Page 63 of (Not So) Mad About You

Josh cocked his head to one side. “He’s in his office a lot.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s working, does it?”

“S’pose not.”

She nodded. That was all she needed, not like it had been particularly helpful. “Thanks.”

“Oh, by the way, here you go.” He handed over a small slip of paper with a phone number on it. “Charles.”

“Cheers.” She put the paper in her pocket and went off to continue her investigation.

LUKE MIGHT BE shut up in his office a lot, but he didn’t miss lunch. Ever. Well, not for the few days that Alli had been there. She waited around the corner until she heard his office door close and then she peeked around, seeing Luke disappearing toward the dining room.

Her stomach rumbled as she sneaked into the office. She’d have to hurry. She didn’t want to miss lunch completely.

Looking around, she didn’t know where to start. There were no papers on the desk, just a slim laptop and an old landline phone. There were two filing cabinets by the window. The top drawer of one was open, but it held nothing other than a set of emergency phone numbers and an empty whisky bottle.

She rattled the next drawer down. Locked. So were all the others. The laptop on the desk was open, but the screen was blank. When she pressed a key, a password slot popped up.

Right. A place to hide a filing cabinet key, or a place to write down a password.

She picked up the brass paperweight on the desk. Nothing there. The desk didn’t even have any drawers.

She was so busy trying to think of hiding places that she didn’t hear the door open. One minute she was alone, the next, she felt eyes on her. She spun around.

Leslie was standing in the doorway.

“I’m not… I wasn’t…” Alli started.

Leslie shrugged and held the door open wider.

“Right, yeah… Um…” Alli slid through the door and out into the corridor. “I was just, um, looking for Luke and… Yeah…” She started to walk backward. Leslie just stared at her.

Then she turned and made her escape. So much for that. She’d found out precisely nothing. But when she looked back, Leslie was still standing in front of Luke’s office door, watching her go. Weird.

“DO YOU THINK there’s anything weird about us?” Alli asked, as she took a late seat at the lunch table.

“Like what?” asked Izzy.

“Dunno,” said Alli. “Something… not quite right.”

“We’re all full of anger and seeking to control something that currently controls us,” Marcus said. Alli stared at him. He blushed. “Well, that’s what they said in the introductory meeting.”

“Anything else?” asked Alli.

“I shouldn’t think so, dear,” Julia said. “I mean, we all have our foibles, don’t we? Look at poor Leslie, barely utters a word.” She frowned and looked around the table. “Where is she, now that I think of her?”

“Probably busy,” Alli said hurriedly. She didn’t want to admit where she last saw the strange, silent woman. “Um, doing extra yoga or something. So nothing odd about us?”

“Not as a group, I don’t think,” Julia smiled. “In fact, I think we’re all getting along quite well after a few hiccups, don’t you?”

“I suppose,” Alli said. But she was thinking. She picked up her sandwich, then put it down. “We don’t get angry a lot though, do we?”

“What?” asked Marcus, his mouth full, spraying crumbs.

“You said we’re all here to try and control the beast that’s controlling us or whatever,” said Alli.

“Seeking to control something that currently controls us,” Marcus said after he’d swallowed.

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