Page 101 of A Game of Lies

Ffion drags her cursor along the screen, trying to trigger the same feeling she’d had the last time she was here – what was it about the footage that hadn’t seemed right? She rubs her fingertips across her forehead. It feels like coming to the end of a jigsaw puzzle, only for someone to throw it in the air and then add another hundred pieces for good measure. If Miles was already dead when Ffion saw the impostor, how can Ffion, Leo and George have heard the murder happen, just before 11.45? It doesn’t make sense …

On the screen, Ceri is talking to Lucas. He’s only half listening, a wry smile on his face at something just off screen. Ffion clicks to another camera. The something is Henry, who flailing his arms around, and Ffion finally realises why this didn’t feel right the first time she saw it.

A spider dropped on Henry’s head.

Ffion thinks back to the first episode ofExposure. She thinks about sitting in Mam’s cramped lounge with Mam and Seren and Caleb, watching Aliyah run out of the bell tent, shrieking. She remembers her throwaway comment as the contestants were introduced.Imagine being stuck in camp with an accountant.

Why would Henry, who chivalrously checked Aliyah’s bed for spiders on the first day ofExposure, react in such an extreme way to one a few days later?

Ffion turns up the sound.

‘Get off me!’ Henry shouts.

Ffion catches her breath.

That’s why.

He set it up in order to say something he wanted to capture on camera for later.

Get off me.

Ffion fast-forwards, only stopping to listen to the sound when she sees Henry’s lips moving. Nothing stands out, so she clicks on the previous day. Fast-forwards again. While she works, she pulls out her pocket notebook and finds the page on which she noted everyone’s contact details in the aftermath of the murder. She dials Zee Hart’s number.

‘Hello?’

‘This is DC Morgan. Caleb said you wanted to ask me about an accountant?’

‘Not ask you – tell you!’ Zee’s voice thrums with excitement. ‘I wanted to interview all the contestants now they’re out of the show, and every time I come near the house I get grief from one of you lot, so—’

‘Get to the point, Zee.’ Ffion’s still scrolling through episodes at warp speed, pausing every time Henry’s in the frame. Henry in the shower, singing to himself. Henry chatting with Ceri over breakfast.

‘I thought, I’ll try another way. So, like, for Jason, I left a message at the fire station, and I knew Henry was an accountant, and they have to be, like, registered, don’t they? So I googled him but—’

‘You didn’t find an accountant called Henry Moore.’ Ffion presses play on another clip of Henry, who is watching Lucas search for something in the men’s tent.

‘Oh, I found one. He’s got a LinkedIn account. But his photo looks nothing like the guy fromExposure.’

‘Thanks, Zee. That’s really helpful.’

‘Oh, you’re welcome! I think it’s great when the media and the police work together, so if you want any—’

Ffion ends the call.

‘You just want a quiet life, then?’ Henry is saying on screen.

‘That would be nice,’ Lucas says. ‘Have you seen my socks? They’re hot pink and they have a small hole on one heel.’

‘Sorry, mate.’

Ffion’s about to fast-forward again when Henry’s tone changes. He becomes defensive, even though Lucas has barely raised his voice.

‘Are you threatening me?’ Henry says, then he drops the angry man pretence and bursts into laughter. ‘Chill! I haven’t got your socks, mate.’

Are you threatening me? Get off me!

Ffion feels the heady sense of euphoria that comes with a breakthrough. She could stop now – she has enough; almost enough – but she wants Henry to know he isn’t as clever as he thinks he is. She wants the missing piece of the script.

She finds it on the fourth day of filming, when Pam picks up a tea-towel to help Henry with the washing-up, only for him to round on her. ‘What are you doing? Put that down!’

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