Page 39 of The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag

He sneaked in one more kiss that I didn’t resist in the slightest, then I slipped into the driver’s seat and headed back to the office. I had a shit load to do; I didn’t care that it was the middle of the night, I needed to get things moving.

As I drove, I rang Leif and chased up the list.

‘You woke me,’ he groused.

‘Well now you’re awake, you can send me the list of all the miners that you promised me.’

‘I’ll get it to you first thing tomorrow.’

‘You’ll get it to me now, and you’ll contact them to tell them Connor Mackenzie and his team will be talking to them individually. Tellthem to comply with his request for information and/or interviews.’

‘This is nothing to do with him,’ Leif hissed. ‘It’s a dwarf matter.’

‘He gets kind of involved when people put heads on his lands. Alfgar’s head was placed on a pole there.’

There was a long beat of silence. ‘You have his head?’ he said finally.

‘Yes.’

‘Where?’

‘I’m taking it to the office. When you get me that list, you can come and get it.’ Okay, I was playing hard ball, but technically it wasn’t blackmail, right?

Leif hung up and moments later my phone buzzed with an email from him. I pulled over to open it: it was a list of names, addresses and phone numbers. That asshat had been sitting on it this whole time! He was such a jobsworth.

I stifled my irritation and sent the file on to Connor so he and his team could start work. I made a note in the file that I would deal with Faran Ashton myself since I knew he had a beef with Alfgar.

When I rang him, he answered with a decidedly grumpy, ‘Hello?’

Just once I wanted one of the dwarves to model the chirpier behaviour of the dwarves from Snow White. Would it kill them to emulate Happy or Doc once in a while? ‘Officer Bunny Barrington here, from the Nomo’s office. We need you to come in for an interview.’

‘Now? I just got in from my shift. I’m ready for bed.’

‘Now. Come in your pyjamas, if you want.’

There was an incredulous silence. ‘I’ll be there in thirty,’ he said finally and hung up.

Finally feeling like things were cooking, I slid my phone into my pocket and roared back to town.

Chapter 24

Back at the office, Wilson was flashing again. There was a message from Gunnar:Caught a fender bender. Be back in a few.I hoped no one had been hurt in the traffic collision.

‘Shadow,’ I called. ‘We’re home!’ Fluffy and I went into the office to look for the sulky lynx. ‘Shadow?’ I called again then frowned at my dog. ‘Help me find him?’

Fluffy put his nose to the floor and sniffed around, finally leading us back to Gunnar’s office. I flipped on the lights and started searching. Besides Gunnar’s massive desk and chair, were some file cabinets and a small round table with chairs. I checked them all.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard a loud raspy purr: Shadowwasin the office. Uh-oh. He was lying on an empty tinfoil wrapper under the desk. He had discovered Gunnar’s ham sandwich, which my boss must have abandoned when he rushed out of the office to join me at Kamluck.

I winced. ‘Shadow, did you eat Gunnar’s lunch?’ He purred. Oh boy. ‘Your funeral,’ I muttered. Sigrid’s food was sacred to Gunnar and I didnotwant to be in Shadow’s paws when my boss found out what he’d done.

The bell on the front door rang; it wasn’t Gunnar because he’d have come in the back. I went through to the front of the office and called out, ‘Hello?’

‘Hi.’ A beautiful red-headed woman was standing there. She was small, not much taller than five feet, and her eyes were red-rimmed. I recognised her instantly from the photograph in the threatening note: Alfgar’s wife. ‘I’m Alana Simonson,’ she said.

I softened my eyes and voice. ‘Nice to meet you, Alana. I’m really sorry for your loss.’

‘Thank you. The children are devastated – we all are.’ She closed her eyes. ‘Leif said you’ve … located his head.’

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