Page 81 of A Game of Lies

‘Ceri, for example.’ Ffion lets the silence stretch between them.

‘Who told you?’ Huw says eventually.

‘A witness.’

‘A witness? You mean, this is part of your murder investigation?’

‘What are you playing at, Huw?’

‘We were just talking.’

‘Sure.’

‘It’s got nothing to do with what happened to Miles, Ffi, I promise.’

‘You don’t get to make that call. I do.’ They stare at each other.

Huw looks away. ‘I went to ask her not to drag Bronwen into it.’

‘BronwenPost? Ceri’s boss? What’s she got to do with it?’

‘Ceri’s secret. It could get Bronwen into trouble too.’

‘Okay, but what’s that got to do with you?’ Ffion stares at Huw, at the flush creeping from his collar, and she feels a sudden rush of something she can’t explain. ‘Oh …’ she says quietly. ‘Bronwen’s the woman you’re seeing.’

‘I was going to tell you.’

‘It’s none of my business.’ Ffion’s talking too fast. Too loud. It really isn’t her business – they’re divorced, and heaven knows, Ffion doesn’t want to revisit that particular chapter of her life – and yet …

‘I saw you moving on,’ Huw says, ‘and—’

‘Moving on?’

‘That English detective.’

‘Oh, God, that’s—’ Ffion laughs, but her protestations sound false, even to her. She almost had moved on, she thinks. Would have done, if she were less of an idiot.

‘And it made me realise I had to do the same.’ Huw kicks at the dirt.

‘That’s good,’ Ffion says, and she means it.

‘I don’t want her to get into trouble, Ffi.’

‘What’s Ceri’s secret?’

He doesn’t answer.

Ffion exhales, frustrated. ‘What did she do, Huw?’

‘I can’t – I shouldn’t even have got involved.’

‘No, you bloody well shouldn’t.’ Ffion is fast losing patience, but it occurs to her that Huw’s idiotic interference might just provide Ceri with an alibi. ‘What time did you talk to her?’ Zee told her it was after midday, but if it had been earlier – say around ten to – there was no way Ceri could have killed Miles at 11.45, then got back—

‘About twenty past twelve,’ Huw says. ‘I went back down the mountain after I spoke to Ceri – that’s when I saw you by the stables.’

‘Right.’ It still could have been Ceri, then.Or Huw, says the voice in Ffion’s head, before she can stop it. But that’s absurd. Huw has his faults, but he’s one hundred per cent honest.

Isn’t he?

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