You Had Me at Halo (17 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Okay,
Holly said as soon as they got back to the empty workshop and Vince put the laptops on the bench.
So this is not good. Not only do I need to speak to Todd, I need to find him first. I also need to search Rochelle’s apartment, talk to Gemma, remind her not to date Simon Trimmer. Except Gemma isn’t answering her phone, which means I’m never going to get anything done and I’ll be stuck in Level One forever and never get to Level Two, let alone Level Three where my dad is and—

Hey. Vince dropped his hand so that Holly could no longer manically tick off his fingers.
The first thing you need to do is stop panicking.

Yes, but the day is almost over and I’ve achieved nothing. Nothing. I think I’m going to be sick. Do you feel sick as well, or is it just me? Because I swear that—

Vince dragged in a lungful of air and Holly felt the panic start to subside.
Look
, he said in a calm voice.
I think we’d better go and find Gemma. She might know where Todd is. Okay?

But—

But nothing,
Vince cut her off.
Now let’s go find Gemma. Trust me, you’ll feel much better when we can figure out a new plan.

Thanks.
She felt a layer of calm descend upon her as they headed for the elevator again. Vince was right. She felt better all ready.

xxx

There she is.
Holly nodded over to where Gemma and a gaggle of colleagues were standing next to a bulletin board, having an animated conversation. Vince paused for a minute but Holly didn’t want to waste anymore time, so she hurried across the office until she was just behind the group.

No one turned around so she did a polite cough.

I don’t think she heard us,
Vince commented, as Gemma’s back stayed firmly facing them.

“Hey, Gem,” Holly said in a clear voice. “Do you have a minute?”

Gemma slowly turned around. “Oh, Vince,” she said in an over-bright voice. “W-what a surprise. I didn’t realize you were there.”

Holly stared at the way Gemma was wringing her hands together—a sure sign she was embarrassed.

You know, Holly. Perhaps we should just wait until Gemma’s finished work.

We can’t afford to waste anymore time,
Holly reminded him before returning her attention to a mortified-looking Gemma.

“I was wondering if we—I mean if I—could have a quick word?”

“A-actually now isn’t such a great time,” Gemma said as she raised her eyebrows in the direction of her colleagues. There were four of them and they were all staring at Vince with great interest.

Holly lifted her own eyebrows. “Since we’re speaking about time, this is rather pressing—”

But before she could finish Vince gave a small cough and shot Gemma an understanding smile. “So why don’t you just call me when you’re free.”

A look of relief spread across Gemma’s face. “Okay then. I’ll talk to you
later.”

Holly could barely stop her mouth from falling open. Yes, she understood that Gemma might find it slightly odd to be talking to her best friend when she was in the body of a guy, but Holly had never thought her friend would find it embarrassing Yet, she had been acting funny all day and the worst thing is Holly couldn’t say anything about it in front of Vince because there was no way she wanted to hurt his feelings.

At the back of her mind was the realization that up until yesterday she hadn’t been interested in spending time with Vince either. But that was different.

So why didn’t Gemma want to talk to Vince? He was a nice guy. Cute, funny, slightly moody, but these days with long working hours and not enough sleep, who wasn’t a bit moody? And kind. He was turning out to be genuinely kind person and Holly had the feeling he would’ve taken those boxes up for her stepmother, whether they needed to look in them or not.

Then she realized that somehow her brain had managed to make a little mental trip back to her old bedroom. No, that incident was wiped forever so her brain could just damn well behave itself. Okay?

Are you all right?
Vince asked as the got out of the elevator and made their way back to the workshop.

Yes, I’m fine,
she hastily reassured him since she didn’t want to let on about her concerns about Gemma. Or anything else that she most certainly wasn’t thinking about
Why do you ask?

Because you just walked past three suicide line posters and didn’t try and tear any of them down...

Holly flushed. She was starting to get the feeling Vince knew her better than she’d thought.

xxx

Gemma rang ten minutes later. “Holly, I’m so, so sorry about before.”

“That’s okay,” Holly lied, careful not to give herself away to Vince by clenching her jaw. But she was jaw clenching on the inside.

“You know what it’s like when everyone’s talking shop.”

Hmmmmmm. Holly made a stubborn little snort.

“Of course it didn’t help that my boss was right in the middle of the most
boring
lecture ever. He does go on,” Gemma continued in a rush and Holly felt herself unbend a bit. She reluctantly admitted that it was true about Gemma’s boss. He was the king of boring lectures.

Perhaps she was just a bit touchy about everything? After all, that’s what got her kicked out of heaven in the first place.

“So, anyway,” Gemma charged on. “How did everything go? Did you get the things from your old house?”

“Oh,” Holly blinked. That seemed like ages ago now. “I got the necklace, the CD and a few other memory jogging items.”

“Was she horrible?”

Holly chewed on her lip for a moment. “Actually, she was being sort of nice. If I didn’t know better I’d say she was upset.”

“You know…” Gemma seemed to ponder. “I think you could be right. She looked pretty distressed at the funeral, and then at the wake she kept wanting to talk to me about you.”

“I’ve only been dead for two weeks, but it’s weird because I’m not angry at her anymore. She admitted that we didn’t get on when I was younger and all of a sudden everything I had felt for so long...well it just sort of went. I guess I have to admit that I wasn’t an angel either. I suppose it was a two way street.”

Gemma paused for a minute. “A lot of stuff happened Holly, but you can’t live in the past forever.”

“Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” Vince added in a thoughtful voice and Holly, who had been about to laugh at the tried and tested cliché, wondered if there was something else behind his words? Actually there had been a couple of times when he had been more than just understanding about everything. Had his family been a bit dysfunctional as well? She knew he dad was in prison, but come to think of it he hadn’t mentioned his mom yet. She made a mental note to ask him about it later. When her brain was less full.

Then she caught sight of Vince’s watch and realized they were wasting time. “I guess the point is I did manage to get all of the things I need. The bad news is that Todd seems to have gone AWOL and Simon Trimmer won’t tell us where he is. Also, we need to get around to Rochelle’s house and look for evidence. Did I mention my head hurts?”

“Mine too,” Vince agreed as he rubbed his temples.

“Okay, so this is where I come in,” Gemma said. “I know I haven’t been much help so far and I’m really sorry about that. But the good news is that I have a date with Simon tonight.”

Holly’s life was going down the toilet and Gemma was talking about dating? Not that she wasn’t happy for her friend. Well, apart from the fact that Simon was proving to be a bit of jerk. It’s just...the timing could’ve been better.

“Oh, well I hope you have a nice time,” she tried to sound enthusiastic, since after all, just because she was dead, didn’t mean Gemma shouldn’t still have a life. “Though I must say Simon wasn’t really that nice when I tried to speak to him before.”

“Yes, but he didn’t know you were you,” Gemma defended. “And I forgot to say the reason it’s good news is because Simon wanted to know if it was okay to bring Todd along. I think he must be worried about him right now. Isn’t that so sweet?”

Holly instantly forgot her headache as she clutched at the phone. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t let me down. So where are you going?”

“To The Pool Palace, for nine o’clock.”

“Man, I hate that place,” Vince complained. “Do we have to go in?”

“Yes we have to go in,” Holly informed him. “I can’t very well speak to Todd from outside can I?”

“We might have a better chance of not getting hit if we don’t go in.” Vince pointed out.

“He’s not going to hit you once he realizes what’s happened.” Gemma immediately protested, obviously having no problems understanding the two-way conversation. “Oh, damn. My boss wants me. Look I’m probably going to be about another half hour, so why don’t you go on ahead to Rochelle’s and I’ll met you there as soon as I can?”

“That’s fine,” Holly agreed and as soon as she hung up the phone, she rubbed her brow. “I feel exhausted. This has been the longest day ever.”

Vince got to his feet and slung his satchel over his shoulder. “Yes, and it’s not over yet. We still have an apartment to break into.”

Once again Holly marveled at his man strength. If she were in her regular body she probably would’ve been drooping with exhaustion by now. Fit only to collapse on the couch with a glass of wine and her remote control, but he just seemed to feel...well...like it was business as usual. For the first time since she’d found herself stuck in Vince Murphy’s six-foot body, she realized that she could’ve done a lot worse.

xxx

As they made their way back up to the reception area, there was a steady stream of people leaving for the day. Holly was surprised, since she couldn’t even remember the last time she had finished work on time. She hoped that Rochelle Jackson wasn’t being quite so conscientious. Mind you, if she were, it would be the first time and—

“Hey,” she complained as she realized Vince had come to a halt behind a large marble column. “Why are we stopping?”

“Look.” He nodded in the direction of the front door. “There’s Andrew and the others.”

“So? Now I’ve spent some time with them, they’re not so bad,” Holly started to say before it dawned on her what Vince meant. She groaned. “Oh no. I said we’d join them for a drink, didn’t I?”

“Yup,” Vince agreed.

“Why didn’t I keep my big mouth shut? No, wait. Don’t answer that.”

For a moment she could feel Vince’s mouth twitch. “Don’t sweat it. We’ll just stay here until they go. Then when the coast is clear we can leave.”

“Who knew you were so sneaky?” Holly was impressed—and relieved. The sooner they got proof from Rochelle’s, the sooner they could go home and prepare for the big meeting with Todd tonight. What did one wear on a date when they were in a man’s body?

“I told you I had your back.” Vince gave a modest shrug before letting out a string of expletives.

“What’s wrong now?”

“I think we might have a bit of a problem at five o’clock.”

Holly glanced at her watch. “What are you talking about? It’s already quarter past
.
”

“No, I mean look over in the direction of five o’clock,” he said as he drew her attention towards the grand staircase over to the right.

“Oh, it’s Fluffy
.”
She glanced up as a familiar white-haired dog danced over toward them. “So what’s the problem?”

“Fluffy’s the problem.”

“Fluffy? Don’t be silly
.”
Holly rolled her eyes as the little dog hurried over. Technically, Fluffy belonged to Martha, the receptionist who knew everything and had worked at the company since before the dawn of time. Due to some slight ear problem, she had convinced Personnel she could not do her job without her specially trained hearing dog.

The reality was that Fluffy spent more time cruising around the building, begging treats and generally being adorable, than giving his mistress the benefit of his finely tuned audio skills. Not that Martha seemed to mind since she still never missed any gossip and she didn’t have to pay a dog-sitter for Fluffy during the day.

There had even been a stage when Personnel had informed Martha that Fluffy could no longer come into the workplace under new Health and Safety laws. Thankfully that very week, Fluffy had been the company mascot at the national Baker Colwell games, and since the head office had gone on to trounce all competitors in an unprecedented victory, Fluffy’s banishment had never again been mentioned.

“Here girl.” Holly cooed as she felt around in her pocket for her normal stash of treats, only to discover it was actually Vince’s pocket and that he didn’t seem to find it necessary to carry any emergency chocolate with him. Would she ever truly understand men?

“I really wouldn’t do that if I were you.”