That tight grip left her shoulder aching. But they were soon inside, the hasty patchwork of lies and half-truths holding up for the moment. And the dismay and upset of seeing such a body wasn't something she needed to fake. This was the Auror's area, now.

And having Edwin appear did take a bit of the burden off. Five minutes. She could manage for that.

"Yes, thank you." She gave Edwin a nod, keeping her expression a bit nervous, uncertain for anyone watching. Then she turned to the two Aurors, and gave them a slightly more pointed look. The body was more of a gruesome sight than she wanted to stare at, and she'd leave that to them.

Apparating back was not sounding pleasant.

Oh, good.  The cavalry had arrived, and any hope that Jonas had still harbored that this morning might tremble and dissolve into something more tolerable fled in an instant.  If he'd been hosting a personal election for his least favorite member of the Ministry of Magic, Edwin Glass would have been edged out by Alberic Grimm only because the Head of Magical Catastrophes had never actually tried to murder him.  But even so, it would have been a close race.

And now here he was, and despite the chatter about not trampling all over the crime scene, Jonas was certain that that was exactly what was about to happen.  He gave the older wizard a thin, pointed smile.  One that clearly said: Yes, this is my crime scene.  And also, perhaps: You'd better remember about the trampling.

Knight had subsided as soon as her supervisor had arrived.  But Jonas was not about to do anything of the like.  "Yes, and let's keep from memory wiping any of the lot with the ambulance this time around, shall we?" he asked, the words brisk and businesslike.  His tone was nothing near as discreet as it should have been with so many Muggles about.  "Because right now, as far as I'm concerned, all of these blokes about here are now witnesses, and anything you lot do to mess with their recollection is going to have a profound impact on our ability to close the case."

Archer was very thankful to be moving.  He didn’t really like looking as though he was constipated with worry.  Honestly, the only thing he was worried about was how long he was going to have to have his eyebrows furrowed and if it was going to cause his face to permanently stick like that or give him a migraine. 

Certainly the second one would be a much less pleasant experience, particularly related to investigating this scene and he really just wanted to shrug off the dead weight and get going. These things were happening too frequently and with too much publicity to be kept under-wraps, and the auror office wasn’t in the habit of trying to break the statute of secrecy  - leave that to the radicals. 

So he played by the rules, followed along, and acted like a concerned uncle, rather than the person he wanted to be in this situation.  This was, of course, a gigantic waste of time, and he would have much preferred to just knock everyone out and do what they had to do – but brutality was frowned on, wasn’t it. 

When they were left alone – told to stay (like dogs – and even then, Archer treated Rufus with more respect).  “Wouldn’t do this any other way,” Archer practically whispered, a short snort following his words as he put his hand in his own pocket to grab his wand as well. 

Then Glass came and Archer could see Jonas’ jaw tighten.  Archer, honestly, could give less than one owl’s turd about the man, except when he started talking about tampering and whatnot, and he sighed, rolling his eyes. 

He didn’t really want to be in the middle of an argument between the men, and looked between them, raising an eyebrow at Jonas.  “Well, we best get started then,” Archer cut in – trying to avoid the complications of a public row between what would appear to be a private investigator and the Special Branch in public.  “So that our crime scene doesn’t get compromised. “

"Yes, and let's keep from memory wiping any of the lot with the ambulance this time around, shall we? Because right now, as far as I'm concerned, all of these blokes about here are now witnesses, and anything you lot do to mess with their recollection is going to have a profound impact on our ability to close the case."

Edwin held a steady gaze with Jonas as the auror got ratty from the first moment.

"Those in my Department who were responsible for that have been retrained, and we have revised the exact wording of their orders that night for future reference. I manage a Department of humans, not robots. You do know what one of those is, don't you?"

Thankfully, Radley was far more tuned to the situation so Edwin left the two of them to it and instead engaged Aisling instead.

