Chapter 45.
Three days left until Halloween, and Rebecca was returning to work. The story had to run and she needed to finish it. She left for the office feeling much better than she had done for the last week. It was a bizarre few days, and despite everything that had happened, she was determined to finish her piece, give it to Simon and put the whole thing behind her. She was going to request some time off on annual leave, two months left to the end of the year and she still had most of hers left. It would be the first time in two years that she actually took some time out or had a holiday without being forced into it. Even if all she planned to do was spend time in her apartment, it would be nice not to have to think about work or being around people. The thought of disappearing for a few days was niggling at her, get away from the city, be out of reach. But, as hard as she tried to convince herself, there was the matter of the invitation and the dress. Would she really have the willpower to ignore it?
She walked into the office knowing that she would have to evade some of Simon’s questioning. There were too many details that he didn’t need to know. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for her to work from home when she was on a story, but she usually checked in to let him know how it was going. Sitting down at her desk she pulled out her laptop, waiting for it to boot up she went to the kitchenette to make a cup of coffee. As she passed Simon’s office, she peeked her head in around the door.
“Hey there, can I get you a coffee? I picked up some of the good stuff on my way in.” She dangled a bag of Simon’s favourite. His eyes lit up, despite knowing that this was her way of saying ‘don’t ask.’ But he was glad to see her in better form, giving a warm, wide smile, he nodded in approval.
“Rebecca! I’m really glad to see you, when you get that made, I want you in here, you need to talk?” He motioned towards the sofa.
With the two mugs and pot in hand, Rebecca walked into his office, setting the cups down on the table, she took a seat on the sofa and waited for him to join her.
“Before you get all worried older brother, I’m good. I’m really good. I just came in to put the finishing touches on the story and send it to you for approval. Oh, and to ask you for some annual leave, would that be okay?”
“Annual leave, you? Of course. Anything nice planned?” He was glad to have the old Rebecca back again, even though their last conversation was a few days ago, and over the phone, she hadn’t seemed like herself. She always had a sparkle about her that he loved to see, an innate ability to draw people to her, but lately, she seemed to want to do nothing more than repel everyone, him included.
“Nothing yet, not sure really. Just want to get my head cleared after this story. I might leave town for a few days, and escape to the country for a well-earned break. No phone signal, no wifi. Just me, some books, a log fire, nice food and a case of wine” She said nodding her head, she hadn’t actually thought much about what she was going to do but saying it out loud made it sound like the sensible plan.
“Good, sounds wonderful. I’m glad to hear it. You’re a workaholic and you need to distance yourself. You might be my best journalist but I don’t want you collapsing on me with exhaustion. So, talk me through the story whilst you drink your coffee and then go finish it and be off.”
What Simon had said to her hit home, she knew that she overworked herself most of the time. But this week had been different. The story itself hadn’t taken up too much of her headspace. It was everything else that went with it. She knew somehow it was all related, and couldn’t wait to be shot of it.
She talked him through the details of the story, the information that she’d been able to get from the interviews, some of the more graphic elements and how she planned to approach them. The story would be weighted heavily on the human side of things, the similarities between both sets of girls, there were a lot of unanswered questions and some potentially unanswerable in a public forum, the ultimate question was of the families and what closure they would get. Topping up her cup with coffee she went back to her desk to finish the story. The photograph that Mrs McCaine had given her had been scanned and was left on her desk for her to return it. She opened the document she had been working on and began typing. It wasn’t too long before she had the story complete and printed off ready to review it.
The office had a quiet room that was used for screening purposes and she like using it to sit and read over her work. The room wasn’t used that often, most people forgot that it even existed, which suited Rebecca just fine. She sat with a fresh mug of coffee and read over the piece, highlighter and red pen in hand. It was heart-warming and sincere, and she was sure that Mrs McCaine’s interview combined with Melissa Coulter’s contribution had given her one of her best stories to date. The police hadn’t made any further statements on the case and she was sure that they would treat the recent murder with the same lack of competency as they had the previous one. And even though the man she found herself romantically drawn to, was one of the investigating officers in the inquiry, investigative journalism offers no room for personal emotions.
Proofing complete and amendments made, she sat checking over her emails whilst Simon read the piece. She wanted to wait and see if he had anything to add to it. It was unlikely but she didn’t want to get caught on the hop. It had been several days since she had last checked her work email account and there would no doubt be quite a number of silly office emails querying where the Christmas party would be held. And as it was only the end of October, she didn’t find it relevant. Not that she ever cared or went along, convincing herself that she must have been off sick the day they were handing out the Christmas Spirit. She reiterated to herself that she also preferred not to mix working relationships with personal ones.
Simon was thrilled with the piece and was sure that it would boost their sales by at least twelve per cent. And so, content that her work was done she shut her computer down and left the office. The rest of her day would be dedicated to Cyprus, and maybe a little shopping, perhaps later she might even venture out for a drink to celebrate.