Half the World Away - страница 50

‘OK,’ I say. ‘Worried, of course.’

‘Yes,’ she says. ‘I am so sorry. This is very difficult situation.’

Oliver, listening, nods. He has a round face and podgy hands. He wears thick glasses, so his eyes swim in and out of focus when I look at them. He’s dressed in a white polo shirt and chino shorts, a bracelet of large wooden prayer beads on his wrist.

Tom glances at his watch.

‘We get drink?’ Oliver says, as though he is asking my permission.

‘Of course.’

While they’re at the bar, Bradley arrives. He’s come straight from work, he says, and apologizes for being a little late. He has a short-sleeved white shirt and long trousers, proper shoes. ‘You do translation?’ I ask him, after accepting his expressions of sorrow about Lori going missing.

‘That’s right, for a software firm, not the most exciting material in the world.’ He reminds me of Nick: he has a similar square face, regular features, with light brown hair, cut shorter at the sides. He wears a fine moustache and stubble covers his jaw line. I’m no good on American accents but I can tell his is not the Deep South or the Bronx so I ask him where he’s from.

‘Midwest,’ he says.

‘Kansas?’ I say.

‘Even smaller, the middle of nowhere.’

Oliver and Rosemary come back with bottles and Bradley greets them, then goes inside.

Dawn’s been talking on her phone. ‘Shona’s running late,’ she tells us. ‘Someone’s stolen her scooter. She should be about half an hour.’

‘We might as well make a start,’ I say.

Dawn nods. Tom goes in to ask Alice to turn the music down, and comes back out with Bradley.

I wonder if we need to explain to the other customers what’s going on but the group of lads are already picking up their bags and phones, draining their bottles, ready to move on.

My stomach cramps as everyone waits expectantly, their faces grave, and Tom begins: ‘As you know,’ he says, ‘Lori is officially a missing person and a campaign has been launched to find her. We met with the police yesterday and the guy from the consulate, and we went to Lori’s flat today.’ He nods at Dawn, who blinks and looks away. ‘We’re having leaflets done – like this.’ Tom spreads out some copies he printed off at the hotel. ‘We should get them in the morning and we’ll start giving them out tomorrow near her place. We’ll have an interpreter with us. If you can tell us any other places that she went to regularly, we’ll leaflet there too.’

‘Hokey’s,’ Rosemary says. She looks to her friends to see if they agree.

‘Yes,’ Dawn says. ‘It’s a club we go to for birthdays and special occasions – it’s popular with ex-pats.’ Her face is drawn, pale, and she keeps touching her lip.

‘We’d have to go of an evening,’ Bradley says.

‘Tomorrow night, then,’ I say.

‘What about online too – the forum on Chengdu Living?’ says Bradley.

‘And GoChengdu,’ Dawn says.

I write it all down. We’ll pass the suggestions back to Edward at Missing Overseas, who will co-ordinate all the media appeals.

‘The consulate have notified the British Chamber of Commerce,’ Tom says.

Most of them look blank at this but Bradley nods. ‘The business community network. We have an American one too.’

‘Any other physical places?’ Tom asks.

‘Maybe the university?’ Rosemary says. ‘Sichuan Normal University, where Shona studies.’

‘It’s like the main uni for international students,’ Dawn says.

‘Are there any gay bars she likes?’ I say.

Dawn nods. ‘Yeah – one we went to a few times. I can show you where it is.’

‘The police have told us the last verified sighting of Lori was on the Sunday evening,’ Tom says, ‘when she was teaching, and the last communication was a text on the Monday.’

I hate these phrases: verified sighting, last communication. They toll in my head, formal and final.

‘None of you have heard from her since?’ I check.

A general shaking of heads.

My throat’s dry and I take a drink. Condensation drips onto my knee. The beer is already warmer. The sky is growing duller, a tangerine sheen to the light.

‘It’s, like, where can she be?’ Dawn says suddenly, tears standing in her eyes. Bradley squeezes her shoulder. Rosemary clasps her hands together and Oliver looks away, his discomfort almost palpable.