Issy stepped up to the lectern and gazed out at the crowd. There was still no sign of Hugh or Spencer. She avoided looking at her parents. Instead, her eyes met Felix’s. He sat beside Polly, who was still looking at her phone. Issy looked at Chrissy then, standing behind Robbie in a wheelchair, his weak torso leaning awkwardly to one side, both unaware that their daughter was in danger.
She took a breath and tapped the microphone. The crowd grew silent. She glanced down at the speaking notes on the lectern. Was she really going to carry on with the launch as though everything was fine?
To her side, Kelly hissed at her, ‘Get on with it.’
Issy nodded, flustered. ‘Hello, everyone, I’m Isobel Ashworth. On behalf of my—’ the notes said family but she couldn’t bring herself to say it, ‘—on behalf of everyone who has worked so hard to create this new space for residents of and visitors to Hartwell, I would like to welcome you all to Hartwell Entertainment Quarter.’ She saw Polly lean towards Felix, holding her phone in front of him. Felix frowned, then looked up at Issy, attempting to convey something to her.
To one side of the crowd, a dark-haired guy was doing the same, holding his phone up. She’d seen him with Meg earlier. ‘Watch Isobel Ashworth’s Instagram live!’ he shouted. The people around him craned their necks to see his screen.
The rumble of voices grew as the news travelled through the crowd. People reached for their phones or jostled for a better view of someone else’s. At the front table, Heather looked around, trying to make sense of the strange energy. Malcolm looked increasingly irate.
‘What’s going on?’ Mayor Skelton said, blustery and irritated, from where he sat on the stage.
Issy shrugged. Derek Palmer, who was still looking over his speaking notes, oblivious, looked up. Kelly walked onto the stage, phone in hand.
‘Someone’s hacked your Instagram,’ she whispered, her breath hot on Issy’s ear.
Chapter 61
‘Georgie? Georgie!’
Meg’s voice reverberated off the metal walls, like a cry for help in a nightmare, distorted and desperate.
There was a muffled cry from inside the building.
‘Georgie!’
Voices, then footsteps. The door opened.
‘Look who’s here,’ Hugh said, smirking at Meg.
There was another cry from inside.
‘You need to let her go!’ Meg said, hoping he couldn’t hear the shake in her voice.
Hugh laughed. ‘What would I do that for?’
Meg took a deep breath. ‘I know what you’ve done. I know about the bribes.’
‘I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.’
‘You’ve had someone tracking me. He threatened my mother. He threw a brick through my colleague’s window.’
Hugh glared at her and shook his head.
‘And there’s one more thing I know.’ She glanced sideways, checking the phone was still capturing the confrontation. Her heart thumped in her head as she prepared to play her ace. ‘I know who you’ve been sleeping with.’
Hugh’s face reddened, the veins in his forehead swollen with fury.
‘I have two demands if you want to keep that quiet. One, release Georgie. Two, admit to the bribes.’
‘We didn’t—’
‘You want Spencer Ashworth to know what you’ve been up to?’
Hugh lunged forward to grab her, but she ducked. He stumbled onto the ground as Spencer appeared in the doorway.
Chapter 62