"This is going to be a messy one." He sighed quietly. "Already in the media, so our interception is going to have to be explained to satisfy their needs. Something that can't be questioned. Terrorism, though they've just gone back to Severe threat level[1]. Thankfully, the obliviators have been working on getting up to speed and their cover stories with the security services. But this is one great gaping whole I just don't like."

Edwin frowned deeply in the direction of the two aurors, though his irritation was more about the situation and the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"Everyone's being called back in." He scratched at his chin. "Pulling all the favours we can get, we have to get whoever is doing this before they blow the statute out of the water and we're back to burning at the stake." He flinched, "Or worse, scientific experimentation."

1.	23 Jan 2010 BBC: UK terrorist threat level raised to 'severe'

Messy was one word for it. Aisling was already quite tired of this queasy feeling, and this would be a disaster to clean up at this point. At least she had a slight respite from the Aurors, that was one spat she didn't need to deal with at the moment.

"We'll handle it, we always do. Without any...scientific experimentation." She gave Edwin a bit of a sharp look, that was hardly the sort of thing she needed to be considering now. There was enough work to focus on without being distracted by the possibilities fears might present.

As if she had an easy time with such. "Let's just hope they can learn what they need." This wasn't something that could be managed regularly. At least not if she wanted to maintain the habit of sleeping.

Jonas eyed his onetime partner, his body language dangerously tense, but he finally rolled his shoulders and turned back towards where the body lay.  Getting into a public row with Glass was not going to help here; it was better to leave dealings with Level Three to Tamis, who was much more adept at diffusing the political side of things.  As long as no Obliviators started flashing their wands around, it was best to leave things be and get on with investigating the case.

"Bloody meddling Catastrophes," he muttered under his breath to Archer, his jaw set as he turned away.  Across the room, he could see Reese still watching them, but she'd made no move to come closer.  Waiting to see what they'd do.  That could get interesting later on.

He sighed, let out a breath, and tried to focus on the case.  Investigating first; grudges second.  Finally settling, Jonas met Archer's gaze out of the corner of his eye and gave the big man a nod.

"Alright."  Investigating first.  Grudges second.  That would be his new mantra, at least where Level Three was concerned.  "How do you reckon we do this?" he asked the other Auror quietly.  "Revoficus is going to be right out with this many folks around.  I can see what I can get with that Semitic charm, if you want to check out the body."

It was odd seeing Jonas upset.  Usually, it was entirely the other way around.  But, there were some people who just royally upset others, and Glass was one that just pushed all of Jonas’ buttons. 

Archer gave him a couple of feet of space, and waited for him to speak.  He was thinking, looking at the scene.  It was a hard one: so many people, and high profile at that.  Whoever did this really wanted to do a number on the investigation, that was for certain. 

It was worse than the tower, where they’d been able to keep it down, but here, it was a national emergency, apparently.  His once-partner’s suggestion was a decent one, thankfully, and not as influenced by anger as Archer thought it might.  “Just keep the wand work to a minimum,” he affirmed: as much for Jonas as for himself. 

It was odd to not be able to rely on it, but they’d manage.  They’d managed before. 

He didn’t necessarily step forward, but he did step in front of Jonas, allowing the man some cover if he needed to take his wand out.  He couldn’t exactly get close to the body, though, there were some similarities he could see to other bodies already: the bloody bits were familiar.

But, it wasn’t a normal sized human.  Not even close.  Shot stature, he wished he could see closer.  Archer frowned.  He couldn’t reveal any enchantments, not that he needed to – it was fairly obvious.  But, anything else, even an aging spell (just to get a gauge on the victim) would be too much.  Magic.  He sighed, wondering if what he was seeing near what he supposed was the head of the body was a pointed ear or a cracked fragment of skull protruding out... “Got any tips on avoiding the cavalry, Trevelyan?”

The first body that had turned up in the Tower of London had been grotesquely turned inside out -- the "corpus inverses" that had given the case its nickname in the press.  The second corpse in Westminster Abbey had been split cleanly in two.  This one looked as if it had simply gone splat.  There were less goopy bits of a goblin to spread around, but whoever had committed the murder seemed to have done a proper job of working with what they had -- it was as if something heavy had been dropped on the creature from a great height, or if the goblin had accidentally swallowed a muggle grenade just before it was due to go off.

