“We have a source for the money,” Diana said. “Our only obstacle is an unpredictable timeline in terms of liquidity.”
“Investors hate two things: lack of liquidity and unpredictability. Can you give me an estimate?”
“We should have access to the full amount in three months,” Charlotte said. Diana smiled to cover up the rush of doubt she felt. It was an audacious claim. They hadn’t agreed that Charlotte could promise this. She likely wouldn’t have if she’d known that right now, Anya Brown was probably trying to figure out a future where she didn’t have anything to do with her father or his collection.
Bridget smiled. “Three months is doable. These things take time, anyway. So long as you can guarantee it.”
“I guarantee it,” Charlotte said, boldly.
Diana kept her mouth shut, but she felt as if this might be the straw that broke her back. Even if she got Anya back on board in the next twenty-four hours, three months could prove impossible. But it was an unbreakable rule of the Fellowship of the Larks that you never contradicted your sisters in public. If you did, there would be consequences.
Sid
Sid’s neighbor peered at the photograph he’d found online of Minxu Peng.
“Yes,” she said. “That’s her. Can I ask why you have this?”
He told her about the anonymous note he’d received and the searches he’d done. She said, “I think we’d better have a little chat. Would you like a cup of tea?”
Her cottage wasn’t as nice as his and Anya’s place. It shared the views but the interior had the bleak feel of a student rental, with cheap fittings and drafty windows that rattled in the wind.
“Take a seat, dear.” As Maggie made tea, Sid sat at the table, which was covered with a neatly organized array of folders, a laptop, an iPad, and a notebook. It looked very businesslike, not what he was expecting.
She set down mugs of tea and sat.
“I need to tell you something,” she said. “And it might sound crazy, but bear with me, because I promise it’s true.”
“Okay,” he said quietly. He was starting to feel uneasy.
“Min—Minxu—has come to harm, I’m sure of it.”
“For real?”
“It’s very real. We think Min got hurt because she knew too much.”
“Too much about what?”
“About what the Institute is doing. Ask yourself why someone like Min, who trained in your specialty, was given a job at the Institute.”
“I don’t know.” He hadn’t had a chance to think about it properly, but it was odd. “I’m sorry, but who are you exactly?” he asked.
“I’m an investigator. I’ve been looking into Min’s disappearance on behalf of her family. Her parents desperately want to find their daughter.”
Sid stared. She looked nothing like how he imagined a privateinvestigator would. “I guess you’re going to tell me next that your name isn’t Maggie.” He laughed, but she didn’t crack a smile.
“My name is Mel Drummond.” She handed him a card. It had a company name on it: Drummond Private Investigations.
“No way.” This couldn’t be real. Unless it could.
Two things occurred to him. First, that anyone could get a card printed up and claim they were a PI. Second, that if shewastelling the truth, all of this wasn’t just deeply strange, it was extremely unnerving. The smile fell from his face. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“Okay,” she said. “Buckle up. I started looking into Min’s disappearance when she’d been missing for a few weeks. This was last March. Her parents hired me because they live in China, they don’t speak good English, and they don’t have the money to stay here for as long as it would take to look for her themselves. Between us, we’ve tried very hard to make police here take Min’s disappearance seriously, but as there was no sign of foul play, it’s been impossible to persuade them to investigate. From their point of view, Min was an adult, she wasn’t new to this country, and she was free to do what she wanted. They noted her as a missing person but refused to do more.”
“What makes you think differently?”
“Things her family told me. Her parents and brother say that her behavior since she arrived in St. Andrews at the start of the last academic year had become secretive and anxious. They described it as paranoia. When she first arrived here, she was in daily contact with them, which was normal for her, but by the time she disappeared they were barely hearing from her. It was out of character. We told the police this, but it didn’t have much weight, because the story the Institute was telling about Min was different. Diana Cornish and her colleagues insisted she’d been fine, a pleasure to have as a colleague. Nothing to see here, basically. According to them, Min had been talking for a while about quitting and traveling around the UK, so when she left, they weren’t surprised. They had no explanation as to why she disappeared in the middle of the night.Their only response was to suggest that Min’s neighbors had been mistaken. It didn’t help that they were students, so of course they partied sometimes, though not that night. The Institute also told police that Min had complained about her parents and found them very overbearing. They painted a picture of her family as extremely pushy, hinting that they were people she might want to disappear from. Basically, they stereotyped her parents appallingly, and the police seemed happy to believe it.”
Sid felt the burn of anger. He hated bigotry. “What’s your impression of her parents?”
