Chapter 15
Cynlluniau - Plan
Rhys
My pizza’s cold.
I’ve eaten five slices of stuffed-crust with pepperoni already, and I chew on the end of my sixth as Gethin paces his office. He flaps his hands about to make his point. Someone should do a study on how much energy he wastes. Or write a symphony for him to conduct.
‘What about Richie?’ he asks. ‘What makes you a hundred percent sure it wasn’t him?’
Not this shit again. We’ve been over this a million times already.
I toss my crust into the box and thumb with greasy fingers through my notebook.
‘I mean, he’s a suspect, but at the bottom of the list for me.
Aled said he saw Richie at the King’s Head down the road.
Drank most of the evening. Plus I can’t see him doing it.
The guy’s messages were bad, but he’s mad at me, not Cai.
There’d be no reason to hack the security system to hurt me.
What would he gain from it? And he has the technical skills of a geriatric.
Reset his pin every other day, and don’t forget how FaceID confused him. ’
Richie’d love a chance to flatten me. I’ve seen the full force of his fists, and I’m fucking scared of being a target. But I’m not sure hacking’s in his vocabulary. Physical break-in? He’d be my number one suspect. Not something sophisticated like this, though.
‘He did have access to all of Cai’s schedules,’ Lucy inputs, ‘and we know now he’s not afraid to sell information on. If it wasn’t him, could he have passed intel on to someone else? The server names we use, the brand of the security system. Stuff like that, perhaps?’
‘Which is why, like I said, he’s on the list. I did give his name to the police.’ Me and Lucy might have worked out the security hack together, cleaned all the mess and cleared the air, but the know-it-all tinge to her voice puts my teeth on edge.
‘You mean the detectives you moaned about all afternoon? The ones you have zero faith in?’
She’s scribbling everything in her A4 pad. Neat loops of handwriting fill pages and pages of notes. How many times has she recorded this groundhog conversation? Her pizza’s long forgotten. If I didn’t hate pineapple, I might have helped myself to her leftovers.
‘If either of you believed they could crack it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Which is why I want to float hiring a private detective.’
We’ve spent the entire evening going back and forth.
Me, Gethin, Lucy, the other Heads. Cai’s tour can’t go ahead unless we’re sure he’s safe.
If someone can hack into our high-end security system, what other damage could they do?
We’ll continue reviewing everyone’s plans, finding the chinks and holes until there’re none left and everything’s watertight. Even if it takes all night.
It’s a lot of thinking, especially after a long day and not much sleep.
Fuck it. I nab a slice of her pizza, pick the pineapple off it and shove it in my mouth before she can complain.
Her mouth opens, but Gethin eases himself into his chair and says, ‘I’ll approve the spend on the private detective, but you also need to tell the police what we’re doing.
Strengthening the investigation gives us a better chance of finding the culprit. Now, what are our next steps?’
Lucy gets in first, her face lit up. She’s already on the right page of her pad while I thumb back through my notebook to find my plans. I squint at my scrawl, pick the remnants of pepperoni off the paper and try to decipher what I last wrote.
‘It’s too late to book new hotels,’ she says, ‘since most of them will have been snagged by concertgoers when the dates were announced. I did some research into alternatives, out-of-town places we could stay. I’m thinking cottages, houses we can rent, smaller bed-and-breakfasts.
Even if we can only get a handful of us booked in and everyone else stays where we first planned. ’
I’d never have thought of moving Cai out of the cities he's performing in, but she’s on to a good idea.
‘It would be a great decoy if everyone else stays in the hotels,’ I point out. ‘But what about travel?’
‘We could hire cars at every location instead of relying on the tour bus. That way we can limit who has access to Cai as well as monitor who’s coming in and out. It might be more expensive, but with some negotiation, I can make it work.’
I’ll need to book drivers to shuttle him around, but what does it matter if I’m moving him from a city hotel or a country cottage. Lucy sorts out all the timings. It’s no extra thinking for me.
‘I can help you find trustworthy chauffeurs,’ Imran adds.
Gethin clicks his fingers, then points at Lucy. ‘Perfect! Make a start tomorrow. I’ll lift the limit on your card first thing to cover any additional costs. Let me know the damage when we catch-up. Anything else to note on your end, Lucy?’
‘Well, I could look at changing some of the after-party venues, in case Richie took note. But that’s a lower priority, in my opinion.’
