Free You Don't Have To Be Evil To Work Here, But It Helps by Tom Holt

another partner, Kurt something, who came to a bad end?’
    ‘Don’t change the subject.’
    ‘All right.’ She frowned. ‘God knows why I’m telling you, of all people. You’ll just do your lewd grin and make unregenerate sexist remarks.’
    Benny rubbed his hands together. ‘You bet. Go on.’
    So Cassie told him; about Colin Hollingshead, and the phone call, and even pins and needles. To her complete surprise, however, Benny didn’t leer, grin, snigger or say things. He hardly moved at all, except that while she was explaining about the deja-vu thing he frowned deeply and put his hand in front of his mouth.
    ‘Is that it?’ he said.
    ‘Yes, I think so. You’re pretty quiet.’
    He nodded. ‘A bit weird, if you ask me.’
    ‘Coming from you—’ She glanced across at the plywood door, with its seven massive bolts. ‘Now I’m really starting to worry.’
    ‘Don’t,’ he said quickly. ‘Honestly, I don’t think it’s something horrible, anything like that. Actually, it sort of reminds me of something, but buggered if I can remember what.’
    ‘You’re a great help.’
    ‘Proverbially,’ Benny said graciously, ‘but not on this occasion. Not yet, anyhow, but I promise I’ll give it some thought.’ Suddenly, his face lit up in a huge, no-holds-barred smile that took Cassie completely by surprise. ‘We’ll figure it out, don’t you worry. Meanwhile,’ he went on - the smile vanished as suddenly as it had appeared - ‘I’d better get on with some work. Fortunately, I can think and do mental long division at the same time.’
    Cassie headed back to her office. As she was passing the closed file store, she very nearly collided with the palefaced girl whose name nobody seemed able to remember. She apologised. The palefaced girl looked at her intensely for a moment, as if reading small print reflected in Cassie’s eyes.
    ‘That’s all right,’ said the pale girl. ‘It wasn’t your fault, though you weren’t looking where you were going. But I came round the corner too fast, and I should’ve kept to my side of the corridor. I could easily have trodden on your foot if you hadn’t swerved at the last moment.’
    ‘Ah,’ Cassie said.
    ‘So really, it’s me who owes you an apology.’
    ‘Oh well,’ Cassie said. ‘That’s all right.’
    ‘Thank you,’ the palefaced girl said gravely. ‘In return, please accept this gift as a token of my appreciation for your forbearance.’
    She held out her hand; the fingers were clamped tight around something, and the knuckles were white.
    ‘Gift?’ Cassie repeated.
    ‘Present,’ the thin-faced girl explained. ‘Go on, please take it. It’s all right, it won’t bite or anything.’
    Cassie looked at the outstretched hand and made no move. ‘That’s very kind of you,’ she said cautiously. ‘What is it?’
    ‘Take it and you can see for yourself.’
    ‘Would you mind awfully telling me what it is first?’
    The thin-faced girl’s eyebrows cuddled together, then parted. ‘Oh, it’s nothing really. Just a small glass bead.’
    ‘Ah.’
    ‘It does, however,’ the thin-faced girl went on, ‘have some interesting properties. If you hold it up to the light and look into it, you can see the face of your own true love.’
    ‘Gosh,’ Cassie said; and she was about to add that it was a really, really nice thought but even so, if it was all the same to her, she’d pass on it just for now, when the thin-faced girl grabbed her by the wrist and pressed something small, round and hard into the palm of her hand. ‘Well, bye for now,’ she said. ‘And if you want to drop by my office later on and tell me what you saw in there, do please feel free. There’s nothing I enjoy more than some really juicy girl-to-girl gossip.’
    The thin-faced girl opened the door of the closed file store and went inside. Cassie wasn’t sure, but she had an idea that she heard the click of a lock, or the graunch of a bolt. You don’t have to be weird to work