Connected by Simon Denman

Doug gently shook his head in amazement and went on.
“Well, we discovered a new way of manipulating and evolving the underlying
equations, which had the unexpected side-effect of generating these really cool
moving images - kind of mesmerising. Anyway, Kal was a lot more excited about
it than I ever was. To me it was just a mathematics problem.”
“Sounds cool though, maybe you can show me sometime?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“So how was the paper received?”
“Oh I don’t know, I don’t think anyone took much notice really. Fractals are a
bit passé now I think.”
“Even so, I’d be interested in seeing those images sometime.”
“Now you mention it. Kal texted me on the morning of his death to say he had
posted a new file for download.” Doug thought for a moment. “Doesn’t that
strike you as a bit strange?”
“What?”
“Well…one minute he was excited enough about these damn fractal patterns to
want to share something new with me, and then a couple of hours later was
depressed enough to hurl himself out of a window. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Does it ever make sense when someone commits suicide?”
“Well… not in a rational way maybe, but you can sort of understand it in the
context of severe depression. You know, if someone loses all hope and perceives
life as too painful to bear. But Kal wasn’t like that. It just seemed to come
out of nowhere.”
“Maybe you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did.”
Doug looked at her for a moment, feeling saddened. “Maybe.”
“Did you ever download the file?”
“No, I was trying to, but then it bombed. Look, can we change the subject?” He
looked at his watch. “Actually, I should be going. Will I see you again or are
you going to do another disappearing act?” he said, somewhat unkindly.
“Look I’m sorry about that. I just got kind of freaked. Of course you’ll see me
again. I’m afraid I’m busy tonight, but tomorrow is good. Perhaps I could come
by early evening and we can go out.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
    Outside the restaurant she hugged him, kissed him
one more time, then turned and left without another word. Doug stared after
her, watching the way her tight little hips swayed gently from side to side as
she walked. He willed her to turn around and acknowledge the stare, but she
continued purposefully in the direction of the North towers car-park. He
thought about calling after her, but couldn’t think what to say. He almost
wanted to shout “I love you!”, but that would be ridiculous, he barely knew
her… and yet he’d never wanted anyone so badly.
    In the computing lab, he again tried Kal’s drop
box for the DZ-13 file he’d tried to download the other morning, but the whole
folder was now empty. Surely the university wouldn’t have started clearing out
his stuff so soon. Maybe Kal deleted it before jumping. Could that have been
why the download had bombed? But why wipe it?
    Doug wandered out to the café to get a coffee. As
he opened his wallet, he noticed Bullock’s card. Perhaps the police would let
him access Kal’s PC. But on what grounds? He’d probably need the parents’
consent or something. As he paid for his coffee he decided it was at least
worth a try. He pulled out his mobile and dialled the number.
“Inspector Bullock, Essex Police.”
“Hi, err…Inspector, this is Doug Richards from the university.”
“Mr. Richards, yes, what can I do for you?”
“I was just wondering if it might be possible to pull some files off Kal’s PC.”
Bullock paused. “What sort of files would they be?
“Oh just some stuff we were working on together. You see, he texted me that
morning to download something, but I never got it.”
“You’re saying he texted you on the morning that he died?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, of course I’m sure. Why?”
“Could the text have been sent the night before, but you only noticed it in the
morning?”
“No, because it woke me up.