—she doubted he outweighed her—but that didn’t make him easier to move. There was no space in the van with the corpse slumped on the floor and the beast swiping at them through the doors like a cat with a cornered mouse.

Her elbow hit the headrest of the passenger seat. “Shit!” She turned to squeeze between the seats. “Leo, come on!” she said. They were sitting ducks inside the van. “We’ve got to get out of here!” He struggled to rise, and she grabbed his arm to pull him after her.

The whole vehicle lurched, tipping backwards as the chimaera set a paw on the bumper to try and crawl in after them. Its snorting, wheezing breaths filled the inside. Pierce clambered between the seats and dropped into the driver’s seat, bashing her knee on the steering wheel as she hauled her legs up after. She cursed as she felt around in the dark for the door release.

Leo’s hand groped her shoulder as he fought to keep from falling backwards. There was no chance for him to go for his gun, and firing it inside the metal cage of the vehicle would only put them in more danger. They had to get out of the van.

As the vehicle rocked, Pierce finally managed to grab the handle and throw the door open. Gravity tried to slam it shut in her face, but she shoved her way out and dropped down outside, narrowly escaping being crushed against the fence as the van wheels bounced down after her.

“Leo, come on!” She shoved a hand back through the closing door to help him. He let out a gasping curse as he shouldered his way out, his left leg dragging behind him, maybe clawed up, maybe broken.

There was no time to treat the injury gently. She hauled him with her through the tight space between the vans and the fence. Yet more rusty metal fencing, like the bars at some long-neglected zoo—except the prize exhibit was loose, and they were the ones trapped in the enclosure.

As they ran towards the dark cluster of brick buildings ahead, Pierce stumbled over something soft and yielding. She cursed in startled disgust as she realised that it was another body. Too little light and time to register the cause of death, or even confirm that the man was dead. If any of Maitland’s team had survived the chimaera’s attack, she was in no position to help them right now.