Soul Beach

leaving her digs to get pissed in the student bar, making sure he’s caught on the CCTV to give himself an alibi.
    That’s not the Tim I know. We all thought he was one of her phases, when she brought him home only a few weekends after starting at uni. Every previous boyfriend had been flashy, in love with himself, but Tim was so straight , right down to his name. After years of Rafes and Joshuas and even a Merlin, Meggie fell for a Tim who hated parties but loved cooking, who felt more at home on a protest march than in the booze-filled green room behind the scenes on Sing for your Supper . Incredible.
    But gradually it started to make more sense. The other men treated her as a trophy; Tim treated Meggie as a human being. He opened doors for her, let her choose the best seat in a restaurant, carried her suitcase. Some people would find so much attention suffocating, but she lapped it up. He adored her and she adored him back. They were supposed to be the University Sweethearts who fell in love in term one, married on graduation, stayed together for ever. They didn’t fall out when she started to get famous, not even when one of the gossip columns printed a picture of the two of them with the headline Surely The Songbird Could Do Better Than This?
    I knew the truth behind the cruel headlines, or at least I thought I did: that he was a million times better than the arrogant poseurs and hangers-on who were trying to edge into her life. That he was kind and gentle and judged people on who they were rather than what they could do for him. Otherwise why would he bother with me?
    Unless, of course, I was just a gullible little girl who he could fool with a few casual questions about my GCSEs and my favourite movies? If he could manipulate me so easily, what might he do if I show up on his doorstep?
    I can’t go to see him. It’s an insane idea.
    And yet, I need to know who killed my sister, and why. It has to be worth the risk.
    I tiptoe back to my room, my head still fuzzy from the brandy in my system. I have to log on now before I lose it completely. I move the laptop onto the bed.
    I need to be on the Beach .
    I wait for the buzz, for the strange, half-pleasurable, half-fearful sensations that Soul Beach awakens in me. I cannot imagine anywhere in the crappy real world feeling this good again. I picture Meggie, squinting into the sun, and then, behind her, I imagine Danny, his green eyes seeing into my soul . . .
    But I’m not on the sand. I’m in the beach bar. It’s dark, except for ripples of moonlight that shine in through the open sides of the building.
    ‘Sam?’ I call out.
    She pops up from behind the bar, looking even more elfin and otherworldly in this light. She’s holding a roll-up and she looks slightly guilty.
    ‘Taking a break?’
    Sam nods. ‘R and R. It’s been hellish for the last few hours, if you’ll pardon the joke. Maybe the management are playing around with the thermostat, but it’s feverish here.’
    I smile, though I couldn’t be less interested in the temperature. ‘Have you seen Meggie?
    ‘She left the bar, maybe twenty minutes ago, when they decided to go for a late night picnic. What’s the rush?’
    ‘I . . . it’s Tim, her ex-boyfriend. Well, he was still her boyfriend when she died. The police have been questioning him and now he’s been released.’
    ‘That’s why you’ve landed in here first, then, I guess. So I can remind you that you mustn’t say anything to her about it.’
    ‘Another of the pointless rules?’
    ‘This one isn’t pointless. How will it help her to know what’s happened when she doesn’t even remember how she died? Will it make her any happier?’
    I consider this. ‘But the police think he killed her. Everyone does.’
    Sam takes a drag on her cigarette. It changes her face shape, makes her look cruel. ‘Doesn’t sound to me like you do.’
    I stare at her. ‘Why do you say that?’
    ‘Hunch. Always been my speciality, hunches. But anyway, go on.’
    ‘You said before that people are here because they’ve died unresolved deaths. So once the death is resolved, doesn’t that mean people leave?’
    ‘Who told you that people leave?’
    ‘Danny. I don’t know his second name. American.’
    ‘Oh. Danny Cross. Hmm. I should have known it would be one of the big thinkers . They cause so many problems.’
    Danny Cross . I write his name down. Maybe if I can find out why he’s on the Beach, it’ll help me understand why Meggie is,