You Had Me at Halo (9 page)

“You know it’s starting to become quite obvious why you have no friends,” Holly replied. “
And is Rochelle Jackson touching Todd’s butt?
”

“Okay, Holly, don’t freak out,” Gemma said tentatively, as if she were about to reveal some more information.

“Don’t freak out about what?” she said in a dangerously low voice.

Gemma let out a muffled sigh. “I didn’t want to tell you before but Rochelle’s been making a play for Todd ever since you died.”

“But I’ve only been dead two weeks. What kind of person would go after a dead girl’s boyfriend like that?”

“I know, right,” Gemma immediately agreed. “But the thing is, Todd isn’t remotely interested. Holly, he’s really upset about you dying. It’s totally thrown him.”

“Well, so it should. I mean we were meant to be...oh.” Holly broke off with a start as something occurred to her. “It was Rochelle who gave me the pills! You were so right when you said that it couldn’t have been Tina. Because what would be the point of only knocking me out for one night? But with Rochelle it’s different. She wanted to knock me out so she could have Todd all to herself at the ball.”

For a moment Gemma was quiet before she finally nodded her head. “We both know that Rochelle doesn’t stop at anything to get what she wants, so making you fall asleep for the night certainly wouldn’t be beyond her. Unbelievable.”

“I’ll say. That girl does not know how to take no for an answer. And she definitely has boundary issues. And why is she still touching him?”

“Well, that’s about to change,” Gemma said firmly. “As soon as we get proof, then she’s history. I think we should start with her office.”

“Her and her stupid office,” Holly growled. Rochelle liked to mention it at every opportunity since the rest of last year’s graduates were still stuck in cubicles. Word on the street, though, was that she hadn’t earned that office at all, she’d only gotten it because she was friendly with the CEO. Real friendly.

And now she had stopped Todd from proposing on the night of the ball. Well the pills may have worked, but there was no way Holly was going to stand by and let her get away with stealing her fiancé as well. This was war.

Holly could feel the determination rising up through her. Finally they were getting somewhere. At this rate they would catch Rochelle, convince Todd of the truth and still have time to watch the latest episode of
The Rich and the Restless
before she went back to heaven. Perfect.

Gemma nodded. “That girl is toast. We’re going to take her down.”

Vince folded his arms and Holly could tell by the way his lips were turning that he was about to frown. “Before you go pointing fingers, shouldn’t we be working out
how
she managed to do it?”

“Oh.” Gemma paused. “I hadn’t thought of that. I guess we’d better retrace your steps first.”

Holly pulled out a piece of paper from Vince’s pocket. “I do have this. It’s a list of all the things I remembered doing on Friday. According to the Internet the tablets could still keep working for up to eight hours, so I’ve gone back as far as ten in the morning.”

Gemma peered over and chewed her lip as she studied it. “You only had one cup of coffee in work and that was made by Tina, so Rochelle couldn’t have spiked your drink. Are you sure you didn’t go somewhere for lunch? Perhaps she did it then?”

“No.” Holly reluctantly agreed. She’d been particularly busy that day trying to get her presentation all ready for Monday so she hadn’t even left the building for a break. “I brown bagged it and ate at my desk.”

“Did you put it in the staff room fridge?” Vince wondered but Gemma gave a dismissive shake of her head.

“They work on different floors.”

Holly stabbed at the piece of paper. “But our fridge was on the blink, so I did go up to fourth floor to put mine in there. I remember because I had chicken in my sandwich and I was worried about salmonella poisoning.” For a moment Holly was struck by the irony since it wasn’t the salmonella she should’ve been worrying about. On a brighter note. At least it was a start.

“Okay, so what are we waiting for? Let’s go,” she said but Vince’s feet weren’t moving anywhere. If she could’ve glared at him, she would’ve. “What? We’ve got motive, we’ve got opportunity, now we just need to find means.”

“Yes, well I hate to break up this little
Law and Order
episode, but aren’t you forgetting something?”

Holly wrinkled her nose as she lifted up her fingers to start mentally ticking things off. “I don’t think so. What do you mean?”

Gemma groaned as she nodded in the same direction as Vince. “He means we’ve got the company meeting which is about to start right about now.”

CHAPTER NINE

Ten minutes later they were standing at the back of the meeting room and Vince’s arms were firmly folded. Normally Holly preferred to sit a bit closer to the front, just so everyone could see she was keen and eager to make something of herself, but Vince obviously didn’t feel the need to impress anyone and had refused point blank to go anywhere near “those suited monkeys.”

Besides, being at the back meant they would be able to make a quick getaway once the meeting was finished—something Holly longed to do. Still at least she was closer to getting her issues sorted than she had been yesterday. She knew that pretending to be calm and organized was the right thing to do.

Because it was the beginning of the month, nearly one hundred people had turned up and Holly was quite pleased to have access to Vince’s extra height to check everyone out. Particularly since the Regional Executive Sales Director, David Harris, was droning on about the company decision to change from ninety-six brightness to ninety-two brightness for internal memos.

She yawned and was just trying to decide if Tina Macdonald had hair extensions in when she caught sight of a poster taped up on a the wall. It was for a suicide help line and Holly knew damn well that it hadn’t been there two weeks ago.

Unbelievable.
How many times did she have to tell people that she didn’t commit suicide? Surely Baker Colwell had better things to do than put up posters like that, especially when based on such flimsy evidence. She was almost tempted to stomp over there and yank it from the wall, when David Harris suddenly coughed and changed topic.

