Page 47 of The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag

‘Wait!’ I said as she started to disappear into the wall. She paused, half-in, half-out. I pulled out my notepad and I wrote in big letters:HAGS SUCK. I showed it to her.

She looked at me curiously. ‘What do wiggles mean?’ she asked finally.

‘You can’t read?’ I asked.

She shrugged. ‘Have no need.’

‘What do you do for fun?’ I asked.

‘Polish skulls.’ She cackled again.

Oh boy. ‘Did you know Alfgar Simonson?’

She looked at me blankly. ‘I know Bunny.’ She pointed at me. ‘That is all.’

That made my heart ache a little. ‘This is Thomas.’ I pointed to the hunter and owner of the mine. ‘And this is my friend, Sidnee. And this is my dog, Fluffy.’

She looked at Fluffy. ‘Is he good to eat?’

Fluffy stepped back to hide behind Thomas. ‘No!’ I snapped. ‘No eating dogs!’

Matilda shrugged and finished disappearing through the wall.

‘That was creepy,’ I whispered under my breath and Fluffy barked in agreement. ‘Who would eat a dog?’ I looked at Leif. ‘She couldn’t read – you saw that, right? So she couldn’t have written that message.’

He shook his head. ‘You look at that body and tell me she’s not responsible. He’s not far now. Come on. Then you can eat your words and choke on them,’ he muttered under his breath.

Yikes. Nice fella.

We followed.

Chapter 28

All in all, I estimated that we walked about a quarter of a mile into the mine away from the lift. I resisted the urge to continually look behind me but claustrophobia was building and the feeling of the earth around me was oppressive.

Leif finally stopped. ‘There.’ He pointed ahead.

I could see a shape and flicked on my headlamp to examine it. This headless body, unlike the other two, had been mutilated; at first glance, it looked like it had been raked deeply with claws.

Gunnar had shown me different claw marks as part of my training so I could tell a bear shifter’s claws from a werewolf’s, and there was something off about these. The incisions were too neat, too precise; I’d have bet good money they’d been made with knives.

I walked around looking for tracks or drag marks. It was obvious the dwarf hadn’t been killed here because there was no blood soaking the ground and there should havebeen a lot of it. Neither was blood visible on the clothing, despite the deep scratches. The wounds had been made post-mortem.

‘See? The hag killed him with her claws,’ Leif said, his jaw set to stubborn.

I shook my head. ‘This dwarf wasn’t killed here. If it were the hag, why would she move him?’

‘To intimidate us.’

I almost said, ‘She doesn’t need to intimidate you, you’re terrified of her already,’ but I held my tongue. I ducked down to check the deceased’s boots. Sure enough, the same dark soil from the tailings pile was there. I stood up. ‘Leif, tell everyone who goes to the tailings pile to take a buddy. No one should be out there without a partner or two.’

‘It won’t stop the hag,’ he said sullenly.

‘It might not, but it may deter the murderer or at least give us a witness. Please, just do it.’

‘Fine.’ He crossed his arms over his chest. He was done listening.

Sidnee took photos as I examined the corpse. I even used the blacklight but there was no splatter. And the boots didn’t lie; I was looking at another trip to the tailings pile.

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