Read Forget Me Never for Free Online Page A

Grace to turn off the recording. ‘Thanks for coming to see us, Sophie – you’ve done the right thing. We’ll speak to your friend Reece and see if we can have a word with Mr Anderson. We’ll be in touch.’
    ‘OK,’ I said. I must have sounded unconvinced, because Perry said, ‘Don’t worry, Sophie. If there’s anything untoward, we’ll find it.’
    Julie and I walked home in silence. As we let ourselves into the house, I said, ‘You’re not happy.’
    ‘Can’t say I am,’ Julie said with a sigh.
    ‘It’s not like I wanted to drag you down there,’ I said stiffly. ‘Didn’t mean to cause you any trouble.’
    ‘It’s OK. Stuff happens, Sophie. If this means an extra social-worker visit, so be it – it’ll be nice to have some adult company.’ She flashed me a smile. The adult-company comment was meant to be a joke, but it had a serious layer to it too. Julie and her partner had split about a year ago, and it had been touch and go whether she’d be able to keep fostering. She must have found looking after three kids difficult without support, but I never heard her complain. Still, I hated making things harder for her. I opened my mouth to explain what I’d meant, but then Julie said, ‘Don’t let this distract you.’
    Something about the way she said it annoyed me. ‘From what? It’s summer! It’s not like I’m doing much.’
    ‘What I meant was, you’ve a bright future. I don’t want this upsetting you all over again. Talking to the police is all very well, but it’s not going to change anything. At some point you’ve got to accept what’s happened, Sophie. Even though it may be hard.’
    What was she saying – that my gut instinct that something was wrong didn’t matter? I wasn’t in denial about Dani dying – I was just trying to get to the truth. This is the problem when you’re ‘troubled’; everything you do is put under a microscope. People think they have the right to psychoanalyse you and draw conclusions.
    ‘My head’s screwed firmly on, Julie – don’t you worry about that. I’m not going to go off the rails, like my mum did – like everyone’s saying Dani did! And you know something? It’d be easier to get on with my life if people stopped bringing up my past every time I do something they don’t agree with!’
    Julie flinched. After a pause she said, ‘Noted. Calm down. I can understand that this has been a tough time. You know if you want to talk to me I’m here.’
    She went through into the kitchen, and I heard the kettle begin to boil. I felt a bit bad for sounding off, but not quite bad enough to apologize and explain, which I knew was what she wanted. Julie was always concerned that I didn’t talk to her enough, and she often wrongly assumed things – like that I was in a bad mood when I wasn’t. This would invariably lead to her asking lots of questions and eventually me snapping at her, which she then took as proof that I had been in a bad mood after all.
    That evening I sat in front of Edith, staring at the chat function on Facebook. Though we hadn’t arranged it, I sort of knew Reece was going to come online. When I saw him appear, I opened a message box.
    Hey, I typed. Seen the police yet?
    Yuppers. The charming DI Perry and his anaemic sidekick. They could make a really good low-budget TV cop show.
    Ha ha, true. So what happened?
    Just told them the facts. Think Mum quite fancied Perry. She wasn’t exactly chuffed about seeing the police, but she cheered up when we got in there. Kinda gross.
    Ewww! BAD mental images!
    Dunno how seriously they were taking it TBH. Figure they’ll speak to Anderson. Dunno if much else will happen.
    Or if they’ll even fill us in. This sucks.
    But it turned out I was wrong. Just three days later, DI Perry had an update for me.

REECE
    When I’d finished chatting to Sophie online I went downstairs to get a drink. Mum was in the kitchen watering the pot plants. Though I’d been joking about her fancying DI