“And now the next thing on the agenda is that I can finally reveal our top account manager for the last quarter, and who at this rate will be on target to beat the company record held by yours truly.”

There was a faint sprinkle of laughter from somewhere down near the front and Holly crossed her fingers. Last quarter Todd had just missed out and she knew he was gunning for this to help move him further up the rungs.

“So without further ado I would like to congratulate, Jim McKenna.”

Oh, Holly felt her heart sink. Poor Todd—he must be devastated. Especially on top of everything else he’d had to go through in the last two weeks, though hopefully when she—

“And Todd Harman. It was a tie,” David Harris finished off with a flourish of his arms and Holly clapped her hands in excitement as she caught sight of Todd’s proud face. She just knew this was a sign that everything was going to be okay.

I’m so happy. You have no idea how hard he’s worked for this. Though what was David Harris trying to do by pretending that there was only one person?

Vince immediately shoved his hands in his pocket to stop anymore clapping.
Yeah, the crazy-wild side of Baker Colwell. Who knew?
Vince retorted.

Boy, you really are cynical. Besides, if you hate it so much, then why do you still work here?
Holly demanded, completely forgetting about her own dark thoughts with regard to the poster.

Because they pay better than anyone else and I can use the money. My bank manager tends to send me letters when I don’t cover my mortgage.

You own your apartment?
Holly said in surprise since most of her friends only owned credit card debts and too many pairs of shoes.

Vince nodded.
I know it’s not in the best area and doesn’t have the right sort of stainless steel kitchen appliances, but it’s mine and as long I keep paying the bank, they can’t kick me out.

Did you get kicked out of houses a lot when you were a kid?

Enough.
He shrugged and Holly suddenly wondered if that’s why he had left their school when he did? She’d never really given it any thought before, but before she could reply, the meeting finally broke up and Gemma sidled up next to them.

“I just overheard Rochelle saying she had to go up to fifth floor. I’ve got to go and see my boss about some new project he wants me to start on, but if you want to search her office, this would be the time to do it.”

“That’s great.” Holly could barely contain her excitement. First Todd’s good news and now this. Just went to show what a bit of hard work and determination could really do.

“Yes, because just in case I don’t get fired for missing my overtime last night, this should get the job done,” Vince retorted.

“What?” Gemma wrinkled her nose. “Was that Vince speaking?”

“Yes, just ignore him,” Holly advised. “For the tall, dark silent sort, he sure is chatty.”

“Pots and kettles.” He folded his arms.

“You know, it’s really weird when you both bicker with each other like that,” Gemma complained as she hitched her purse over her shoulder. “Anyway, I’ve got to go, but good luck.”

“We’re going to need it,” Vince muttered as they headed over to the other side of the room.
Hey, where are you going? I thought Rochelle’s office was the other way.

It is,
Holly admitted as she glanced over at the poster.
But I just want to ask Martha from reception where those posters came from. She knows everything. And some. Then I’m going to pull the horrible thing down.

Vince tapped his watch.
I don’t want to rain on your parade but we don’t have time to do both, so you’d better decide which criminal activity you wish to engage in because I need to be back in the workshop in twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes?
Holly double-checked and she felt Vince nod his head.

That’s right. Besides, those posters don’t have anything to do with you. You died by misadventure. That’s what the coroner said.

And everyone knows that death by misadventure is shorthand for suicide, and they weren’t here two weeks ago were they?

I’m sure there are any number of reasons why they’re up, but if you find out then we won’t have time to go to Rochelle’s office.

Fine.
She relented as she took one last look at Martha’s retreating back before turning in the other direction.

It didn’t take them long to make their way up to fourth floor, though every time someone so much as looked at them, Holly could feel herself freeze up.

You know if you keep doing that, someone’s going to twig that we shouldn’t be up here.
Vince un-stiffened his spine as the finally made it to Rochelle’s office.

Sorry.
Holly gave her arms a shake to help her relax as they peered over the top of the frosted glass to check Rochelle really wasn’t lurking around behind her desk. Then they waited until the coast was clear before slipping in.

Holly gagged on the overwhelming scent of perfume that hung in the air as she systematically went through each drawer. For one brief moment she thought she had hit the jackpot as her fingers latched onto a packet of pills, but on closer examination they discovered they were vitamins. Holly sighed and pushed them back in.

Ten minutes later Vince tapped at his watch and Holly was forced to admit he was right. They couldn’t risk getting caught so it was better to leave empty-handed than have Rochelle walk in on them. It would be more than a little difficult to explain.

She was just turning to leave when she caught sight of a holiday brochure poking from underneath a Baker Colwell training guide. She reached down and grabbed it.

Holly ignored the Hawaiian palm trees and golden sands on the cover and flicked through it until she came across a photocopied article on how to avoid motion sickness.

For a moment Holly was speechless as her eyes scanned the article and apart from various homeopathic remedies, was a suggestion for medication—including the name of the drugs that Gemma had mentioned.

“I can’t believe it,” she finally said as waved the brochure up in the air. “I mean thinking it and knowing it are two such different things. It’s a strange feeling.”

“Yes, but we don’t really know it,” Vince pointed out. “It’s not like you’ve found the pills or anything. Just an article.”

“Not yet.” Holly spun back around with renewed vigor as something brown caught her attention. Rochelle’s oversized Chloe bag, which was hanging from a hook on the back of the door.

How on earth had she missed that thing? For a start, it was the size of a house, and Holly had the feeling that it wasn’t just because of fashion, but because Rochelle had so many “sleepovers” during the week, that a large bag was essential for morning-after maintenance.