Cover Story - 14

Bel was aware that shifting from the acoustics of a cemetery to the highly confined space of the Happy Valley café could seem illogical, if not reckless. It only had about two dozen covers and was one of those tiny ‘food people finds’ that trainspotter bloggers would make a special trek out for. Its clientele was ninety-five per cent local fans and curious passersby, and five per cent restaurant bloggers taking flat lay photos of spam and cheesy fries.

Its privacy was not in its social distancing, but in location and relative obscurity. When Bel entered and saw every other customer on this early evening service was Chinese, she felt confident she was right: the probability of a surprise encounter was very low.

She was shown a table, ordered a ‘milk tea with red bean’ and waited for Ian. Only when he was fifteen minutes late did she consider he might be a no-show: except, she was absolutely certain Ian was determined to see this through if he could.

Bel couldn’t help it, her storyteller’s brain spooled forward to discovering he’d met with an untimely and accidental end: what would she do? Get a grip! You’re not a bit part in a major new Apple TV drama for the autumn, Macauley.

All the same, Bel was pleased and relieved when he hurried in, with apologies about having been unused to the traffic snarl in this direction. He seemed anxious at the four walls, but Bel soothed him: ‘Look around. No one’s interested in us.’

They ordered deep fried chicken and beef ho fun and, with a sense of theatre, Ian waited until the food had arrived and their cutlery was in their hands. After a safety glance at their indifferent company, he began, after a deep breath and in a low voice:

‘So. He took Erin to a house. Have you heard of a local businesswoman called Gloria Kendrick?’

‘No, but I’m only recently in Manchester, as I said.’

‘OK. She’s a property entrepreneur, reputation for ruthlessness, stinking rich. Lives out at Alderley Edge. Gloria is a friend, an ex-girlfriend of Glenn’s going back to their college years. You can trace a lot of the most scummy, badly maintained rental housing in this city back to portfolios she’s offloaded for millions, proper “getting wealthy off misery” stuff. Nowadays her property interests are on the continent, where you suspect regulations are more lax. As well as the McMansion she lives in here, she’s got a house in Didsbury, and a wine bar nearby called Ci Vediamo she’s gifted to her daughter Amber to run.’

‘Right … Didsbury …’ Bel’s knowledge of the suburb didn’t stretch beyond very wealthy leafy suburb, quite ‘media people’.

‘Victorian detached, very nicely done out, an Airbnb otherwise, dressy hen dos and the like. The periods it’s not hired, it’s made available to friends and family. Enter one Glenn Bailey. I will send you the link.’

Bel put her fork down.

‘They know what he’s doing? They’re enablers?’ Bel said. This was promising. The mark himself could be well-protected but those around him, they surely offered potential ways in?

‘Bingo. It takes a village to be this successful a scumbucket. The Airbnb bookings are managed solely by Amber, the daughter, who keeps an iPad just for the purpose, presumably to keep it clear and hygienic from prying bar staff eyes. It’s under lock and key at the bar. If you can get into that iPad, you’re going to find proof of Glenn’s visits.’

Bel quelled the rising tide of hope as she thought it through.

‘Assuming he’s not in there under a pseudonym and no money’s changing hands … and proving he’s stayed at a house isn’t proof he’s with women.’

‘Well, the plot thickens. Erin went there with Glenn three times. On the second night he got quite panicky about the doorbell being rung in the dead of night. When he went down to answer it, nobody was there. Probably piss artists, but guilty people are easily spooked. He summoned Amber and she said don’t worry, we can check on it with Ring video. Not only that, they told him they keep months and months of Ring footage, stored in the iCloud. A hundred and eighty days, she said. I’m guessing they think it’s useful to keep tabs on the Airbnb visitors.’

‘This is on the iPad?’

‘Yes. An iPad with rainbows on the cover. Glenn has been so, so careful but he didn’t anticipate Erin witnessing this conversation. Get footage of Glenn arriving and leaving with women from that doorbell, and you have your proof. I’m confident he’s a frequent enough offender that you’ll see him on more than one visit. Erin’s trips were within the timeframe. If you have that proof, my niece says she will do an interview. You’ve got the whole exclusive.’

Bel now scanned round the room at weeknight diners digging into soup noodles, indifferent to their conspiracy.

‘How am I getting into the iPad? Apple devices can’t be jailbroken by the Feds.’

Ian patted his mouth with a paper napkin.

‘That I don’t know. Ask her? Appeal to female solidarity?’

