Page 31 of Cover Story

Pennies that should’ve dropped earlier for Connor, dropped now.

‘This is a request to join you in the make-believe?’

‘Erm, if you want to. Amber’s invite to her birthday party in a fortnight is for both of us. I think she took a shine.’

‘I’m only an intern reporter, I can’t spend weekday afternoons getting shitfaced without Aaron getting me sacked.’

‘You don’t need to be present during working hours. To be honest, now I’ve made the connection with Amber, I don’t think I even do. It’s about socialising. Which I appreciate is a pain in the arse given you’re not being paid for it. I could pay you …’ Bel swallowed and Connor could see her suppressing the grimace, ‘in a joint byline, if it all comes good? Very beneficial for the resumé?’

‘I’m not doing anything much else with my free time up here, to be fair. Is this not ethically grubby? She thinks she’s gota pal, and you’re plotting to steal her property and destroy the family name?’

‘Yes, it is. She’s been so friendly that the guilt is already giving me cold sweats. But I think if she’s knowingly covering for a powerful, abusive man that’s worse, and this is the only way to find out. Also, I’m hoping it lands on her mother, not her.’

Connor watched kids nearby kicking a ball through jumper goalposts and arguing bitterly over the rule breaking.

‘If I’m going to be involved, can I offer constructive input?’

‘Sure.’

‘Getting footage from an iPad that you don’t know for sure is there– either the iPad, or the footage– and that you don’t have the passcode for, then hoping to get enough time with it to access and copy the files … Do you mind me saying this isn’t so much a long shot as a deranged moon shot? How bad was Plan B if this is A?’

He smiled, and Bel smiled back.

‘I’m thinking take it one stage at a time. If I can get her to check something on the iPad when she’s with me, I bet I can see the passcode. Everyone shields their pin from strangers, not their passcodes from their friends. She says she has lots of lock-ins. That could be the opportunity, everyone half-cut.’

‘Let’s say you do get into it. Months of recordings will take hours to download. You can’t bung a memory stick in it and see a little red bar go to one hundred per cent in three minutes flat, like in a spy show.’

‘Fuck! Yes. I need a tech guy like Bond has. Q?’

‘You need a miracle …’ Connor paused. ‘Youcouldtake the cover with the rainbows off and stick it on a second identical iPad you’ve got on factory settings. Lift the information fromhers overnight, then swap them back. Preferably before she goes to the Apple store demanding to know why it’s bricked.’

‘That could work!’

‘About five impossible things need to happen first.’

Nevertheless, Connor wasn’t going to flatter her by saying so, but he was quite impressed at the FaceTime hen do spat, and the flirtatious chameleon he’d seen skulling Laurent Perrier. That made him think she might just pull this off.

The northern leg of his internship had otherwise been pure grind.‘Learn all you can from her,’ Toby had said. What did he actually have to lose by saying yes? Except his kneecaps, if these Kendricks turned out to be gangsters.

‘Does this input mean … you’re in?’ Bel said, pulling her legs up. Those shoes looked like they could keep her anchored to the ocean floor.

‘What am I agreeing to, exactly?’

‘Six weeks of attending functions as Bella Niven’s boyfriend.’

‘I have a real girlfriend. What do I do when Jennifer is up next weekend? Keep her indoors the whole time with blackout curtains drawn? Hostage hood?’

‘Oh, are you not still in the honeymoon phase?’ Bel said evenly, and Connor caught it a second too late to laugh. She was too quick for him sometimes.

‘Could Jennifer be your sister? Tell her due to an ultra-secret assignment, it’s temporarily necessary. Please don’t share the details, though.’

‘I tell Jen she has to say she’s my sister because I’ve got another person up here saying she’s my girlfriend instead, and I can’t explain why. That’s not going to go down brilliantly, I don’t think?’

‘I don’t know what else to suggest. Thursday was an unforeseen calamity. The only way I can think of dealing with it is trying to turn it into a win, and making us the M20 postcode’s new It Couple. If you don’t want any part of it, I’ll have to ghost Amber. I think a phony break-up is too much plot, this early on. I would trigger “this doesn’t feel right” sensations.’

‘Hang on,’ Connor said, ‘you’d have to tell Toby I’m the reason the story’s sunk?’

Bel shrugged her shoulders. ‘I hadn’t thought, but I suppose so?’

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