Page 97 of A Game of Lies

‘No, I can’t.’

‘We haven’t got time to play games,’ Owen says, more sharply than Roxy. ‘Unless you’d like us to go off-script?’ He dangles a small key in the air. ‘Miles is currently the only keeper of your secrets, but we could always open the box and—’

‘No!’ There’s a collective cry from the four contestants. The odds might be smaller now, but each of them still has a chance. A week tomorrow, those with their secret still intact will leave theExposurecamp with a hundred grand.

‘Then play your parts,’ Owen snaps. ‘And look happy about it.’

Ceri forces her mouth into something approximating a smile. The more sanguine she appears, she reasons, the less interesting viewers will find her, and the less likely they are to try to expose her. It’s clear the others are thinking along similar lines, because Henry has draped an arm around Lucas, and Aliyah is clapping like a performing seal.

‘Five, four,’ Owen says. He counts down with his fingers.Two, one.

‘Good evening from Dragon Mountain,’ Roxy says to the camera. ‘Aliyah, earlier today, you attempted to expose Ceri. Let’s find out if you’re right.’

‘You what?’ Ceri twists to face Aliyah, who has dropped the seal act and is staring back defiantly.

‘You’d do the same.’

Ceri doesn’t answer, and only partly because Aliyah’s right. Of course she’d expose Aliyah’s secret, if she had the first clue what it was. Ceri doesn’t answer because she can’t. Because every muscle in her body is trembling, because her jaw is rattling and she suddenly feels at once too hot and too cold. She knows that in this brief interlude, when Owen is fiddling with his camera and Roxy is checking her make-up, Aliyah’s accusation is playing on TV screens across the country. Right now, everyone is hearing Ceri’s secret. All Ceri’s customers – all herfriends– know she stole from them.

‘Back on in ten,’ Owen says. ‘Positions!’

And, like the whipped dogs they are, Henry, Lucas, Ceri and Aliyah shuffle into place. A hot, shameful tear slides down Ceri’s cheek.

‘Open the box, Aliyah.’ Roxy hands her the key. ‘And hand me the envelope marked with Ceri’s name.’

Aliyah’s long hair falls over her face as she fiddles with the lock and opens the box. Ceri hears Lucas swallow a moan at the sight of the envelopes, but she can’t summon up any sympathy, can’t give his shoulder a squeeze the way Henry is doing.Theirsecrets are still safe; they’re not being carried to Roxy, not being held up to the camera for inspection.

‘Time to find out if Aliyah’s right.’ Roxy tears open the envelope. ‘Aliyah, do you stand by your accusation? Did Ceri really set fire to her own car and commit insurance fraud?’ She slides out the card.

Ceri can’t catch her breath. She thinks perhaps she’s lost her mind, that she’s starting to hear things. Roxy’s eyes have widened. She glances at Ceri then turns to the camera, her mouth a circle of surprise, drawing out the moment. Ceri starts crying, not only with the emotion of today’s exposure, but the stress of the last week, the guilt of the last few months.

‘I’m afraid, Aliyah …’ Roxy is sliding the card back into its envelope. ‘You’re wrong.’

There’s a stunned silence.

‘What?’ Aliyah stares at Roxy. ‘That’s not possible!’

‘Your exposure attempt has failed – you made an incorrect accusation. You know what that means, don’t you?’ Roxy says.

Aliyah looks beyond the trees around the camp, her head snapping left then right as she searches for something. ‘You bitch!’ she shouts.

‘Back to the confession pod, Aliyah.’ Roxy beams to the camera. ‘Maybe we’ll have an exposure tonight after all!’

As Aliyah is led away, Ceri sinks on to the damp ground and leans against the log, still shaking. She isn’t sure why or how, but she’s safe.

For now.

THIRTY-SEVEN

TUESDAY | LEO

Owen had made an admirable attempt to protest his innocence.

‘I don’t know what else I can say to convince you,’ he had said last night, looking across the kitchen table at Leo and George. ‘You can search my room if you like. Search me.’ He held out his arms, inviting them to frisk him.

‘Once the tin’s been examined by forensics,’ Leo had said, ‘we’ll be comparing any fingerprints with the elimination prints you provided following Miles’s murder.’

Owen wasn’t thrown by this. ‘Well, you’ll find mine, I expect. It’s a petty cash tin. We all used it.’

---