“I get the feeling you just don’t like this woman.”

“Really? Your powers of perception are astonishing.”

“What have you got against her, anyway?”

“There’s an entomological term for people like her,” Nick said. “‘She has a bug up her—’”

“Dr. Polchak!” one of the techs shouted. “Take a look—we’ve got another body.”

Nick and Kegan hurried over to the grave site; the technician scrambled up out of the hole to allow them a better look. Kegan lowered herself into the knee-deep pit and pulled a bristle brush from her back pocket.

“Coracoid process of the right scapula,” she said, “and here’s the head of the humerus. This body has the same orientation as the others: fetal position, left side down.” She brushed away the soil six inches above the scapula, exposing a smooth ivory surface. “The cranium appears to be intact,” she said. “We’re in luck—this is a better specimen than either of the other two.”

“We’ve got another one over here!” another technician shouted from a grave a hundred feet away.

“This must be our lucky day,” Nick said. “That’s four bodies. We just won the graveyard lottery—that doubles our evidence pool.”

“I’ll get to work on both of them right away,” Kegan said.

“Good—and I’ll start going through the soil samples.”

He started for the tent when his cell phone rang; he opened it and pressed it to his ear. “Nick Polchak.”

“Nick, it’s Donovan.”

“Good timing,” Nick said. “I was just about to give you a call. We’ve got two more bodies, Donovan—that makes four. We just found them a minute ago. You might want to come take a look.”

Donovan paused. “I’m off the case.”

Nick stopped. “What?”

“I got a call from the ADIC late last night.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Did they give you a reason?”

“They rarely do.”

“But why would they pull you? You haven’t had time to screw things up yet.”

“My guess is that Braden got cold feet. There was a news report last night that raised questions about his connection to all this, and that’s the last thing he wants. I think he’s decided to keep his head down, and I won’t help.”

“So he’s shutting down the investigation?”

“He can’t do that—only the FBI can make that call. But Braden has a lot of influence and he can pull a few strings. He’s probably the one who asked for me to be reassigned, since he requested me in the first place—or his wife did, anyway.”

“Victoria?”

“That’s right. Do you know her?”

“No, but I visited her shrine.”

“Her what?”

“Never mind.”

“Anyway, whether it was Braden or his wife, I’m off the case.”

“What about me?”

“I picked you, but the Bureau hired you—so you’re working for the Bureau until they fire you.”