The motel was cheap and tacky, and once they found the right room Viv had no trouble picking the lock. A bent paper clip would have done it.

Miller was sprawled on the bed, empty beer cans scattered all over the floor, his gun in plain sight on a chest of drawers four feet away from them. He just kept snoring as Viv walked up to him, got out some handcuffs, and snapped them on. Richie banished brief speculations as to why she might carry them and concentrated on the task at hand, searching the room while she slapped the guy in the face until he woke up. The amulet wasn’t anywhere.

“Whu- what?! Hey- hey bitch, stop that!” Miller spluttered awake, and lunged to hit Viv, losing his balance and almost falling off the bed when he found his hands cuffed together. Viv caught hold of him and shoved him back against the wall.

“Keep your voice down and answer our questions and you just might get out of this alive.” Viv said quite calmly.

Miller, obviously not big on brains, kept struggling, trying to get his hands free. “I’m not afraid of you, bitch.”

“Yeah? How about me.” Rich hissed quietly, steeping into his field of vision.

Miller went dead white and shrunk back against the wall. “No way... no way... can’t be you, I.. I..”

“Killed me? I’m back. Where is it.” Rich asked, leaning forwards menacingly.

“I don’t know what you..”

“Where is it! The amulet! The one you stole from me!”

Miller tried to back right through the wall. “I don’t know! I didn’t take anything! I swear, don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.”

“You stole it, and I want it back! Where did you put it! Did you sell it to someone? Who!” Rich didn’t raise his voice too much but it was obvious he was way beyond annoyed. He leaned in right in Miller’s face.

Miller wet himself. Viv tried not to laugh. “Adrian! That little prick, he was who took it. He was right near you the whole time! I swear, it wasn’t me, it was him!”

“Adrian?” Viv asked softly.

“Yeah, Adrian Jessop, little shoplifter gets the beer for us. He lives on.. ah.. he lives on..”

“Tell me!” Rich grabbed the front of his shirt.

Miller screamed and babbled an address, which Viv wrote down quickly. She took her cuffs back. He didn’t try and run, just pressed into the wall and stared at Richie, squeaking the Lord’s prayer over and over.

“You better be right.” Richard told him, and left.

Viv lingered a moment. “You know, if you’re wrong, he’ll be back. Maybe you ought to think about the defensible qualities of a nice quiet jail cell.” she said helpfully, grinning. Miller didn’t seem to hear her, but the moment she was out the door he dived for the phone.

“Oh man, that was too cool.” Viv said, grinning ear to ear. “That is usually so much harder to do. But I guess if a pissed off zombie came and woke me up I’d probably tell him anything he wanted to know.”

“Yeah, well, I was kinda hoping my amulet would be there.” Rich said, not happy, getting back on his bike and holding out his hand for the next address.

“Hey, I’m sorry. But we’ll find it, don’t worry.” Viv reassured him, and handed it over, then climbed on.

“I hope so.” He sighed, read the note, and put on his helmet.