Forget Me Never

saying anything sinister went on – but I’m just not convinced it’s so simple. Dani seemed fine.’
    ‘Might have seemed fine. Doesn’t mean she was. Anyway, aren’t you implying that this guy gave her a reason to do it?’
    ‘Maybe – I don’t know.’ Suddenly embarrassed, I looked away. Ridiculous – coming here with crazy theories when I hadn’t spoken to Reece in months. I needed to find someone else to dump on – I probably sounded a bit hysterical.
    ‘I’ll go,’ I said, getting to my feet. ‘Thanks for helping.’
    I was almost at the door when Reece said, ‘Sure you’ve been OK?’
    His voice almost sounded soft. I looked over my shoulder.
    ‘I’m fine. What d’you mean?’
    ‘You know. Just generally.’
    Was he saying that he’d been worried about me when we weren’t speaking?
    ‘I really am fine,’ I said firmly. ‘And I really am going.’
    ‘You know what I think,’ Reece said. ‘There’s no way your cousin seeing that guy was prearranged. She was definitely shocked to see him in town. Whatever he needed to say to her at the flat, it must have been significant.’
    He was juggling an eraser from hand to hand, and now he added a key ring and the memory stick.
    ‘Don’t throw that about,’ I said, marching over and snatching it, annoyed that I’d almost forgotten it. ‘It’s valuable.’
    Reece threw the eraser against the wall. It made a pinging sound and bounced underneath the bed.
    ‘How long had Dani been living in Bournemouth?’
    ‘Dunno. A couple of weeks.’
    ‘Where was she before?’
    ‘Somewhere in Archway. What are you thinking?’
    ‘Well, let’s assume the bloke doesn’t live in Bournemouth. That they met in London and he made a special trip to see her. You don’t usually do that when people aren’t expecting you, especially as Bournemouth’s hardly just down the road.’
    Despite myself I was impressed with his reasoning. ‘Must have been something he couldn’t email or call her about.’
    ‘Doesn’t mean it was anything suspicious though. We know he was gone by the time Dani fell. The eyewitness said there was no one else on the balcony.’
    ‘I’m not saying he pushed her,’ I said, aware that I was starting to sound silly again. ‘I’m just saying that we now know this guy is Dani’s ex, and him visiting might be significant in some way.’
    Reece turned to the computer and opened Firefox. He went on to Facebook and opened the In Memoriam page that one of Danielle’s friends had created. Lots of people, including me and Reece, had left messages. It had seemed the right thing to do. Julie said it trivialized her death, but in my opinion it was the best way for all the people who knew her to come together. The page showed a posed profile picture of Dani at a friend’s wedding, confetti in her hair and toasting the camera with a wine glass.
    Reece was scrolling down the comments. Beginning to realize what he was doing, I sat back on the stool.
    ‘Stop,’ I said. ‘That’s him, there. Aiden Anderson.’
    Aiden Anderson hadn’t written much in his message – just
RIP babe, you’ll be missed x
. Reece clicked and his profile page popped up, a big photo of him on the left.
    ‘How’s that for awesome detective work?’ Reece said, looking smug. ‘Sherlock would be proud.’
    There wasn’t much on Aiden’s page – he seemed to be an advocate of the ‘I’m so cool I keep my profile practically empty’ school of social networking.
    ‘What now?’ Reece said. ‘Do we sit on this information, or do something with it?’
    ‘You mean, go to the police? What do you think?’
    He shrugged. ‘Your cousin. You decide.’
    I picked at the threads on the bottom of my shorts. It felt very surreal to be sitting here on a nice summer evening, talking about Dani’s death. I’d thought about it constantly, but until now I’d never questioned the verdict. Part of me wished I hadn’t started this. I wondered if Reece was taking it seriously. He was being so matter-of-fact that I suspected he wasn’t. Maybe he thought that I couldn’t deal with Dani killing herself and just wanted someone to blame. And maybe I did. I didn’t know what I thought any more – just that I needed to do something.
    ‘If I go to the police, will you come with me?’ I asked.
    Reece got up. ‘I suddenly hear chow mein calling. Want to order takeaway?’
    ‘Answer my question. I’m serious.’
    ‘I’m considering it,’ Reece said. ‘But my brain