You Had Me at Halo (6 page)

Ten minutes later she printed it out and had to say that it didn’t look promising. Nothing really stood out at her to announce that it was at this point she ingested four motion sickness pills, which had led to her falling asleep in the bath and ruining her life forever.

Perhaps Gemma would be able to make more sense of it tomorrow? She shoved it into the pocket of Vince’s jacket and decided while she was here, she might as well have a snoop through the personnel files and see what she could find.

She entered a search for anyone with a criminal past with a particular preference for drugging people.

Unsurprisingly she didn’t get any results.

Holly chewed at her bottom lip as she tried to figure out who would do this? Perhaps she had accidentally spilt something on the cafeteria floor and the cleaner had taken an unwholesome dislike to her from that moment on? Or someone who had taken exception to the way she poured her milk into her coffee before the water had boiled, or...

At that moment Holly glanced over to her to-do list again and caught sight of her neat handwriting reminding her of her presentation on Monday. Holly had only been in her new job for a month so this was her first important project and she’d been busting a gut to make sure that everything about it was perfect. Pity she hadn’t factored in dying.

She sniffed again. It was such a great job as well—okay so finance operations was a little on the hard side—but still great. Gemma had thought Holly was rushing things, applying for a promotion only a year after joining the company, but Todd had thought that it was important to show her bosses that she was a player who wanted to make something of herself.

Holly agreed, especially since she
had
wanted to make something of herself, which was why she’d bought the most
adorable black ankle strap shoes to celebrate. After all, how could you climb the corporate ladder without a good pair of heels?

Oh and she bet Tina Macdonald was finding it hilarious that Holly didn’t manage to do her presentation, since it was no secret Tina thought the promotion should’ve been hers. She’d even gone as far as complaining to Personnel about an unfair interview process.
Yeah right
. As if Tina had the calves for ankle strap shoes, and—

That was it.

Motive.

Holly was perfectly still as she realized she had just figured out who had slipped her the pills. Goodbye earthly issues and Level One. She knew all it would take was a little application and organization. Wait until she told Gemma about it.

Oh, and it made even more sense because she specifically recalled that the morning she died—
on the pretence of being nice—
Tina
had given Holly a cup of coffee when they’d been in the staff room. Even though at the time it had tasted perfectly normal, it was now obvious Tina had laced it with pills so Holly would be forced to cancel her presentation and perhaps risk getting demoted. It all added up nicely.

She turned off her computer, tidied up her desk and out of habit, reached into the bottom drawer to grab her latest Bride and Beauty magazine (in case she had problems sleeping) and headed toward the elevator.

It wasn’t until she was outside the building that she congratulated herself on being such a genius in working it out. Of course she always had been clever. She thought back to
The Rich and the Restless
, her favorite soap opera, where everyone was convinced Joanne and Carlos were going to get together, but Holly had been adamant Lee would win through in the end. And she had been right.

Being right was such a nice feeling and she was still basking in it as she sat down at the nearby bus stop and searched Vince’s pockets to find a cell phone to call Gemma.

There was no answer and Holly cursed. The sooner she got Tina’s address, the sooner she could confront the girl and put a stop to the suicide rumors. Then tomorrow she could concentrate on clearing the air with Todd. Well, it wasn’t her typical to-do list, but then it wasn’t a typical day.

“In fact, it’s probably been the weirdest day of my life,” she muttered to herself as she drummed her fingers on the magazine.

“I’ll say,” a disembodied voice replied.

“What? Who said that?” Holly jumped back to her feet again and spun around, only to see nothing except an empty street and a candy wrapper blowing in the breeze. Well, that was strange. And why did she suddenly feel so
...weird
?

“What’s going on?” the same voice demanded.

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Holly tried to stay calm. After all, she was dead. Technically nothing bad could happen to her. Could it?

“Ideas would be welcome,” the voice said with a hint of impatience.

“Who are you?” Holly croaked as she clutched at her throat. It almost sounded like the words were coming from inside her. But that was just impossible.

“I’m Vince, who are you? And more importantly, what the hell are you doing in my body?”

“What do you mean you’re Vince? Vince is dead,” Holly said into the thin air, feeling more than just a little bit silly (and considering the past two weeks, that was really saying something).

“I’m dead?” the voice sounded surprised. “Are you sure? Because I don’t feel dead. Perhaps I’m just having some sort of weird dream? I get them sometimes.”

“No, you’re definitely dead.”

“Oh, so this is heaven? Because I’ve got to say, I expected more. This place looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”

“Of course it’s not heaven,” Holly scoffed. For a start there were no dead people around. Sort of a give away. Though she still wasn’t quite sure why she was having a conversation with Vince’s body.

“So it’s hell then?” the voice continued to probe. Was Vince’s body always this annoying in a conversation?

“No,” she explained. “It looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell because it
is
the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”

“Right. So how did I get from the funeral to here?”

Wait
. This was getting ridiculous. Surely she wasn’t really having this conversation. Perhaps if she closed her eyes, the voice would go away?

The problem was, not only did the voice make her feel weird, but something strange was happening to her leg as well. It felt...
twitchy.

An uneasy feeling lodged itself in her stomach, which she tried to ignore. Surely this was just a side effect from Dr. Hill’s plan and no doubt if she’d read the rulebook she would know all about strange voices and twitchy feelings in her leg.

She gave her thigh a wriggle.

“Hey,” the voice said. “How did you do that?”

