I had to think laterally. It was coming up for six o’clock, so school was out of the question. I doubted there would be a handy skate park around here – but there was a sign for a leisure centre nearby. I shrugged: it seemed as good a place as any. And it was only round the corner. I wanted to please Winter but I did have limits – and I hadn’t been lying to Amy about those damned blisters.

Fortunately, I was in luck. As soon as the leisure centre came into view, a pair of boys on bikes rode by. Concentrating, I threw out a quick rune, causing the chain on the lead bike to come undone. It wasn’t one of my best ideas – the kid on the bike behind collided with his mate with a loud clunk of metal and an even louder curse. Oops.

I darted over to help them. ‘Are you alright?’

‘Fine,’ the first one muttered from where he was entangled with his bike.

Good. I didn’t want to have to mess around with putting the chain back on for him.

He extricated his feet from the bike’s frame and pulled himself up. ‘You idiot,’ he hissed to his friend.

‘It’s not my fault, Al. You’re the one who stopped.’

‘Because my bleeding chain came off, didn’t it?’

Both boys realised I was watching them and glared. ‘Why are you still here?’

I held up my hands. ‘I thought you might need some help.’ I paused. ‘I don’t know much about bicycles but I helped fix the axle on one of the camera equipment trucks last week and they can’t be that different.’

My oh-so-subtle hint did the trick. The second boy’s eyes widened. ‘You’re with Enchantment.’

I clapped my hand over my mouth and looked guilty. ‘I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Pretend you didn’t hear me.’ I started walking away.

‘Wait!’

I grinned to myself and turned slowly. ‘Yes?’

‘What do you do for Enchantment? Do you know Belinda? Did you see the dead body? Was there a lot of blood?’

The questions came so thick and fast I didn’t know which one to answer first. ‘Er … I shouldn’t say anything. It’s a closed set and we’re not supposed to talk to the public about what’s going on.’

‘We won’t tell anyone,’ Al said slyly.

‘Yeah,’ added his mate. ‘Tell us about Belinda. She’s hot.’

She was also old enough to be their grandmother. ‘Between you and me,’ I said, ‘she’s a bit worked up about the murder and what happened this afternoon. She likes to get a handle on things, you know? The police won’t talk to her about the death and she feels she can’t settle until she knows all the details.’

The boys exchanged looks. ‘We know who found the body,’ the one called Al said.

His friend nudged him knowingly. ‘Yeah. Al knows him real well.’

Al snorted. ‘Not through choice. He’s loony tunes. She’d do better to stay away from him.’