Page 45 of Catching a Con Man

“I believe she had difficulty finding a number for your beau, but you had left my business card on your bed. After I’d roused myself with some rathergeneroushelp from Michael, we set to work. I chartered a jet to Wales, and he worked in the background to refute any evidence the police may have had against you.”

“Holden, I committed fraud. There’s no way to refute that. When they find out…”

“Find outwhatexactly?” Holden asked. “You think the man who infiltrated my organisation as my secretary hasn’t brushed up on his skills in our years of seclusion?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

Holden chuckled. “We may have gotten abitoverzealous. I’ll explain more over a cup of tea.”

No matter how much I pressed, Holden refused to elaborate for the rest of the journey. It felt weird when the car pulled up outside our crappy little flat and Holden stepped out, crushing a burger wrapper under his perfectly polished leather shoe.

“Are you sure you want to do this here?” I asked him.

“At my grandson’s abode? Yes.”

It felt ridiculous to lead the velvet-suited billionaire over the cracked pavement, through our tiny front garden and into the flat. Every crack, every bit of mould and imperfection seemed to jump out at me. It was like seeing the way I lived through fresh eyes. Knowing I’d been arrested weeks before I could get the first pay-cheque that would get me out of this place was an even more bitter irony. Would Ade know I was gone by now? Would he be looking for me, or would he have accepted his father’s doctrine? I had no idea. But I had no idea how to go back either.

Amanda rushed me and pulled me into a hug as soon as I got to the top of the stairs, then gave an awkward curtsey to Holden. “Your…Majesty?” she said, sounding very uncertain. I stifled a laugh.

“Not a king. I’m far too rich and not corrupt enough,” Holden said. “Though I admit it has a nice ring to it. Do you think I could buy an island and set myself up as monarch?”

“Worth a try,” I muttered.

“What’s that beautiful smell?” asked Holden. “Please tell me it’s bacon butties. Oh, it’s been so long since I treated myself to such luxury.”

“Shit, it’ll be burning!” Amanda ran back into the kitchen and we followed. Smoke lingered in the air, but she seemed to have saved the bacon from the worst of it. A few seconds later, she was sliding the bacon and freshly buttered rolls onto the dining table. “Consider it a got-out-of-jail present,” she said.

“You are the best,” I said.

“I know.”

“E-i-ful,” Holden managed to get out. He seemed to have tried to stuff an entire roll into his mouth.

I got up and put the kettle on. I could imagine Holden sipping tea out of tiny china cups with delicate flowers on them in a high-society cafe, so I had to give him an apologetic grimace when I passed him his tea in a mug that saidTHIS BOY IS A BOTTOM.

“Delightful. And not at all true.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Delightful,” I parroted. “So tell me. How the hell am I not getting arrested for fraud?”

“Well, I’m afraid to say, the only way to erase your fraud conviction was to commit a little more fraud.” Holden pulled out a sheaf of papers from his jacket and passed them over to me. “We’ve made small but meaningful changes to your history. The foster care is all there, of course, but I have been looking for mylong-lostgrandson for years, or so it seems. Your mother must have been the result of a one-time affair I had with a…lady. Your delinquency against the system was your means of escaping the responsibility of being the heir to a billion-pound fortune. We finally reconnected, and you entered high society at a ball where you met Addison Crane and fell in love. Since then, you’ve visited your dear grandfather and his husband, and taken up a job at Electro because of your overriding need to give back after all we’ve given you recently.”

I read through the papers he had passed over. All familiar, but all slightly changed exactly as he’d said. “I can only apologise if you were attached to your last name, but Michael thought we should officially change it to Quinn as a precaution. Some of it was his work, but some of the delicate, risky work was a delightful young environmentalist hacker who changed some details online in exchange for a donation to Greenpeace that left my accountant sobbing.”

I didn’t know how to feel. Thankful, obviously, but…who was I now? What did Holden’s intervention make me?

“I canhearyou thinking,” said Holden. “But it’s much more simple than you think. You want Addison Crane Junior. Senior, however, is a bit of an arse and would never have stopped coming for you. So I have fixed that. I promise it doesn’t have to change much about you. Though I admit I would like you to get a rather nicer house than this for family visits…”

“Thank you, Holden,” I said. “Really.”

“So, grandson of mine. What’s the next step? How do you declare your undying love for Mr Crane and give a bigfuck youto his father?”

“I…” I was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

“I’ll get it. That’ll be my Amazon delivery,” said Amanda, who had been standing in the corner of the kitchen with a mug clutched between two hands. “Tyler isn’t one for big houses, but if you’ve got one going I’ll have it,” she said as an aside to Holden as she passed him.

“Think she’d relocate to Switzerland? God knows I could do with more bacon sandwiches in my life,” said Holden. I laughed, but he didn’t. “I’m entirely serious.”

“Oh.”

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