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She hit me. ‘Don’t use the L word.’

I grinned. ‘It doesn’t bite.’

She looked out the window. ‘Sometimes it does.’

I changed the subject. ‘Let’s go see what turned up while we were gone, and then in…’ I glanced at the clock on the dash ‘…five hours, I’ll get my doughnuts and talk to a hag.’

Chapter 7

I had to deal with two more calls before it was time to collect the doughnuts. The jobs were the everyday humdrum stuff that passed the time: a first-time teenage shoplifter at the hardware store, and a minor disturbance between two guests at the hotel. An appearance and a finger wagging was all that was required of me; the teen had been sullen but reluctantly apologetic, and the guests slightly panicked at being seen by the eyes of the law.

I’d still called the shoplifter’s parents and she was totally getting it in the neck, though she wouldn’t have a criminal record, which her parents were endlessly grateful for. Gunnar often let the kids have one strike for free, an attitude I’d also adopted. We all made mistakes, particularly in the vicious grip of teen hormones and existential angst.

After those issues were dealt with, I dug a little more into our deceased guy, Helmud. There was no mention anywhere of a fiancée so I checked Gunnar’s notes of his call withHelmud’s father, but the dad hadn’t mentioned a fiancée either. Had Helmud lied to Hayleigh? Maybe she’d hit on him and he hadn’t wanted to hurt her feelings? It was a possibility.

I did a quick internet search. Helmud had made headlines not that long ago for closing down a mine because of safety breaches. The Chrome Mine had looked a little worn, but I hadn’t seen any red flags – then again, I knew absolutely nothing about mines; the flags could have been glittery rainbows and I still wouldn’t have seen them.

IfHelmud had been killed – and that was a big if – could someone at the Chrome Mine be responsible? One of the owners: Calliope, Liv or Thomas? They were all killers and I could easily see one of them dispatching Helmud to stop him shutting down the mine if thereweresafety concerns. It was all a bit of a stretch, but I believed Liv would be capable of it.Andshe was a necromancer; she could probably kill someone without leaving a mark on their body.

Suddenly, the thought didn’t seem so far-fetched after all.

My phone alarm blared to warn me it was nearly time to meet the hag, Matilda. I wondered if she’d been given that name at birth or if she’d chosen it for herself when English became prevalent on the peninsula. If she was friendlyenough for a chat, I’d ask her later. Between the lesson at the academy that taught us hags were powerful and deadly elementals with metal teeth and claws, and Leif’s obvious fear of her, I was feeling a tad wary.

I took Fluffy and Shadow home first, fed them then asked Fluffy, ‘Can you be Reggie, please? Just for a moment?’ He looked at me with soulful eyes, but didn’t shift. ‘For me?’ I pressed softly.

Fluffy sighed audibly, then a moment later Reggie was crouching in front of me. I smiled at him. ‘Hey, kiddo.’ He launched himself into my arms and I hugged him right back. ‘It’s good to see you,’ I murmured into his lank, dark hair.

His hug tightened but he still didn’t speak. Eventually, though, he pulled back to look at me and raised a questioning eyebrow. ‘I wanted to talk about the crime scene,’ I told him – plus it was a good excuse to spend a few moments with him in human form.

‘Sure,’ he croaked. ‘What do you need to know?’

‘Any signs of foul play? You growled at the wall…’

‘The stench ofsomething.There was a metallic tang to it… I’m betting it was the hag.’ He shuddered. ‘She was right there on the other side of the wall listening to us.’

‘Was the same scent at the site of the death?’

Reggie shook his head. ‘Nothing on the ground, just a hint of her on the air.’ He paused. ‘But she reeked. Really, really reeked. So prepare yourself.’

I smiled ruefully. ‘Thanks for that. I need to plug my nose before I speak to her, huh?’

‘At the least,’ he said seriously.

‘Anything else you can tell me about the crime scene?’

‘There were a bunch of recent scents but very few of them were dwarven. Dwarfs have an almost earthy tone to them and these didn’t.’

Huh. Leif had given me the impression that the area wasn’t used much, yet Reggie was telling me it was Grand Central Station. ‘Anyone familiar?’ I asked. Surely he would have mentioned if he’d smelled Liv there.

‘I’ve smelled one of the scents before but I couldn’t tell you where, or who it belonged to. But one of them was familiar.’

That didn’t rule out Liv; then again, there was still nothing to suggest foul play. Maybe the poor guy really had just keeled over when the stress of recently closing down a mine had come back to haunt him. And yet… Something was niggling at me but I didn’t know what.

I needed a cause of death.

‘All right. Thanks, Reggie, that was more helpful than you know. Do you mind keeping Shadow company forme while I step out?’ I slid him a sidelong glance. ‘As a human?’ I tacked on lightly. ‘Just for a bit? He loves to be stroked. And then,’ I added as a final incentive, ‘you can pick what’s on TV…?’

Reggie licked his lips. ‘Yeah, okay – for a bit.’