Page 35 of A Game of Lies

He only hopes they’re not too late.

TWELVE

THURSDAY | ZEE HART | EPISODE FOUR

Zee Hart was born to be famous. Unfortunately for Zee, it’s taken a while for anyone else to recognise this. Despite her slogging away at her YouTube channel for years, her viewers have always been in the hundreds rather than the thousands, and the Twitter account she set up to spill behind-the-scenes tea onExposuredidn’t gain the traction she’d hoped for.

But all that changed when Ryan went missing.

Zee checks her stats and grins fit to burst. It’s happening. It’s really happening. The numbers are spiralling, not just on her YouTube channel but on Twitter too. Her video breaking the missing contestant story has gone viral and now everything she posts is shared within seconds.

Wait till she posts her interview with Jason Shenton. People are going to go INSANE.

Zee is still buzzing from actually scoring an interview with a contestant. When she snuck down to Carreg Plas this morning, she’d hoped to get a photo, or – at best – a soundbite answer in response to a yelled question. But the courtyard had been deserted, and a hastily written sign on the back door to the farmhouse read MEDIA CENTRE.

Zee was media, wasn’t she?

She looked around for Miles, who had made it clear he hated her, but the only member of the production staff around was the runner, who gave a suspicious glance at the ID Zee flashed. ‘That’s a business card.’

‘Right,’ Zee said. ‘ForHart Breaks. My media company.’

‘You’re a YouTuber; that’s not—’

‘And where do you get your breaking news, Caleb? The ten o’clock news, is it, when you’re tucked up with your cocoa? Or is it on your socials, like a normal person?’ Zee flicked her business card. ‘Social mediaismedia.’ She was quite pleased with that – she thought she might put it on her website.

‘Ten minutes. Only once the other journos have finished.’

Theotherjournos! She was a journalist! Well, as good as. Zee had tried to look nonchalant as she sat next to a guy from theSunnewspaper. She made the most of her ten minutes by flirting with him in exchange for some of the dirt he’d dug up on the other contestants, then filming multiple clips of Jason being interviewed, to roll out on her socials over the next few days.

Now back in her tent, Zee checks Twitter and, once she’s sure #ExposureTVShow is trending, she pressesposton her own interview with Jason. It’s only a few minutes long, thanks to Miles throwing her out, but she figures the abrupt ending is on brand for an investigative reporter. She takes a long pull on her joint, closing her mouth over the bittersweet smoke before letting it out through her nose. She brings up her tweet and plays the interview again, watching it through the eyes of the public. The footage ends abruptly just after Zee’s yell ofGet your hands off me!

‘I’m nowhere near you,’ Miles had said at the time, somewhat confused. By then Zee’s phone was back in her pocket, complete with the dramatic ending to her interview, which was sure to get everyone talking. Fortunately for Zee, Miles had been somewhat distracted by Jason, who had launched himself at the producer with the full force of his fury. Zee had taken the opportunity to slide away, going back to her tent to have a spliff and edit her footage.

She refreshes Twitter and is thrilled to see dozens of people have already shared the link.

Anyone know who the bloke is at the end? Hope @ZeeHart is pressing charges.

Sounds like Miles Young. Voice is the same as in this interview.

The tweeter drops a link as evidence.

Zee’s conscience pricks at her, but, if what Jason said is true, Miles has done his fair share of editing the truth. Maybe it’s time he got a taste of his own medicine.

No bruises, she tweets, which is entirely true.It was worth it to hear from Jason himself, she adds, which isn’t. In fact, the brief interview is pretty boring.I love my wife, I never meant to hurt her, yada yada yada. It seems Twitter agrees, as Jason is hardly mentioned in Zee’s replies and quote-tweets.

Total abuse of power from the producer. Share and shame!

Has the #MeToo movement passed him by completely? What an arsehole!

Looks like Miles Young is the one being #Exposed here …

Zee’s follower count ticks steadily upwards. She turns on her iPad and uses more precious phone data to stream tonight’s episode ofExposure, so she can tweet while she watches. Every few minutes her phone loses signal, and she has to walk around to find it again.

In tonight’s episode, the contestants have been given a lie detector.

‘Each of you must introduce yourself with the three true facts we’ve provided you with,’ Roxy says. ‘These will act as a control, giving a baseline for the polygraph. After that, your fellow contestants may ask ten questions in an attempt to find out more about the secret you’re keeping.’

Aliyah goes first, slipping her fingers into a wired glove, before Roxy attaches a monitor around her chest. ‘Um, my name’s Aliyah,’ she reads from her card. ‘I have black hair and brown eyes.’ She simpers and the camera swings round to the object of her attention: Henry.

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