Forget Me Never

on my shoulder. Perplexed and not quite sure how to react, I patted her on the back. I could feel her whole body shaking. Knowing what Mum would say if she saw us, I pushed Sophie back out on to the doorstep. This was no mean feat. She was hugging me really tightly, as though afraid to let go. Despite the circumstances, I felt a little thrill. Sophie never usually got this close to me.
    ‘Back soon!’ I called, shutting the door. I’d be in for an earful later, but I didn’t see what choice I had, since Mum had banned Sophie from the house. There was a little green patch further down the road, with a postbox and a bench. I guided Sophie along and we sat down.
    Sophie wiped her eyes with the end of her sleeve. She looked half dead. Forgetting how upset I was with her, I put my arm around her.
    ‘What happened?’
    After a few moments she croaked, ‘A car just mowed Cherie down. I saw everything.’
    My jaw dropped. I felt like something heavy had slammed into me. ‘Is she dead?’
    ‘Don’t know, I didn’t go near . . .’ She looked at me, and I saw helplessness and horror in her eyes. ‘It was so sudden. I just . . . froze. And then I ran. I couldn’t bear to look at her . . . Reece, it was awful.’
    Somehow I didn’t think I was going to be watching the end of The King’s Speech tonight. Sophie told me the whole story, including everything she’d worked out on her trip to Bournemouth. I listened with a sense of foreboding.
    ‘Christ,’ I said when she was done. ‘We really are in too deep.’
    ‘It wasn’t an accident,’ Sophie said in a wobbly voice. ‘Someone did that deliberately.’
    Cherie . . . may be dead. I couldn’t believe it. She had such an indestructible air about her.
    Then something more immediate came to me. ‘Did they see you?’
    ‘The people in the car?’ Sophie stared at me, what little colour there was in her face fading. ‘I don’t know. It had blacked-out windows.’
    ‘You’re in the shit if they did! Listen –’ I squeezed her hand. ‘We’ve got to go to the police, Soph. You’re a witness to a possible murder now! You need protection!’
    I could sense her reluctance even before I finished the sentence. Infuriated, I said, ‘This isn’t a game! And it’s not just about Danielle now!’
    Sophie covered her face with her hands. Deciding to give her a minute, I took my phone out of my pocket. I went online and eventually managed to get to the local paper’s newsfeed. I wasn’t really expecting there to be anything so soon, but I was in for a surprise.
    ‘Sophie! Listen!’ I said. ‘She’s not dead.’
    Sophie stared at me. ‘What?’
    ‘She’s in intensive care – no other details.’ I showed her my phone, not sure why I felt quite so relieved. ‘You still have to go to the police though. You have to tell them what you saw.’
    ‘Aiden,’ Sophie said suddenly.
    ‘What about him?’
    ‘They might be after him too. They might be after everyone who’s in on this!’
    ‘We’ve no way of knowing – we don’t even know who the people in the car were. Heck, for all we know it might have been Aiden. Perhaps Cherie isn’t his accomplice after all. Perhaps she just found out more than was good for her. Perhaps Aiden never even wanted her involved and she nosed her way in.’
    Sophie stared at me. ‘Didn’t think of that. I was assuming the people in the car were the guys Aiden’s been working with – but there’s no evidence of that, is there? They could even be on our side, Reece – trying to stop what’s going on! We don’t know anything.’
    She was right. As for Aiden, he was a mystery. And then I remembered – in Aiden’s organizer it said he was taking leave tomorrow. He had a meeting with HJP. I wished I knew who HJP was.
    But then who said HJP was a person?
    ‘We’ve been stupid,’ I said abruptly. ‘HJP’s a company, Sophie! Or at least a group of people. They must be the guys Aiden’s selling the formula to.’ I tapped the initials into Google. None of the results were what I was looking for. But that wasn’t a surprise. If these people were going to manufacture someone else’s drug illegally, they were hardly going to have a website.
    It made total sense now. It was so blatant I was almost impressed. I’d done my research on weight-loss drugs. Though there were things on the market, none really worked. Something that did would make millions. It wouldn’t just be bought by people looking to lose a few pounds.