Chapter Seven #3
Two things occurred to him. First, that anyone could get a card printed up and claim they were a PI. Second, that if she was telling 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?”
“Lovely people. Caring and supportive. Not pushy at all. I might be wrong, of course, but I’m a decent judge of people, and
that’s what my gut tells me. Min’s brother says the same, so there’s that, too.”
Sid thought about it. “So how are you justifying hanging around here to Diana? Why ask me to tell her you were here? Because
there’s no roof leak, is there?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve just moved in here. I’m not the landlady; I’m renting the cottage. I took over the lease this
summer, when the students left, to put pressure on Diana Cornish. I asked you to mention me to her for the same reason. The
Institute needs to know that Min hasn’t been forgotten.”
“What will that achieve?” Sid asked.
“It might help to keep you and Anya safe.”
“Safe from what?” he asked. His unease was growing into fear.
“I believe the Institute had something to do with Min’s disappearance, and I believe Anya is in danger, too.”
“That’s a hell of an accusation.”
“I know, and I can’t prove it yet.”
“Why aren’t you afraid of them?”
“I’m very afraid, but I take precautions.”
He tried to process what he was hearing. “Did you leave the note for me at the computer science department?” he asked.
“No, and I don’t know who did, but I’d love to find out. Can I show you something?” She opened her laptop and angled it so he could see the screen.
“This is a screenshot of a D I just don’t know what. Have you tried searching online for any of the women who work there?
You won’t find much. That’s a red flag to me.”
Sid remembered Anya saying the same when the Institute first approached her, but he hadn’t given it much thought at the time,
busy as he was with his PhD. After they’d been dazzled by the offer, it wasn’t something either of them had considered. We
should have, he thought. I should have.
“Somebody’s done a very good job of keeping information about them out of the public domain,” she said.
“Min could easily have done it if she has a background like mine. She’s almost invisible online, too. Could the Institute
be secretive because of something they’re working on?”
“They claim to work on manuscripts. If that’s true, what’s there to hide?”
“I don’t know.”
“I have a theory that Min could have been investing money for the Institute, possibly even laundering or day-trading. She
told her brother she was using her experience in the trading world. He’d pressed her on it, because he couldn’t understand
why someone like her ended up working here.”
“But Anya is just a historian. She really is here to study manuscripts. Why would she be in danger?”
“She might not be, but if I were Anya, at the very least I’d want to know who my employers really are, because the Institute
is not what it seems.”