Tom gives her an update and explains about the rota. She rolls a cigarette, pin thin.
Given we still have the bar to ourselves, I suggest to Tom that we talk to people individually at the spare table opposite, and the friends can have a catch-up while they wait.
‘Or we could just do it all together,’ Tom says quietly. ‘It’s only five of them.’
I disagree. ‘There may be stuff they don’t want to share – like the bust-up with Dawn.’
He shrugs, gathers together the file, and we move over. I fetch fresh drinks and we begin with Oliver. He tells us he missed the party on the Friday. It was his cousin’s wedding that weekend so he was busy with that. Oliver does that classic thing of leaving out tenses and pronouns, which aren’t used as much in Chinese so when I say, ‘When did you last see Lori?’ he says, ‘See March twenty-eight. Good, happy.’
‘Did she talk to you about going away, about holidays?’ I say.
‘No holidays,’ he says. He seems serious, taciturn, and I wonder how he got on with Lori, whether he was a good mate or just hung around the edge of the circle of friends. I can’t imagine him having a laugh with her but perhaps the situation, the fact that we’re strangers and parents and Lori is missing, is making him stiff and reserved.
We talk to Rosemary next. We don’t have much to establish, only whether Lori shared any plans with her when they last spoke and how she seemed then. Rosemary had been at the party on the Friday. She says Lori was a bit quiet early on but she cheered up later. ‘I didn’t hear from her after that,’ Rosemary says.
‘Did she talk to you about travelling?’ I say.
Rosemary shakes her head. ‘No, but the others said she was thinking about it.’
‘Can you think of anything else we should do to try to find her?’ I say.
She considers this, then says, ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Are you from Chengdu?’ Tom says.
‘No, a village between here and Leshan,’ Rosemary says.
‘That must be a big change,’ I say.
‘Yes, but my father, he works in the city at a factory so I have been here before to visit him.’
‘Do you like living here better than the village?’ I say.
A sparkle comes into her eyes, a flash of enthusiasm. ‘Very much.’
‘It’s the same in England, for young people,’ I say.
‘Everywhere, I think,’ Rosemary says.
‘You didn’t try to get in touch with Lori over these last weeks?’ Tom says.
Rosemary’s expression alters, fretful again. ‘I messaged her but there was no reply so I thought she was still away. Maybe she is still away,’ she says.
