“Just think of the peace and quiet you’ll have,” Gideon said, watching Louise with no great concern. She sat on an uncomfortable airport terminal chair, head between her legs, breathing into a brown paper bag.
“You can take Victoria’s seat in first class… actually, scratch that, that would put you next to me. You can keep your own seat in premium, relaxed in the knowledge that—”
“Relaxed?!” Louise crumpled the paper bag and glared up at him. “Relaxed? Are you insane? Victoria is gone. She will miss her flight, and who will she blame for that? Me. That’s who. She will blame me for missing her flight and throwing her entire schedule off. Gideon, this is a complete disaster.”
“Victoria is a grown woman. If she’s gone off somewhere, then she knows she’ll miss her flight,” Gideon reasoned.
“Oh, come on.” Louise stood up and started to pace. “Remember the time we were in London and she demanded that the plane leave twenty minutes early so she’d be able to get an earlier connection to take Hugo to a concert?”
Gideon laughed. That did sound familiar, but he was so used to Victoria’s behaviour by now that it all blended into the background. Of course, he didn’t have to deal with her whims on a daily basis either.
Louise’s phone rang in the distinctive tune that was assigned to Victoria. And Lord Vader. She ran for her bag and tipped the contents onto the chair. She grabbed the phone and swiped at the screen.
“Hello? Victoria?”
Louise’s face contorted in confusion.
“What? Um. You… Yes, I-I’ll see what I can do. Yes, yes, right away. What about your flight—” She pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at the screen. “She hung up.”
“What did she say?” Gideon asked.
Louise looked at him. “You won’t believe this, but she wants me to get a copy of Holly Carter’s passport.”
Gideon blinked. “Holly’s passport?” It had been a long time since that name had been uttered.
“Yep. She didn’t say why. Just that she wants it emailed to her immediately.” Louise stood rooted to the spot in confusion. “Why on earth does she want that traitor’s passport? What’s going on?”
Gideon got his own phone out of his inner jacket pocket and scrolled to Victoria’s number.
“Who knows? Just do what she says. Call human resources and ask them to get a copy out of the file,” he told her. “And tell them to hurry up. Whatever it is, she won’t want to be kept waiting.”
Louise snapped out of her daze and started to swipe through her contact list.
Gideon walked away from where they had been sitting and dialled Victoria. A few moments went by before the call was answered.
“Victoria? What’s going on?” he asked.
“Gideon, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said through a sigh.
“You just asked Louise to get a copy of Holly’s passport?”
“Don’t tell the masses, and certainly don’t tell Louise, I want to keep this quiet for now,” Victoria said. “Holly is here, in France.”
Gideon couldn’t quite work out the connection. “And… she’s lost her passport?”
“She’s lost everything. She’s in a hospital,” Victoria whispered.
Gideon turned away from the crowds of the terminal and faced a nearby wall in an attempt to hide his shock.
“In a hospital? Is she okay?”
“She has severe memory loss, she doesn’t know who she is,” Victoria explained.
“How on earth did you find her?”
“That’s a long story, for another day. Suffice to say, I’m staying here with her until I can get this mess sorted out. I need a copy of her passport in order to prove her identity and get the wheels in motion to bring her home.”
Gideon leaned his arm against the wall. “Yes, yes, I see. Is there anything I can do?”
“Actually, there is. You used to speak to Holly, didn’t you? I saw you two whispering to each other often. Do you know much about Holly’s family? Parents? Siblings? Does she have a boyfriend? I really don’t know what to tell her. I knew so little about her.”
He stood up straight and started to walk. He felt so cut off and useless that movement was the only thing keeping him from going insane.
“Well, her parents died in a car crash about six years ago. No brothers or sisters that she’s ever spoken about. No boyfriend, but she broke up with her long-term girlfriend just before she left for Paris. They were having difficulties and Holly made the break. I think she intended to return from Paris and get her life back on track.” He snorted a bitter laugh. “She had a couple of friends she spoke about fairly regularly, but she had a big falling out with them when she left her girlfriend.”
He heard a deep sigh from Victoria. “Don’t you have anything… positive? Something I can tell her that doesn’t sound so dire?”
Gideon searched his memory for the last few weeks of conversations he’d had with Holly.
“Nothing that springs to mind,” he admitted. “She was at a crossroads in her life. Making a lot of changes. She loved her job and was looking forward to starting a career in writing. Everything else was falling away as she focused on her career.”
“I see,” Victoria replied. “Well, at least I have something to tell her, I suppose. Please keep this between us, but tell Louise to hurry up with that passport.”