Page 9 of How to Annoy a Mountain Man

“Smith is a common last name. Meant the family trade was metal smithing.”

“The more you know,” I deadpanned.

She shot me a look. “It still narrows down where to start.”

I nodded. “Research the Smiths first, then move on to the rest.”

My watch beeped and I glanced at it, surprised to see how many hours I’d been here. I had to go if I was going to have time to get ready and make it to the cemetery in time for my shift.

I stood up, my legs half asleep from having sat for so long.

Briar looked up at me with a furrowed brow. “Off to stalk someone else?”

“I have to get ready for cemetery duty tonight…will I see you there?” I sounded like a hopeful teen asking his crush to the prom.

She shook her head. “I think I will keep going with my research tonight. Make your job easier with one less person in the way.”

That was what I’d wanted. I’d said as much to her just the day before. Back then I’d even believed it.

“You’d never be in the way, Briar,” I said like the sap I apparently was.

She blinked at me, probably wondering where the real Jonah was and hell if I wasn’t wondering the same thing.

Chapter Six

Briar

Research day two, and I had barely slept… again.

By the time I’d settled into my usual table at the library, my iced coffee was half gone. That was only partly because my brain was stuck on the time I’d spent with Jonah the day before. Remembering his genuine interest in my research and desire to help.

What had really kept me up was another historical rabbit hole. So I cracked open my laptop. The subject of the day: vampires.

I should do the logical research first. Birth, death, and marriage certificates for the Smith family. Instead, I kept circling back to motive. Something told me figuring out the why would break this whole thing open.

I scrolled past article after article about the fictional Dracula. Interesting, but useless to my current research. He wasn’t who I was after.

Last night, I’d stumbled across a reference to a vampire panic in the 1800s, where people believed their dead relatives returned to prey on the living. That was what I wanted to understand. Would that belief lead to vandalizing the relatives grave?

“What are you up to now? Pricing out cauldrons?”

Jonah’s voice drew my eye before I could stop myself. I crossed my arms. “Stalker repellent, actually.”

Not getting the hint, he dropped into a chair across from me. Today, he was breaking the mold with a blue flannel rather than his usual red one. It actually brought out his eyes, which was something I should not be noticing.

“Funny. But seriously, what has you staring so hard at the screen? Did you find out who your Jane or John Doe is?”

“No, but I have a theory about motive. Vampire.”

He rubbed at the spot between his eyes for a moment. “Hell, then let’s just dig the person up and see if they sparkle in the sun.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Was that a Twilight reference, Mountain Man?”

He shrugged. “I have hobbies. Anyway, explain.”

“There were cases in the 1800s where, before people understood germ theory, they believed those dying of tuberculosis were having their lives slowly drained by dead people who had returned from the grave.”

The corner of his eye twitched. “You’re going to have to run that by me one more time.”