Holly started to sing the latest Coldplay song in her head. It had only come out a week before she died so she didn’t know all the words but at least it would stop this voice from talking.

Then her other leg wriggled. All by itself.

Holly stopped singing and clutched at her thigh. And now spasms? This was so not her day. “What’s going on?” she croaked as she found herself sitting back down on the bench.

“That’s what I want to know,” the voice said. “One minute I was at Holly’s funeral and the next minute I’m at the bus stop outside Baker Colwell. It doesn’t make sense.
And why can I taste lipstick on my mouth?”

Holly felt her hand reach up to her lips and gulped as a thought too startling and dreadful for words entered her head.

No.

It wasn’t possible.

It couldn’t be happening.

“Actually it is,” another voice said and for a moment Holly clutched at her head.

“Don’t tell me there’s someone else inside here too, because I don’t think I’m going to handle it very well,” she said.

“Of course not.” Dr. Hill appeared from nowhere and sat next to her at the bus stop. “I’m right here.”

Holly let out a sigh of relief. “Boy, am I glad to see you. You won’t believe what’s just happened. For a moment I was starting to think Vince Murphy was still alive and in my body.”

Her leg shot out from under her and there was a growling noise from her throat. “Actually I think you’ll find it’s my body. And can someone
please
tell me what’s going on?”

“Of course.” The doctor gave a small cough. “It’s quite simple. Miss Evans, it appears that Mr. Murphy is in his body with you. At first it wasn’t obvious because he was in a catatonic state, which made us think he was dead, but well...the good news is he’s all better.”

“And the bad news?” Holly could now feel the disbelief oozing out of every pore in her body.
Oh no, wait. Make that Vince Murphy’s body.

“I don’t think you’re going to like the bad news.” Dr. Hill let out a sigh as he started to explain what had happened.

CHAPTER SIX

“What do you mean you’ve stuck me in the body of someone who was only
nearly
dead?
”
Holly wasn’t sure whether to laugh or burst out in hysterical tears. “How is this possible?”

Vince coughed. “Actually, I know the answer to that. I think I fainted.”

“You fainted?” Holly echoed as she turned to Dr. Hill in disbelief. “So Vince isn’t sick at all and this whole mess is because my
spiritual realigner
couldn’t tell the difference between a faint and a death?”

Dr. Hill was now fiddling with the fancy cuffs at the end of his white shirt. “Okay.” He suddenly threw his hands up in the air. “I admit it. I made one tiny little mistake. It could’ve happened to anyone.”

Holly could only stare at him. “I’m sorry, I’ve being trying to stay calm about this whole thing, but it’s not working. Don’t you think it’s hard enough for me to have come down here for two days to try and sort out all of my earthly issues while stuck in a guy’s body, without now telling me I have to share the body
with
the guy.”

“I think we’re forgetting who’s the victim here. I fainted for what—a second or two
—
and wham, my body gets snatched.”

Holly uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, so I know this might be a shock but at least you only looked like you were dead, I’m going to
be
dead forever. Surely letting me use your body for two days isn’t really so bad in the big scheme of things?”

“Not if you want to put lipstick on me. And don’t think I can’t smell the perfume either.” Vince scowled and Holly could feel her eyes narrowing. How dare he scowl at her! She turned her head. If anyone deserved to be scowled at, it was Dr. Hill and so she let him have the full force of Vince’s angry glare.

“It was a mistake,” the doctor repeated. “It does happen from time to time you know. After all, I’m only human.”

“No you’re not,” Holly reminded him. “You told me you’d been dead for two hundred years. And you still haven’t said what you’re going to do to fix this mess.”

The doctor rubbed his temples. “That’s the whole problem. There isn’t anything I can do. The technology we used to get you into Mr. Murphy’s body is very exact—”

“Apart from mistaking him for dead,” Holly cut in and she could feel Vince nodding his head in agreement.

“Yeah,” he said.

Dr. Hill ignored them. “I’m sorry, but it can’t be changed or altered. You won’t leave his body until the planned time—the day after tomorrow at one o’clock in the afternoon.”

“But that’s ridiculous,” Vince said.

“Impossible,” Holly agreed. “You must be able to do something.”

“Sorry.” Dr. Hill shot her an apologetic look, which seemed to be aimed at both of them. “There’s nothing I can do. Except perhaps advise you both the more you bicker, the worse this thing will be. You should be pleased you’re body-sharing with someone you know.”

“We went to school together for two lousy years way back when. I know my mailman better,” Holly retorted.

“So think of this as a chance to catch up on old times then,” Dr. Hill said with an over bright smile. “Oh and would you look at the time? I really have to fly. I’m late for a meeting.”

“No,” Holly yelped. “You can’t go. You’ve got to help me. Please.”

Dr. Hill twitched his lips before reluctantly admitting, “There is an alternative.”

“Yes?” Holly clambered at his words like the first in line at a chocolate convention.

“First you have to imagine what hell looks like then you need to double it and—”

Her excitement waned as she folded her arms and shot him a mulish look. “Is this going to be your alternative for everything?”

“I’m sorry Miss Evans, I don’t make the rules. So what’s it to be?”

“Fine.” Holly let out a reluctant sigh. She had the feeling it would be a bit harder to go find Tina Macdonald and make up with Todd, from the burning depths of hell.

“Excuse me,” Vince interrupted. “I’m not so sure I want to go along with anything this guy says. God knows who he might stuff in here next.”