Page 15 of A Game of Lies

‘We’re looking for a missing person – a white man in his thirties. Have you seen anyone matching that description?’

‘I haven’t seen anyone.’

Ms Hart doesn’t like the police, Ffion thinks. Older than Seren, although not by much, Zee wears dungarees the colour of an overripe plum. Her wrists are covered in silver bangles that clatter into each other as she pulls her hair over one shoulder.

‘You’re the YouTuber, right?’ Ffion asks.

‘That’s me!Hart Breaks. You know, like “breaking stories”? I’m doing a series now calledExtraExposure, with Zee Hart. I get quite a few glimpses of the contestants when they come near the fence, and I overlay that with my commentary on each episode and—’

‘Is it your job, then?’ Ffion interrupts before Zee gets into full flow. ‘Your YouTube channel?’

‘Yes.’ Zee flushes. ‘Well, I work in McDonald’s too. But YouTube’s going to be my full-time job; I just need to get my subscribers up. That’s what this is about.’ She waves a hand towards theExposurecamp. ‘Although it would be a million times easier if I had the cooperation of the production team.’ This last is directed towards Caleb.

‘Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not my fault Miles isn’t up for it.’

‘You could give me an interview, though.’

‘I’d lose my job,’ Caleb says, and it’s clear from his tone that he and Zee have had this conversation before.

Zee gives him a sly look. ‘I’m not sure you can call it a job when you’re not being paid and the producer misses you off the credits.’

Caleb’s face fills with rage. ‘You b—’

‘Okay!’ Ffion steps between them. ‘Zee, if you see a man who looks lost, please call 101.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘Sorry, that’s strictly on a need-to-know basis.’

‘Oh, my God, is it a contestant?’ Zee’s eyes light up. ‘Is it Jason? No, hang on, you said brown hair. It’s not Henry, is it? He’s my favourite.’

Ffion starts walking.

‘It’s Ryan, isn’t it?’ Zee shouts after them. ‘Is it Ryan?’

The point where Ryan escaped from camp is on the northern side. The ground beneath the fence section has been scraped out, the bottom of the wire bent up enough to allow him to wriggle underneath.

Caleb picks a scrap of orange fleece from the wire. ‘Like a prisoner-of-war.’

Ffion pictures Ryan, crawling through the dirt like an animal, and imagines how desperate he must have felt. Escaping meant he didn’t have to face anyone: not Miles, not the journalists, not his family. But with no money and no possessions, where was he planning to go?

‘They’re not actually prisoners though.’ The security guard, Dario, comes up behind them. ‘They can leave; they just won’t get the participation fee. I know Miles is pissed at me for Ryan going, but he hired me to prevent people breaking into camp, not stop them leaving it.’

‘On that note,’ Ffion says, ‘can you open the gate for us? We need to speak with the other contestants.’

Dario looks uncomfortable. ‘I don’t think Miles would—’

‘I don’t give a shit what Miles would like. Open it, please.’

When Seren turned ten, Mam and Ffion took her to the Harry Potter studios for a birthday treat. Ffion walked down Diagon Alley and half expected to meet Hagrid coming the other way. Now, she feels the same weird sense of otherworldliness as she steps into the camp. Yesterday, it was simply the site of some dug-up bones, but now Ffion feels as though she’s stepping into her TV. The fire pit has been finished and a pile of logs is smouldering in the centre. As Ffion and Georgina approach, one of the logs falls to the side, sending ash flying into the air like confetti. The six contestants stand. Dario and Caleb keep their distance, no doubt fearful of Miles’s reaction. Ffion sees Dario glance at the trees. She follows his gaze and sees a camera, mounted high on a trunk. She looks around. Now she knows what she’s looking for, the others are easy to spot.

‘He’ll be watching,’ she says to Georgina, as quietly as she can. ‘We’d better make this quick.’ She addresses the group. ‘Who was the last person to see or speak to Ryan?’

Ceri meets Ffion’s eyes and they exchange the briefest of smiles. If you didn’t know Ceri, Ffion thinks, you’d assume she was okay – that she was enjoying herself, even. But the bags under her eyes are never usually so pronounced, and her pale face looks haunted and anxious. Ffion doesn’t ask her how she’s doing. She doesn’t give a shit about Miles’s sponsors, but she won’t drag Ceri into it. She can’t help but wonder, though: what is Ceri’s secret?

‘That was us.’ Henry points to Jason and then himself. ‘We’re in the same tent as Ryan, but to be honest he didn’t say much, did he?’

Jason shakes his head. ‘Henners and I were talking about what the hell was going on – you saw the show, right? I mean, it’s fucking nuts – but Ryan wasn’t joining in. I figured he was tired, or working some shit out, you know?’

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