Page 36 of Read Between The Lines

The aggressive ringing of Dom’s bell was a welcome interruption to a conversation which had become unnervingly intense.

‘Good luck with your next date,’ said Leo. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow.’ The teasing voice was back again.

‘And there you go revealing yourself as a Shakespeare fan. Or maybe it’s the doomed love affairs that you’re really in thrall to.’

‘I’ve always been of the opinion that Romeo and Juliet could have solved all their issues by having a good chat. Mind you, they were too busy doing other stuff to talk properly,’ responded Leo with a twinkle. Then he lowered his voice. ‘Good luck, Holmes. Don’t speak to too many strange men.’

‘Hopefully you’ll be the strangest of the night,’ I countered, and made a beeline for the next empty chair before he could respond. Time to get on with what I was really here for.

ChapterFourteen

The bell to signal the start of the next date had rung before I’d even sat down properly.

‘Hi, I’m Katherine and I’m a writer,’ I introduced myself, pretending that I was back in the safety of the library and doing nothing scarier than merely greeting a new member.

The man I was now sitting opposite didn’t meet my gaze but mumbled something in response.

‘Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.’

I smiled, hoping to put him at ease. He looked as nervous as I felt.

‘I’m Brian,’ he repeated.

My heart started racing and I had to fight to stop myself from gasping out loud. Surely it wasn’t going to be this easy? Surely the first stranger I spoke to at this event wasn’t going to turn out to be my quarry? I told myself to calm down and not jump to any hasty conclusions. Scammer Brian was arrogant, but he wasn’t stupid. There was no way he’d just introduce himself to me like this. My rudimentary disguise wasn’t that effective, and wouldn’t he at least recognise something familiar about my features, given that he was sitting directly across from me? The most likely scenario was that this was a completely innocent man who happened to have the same name as the guy who’d tried to fleece me had used. But I’d be on my guard, just in case. At this stage, it probably wasn’t a good idea to completely rule anyone out.

‘Brian, as in B-R-I-A-N?’ I spelled it out.

He pulled a face. ‘No, I’m Bryan with a Y,’ he corrected, as if I should have realised that for myself.

That wasn’t conclusive evidence either way. I needed to question him to establish whether he was a credible suspect.

‘Lovely to meet you, Bryan.’ I dialled up the charm.

He responded with a grunt, which left me with the strong impression that he did not feel the same way.

I paused, waiting to see if he was going to take the conversational lead. In the unlikely event that he was the fraudster I was looking for, I assumed he’d soon make it obvious. He’d have to acknowledge our online connection and explain his initial apparent indifference to me on meeting in person, wouldn’t he? And clarify why he spelled his name differently on the internet.

The silence stretched out between us. If he carried on like this, it was going to be a very difficult five minutes.

‘How long have you been a member of SO Ox, Bryan?’ I asked. Time to attempt some subtle fact-finding.

He looked offended. ‘Why do you want to know?’

I forced out a light laugh. ‘No real reason. I was trying to make small talk. I’ve been an online member for a couple of months, but this is my first in-person event, all very exciting. How about you, have you been to many of the events?’

‘Nah, it’s my first IRL one too,’ he admitted reluctantly.

Unless he was a very good actor pretending to be incredibly socially awkward, I was growing more certain this couldn’t be Scammer Brian. For a start, although Single Mingle Bryan had barely said anything, his voice was totally different from the confident, playful tones of my online beau. And the bogus Brian had always been so assured in his communications with me, taking the lead and never being short of something witty to say. I couldn’t see the man in front of me having the get up and go needed to execute a fraud. Wouldn’t a scammer try to charm the pants off everyone he met?

But a niggling doubt occurred to me. What if his rudeness was because he did recognise me and had somehow guessed my real motive for being here tonight? Perhaps what I had interpreted as a cold attitude was actually an underlying threat? Or was I overthinking the situation, on edge because of all Leo’s warnings? The reality was that the fraudster was in a very safe position because I had no idea what he actually looked like. Nevertheless, I subtly glanced around, feeling decidedly jittery and double-checking where my closest escape route was, just in case.

‘And how are you finding the event?’ I asked, trying to maintain a calm tone.

‘It’s okay,’ he said.

I’d happily turn him into the police, scammer or not, purely for his inability to sustain a conversation. The man needed to give me something, otherwise we were going to start attracting attention because of the lingering silence between us. The five minutes with Leo had flown by. Dom must be messing around with the timings because this date was dragging.

‘What do you do when you’re not attending Single Mingles?’ I tried a different tack.

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