Page 15

Chapter 15

Leif came back with four more dwarves and a stretcher. We backed away as they reverently loaded up the body and carried it away. Another dwarf carefully shovelled the earth that had soaked up the blood into a sack and took that away as well. Sidnee took photos to document their actions.

Liv was smirking at me from the other side of the cavern; of course she was. She’d been a tiny bit nicer during Christmas, but now that the festive season was winding down it seemed that her acerbic self was returning with a vengeance. She was obviously still angry at me for the whole arresting her thing.

I smiled back calmly. I was kind of looking forward to seeing her do her necromantic thing. I crossed my fingers that the dwarves would allow her to raise the dead body, though it felt like a pipe dream at that moment. If the soul really was trapped without the head then the chances were good she’d be able to do it – if they’d let her .

We followed Leif and his helpers to the locker room and they set the stretcher in a space between the rows of lockers. The miners departed, leaving Leif and a couple of other dwarves to oversee the examination.

Fluffy came in quietly. He hadn’t indicated that he’d smelled anything unusual, but it was a new place with many strange odours and people; anyway, I didn’t think he’d indicate anything was amiss with all the dwarves around. Maybe he’d tell us more later when he was in human form. For now he hung back, sensing that the dwarves were wary of him.

‘Leif,’ I asked, ‘did you know Alfgar well? What was his full name?’

‘Of course I knew him well.’ He seemed determined to find fault with everything I said. ‘I know all of my crew well. His full name was Alfgar Simonson.’

‘Thank you.’ I gestured for Fluffy to stand at my side as we went over every inch of the body. Sidnee started at the feet and I started at the neck stub. Lucky me.

I quickly found a stray hair just below Alfgar’s shoulder blade, plucked it up with my tweezers and went to put it in an evidence bag. ‘What are you doing?’ Leif protested.

‘Collecting evidence!’ I was beginning to lose patience. ‘What colour was Alfgar’s hair?’

‘Brown. ’

‘This hair is red, so it doesn’t belong to the body. It is evidence.’

Leif looked shocked. ‘No, that can’t be.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘What can’t be?’

‘The h-hag,’ he stuttered. ‘She doesn’t have red hair.’

‘No, she doesn’t. But it’s a single hair and he could have picked it up anywhere during the day. We’ll consider it together with the other evidence we obtain. However, we will want to interview any of the workers on the list who have red hair.’

‘Red is a very common dwarven hair colour,’ Delvin interjected. His own hair was red. ‘My father’s brown hair is considered rare.’

‘Thank you for that insight.’ I wanted to groan; naturally red hair would be a dime a dozen here. We wouldn’t want it to be too easy, right?

Leif was visibly shaken; he’d been so sure that the hag was guilty because he obviously hated her.

‘I’ve got something,’ Sidnee said excitedly and I looked up. ‘There’s some dirt in his boot treads that doesn’t match the mine surface.’

‘Let me see that,’ Leif insisted.

Sidnee stood back as he squinted at the bottom of Alfgar’s boot. Finally he stood back and nodded. ‘That dirt is from the tailings site.’ My hasty Googling on the way to the mines last time had taught me that ‘tailings’ was the term given to the waste product of mining. The tailings site was essentially the mine’s dump.

‘Was Alfgar often there?’ Gunnar asked.

Leif looked upset. ‘No. There was no reason for him to be. He didn’t work the tailings.’ As Sidnee scraped the dirt into a bag, he watched with narrowed eyes, but he didn’t protest.

Once we’d finished with the front of the body, we asked for Baldred’s permission to turn him. He gave it and Leif supervised Gunnar and I as we gently rotated the body.

Although we looked carefully at every inch of Alfgar, Leif wouldn’t let us strip him to look for bruising or injection sites, and annoyingly Baldred upheld his objection. We had nothing but a bit of dirt and a single hair; however, they might help the dwarves drop Matilda as a suspect. I wasn’t holding my breath, though; Leif seemed fanatical in his hatred of the hag.