Jonas gave a distracted nod to Archer's caution as he silently slipped his hand inside his pocket.  Goleya was nearly as useful as the Evidence Recovery Charm when it came to examining crime scenes -- the former showed signs of magic, while the latter gathered traces of spell-casting.  The disadvantage was that the Middle Eastern spell was much harder to cast.  Cohen had tried to explain it once -- something about linguistics and needing to understand the root family.  Even after practicing, Jonas wasn't certain that he could still wield it as someone like Adon.  Good, proper Latin-based magic was far simpler.

But it was nice having a spell in his pocket -- literally in his pocket this time, as he closed his hand around his wand -- that he could use without any outward signs of magic showing.  The red-haired Auror took a deep breath, focused, and then murmured the incantation.  "Goleya."

In a magical location, everything would have started to glow.  Here, there were only bits and pieces of it.  The steady golden glow some protective  charm that Archer was wearing.  A fading, awful spell twisted around the body -- the same vibrant, monstrous blue flecked through with silver and black that they'd seen at Westminster Abbey and the Tower.  But then, out of the corner of his eye...

“Got any tips on avoiding the cavalry, Trevelyan?”

Jonas's head turned; he was staring hard across the room at something, his jaw set.  "Yeah," he said shortly.  He didn't glance at Archer as he turned to stalk across the room, didn't make eye contact, but he jerked his head and the intent was clear: the other Auror was to follow.

Archer probably should have paid more attention to Eleor on a more regular basis.  His methods were not what Archer was used to, which automatically made the senior auror skeptical about its use.  Trevelyan, on the other hand, was fully interested in learning the new style introduced by their Israeli counterpart. 

Latin was enough of a language for Archer – he didn’t need to throw Hebrew and whatever other languages Beit Gaddol students threw into the mix.  Biting the inside of his cheek, Archer watched out as Trevelyan started to cast the spell (he could hear him whisper the words). 

Unfortunately, the affects of the spell were only visible to the person casting it, so Archer could not, for the life of him, know what Jonas was seeing: though, he could probably guess.  The magical influences in the room were clear: them, the body, and whatever debris from it. 

While his partner viewed whatever he was viewing, Archer looked around the room and squinted at one of the walls.  There was something strange about it… in contrast to the rest of the fine and polished surfaces, there was something… off about it.  It looked faded – scratched – something had been done to it. 

He couldn’t imagine a muggle landmark like this would have something that wrong with it unless it was done on purpose. 

They couldn’t deal with that currently though – not when Trevelyan had a plan.  Archer, not one for many words, nodded at his equally eloquent partner and followed as he started to walk across the room.  The act of being a nervous uncle or whatever the hell he had been was gone, and Archer stood up tall, straight, and put on his investigation face. 

As they walked, he took another look at the wall – closer now.  There was definitely something there.  It was a subtle sort of blur, like the background of a picture taken in mid-movement.  It was subtly different, but cloaked in some way.  He wondered what Jonas saw when he looked at it. 

He might have thought it was just some sort of bizarre decoration, some strange wall painting that was the Bank of England's version of "Enter, stranger, but take heed."  But there was no mistaking the magical glow, the way that the flames leaped and writhed with enchanted life, the torture of the figures trapped inside the giant maw or the fiery glare in the beast's sunken eyes.  If this strange picture was a warning, it conveyed a very specific message.

Jonas stopped just in front of it, eyes silently moving over the details, his jaw set.  "It's a picture," he told Archer quietly.  He pointed, arm shifting as he described it.  "Some awful bloody black devil's head.  There's flames inside its mouth -- there.  And people burning inside."

