Forget Me Never

said in a small voice.
    Reece pulled a face. ‘What for? I’m not mad at you. Anyway, didn’t find out too much today, though someone did tip me off that they’re waiting for trial results to come back for a big new drug they’ve been developing.’
    Now that was interesting. Surely those had to be the results Aiden had referred to in his email? And could the data Dani had been getting be to do with the new drug too?
    I said this to Reece. He nodded. ‘That’s what I thought. Sounds like this drug could have a huge impact if all goes well. Maybe I should ask Stalker Aiden about it. We had a bit of a close encounter today.’
    He described what had happened at lunchtime. I crunched an ice cube and swallowed it, not sure what to think.
    ‘D’you reckon he was on to you? Sounds a bit threatening.’
    ‘Too right. Hardly the kind of small talk you expect the researcher to make with the work-experience kid, is it? But it was cool.’
    A deep sense of foreboding stirred inside me. ‘Reece, I don’t think you should be doing this. I’d hate you to get hurt because of me.’
    ‘I’ll be fine!’ Reece said, sounding impatient. ‘And even if Stalker Aiden does suspect, which he doesn’t, what can he do about it? Whisk me down to the labs and melt me in acid?’
    He looked up, expecting me to laugh, but I didn’t. I wasn’t worried about Reece getting into trouble at work – it was outside that concerned me.
    ‘I may have met Charlotte from the emails too,’ he continued. ‘One of the others at lunch. Calls herself Lottie, but seems friendly with Aiden, plus she’s the only Charlotte at V-B. I know that cos I took a look at the company Address Book in Outlook while I was doing a bit of database work on a spare laptop. Lottie’s mentoring me tomorrow, so I’ll try and find out for sure. Tracing Patrick might be more tricksy. No Patricks in the Address Book. Maybe he’s left – or never even worked there.’
    ‘We need to find out what Dani was doing,’ I said. ‘Until we know what they were involved in, we’re not going to get anywhere.’
    ‘Hey, I did OK for a first day! It’s not like I had much freedom of movement.’
    ‘Sorry, that came out wrong. It’s just frustrating for me, sitting about waiting for news.’
    ‘And that is why I knew you would hate this plan.’ Reece scooped up his remaining fries and stuffed them in his mouth. ‘Chill, Miss Bossyboots. I’m on the case.’
    I smiled, but I wasn’t convinced.

REECE
    Day two at Vaughan-Bayard started with me bumping into Mr McIntyre in reception. We discussed yesterday’s match. It had been a draw, as predicted. To my surprise, he had with him an album of old photos, taken at cricket matches over the last thirty years. I was touched that he’d brought it in just to show me. Some were even from overseas, in Australia and the West Indies. Despite being old, McIntyre was definitely on my cool list.
    He also invited me to a barbecue at his house on Saturday.
    ‘I always host a get-together around this time of year for the company as a bit of a celebration,’ he said. ‘The work-experience students too. I know you’re only on your second day here, but I might forget to mention it nearer the time.’
    Now I felt flattered. It wasn’t often people in authority took to me. Usually I rubbed them up the wrong way. ‘Thank you. I’ll see if I can come.’
    McIntyre picked up his briefcase. ‘And if you’ve got a girlfriend . . . feel free to bring her too.’
    Had he winked at me? Yes, he actually had. I watched him head to the lift. McIntyre so didn’t have kids, else he’d have realized how totally cringeworthy that was! Maybe not so cool after all. But this barbecue might be interesting nonetheless.
    I spent the day with Lottie in a small open-plan office on the second floor. As the building was a research facility there wasn’t a lot of admin, but apparently it was still important to know about. I could tell immediately that Lottie wasn’t going to be as hard a taskmaster as Cherie. But being with her was exhausting. That yawn-worthy voice droning on and on, fretting about whether the filing had been done. Had Aiden warned her I might be snooping? It was hard to tell.
    ‘In here,’ Lottie said, ‘we’ve got the admin team, HR, finance and our press officer. The IT guys are down the corridor. They’re really important because they maintain our network, databases and records. We might not have the most glamorous jobs,