Page 2 of Cover Story

Thatwas where you got that level of confidence at her age.

‘Today we have oneConnor Adams,’ said Aaron, as if the name was in some way ludicrous. ‘Toby’s notes say …’

The tinny mechanical ziiiip of the intercom interrupted him.

‘… And there he is. Brace, brace.’

Aaron darted off to get the door, thundering down a steep, narrow flight of aluminium-ridged stairs that concentrated the mind when carrying scalding hot coffees.

It was a fairly insalubrious hole, this, an unkempt first-floor space with grimy windows looking down onto the busy thoroughfare of Deansgate. The walls were stacked with banker’s boxes, the electric lighting buzzed, there was a tiny kitchen area of teabag-stained Formica. You could set-dress it as the 1970s without making any changes beyond the computers.

When Bel had been recruited by Toby and his boss Silas, clad in coloured cord trousers with logo-ed lanyards round their necks, they’d swung on their chairs in the glass-walled office in London and outlined their vision.It’s aboutgiving you a physical space to share, a nerve centre of operations; the fragmentation of remote working is not the idea. We’re building a hub, a new world. You’re its Adam and Eve.

‘Eh, what a dump. Our Slough House,’ Aaron said, in his Lancashire accent, surveying the premises on their first morning.

Bel had feared a hyper-competitive or difficult character as her sole co-worker. She was relieved instead to dumb-lol with the terminally irreverent Aaron Parry all day. He still might be hyper-competitive– she was undecided on that– but, crucially, he wasn’t doing it in a way that made the working environment inhospitable.

He took the gentle mickey out of Bel’s professional pedigree.

‘Were you … a successful podcaster?’ he said, pressing a ballpoint pen into his cheek and pulling a satirical face.

‘You say that like it’s an oxymoron. I won a People’s Choice award, I’ll have you know!’

This provoked a waggish grin.

‘I’ll give it a listen. Wassit called again?’

‘I Might Have A Story For You.’

‘Far be it from me to criticise, but …’

‘Far be it from you, Aaron, so very far.’

‘‘‘Might?” Why the qualifier? Why notI Have A Story For You?’

‘Because it’s not the phrase. People always say Imighthave a story for you. I don’t know why, but they do.’

Aaron gave her a look that said he preferred confidence to being arty.

‘Here it is, the throbbing HQ!’ Aaron said, leading a man a fair bit taller than him into the room– Aaron was about five foot four. ‘And this right here, the spider in the centre of the web, is the one, the only, the legendary podcaster and all-round mega honey, Miss Bel Macauley.’

‘Hi. Connor,’ he said, in a self-confident staccato, extending his hand to shake.

Bel hadn’t expected to be this formal and had unfortunately started on her fried egg and hash brown roll, putting it back down and hastily and discreetly wiping her hand on her leg.

‘Nice to meet you.’

Connor withdrew his hand swiftly.

He didn’t look like a journalist. Or not an interning one, anyway: older (her age? Early thirties, not the twenty-three-year-old she was expecting) and too well dressed: immaculate Oxford blue shirt, black wool tie, police officer colours.

It sunk in that he was strikingly good-looking too, in a way that was certain to make him a self-regarding dick. Thick brown hair, dampened by mizzle, cut short but still long enough to rake your hands through. Puppyish eyes offset by strong cheekbones. Regency romance suitor via a partner at Deloitte.

His sceptical gaze flickered over her. Bel could not imagine a more explicit sense ofassessmentoutside of airport security and swimsuit pageants.

His forehead creased, he was almost outright scowling. Bel gathered he was doing that thing when someone doesn’t realise their face is conveying their feelings. Or maybe, even worse, hedidknow.

‘You’re not my pupil, it’s not really possible to shadow investigative work. You’re with Aaron, as your Work Dad,’ she said, reflexively having to assert herself, goad him a little, in the face of his evident disgust.

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