This was no accident of happenstance; no idle consequence of a misfired spell.  Someone had put it here, and either it was meant as a taunt to Muggle investigators who would never see it, or it was intended for the Aurors.  Briggs was right; whoever was committing these murders was leaving a message for someone, Jonas thought grimly.  Except now, it was hard to think that this message had been intended for anyone but Radley and him.

"There's runes underneath too.  Here, you got a pen?" he asked Archer suddenly.  They could use a pensieve to study the details of the drawing from his memory later; but copying down what he could would save time. 

Archer was so glad that it was Jonas that could see whatever was on the wall and not him.  Sounded bloody terrible, not that Archer was afraid of things like that, but he wasn’t the sort who kept his cool at things.  He’d have studied it until someone noticed.  The more subtle part of an auror’s profession was lost on him, as it were. 

But, a demon? Burning people? Fire?  Sounded like something his mother would read to them after they trashed the living room playing “quidditch” as boys.  Certainly, someone was saying something – though, they wouldn’t be getting it now. 

Feeling his pockets, Archer nodded as he felt something other than his wand and pulled it out, brandishing the old fashioned pen.  It wasn’t the type of thing that a muggle might carry around, but it was typical for him.  Frowning, he dug in his pocket a little more – a scrap of parchment. 

He knew he had something else useful in there.  Sure, it was a note that he’d written himself to remember to fill out some paperwork at the office, but the back was clear and empty.  Closing his fist around both, Archer was as discreet as he could be, handing it back toward Jonas. 

“Know any of them off the top of your head?” he asked quietly, looking around to make sure the coast was still clear. 

When he saw an officer starting toward them, Archer spoke under his breath, “Hurry it up.”

The red-haired man snorted, his eyes already locked on the wall.  He'd barely noticed as Archer had passed his wand, intently studying the seemingly invisible writing to make sure he copied down each character correctly.

"Yeah, I remember Runes class like it was yesterday," he retorted, carefully inking the lines of something that looked like either a badly formed pitchfork or a dysfunctional umbrella.  "Considering it's been twenty years, and I never took it."

"Oi!"  The sharp voice cut through.  Jonas looked up, his concentration broken.  He immediately slipped the piece of paper into his back pocket, dropping his arm to his side to mask Archer's wand.  The uniformed sergeant who'd spotted them looked even less in the mood for conversation than Reese had been earlier.  "What're you two up to over here?"

He could have sighed.  Point to getting a fake badge for the future.  Holding his hand up, fingers spread in the universal sign of surrender, Jonas took a step back.  "Sorry, mate.  We were just trying to stay out of the way."  He glanced nearly imperceptibly to his partner.  Archer had more experience with murder investigations, but with all the Muggles swarming about, it didn't seem as if they were going to be able to get much more right now.  They'd have to wait until the scene died down before they checked for magical traces.

Archer rolled his eyes.  Trevelyan was a good auror, that was true, but a sarcastic ass with the best of them.   At least there were books to decode ruins.  Archer just wondered if there was anything obvious.  In their line of work, protection came up a lot, he subconsciously touched the rune on the string on his neck.  It was from his mother, and as much as Archer tried not to be completely under the thumb and rule of his family… it just seemed like a really bad idea to actively avoid something necessary for protection.

It wasn’t the scratching of Jonas’ pen that snapped Archer at full attention though.  An officer approached and used his tone of command – which, honestly, Archer recognized the routine.  Apparently, muggle or magical, some of the tricks were exactly the same. 

Jonas, of course, just snapped his hands upward.  Archer stood straight and still and raised an eyebrow at the officer, who was shorter than he was, but far more serious looking.  He held in a sigh, not wanting to make any more waves, and understanding that their abilities were limited currently, and it was going to be much better for them – and magical government – to get out now and come back later.

The body might be removed, which would be a disgustingly huge hinderance, but the traces of magic wouldn’t disappear in the couple of hours it would take for the building to clear. 

“Didn’t want to leave without clearance on an exit,” he added, a similar sense of authority and amending Jonas’ statement to be more palatable to the human frown wearing a uniform.