Page 100 of Cover Story

‘I can’t blame Amber, can you?’ Connor said, as they abandoned the laptop for softer seating and outright despair. ‘We’ve treated her and Rick as collateral. It must feel absolutely soiling to know that everything we did and said was to get into that iPad.’

‘Yep. When I started this I thought she was a willing, knowing handmaiden to a major bastard and now I wonder if Amber might be more unwitting than that. They have to have deleted him, though.’

‘We can’t know for sure without cross-referencing the Airbnb bookings and I deliberately didn’t look at anything other than the footage. That might’ve been stupid, but principles, huh? Principles while you’re hacking someone,’ Connor said.

‘If you want to know why we’d be kicked out of MI5– theyhad location tracking turned on. They knew the iPad was here the whole time.’

‘Fuuuuu …’ Connor put his hand on his head. ‘Of course! Oh man, that is the stupidest, dumbest, most obvious … I was lost in the mechanics of the Ring video.’

‘I’ll call Toby first thing. He’s sacking me either way, but if he’s called to see the big editor without warning, it will be an extremely vitriolic one.’

‘He’s sackingus–don’t act like you’re special and different.’

‘You can stay here rent free for as long as you like, you know,’ Bel said, and Connor smiled.

‘No offence, but I’ll be leaving Manchester with such force it’ll leave scorch marks all the way to Knutsford.’

Bel had been astounded and so, so grateful that Connor’s response to her imminently losing him his employment and ruining his prospects had been ‘gallows humour’ and not inchoate rage.

‘Why aren’t you angrier with me?’ Bel said. ‘You’d be justified in screaming. No apology could atone for what I’ve done. You save me from Anthony and this is how I repay you.’

‘You saved you from Anthony, I only had to make sure the video was running and hold my phone level. Also, I think I’ve levelled out now, post-Citalopram.’

‘Seriously, Connor. You have a mortgage. This is indefensible.’

‘In my last career, a man jumped out of a third-floor window, which has given me perspective about how much you can let a payslip matter,’ Connor said. ‘I knew this might go sideways when I decided to take part. You said I could walk away yesterday too and I chose not to. I’m not a fan of blaming other people for my decisions. And what would be the point?We might as well have a laugh when there’s nothing else to be done.’

‘Brokenly grateful for your generous Zen,’ Bel said, as she paced the sitting room and Connor lay across the sofa. ‘The sacking isn’t even the worst part. It’ll be ringing Ian and telling him that I have completely failed him and Erin.’

‘He can hardly blame you for the edited video and you’ve lost a lot, following his lead. He’ll feel bad about that.’

‘Oh SHIT,’ Bel said, stopping in her tracks. ‘If Amber’s told her mum, and her mum tells Glenn, then they could figure out from the details I’ve provided that Erin’s the whistleblower. She saw Amber with the iPad the night that Glenn panicked. Which also means Glenn could well figure out Ian’s involvement.’

She put her palm over her face. ‘I’ve got to warn him. He could walk into … actually he told me he’s walking Hadrian’s Wall next week.’

Bel foraged for her phone in her pocket to confirm.

‘Leave it until you know what happens with Toby,’ Connor said. ‘No point decimating other Sundays with speculation.’

Connor had mumbled he could go back to Salford, but as the day wore on, he said: ‘We’d only exchange morose WhatsApps all evening. I’m thinking we could lean into this with a last meal on Death Row Deliveroo energy?’

‘Yeah. You’re welcome to stay here in industrial-luxe purgatory. I know a hangover tomorrow will be horrific and yet I’m feeling wine too?’

‘Wine for sure,’ Connor said. ‘Anaesthetic.’

Bel lit candles, they ordered a chippy tea and spread it out on the vast dining-room table, under the looped cord lights.

‘The contrast is like that portrait of the matriarch and themanufacturing smog in your nookie lair,’ Connor said, shaking Sarsons over a heaped plateful.

‘My “nookie lair”!’ Bel repeated shrilly, and Connor gave her a cheeky look as he licked vinegar from his finger.

‘All right, Austin Powers. “Nookie”, not heard that word in a long time,’ Bel said.

‘It’s a good word.’

Bel refilled their wine glasses and they took their dinner to the coffee table, saying: ‘Here’s to celebrating when you have absolutely nothing to celebrate and have made a complete pig’s ear of your assignment.’

‘Look at us,’ Connor said, ‘likeWaiting For Godotwith saveloys.’

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