Holly jolted awake to the sound of her mobile phone ringing. She blinked a couple of times before remembering why she was in a hotel room, alone. She’d been in the middle of a wonderful dream where she was on a luxury beach holiday with Victoria, Hugo, and Alexia. Now she was staring at the plain white ceiling of her hotel room. The contrast rejuvenated her desire to solve the mystery and get her life back.
She snatched up the phone and saw an Arrival number she recognised all too well. It was Louise.
Holly sucked in a deep breath before answering. “Hello?”
“Ah, you’re there. You took your time,” Louise said, her attitude cranked up to eleven. “Victoria has asked me to get your key to the house back.”
Holly swallowed. They’d agreed on this the previous evening in the war room. It was the ideal way for Holly to get a chance to speak with Louise and decide for herself if there was anything different about her behaviour.
But now that the call was happening, Holly felt a cold shiver run down her spine. It felt all too real.
“I’ll drop it off at the house,” she said.
“No,” Louise said, a perverse pleasure clear in her tone. “No, I want you to deliver it to me personally, so I know it’s done. You can come to the office, but don’t come up. Of course. I’ll meet you in reception. Oh, and I’ll take your security pass from you as well.”
“Don’t sound like you’re enjoying this too much, Louise. You’ll burst,” Holly commented.
“It’s nice to know that everything is getting back to normal again,” Louise replied. “That this… bizarre world is finally done with. I knew you’d mess it up eventually.”
Holly bit her lip to keep from saying what she really wanted to the snotty woman. Louise had played nice while Holly had been with Victoria, but Holly always knew it was an act. Louise had hated her when she had slowly become Victoria’s favourite of the two of them. It was all coming out now, but Holly knew she had to manage the conversation if she was going to get anything out of it other than Louise’s gloating.
“Actually, I didn’t mess anything up,” Holly said. “Victoria is the one who did all of this.”
Louise stalled for a moment before saying, “I’m really not interested in the details of your lovers’ quarrel. Come to the office this afternoon with the key and your pass. I assume you don’t have anything better to do? I think it’s best that we just put all of this behind us as soon as possible. Yes?”
Holly quickly agreed to Louise’s plan, and they ended the call. She sat up in bed and gently tapped the corner of her phone against her mouth, deep in thought.
Louise had assumed that Holly had messed up, and she’d seemed a little taken aback at the news that it was Victoria who had done so instead. If she was involved, then she’d know that the photos indicated Victoria having an affair, so why put the blame for the relationship ending at Holly’s door?
It was a big indication that Louise was not involved. Victoria would be pleased.
Holly wasn’t. She’d thought Louise’s hero worship of Victoria and hatred of Holly made her the number one suspect.
“Crap,” she muttered.
Holly realised that she had been holding on dearly to the suspicion that Louise was involved. It would have been the cleanest and simplest solution. Louise would want to push Holly away but not cause Victoria any real damage in the terms of her image or business standing. If it had been Louise, then they were safe in the knowledge that the images were unlikely to be leaked.
Holly pressed her lips together. She’d make a proper decision on Louise’s involvement when she saw her that afternoon, but it was looking very unlikely that she was the culprit.
She looked at her phone again and swiped along her contacts until she came to the only person who might be able to help. She pressed her thumb down on the name and put the phone to her ear. It rang a few times before being answered.
“Too early, Carter.”
“I’m sorry, Jazz,” Holly apologised. “I just needed to know if you’d had time to look at those emails I sent you?”
Holly had called the computer genius as soon as she started properly investigating the case. Jazz was good at their job and could be trusted. Jazz was also very busy, and Holly had been told that Jazz would get to it when they could.
“No, but I can tell that I’m going to get no sleep until I do. I have a few jobs this morning. Why don’t you come over this afternoon?”
Holly jumped to her feet with excitement. A space in Jazz’s diary wasn’t an easy thing to come by.
“I’ll be there, name the time.”
“Four. Bring food.”
“I will bring all the food,” Holly promised. “Thanks, Jazz. I really appreciate this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jazz said sleepily. “I’m going back to bed, see you at four. Oh, by the way, Thai food is good.”
Jazz disconnected the call, and Holly let out a sigh of relief. She’d worked with Jazz a few times in the past; they were fantastic at their work but difficult on a personal level. Jazz had their pick of computer work. If your project didn’t interest them, then they didn’t take it on. This would have been a problem for Holly because she didn’t know many hackers—certainly not ones she could trust.
She tossed her phone on the bed and stretched up high to try to release the tension from her back. The bed was nice, but it wasn’t up to Victoria’s standards. Every day that passed made her appreciate more and more the homely luxury that she lived in. It wasn’t just that Victoria was rich; they didn’t have a golden toilet or anything ridiculous like that. It was just that the townhouse felt like a home, with its muted colours and elegant, soft furnishings. The hotel, no matter how spectacular, just couldn’t compete with home.
Thinking like that wasn’t helping. If she wanted to get back home, she needed to crack on.
“Okay, let’s get today started,” she said to herself, realising that she was now a person who spoke to herself.