He was frowning. ‘She could have still set this up. I wouldn’t put it past her.’

‘Really? You think she has a TV down there and watches all the forensic cop shows?’ Sidnee sassed. ‘You think she knows about DNA evidence and planted the red hair?’

Leif’s face turned purple. I didn’t say anything though I did grin at Sidnee’s comment .

We finished what little we were allowed to do then Gunnar looked pointedly at Liv. His gaze wasn’t friendly; subsumed by evil spirits or not, she was still on his shit list for trying to harm Sigrid. I thought I’d seen a crack in his armour over Christmas when Liv had given him a sincere apology, but now I wasn’t so sure.

She took his meaning. ‘Leif, I suspect I can raise the body and ask it some salient questions. Would you allow that? I won’t destroy anything in the process.’

Baldred nodded before Leif could reply. ‘That will be acceptable. It would seem the most expeditious way of finding the murderer.’

Leif frowned darkly. ‘You swear that all parts of him will be preserved?’

Unused to being questioned, Liv raised an elegant eyebrow. ‘Of course.’

‘Father!’ Delvin objected vehemently. ‘That is out of the question!’

Baldred shot his son a quelling glance before turning back to us. ‘Proceed.’

Huh. I really hadn’t thought they’d allow it – but why not? Maybe Alfgar could tell us where his head was, and then he could move on to the afterlife.

‘I will go and prepare.’ Liv sauntered out.

‘I have no need to watch this,’ Calliope said. She fixed Leif with a hard stare. ‘Keep me up to date.’

He grimaced, his default expression. ‘Yes, Miss Galanis.’

Calliope waved goodbye to Gunnar, ignored Sidnee and me, then went back to the office that she apparently kept at the mine. Maybe she came here when the stench of the fish plant became too much for her.

‘Leif will oversee matters here,’ Baldred said, leaning heavily on his cane. ‘I will go and speak with our people.’

‘I’ll stay to oversee things here,’ Delvin objected tightly.

‘No, no.’ Baldred patted his son’s hand. ‘Leif will do it. I have need of you.’

Reluctantly Delvin offered an arm, which the elderly dwarf took, and the two of them made their way slowly out of the room. Clearly Baldred had no desire to see an animated corpse and I got that, but frankly I was excited at seeing Liv do her thing. I’d only seen one failed attempt and her work with the barrier gems, so this was new.

She came back a few moments later, her hair tied back and her face serene. She set down her heavy bag on the floor next to the body then started pulling out objects; it was clearly a Mary Poppins’ bag because no way could an ordinary bag hold so much.

She encircled the stretcher with candles, crystals and herbs then shot us a sharp look. ‘Stay back.’ She eyed Fluffy. ‘The mutt too.’ Fluffy growled at her and she winked cheekily at him. She loved nothing more than getting a reaction.

Liv placed crystals on Alfgar, one on each hand and foot, one on his belly button, others on his chest and above the neck where the forehead should have been – if it hadn’t been missing. Next she sprinkled the body with herbs, raised her hands above her head, threw back her head and started to chant.

Her oily magic pulled at me, tangling in my guts and urging me forward with its slimy fingers. Shuddering, I stepped back. Her death magic called to the undead parts of me and I wondered what it would do if I were a full vampire. Liv clearly knew I was different because her magic didn’t control me like it should have done.

As the hum of the magic increased, I shook my head to clear it and focused on Liv; I didn’t want to miss this. Unfortunately she was speaking in a language I’d never heard; it was probably a dead language because Liv was ancient. I knew she’d been born somewhere in or near Egypt, but every language evolved with time. I doubted even an Egyptian would understand the ancient tongue she was now using.

A hot wind swept through the room, blowing our hair and stirring the skirt of Liv’s power suit. She lowered her hands, then raised them again and spoke the only word that I’d understood so far: ‘Rise!’

I shuddered and tried not to gape as the headless corpse sat up and swung its legs over the edge of the stretcher.

Fuck me.