Read Online Digging Deeper by Barbara Elsborg - Free Book Online

from his room it was almost noon. He’d been awake for hours working on his book, which was not as he’d led his colleagues to believe, yet another study of Thermoluminescence, but instead a chilling tale of a serial killer who collected gall bladders from his victims. Now Beck had his professorship, the need to use every available moment to produce an endless stream of theories that interested virtually no one, had thankfully passed. At last he had time to write something exciting and was currently weaving a complicated psychological tale with lots of clues and red herrings. He wanted the identity of the killer to be entirely unexpected.
    The moment he appeared in the garden, Dina jumped to her feet and rushed toward him.
    “Would you like a cup of tea?”
    Beck could have sworn she fluttered her eyelashes. “Only if you’re making one for yourself. Thanks.” He sat next to Jane.
    Dina returned with a mug. “Like any breakfast? Toast? Cereal?”
    “No thanks. Tea’s fine. You two are keen,” Beck said with a smile as Dina made a big point of opening her book in the middle. At a rough guess, that would have put her some five hundred years beyond the period they were studying.
    “Do you think we’re going to find anything on this dig?” Jane asked in a shy voice.
    Beck hesitated. It was never a good idea to be negative at the start of a dig, it could jinx the whole thing. “I have a good feeling about this site. We’ll have a discussion this afternoon about how we’re going to tackle it and then have a drive around and look at the whole area. The large-scale map might—”
    “I’ll get it,” Dina interrupted and dashed into the house. A moment later she was back, red-faced and flustered. “Where is it?”
    “On the floor in my room, by the window.”
    She hurried off again. It was like having a puppy, Beck thought, only this one had an ulterior motive.
     
    Dina glanced around Beck’s bedroom. She needed as much information about him as she could get. “Know your man” took a whole chapter in her book. His room was tidy. That was so impressive. He’d put his clothes away. Fabulous. He’d made the bed. Brilliant. She sighed. This got better by the minute. A tidy guy. She didn’t like housework. He’d do it for her.
    The map was on the floor on top of neat piles of booklets and sheets about the dig. She spotted Versace aftershave—good taste, and a Manchester United sticker on his bag—well, he couldn’t be perfect. A Dictaphone lay next to his laptop. Dina had heard him speaking into it a few times, vague mutterings relating to the dig. She hesitated and then picked it up, rewound it a short way and pressed play. Beck’s voice was quite clear.
    “Septic tank. Outfit for Saturday. Check effect if liver ruptures. Price for gall bladders in China? What use for a bear’s penis?”
    Dina shuddered and switched it off. What the hell was that about?
    ———
    Although Flick, stuffed with Sunday lunch, had intended to have a sleep that afternoon, when she saw the length of the grass she winced. She’d toyed for a while with the idea of getting a goat, until Josh pointed out you couldn’t be sure they’d be satisfied with the grass. Left unattended they’d probably devour every flower and half the patio furniture before they started on the house. Given Flick’s abysmal record with animals, she’d end up with the only woman-eating goat in the country and wake to find herself minus a hand. So no goat, or sheep, because apart from the incident at Hartington Hall, a farmer had once told her they had a tendency to commit suicide by thinking themselves dead when they were bored. How sad was that?
    Usually when Josh heard her dragging the mower out of the shed, he offered to do the lawn for her. Flick would protest, Josh would argue and she’d give way. But Josh was out and Kirsten was cleaning her room, so unless she could attract the attention of a passing rambler, Flick was on her own.
    She almost