‘There’s no need,’ I cut in before Gethin can agree with her.
‘Cai can’t go to the parties. Too dangerous, even if they’re moved.
Also, I want to bring in Alina from team C to increase security covering Cai, the venues and the kit.
I know we’ve already promoted Bryn, and it’s not normal I get two deputies, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. ’
‘Have you been paying team C a retainer?’ Gethin asks.
‘Yeah, since we got the weird fan mail. Thought we might need them, and retainers are standard practice.’
‘Then yes to it all. Staying in houses and cottages means we can’t rely on hotel security. I’ll need you to consider how to spread your teams across everything we have booked. Lucy, work with Rhys on this, please.’
She gives me a quick nod and writes the reminder on her page.
I let myself smile. Look at us, working like a real team and getting shit done.
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good during a team meeting, and it’s not the pizza.
Nobody’s snapped at me or dismissed my thoughts outright.
Sure, there’s been some questions, but nothing untoward or that I haven’t been able to answer.
Despite how exhausted I am, I’m itching to get to my office and book my new staff.
A list of names and faces I can call on already zips through my brain. And while I’m at it…
‘One last thing,’ I say before Gethin can move to Imran, who’s sitting to my left with his notes about tour transport. ‘I’ll get Aled into the house while we’re away. Beef up the hardware. It’s due an upgrade, and he’s free to sort it. Better to do it when we’re not here.’
‘Perfect, Rhys. Imran, shoot.’
Gethin moves around the table, questioning the rest of the team, and I jot everything I may need to have input on. Once we’ve checked there’s nothing to be done about lighting or rigging, Gethin claps his hands.
‘All right, everyone, we’re done. Get some rest. I want progress reports and daily morning meetings.
We don’t have much time to get this sorted, but I have every faith that we can.
If you need any assistance, reach out. We can always pull in more temps, or I can roll my sleeves up and help with some of the logistics. ’
Well, that’ll be a first. Oof, it’s a good job that thought stayed in my head. I’ve survived the whole meeting without getting into trouble. I don’t want a telling off when I’m this close to getting home and into my bed.
The room empties, but Gethin holds a hand out to stop me from making my escape. ‘If you could stay for a moment.’
Bollocks.
As she passes us, Lucy throws me a frown, but all I can do is shrug. Unless my thoughts slipped out without me noticing, or he’s reading my mind, I’ve done nothing wrong. For once.
When it’s only us, he returns to his seat and gestures for me to sit.
My butt touches the cushion and he says, ‘I’m not sure what happened between you and Lucy, but I want to say thank you.
You took on board my feedback, and it’s clear you’ve sorted things out with her.
It’s refreshing, being a proper team without worrying one of you might upset the other.
It makes Cai’s life easier if we all work together. ’
Cai, who’s upstairs consoling my sister over the continued news reports. He doesn’t have to sit through all these painful meetings because he trusts us to get it right. Cai, who’s life I could have put in trouble because I let petty squabbles get between me and Lucy.
I should go and check on them. Haven’t had a chance to since they got home earlier.
Hang on a minute. I’m too busy thinking about Beth and Cai to clock that Gethin’s saying good shit about me. I’m not sure if he wants a response, since he’s already sifting through some paperwork on his desk, but he won’t get much from me. Every time I open my mouth, the words disappear.
‘D-diolch?’
Well done, you idiot.
‘You’re welcome, Rhys. No more work tonight. Go home and get some well-deserved rest.’
Bloody hell. I push myself out of my seat and hurry away from the room before he changes his mind.
His words are now firmly engraved in my brain.
Fuck it, I’ll get a plaque. For the first time in a long, bloody time, my boss thinks I’m good at my job.
I should have recorded the conversation, cos I don’t reckon anyone’ll believe me when I tell them.
I bounce along the corridor, not slowing until the parquet flooring changes to tiles. Right. Pop upstairs, tell my sister how fucking brilliant I am – and check she and Cai are okay, I guess – then I can finally go home and get some fucking sleep.
A giggle followed by a shush brings me to a stop in the hallway.
When I peer towards the source of the noise, I find Lucy and Cai sitting halfway on the stairs, their heads peering through the bannisters.
The little spies better be stuck there. They need to get better at spying, too, since all the lights are on and their hiding place isn’t exactly, well, hiding them.