Page 113 of A Game of Lies

‘I was freelance, technically. But yes, Miles contracted me to hunt out secrets. I’m rather good at it, you see.’ Another smile stretches across his face.

‘I wouldn’t know where to start,’ George says. ‘It’s hard enough digging into people’s lives when you have access to police databases, but …’ She blows out her cheeks. Leo suppresses a laugh at her attempts to flatter Henry into a confession. As if he’d be taken in by—

‘I’ve been doing this a long time,’ Henry says. ‘Although I have to confess, I made a few false starts – some secrets are too well hidden even for me.’

‘Maybe they didn’t exist,’ Leo says. ‘Not everyone has secrets.’

Henry smiles at him. ‘Everyone has secrets.’

Leo says nothing. Partly because this is a police interview, not a game of truth or dare in theExposurecamp, but mostly because he realises his automatic response – I don’t have secrets – isn’t entirely true. Otherwise he’d tell Ffion how he feels.

‘Reverend Lucas was just good old-fashioned surveillance work.’ Henry directs his response to George. ‘I went to a Sunday service with the intention of speaking to some of the congregation – finding out a bit more about him. Then I saw the way the organist’s wife was looking at him, and …’ Henry presses his palms together and touches his fingertips to his mouth.

‘How about Aliyah?’ George asks.

‘Google images. She’s on an archived site called Rate My Date.’ Henry glances at Leo. ‘Eight and a half, if you were wondering.’

‘I wasn’t,’ Leo says, with barely contained disgust. ‘And how did you discover Jason had been married twice?’

‘That was a happy accident. His Facebook page had old photos from Australia and I thought I’d see if he’d racked up any drugs charges during his gap year. I tapped up a colleague who lives there, and they ran a register office check too – found the marriage listing. No death or divorce. Jackpot.’

One by one, Henry takes them through the methods he used to trace his fellow contestants’ secrets, while Leo tries to work out what additional offences they might add to Henry’s charge sheet. It turns out there was gossip on a local parenting site about Pam’s openness to bribes, but Henry admits to hacking Ceri’s emails and to stealing receipts from specialist shoe shops from Ryan’s recycling bin. Indisputably crimes, albeit petty ones when compared to murder and attempted murder.

‘And of course, there was your own secret,’ George says.

For the first time since the interview began, Henry’s face tightens a little. ‘Miles said I had to have one in the box, in case someone tried to expose me and Roxy had to open the envelope. We agreed we would say I was an alcoholic.’

Leo leans back in his chair. ‘Pretty tame, compared to everyone else’s.’

‘Exposurewas all about the personal cost of secrets. I had a story ready, in case I was confronted. How I’d lose my job, how relationships were hanging by a thread, that sort of thing.’

‘But it was all a lie,’ George says. ‘In fact, your entire presence in the show was a lie.’

‘Might I remind you that lying is not in itself a crime, detective?’ the solicitor says.

‘But Miles didn’t put that in the envelope, did he? He found something a little juicier.’ Leo holds Henry’s gaze, certain he detects a tremor of nerves about the man. He pulls a document from a file and reads aloud the photocopied secret. ‘Henry has refused to pay child support for three years.’

Henry’s lips part. He stares at Leo without saying a word. Then his lips curve into a small smile and he leans back against his chair. ‘Is that it?’

‘That’s it.’ Leo views Henry’s relaxed expression with interest, thinking of the anxious faces of the other contestants when their secrets were revealed.

‘Miles got the wrong end of the stick,’ Henry says smoothly. ‘I – foolishly, as it turns out – mentioned an issue I had with an ex-partner. There’s no evidence the child is mine, you see, and I move around a lot, so—’

‘Not a problem,’ George says. ‘We’ll let the Child Maintenance Service know where to find you. Something tells me you won’t be sending a change-of-address card for a few years.’

‘If I can recap on what you’ve told us …’ Leo says. This is his favourite moment in an interview: the part where the suspect puts the rope around his own neck. ‘You didn’t leave theExposurecamp on Sunday, and the closest you’ve been to Miles’s editing studio is when you walked past it—’

‘On the way to my own room,’ Henry finishes helpfully.

‘Right. You’ve told us that on the morning of the murder you spent an hour asleep in the woods—’

‘Approximately.’ Henry accompanies his interruption with an apologetic smile. ‘We weren’t allowed to wear watches in camp.’

‘You spentapproximatelyan hour asleep in the woods, before returning to camp, when you went to the confession pod.’ Leo looks at Henry for confirmation.

‘For the benefit of the tape,’ George says, ‘the suspect is nodding.’

The solicitor closes her notebook with a snap. ‘Is this really necessary? My client has already given a full account of his whereabouts on Sundayandtoday.’

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