Page 73 of A Game of Lies

‘Ti’n iawn, Ffi? Thought I might see you here.’

‘Alright, Ceinwen?’ Ffion frowns. ‘How did you get here? There’s supposed to be a cordon on the front.’

‘There is, but it’s Rhodri’s lad, isn’t it? I told him I needed to just pop in for two minutes and he said to go on through but not to let Sergeant – Brody, is it? – see me.’

‘Brady,’ Leo says, behind her.

Ceinwen keeps looking at Ffion. She pulls anoopsface.

‘Be ti’n da yma, anyway?’ Ffion asks her.

‘I’m doing the catering. I’ll just pick up my cash and I’ll be out of your hair.’

Ffion goes to the foot of the stairs to shout for Roxy, who appears on the landing in an old pair of joggers and a voluminous sweatshirt. Ffion passes the message. When she returns to Ceinwen, the caterer is quizzing Leo on the best condiment for a beef sandwich.

‘French or English?’

Leo looks as though he thinks this might be a trick question. ‘French,’ he opts for.

‘Not horseradish, then?’

‘DC Morgan?’ Roxy calls out.

Ffion finds her hovering at the foot of the stairs. ‘What is it?’

‘I can’t pay the caterer.’

‘Are you asking me for a loan? Because I don’t want to be rude, but if the production company has a cashflow issue that’s not really my—’

‘The petty cash was in a tin in Miles’s bedroom.’ Roxy indicates up the stairs. ‘There was around a hundred quid, last time I looked.’ She looks back at Ffion. ‘It’s all gone.’

TWENTY-SEVEN

SUNDAY | LEO

The tin is small, with a hinged lid and a label left over from the days when it contained Earl Grey teabags. Leo has placed it in an exhibit bag, along with the handful of receipts it contained – most of which were issued by Ceinwen’s Catering.

‘Who used the petty cash?’ Leo says.

‘All of us.’ Roxy shrugs. ‘Owen and I got a pizza the other night after we wrapped. Miles sometimes took a tenner out of it for petrol for the quad bike.’ She looks at Owen, who nods his agreement.

‘And you’d stick the receipt in the tin and fill out this sheet?’ Leo unfolds the expenses form with gloved hands.

‘That’s right. I popped to the garage for some throat sweets before the live segment on Saturday. That’s the last time I touched the tin.’

The black pen Roxy used to sign the form has bled through the page. Leo puts it back in the exhibit bag. ‘Which means the money went missing some time in the past twenty-four hours.’ He looks between Roxy and Owen. ‘I have to ask this: did either of you take the money?’

Owen shakes his head. ‘No.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Roxy says.

‘Apart from the four of you,’ Ffion says, ‘did anyone know the tin was there?’

‘No.’ Roxy stops. ‘Oh … Caleb ran out for milk when the contestants were having breakfast here the day we started filming.’

‘Was the tin mentioned then?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

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