A Tooth for a Tooth

Roger Nowell and Constable Hargreaves were standing in the thick fog in the graveyard of Newchurch in Pendle. They looked down in silence. The turf had been flung back and the shallow earth disturbed. The body within was partially uncovered; bones showed in the earth and above ground. By the side of the grave was a skull, dry and bleached. The skull had been smashed at the jaw to remove the teeth. Bits of chipped bone were scattered about. The teeth had been carefully collected in a mound.

At another grave the ground had been re-dug but the body it held had not yet rotted to the bones and the mouldering flesh was exposed, with its busy colony of worms. The corpse had been mutilated. The head was gone, leaving only the black stump of the neck.

‘Happened last night,’ said Hargreaves. ‘They made off with the head and left the teeth. Must have been disturbed at their work.’

‘Aren’t the Demdike and Chattox locked up?’

‘All but James Device who is prepared to give evidence against his kin. He is dead drunk at the Dog.’

‘Then we cannot blame him. And much as you would all like to do so, we cannot blame Alice Nutter. She was with me.’

‘Her spirit can go abroad. The spirit of a witch can go abroad anywhere,’ said Hargreaves.

Roger Nowell did not answer that. ‘Did you search the Rough Lee?’

‘We did. I have a servant in my pay now. We found no Christopher Southworth nor any sign or sighting of him. But we found this.’

Hargreaves pulled out a silver crucifix on a neckchain. ‘In the bedchamber . . . In the bed.’

Roger Nowell looked at it closely. ‘Does she use it because she is secretly a Catholic or because she is secretly a witch? Does she kiss it or does she blaspheme it?’ He put the heavy crucifix in his pocket. ‘It is valuable evidence.’

‘James Device says he will testify against Alice Nutter.’

Roger Nowell shook his head. ‘His drunken word would not stand against a woman like Alice Nutter. And we have enough work to do, Hargreaves. I want the wretches in Malkin Tower brought to me this evening to make statements. Potts will be present, I am sure. And get these graves decently laid.’

‘Yes, sir. And Alice Nutter?’

‘I have said not yet.’

Hargreaves was not pleased but he could not argue.

The men walked slowly from the churchyard. Jennet Device, who had been watching them from the bushes, ran up to the open graves, scooped up the teeth in both hands and made off towards Malkin Tower.