Page 98 of Cover Story

‘I assume your name’s made up because I can’t find you, but here’s Connor, at a press awards, and he’s a journalist. If he’s a journalist, then you are too. I can see which newspaper you work for. This has all been about getting to my mother, using me? Fucking amateur hour, Bella-Not Bella.’

‘No!’ Bel said.

‘What did you want on my iPad, then?’

Bel hard-swallowed.Fuck, fuck.

‘I’m trying to gather evidence on the Mayor. Glenn Bailey. He’s sexually abusing young women who work for him.’

‘Oh, right. What would that have to do with us?’

‘He stays at the Airbnb.’

‘Nope. Where’s your proof of that?’

‘The Ring doorbell. You record everyone who visits.’

‘Riiiiight,’ Amber said. ‘Rick, you remember the “Mayor of Manchester” visiting our Airbnb? Booked in right after the Prime Minister and Ryan Giggs?’

Rick shook his head. Bel wondered if she had been given bad information. From the meeting in the cemetery, she’d taken Ian’s word as gospel. Maybe Tamara would be telling her that her Act Three problem was in fact an Act One problem.

‘That’s what you wanted from the iPad? The doorbell camera?’ Rick said.

He and Amber had obviously spent a lot of time pulling this apart but their analysis hadn’t got that far.

Amber folded her arms.

‘How’s that gone for you? The Mayor on there?’

Bel could see absolutely no advantage or point in lying.

‘No. He’s been deleted, I assume.’

‘Oh, you assume?’ Amber said, volume increasing. ‘You’ve assumed a lot, all told.’

‘Can I tell you why I’m going after the Mayor?’ Bel said. Here it was, the ‘backup plan,’ which was barely a plan or any sort of backup. Also known as: shit or bust. ‘You might understand whyI’ve done what I’ve done if I tell you.’

‘It’s nothing to do with me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you, Rick?’

Rick gave Bel his assassin’s mute stare.

‘He’s not only manipulating women who work for him into bed. He blackmails them to stay quiet by taking nudes when they’re sleeping and only showing them afterwards. Saying he’ll release them if they make his behaviour public.’

Bel paused. Amber and Rick were both silent.

‘ … He’s the full Me Too monster and he’s doing it in your house. If you help me, not only have you done a net good to women and society, you’re not complicit and you can’t be blamed.’

‘Woah, you’rethreateningus now?’

‘No!’ Oh God, THINK, Bel.

No atheists in foxholes and it didn’t pay to be slow-witted in them, either. ‘I’m saying I’ve fucked this up and I don’t blame you for hating me, but Glenn Bailey is going to be outed one day, by someone. I’m proof of that. One of his victims will go public, others will come forward. He’s got a lengthy past in the city’s nightlife, so probably a flood. And when they’ve finished asking how could he behave like that and get away with it for so long, they’ll start on Who Knew What.’

Amber regarded her, blinking. ‘So you are threatening us.’

‘I’m being realistic. You don’t want to be mixed up with him.’

Given Amber was already mixed up with her parents, this might be the wrong approach.

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