Page 82 of A Game of Lies

Ffion picks up the bolt cutters and holds them out. ‘Will you do the honours, or shall I?’

There are seven secrets in the box, including those already exposed. If Ceri’s secret implicates her boss, it must be something Ceri’s done at work, and it’s clear the stakes are high, otherwise Huw wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to keep Bronwen out of it.

But are they high enough for murder?

Ffion pictures Ceri in her postal uniform. Shorts, whatever the weather, and brown boots that give way to sandals in summer. Ceri knows everyone in Cwm Coed, and everyone knows her. At least, they think they do.

‘Promise me you won’t drag Bronwen into this?’ Huw hesitates as he puts the bolt cutters to the padlock.

‘You know I can’t—’

‘I really like her, Ffi,’ Huw says quietly.

Ffion thinks about her ex-husband with his new woman, and the sadness she feels is mixed with relief. No more guilt for ruining Huw’s life. He’s moved on. She thinks about Ceri, who is as much a part of Cwm Coed as the lake and the mountain. She thinks about Miles, gasping for breath, as hands closed around his throat.

Ffion snaps her focus back to the box of secrets. ‘Just open it.’

THIRTY

MONDAY | LEO

‘It’s a playlist I put together.’ Roxy is sitting on her bed while Leo stands. ‘I always listen to it when I’m getting ready for filming.’ She shows Leo the list of songs and he sees ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, ‘Eye of the Tiger’, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Dancing Queen’…

‘Very motivational.’

Roxy flushes. ‘“Dancing Queen” had just started when Owen’s door banged. I heard him running down the stairs, so I came out to see what was happening.’

‘You didn’t hear the commotion yourself?’

‘I had the music up loud, and I was doing my make-up. Over there.’ She points to a dressing table across the room from the window, which is strewn with cosmetics. ‘If you look at the “recently played” tab, it’ll give you the time.’

Roxy hands Leo her phone, seemingly untroubled that he could tap on any of her messaging apps. A sign she has nothing to hide, perhaps? He scrolls backwards until he finds ‘Dancing Queen’. The time stamp reads 11.44. So far, so corroborated.

‘Of course, this only tells us what your phone was playing,’ Leo says. ‘Not where you were at the time.’

‘I was here, in my room.’ Roxy’s tone isn’t defensive. It doesn’t need to be, Leo thinks – he’s playing devil’s advocate. Owen has already confirmed that Roxy followed him down the stairs, and that they ran out of the kitchen door seconds apart. With no love lost between the two of them, it’s unlikely either would cover for the other, which means neither of them could have killed Miles.

Leo is about to leave, when he remembers Aliyah’s concerns about there being a sexual predator among the contestants. ‘Do you remember saying something in camp about there being a “#MeToo” contestant on the show?’

Roxy frowns, then her expression clears. ‘Yes. It was after we’d finished filming on the first night. I turned to Owen and said something like,I wonder which one is the #MeToo bloke. Miles had given me a heads-up before we’d gone up to camp.’

‘I thought he was the only one who knew the contestants’ secrets?’

‘Oh, I don’t think that was one of the secrets – he was just making sure I kept my wits about me, you know? Didn’t find myself alone with some creep. He did the same with Lucas’s prison sentence. Like a kind of risk assessment, I suppose.’

‘That was very considerate of him.’

Roxy snorts. ‘Nothing considerate about it. Nowadays, you can sue the ass off a production company if they don’t protect staff from harassment. Miles was thinking about his bottom line, the way he always did.’

‘Roxy’s and Owen’s alibis are solid,’ Leo says. They’ve concluded their respective interviews and have regrouped in the kitchen, coffees in hand.

‘As is Jessica Francis’s,’ George says. ‘She used a running app to map her search routes for Ryan, so she didn’t cover the same area twice. She was well over a mile from the scene at the time of the murder.’

Leo makes a note next to Jessica’s name.

‘And that’s not all.’ George takes a sip of coffee. ‘Jessica spoke to Caleb Northcote, who was also out on the mountain. She didn’t know his name, or even that he was the production assistant, but she recognised him and they exchanged a few words.’

‘What time was this?’

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