‘Hmmm,’ Bel said. ‘A cold approach by a journalist accusing her of harbouring a high-profile offender is going to get a very fast no. And once I’ve done that, she’ll report back and they’ll eventually work out who must’ve seen the iPad and talked to the press.’

‘Oh God, yes. That’s an aim and fire at own foot. Let’s not. You see, that’s why I worry I shouldn’t be attempting this.’

‘Don’t worry. This is why we plan.’

Bel frowned. There had to be a way.

‘I suppose, being very basic,’ she said, ‘if I was seated next to Amber when she was putting the passcode in? Everyone has passcode protection but not many people are careful to shield those numbers in situations where they don’t think anyone’s watching.’

‘That might work!’

‘“Might” is pulling a lot of weight there,’ Bel said. ‘My mission is to become Amber’s friend, locate the iPad, get a glimpse of her opening the iPad, and subsequently get access to this device to download footage to a second device, undetected? Within whatever time we have left on the one-hundred-and-eighty-day scrub and re-record cycle?’

‘Reckon you could?’ Ian said.

‘I don’t think I definitely couldn’t,’ Bel said, grinning, and Ian grinned back. They too had a Fun Uncle and Mischievous Niece kind of spark. Nevertheless, Bel felt the guilt-squirm of what she’d be doing to this Amber. It was the Mayor and Amber’s mother as targets though, she told herself. As the up-himself intern said, she might’ve got bar staff sacked investigating Ask For Amy. If you only followed leads where you could one hundred per cent control the consequences, you’d not follow any.

‘I have much belief in you. This dinner is on me, by the way. Also, I didn’t know your age before we met, Amber is early thirties …?’ Ian said.

‘I’m thirty-four,’ Bel said.

‘Perfect. I’ve been up close with the Kendrick dynasty at various fundraisers and functions. They’re all social climbers, collectors. From what Erin says, I get the feeling they like fresh blood, people who look the part. Make yourself seem like a fun acquisition and I’d have thought you’d be invited to the regular lock-ins and part of the club in no time.’

‘Hmmm. But no one’s trusting a journalist, whatever she says she’s working on,’ Bel said. ‘I guess, if I wasn’t a journalist …?’

‘You’d be undercover?’ Ian asked.

‘Think I have to. If I’m going to do an undercover job, doing it while I’m a newcomer in this city and virtually no one knows me makes sense. It’s probably my one spin.’

‘I’m starting to realise just how big my “ask” was here, and I never thought it was small to begin with,’ Ian said.

‘Talk to no one about this except Erin,’ Bel said, folding her arms and chewing her lip. ‘And please check she isn’t talking about it either. For this proposal to work there needs to be no gossip getting back to Didsbury.’

‘Oh, I give you my word. Erin is extremely conscientious.’

‘Going undercover isn’t illegal,’ Bel said, carefully, her food temporarily abandoned while her mind whirred. ‘But the ethical considerations to prove public interest are pretty significant. You have to be sure there’s no other way to obtain the information. You need to show receipts, you need a strong reason to be digging in that spot. I know “you need proof in order to get proof” sounds logically impossible, which is why newspapers don’t send many people undercover. Or not that they admit to.’

‘I can see that. This is where I defer to your expertise,’ Ian said.

‘Could we try to jigsaw together anything at all your niece has that would support what she’s saying, obviously in strict “need to know” confidence? Screenshots, anything circumstantial that links Amber and Gloria to Glenn. Debits at the wine bar if she bought drinks there. Messages she might’ve sent to friends at that time about the affair. I’ll need that if I’m going to convince my editor.’

‘I’ll explain to Erin and gather everything I can,’ Ian said.

Bel knew, in her bones, if she could get the sign-off from Toby – a substantial if – she was going ahead with this. It was high stakes and terrifying and got her blood pumping, but more than that: if Erin’s story was true, she had to do right by her.

‘I hugely appreciate your adventurous spirit,’ Ian said, as they polished off a shared dessert.

‘No worries,’ Bel said, realising at that point she had long ago forgotten to consider Ian could be working some other angle. Aunt Tamara would be raising an eyebrow at her. ‘If nothing else, we’ve found out that white bread, condensed milk and peanut butter was the killer student cupboard pudding we were missing in our lives.’

‘Killer’s the right word, I feel pre-diabetic already,’ Ian said.

‘This Elvis is leaving the building,’ Bel said, hooking her bag over her shoulder. ‘Stay in touch.’