‘You have a less than charming phone manner,’ I said.

Winter rolled his eyes. ‘Do you want to call them back and ask them about the weather? Find out if they’re comfortable and getting enough sleep?’

I grinned. ‘No, I’m good. It wasn’t a criticism. More like an observation.’

‘Well those witches tasked with investigating the town could do with some criticism,’ he huffed. ‘They seem to spending more time in the pub than doing any work. Apparently the most they’ve uncovered is that a couple of hundred years ago a family with very strong magical powers moved into the area. We already knew that. Until they can uncover something that’s not ancient history, their presence is nothing more than a waste of time.’

I patted his arm. ‘There, there. To be fair, we’ve not uncovered a whole lot either and we’ve been here for days. We’ve got access to everything on set and we’re still floundering.’

Winter grimaced. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Let’s stop floundering and start swimming. Rather than confronting Bellows, let’s go and talk to Belinda. We’ll find out what on earth that thing is around her neck and ask her what Bellows is up to at the same time.’

‘You think she’s more likely to be honest if we’re trying to help her as well as accuse her?’

Winter raised a shoulder in a half-hearted response. ‘If there is another zombie then we don’t have much choice. If it reaches a populated area there will be carnage.’

‘Maybe you were right and we should have confronted her earlier.’

‘No. The more evidence we have the better. If she denied everything, she’d know we suspected her and we wouldn’t have any reason to detain her. This way we have an another angle.’ He sighed. ‘Even if it doesn’t feel right using it.’

I knew exactly what he meant. Belinda was a victim of Bellows, no matter how you looked at it. But if the necromancer was performing magic again, we had to act. It had got to the point where we had to rule Belinda Battenapple out or in for good before more people were killed.

I glanced down at the photos. In every one, she was wearing the vial. She might not have had on a stitch of clothing but she clearly wasn’t about to abandon her death-drawing necklace, even for this.

We started walking back again. Before we reached the edge of the trees, I turned to Winter. ‘There is one good thing to come out of all this,’ I said.

He frowned. ‘What’s that?’

I didn’t smile. ‘Now you’re calling them zombies as well.’

Winter didn’t argue.

***

In an ideal world, we could have marched straight over to Belinda and pulled her away for questioning. Instead, there was the small matter of the vote. At least both Belinda and I would be in the same space so she couldn’t hide herself away and avoid us. As soon as this last part of filming was over, Winter and I would both ensure that we got her alone and in a quiet spot.