Page 54 of Read Between The Lines

‘How disappointing you’re still getting my name wrong after we’ve shared such closeness,’ said Leo with a laugh.

‘I’m being serious,’ I said, sitting up straight. ‘I heard Brian’s voice.’

Leo joined me in an upright position, all laughter gone from his expression.

‘Are you sure?’

‘One hundred percent. I’d recognise those cut-glass tones anywhere. He’s here. He’s actually here.’

‘Wow, I can’t believe he turned up,’ said Leo, which begged the question why he’d suggested this outing in the first place. But I didn’t have time to worry about that now.

I stumbled to my feet and moved closer to the fence, trying to tune into that one particular voice among the rest of the shouting and hubbub. Leo stuck close to me, glancing around us as if expecting to fend off an attack at any moment.

‘At least try and act normal,’ I hissed. ‘You look like Robin when she’s spotted a squirrel. You’re going to draw the wrong kind of attention to us.’

‘Grab the lip of the fence and then haul yourself up,’ urged the voice again. ‘I’ll keep holding on to your arms so you won’t fall.’

The instructions helped me narrow down the candidates. There were currently two guys straddling the top of the fence. One was surveying his surroundings with casual ease, while the other was leaning forward in a more precarious position, holding onto a woman with stunning two-tone dreadlocks who was sliding back down in horrifying slow motion.

‘You’ve got this, one more heave, then you’ll be up,’ said the guy who was helping her.

I took hold of Leo’s arm and then stood on my tiptoes so I could whisper in his ear.

‘It’s that bloke, the one on the top of the fence. Not creepy Marc after all.’

Leo pretended that I’d said something hilarious, then wrapped his arm around my waist and leaned down to respond in similarly quiet tones.

‘Muscle man?’ he asked.

‘The one on the left. Medium height, blond hair, unnecessarily skimpy vest. Listen to his voice, it’s unmistakeable.’

Of course, now Leo was trying to hear him speak, Scammer Brian had fallen silent, accepting the grateful babble of thanks from the woman with the dreadlocks who was practically crying with relief that she’d finally conquered the obstacle.

‘Okay, we’ll have to make him speak again,’ I said, starting forward.

‘Wait a minute,’ said Leo, rushing in front and blocking my progress. ‘We need to think carefully about this. Remember that our target is at an advantage over us. He’s seen your profile pictures. What do you think he’s going to do when he spots you coming towards him? Disappear into the ether, if he’s got any sense.’

I glanced down at myself. If my face was anything like the current state of my clothes, then I already had pretty good camouflage.

‘I think I’ll be okay. Besides, you said yourself that people always look different in photos from real life. I’m wearing make-up in all my pictures on the app. He’ll never associate my current swamp monster vibe with Miss Neat from online.’

‘A little bit of mud can’t hide your shine. I really don’t think it’s an effective enough disguise,’ he said. ‘Maybe we should fall back and reassess our options from a safe distance.’

‘You flatterer, you. But don’t think pretending to be nice to me will distract me from the mission in hand. Now is the time to take action. This is the moment we’ve been working for.’

I wasn’t going to let his switch into over-protective mode stop me. I hurried forward and started another attempt at climbing the fence. I couldn’t risk losing sight of Scammer Brian now. Applying the lessons I’d learned from my previous disaster, I took my time, seeking out imperfections in the wood to hold on to and carefully maintaining three points of contact at all times. When I was nearly at the top, I pretended to lose confidence and let out a fake whimper.

‘Can somebody help me, please?’ I said, cranking up my normally subtle Yorkshire accent to a level that bordered on parody, and keeping my head lowered, in case Scammer Brian did see past my muddy exterior and recognise me.

‘I’m here to catch you. And hey, mate, can you move along a bit so there’s space for her to sit at the top?’ said Leo, cottoning on quickly.

‘No problem, I’ll move onto the next obstacle, unless you want a hand being hauled up,’ replied Scammer Brian.

Gotcha. It was one hundred percent the voice I knew and had loved.

‘We’ve got this,’ I said, silently apologising to my fellow Yorkshire folk as I once again butchered my accent. ‘We’ll be right behind you.’

‘See you at the next obstacle. Perhaps we could chat then?’ said Scammer Brian with a suggestive waggle of his perfectly groomed eyebrows.

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