4

MISSING PERSONS

It had been forty eight hours by now. The police were getting fed up of

the constant calls about two missing teenagers. Gori badgered them

every few hours in case anything had turned up.

Nothing.

They had no more news and they couldn’t treat this as a missing

persons case until exactly forty eight hours had passed. They repeated

this time and time again.

It didn’t sound that serious at first. Boy meets girl and the two slope off

away from their respective sets of parents. The desk officer placed a

bet that the two had gone off on a quiet spot of the beach, spending a

cold but romantic night under the stars. They would be back, tail

between their legs and blushing before too long.

Gori was restless, and Marthe could not believe that they would stay

away all night without at least telling them. Suzi was reckless at times,

but not that wild.

Mott couldn’t sleep either and Tanya was snoozing on their floor, too

scared to be in her room. This was not like Aled. He hadn’t been out

with a girl yet and he was far too nervous. Maybe, though, this was the
first time he had the chance and they had rushed off.

Maybe they had fallen in with the wrong company with all the summer

crowds and the late night concert that night. Mott, Gori and Marthe had

met up and circulated photos around the beach fest. They felt that

they had to do something. Tanya tagged along, enjoying the scene, the

fun and the lights. She clung onto Mott all the time, though.

The beach flares and spots arced light out into the blackened waters as

people ducked and dived, splashing around and laughing. Mott

strained hard to hear herself speak, let alone anyone else, over the

heavy rock music that was thumping out of large speakers. She gave

in and wrote messages on a pad. Party goers grinned and then shook

their heads. Tanya tried to interpret for her, but she couldn’t make

herself heard by her mother, even when screaming at the top of her

voice.

No. Nothing. Not a thing. No one knew them.

Munching on a hog roast, Gori flashed Suzi’s picture on his mobile at

some drinking youths . They shook their heads. If the two of them were

there somehow they would die of embarrassment. He swayed to the

rhythm of the music now and then, enjoying this but then pulling

himself back to the quest in hand.

No one. Not a sign. Not a trace.

It was as though they vanished into thin air.

Mott stopped a couple who nodded in recognition. Her heart skipped a

beat. They had watched them surfing earlier and were cheering them

on. They hadn’t seen them since, though. Then she bumped into Lucy

and Dogboy, asking if they knew where they were. Nothing. Dogboy

was anxious, and went to find Pork, Fish and the Scum straight away to

see if they had any news of them. He managed to find the Scum and

Fish, but they hadn’t seen them since the surfing session earlier that

day.

Marthe chain smoked and waved her hands around pleadingly to a

man cleaning up trash on the seafront.

No. He hadn’t seen anything. Too many youths, too many revellers.

They all looked alike to him.

Nothing. No one had seen them. They were gone.

The next day passed, the y met up for what little food they could

stomach and endless coffees at the Costa along the seafront. Tanya

hugged her mother and ate endless sweets. The gobstoppers kept her

quiet the longest until she sucked them white and spat the remains out

on the floor much to their disgust. She had even let her chew on the

biggest gobstopper on sale.

“Hope you don’t choke on that!”

Mott squeezed her hand. Losing one child was quite enough, thank you

very much.

When the police opened the file, they alerted the coast guard and the

beach was closed down. Gangs of frustrated surfers milled around their

static boards unable to ride the raging waves that day. They had come

from miles around to no avail. Motor launches and helicopters

searched the bay.

Three days later, four days. Still nothing. Mott sobbed quietly into her

mug of tea.

On the fifth morning, both sets of parents had a knock at their doors.

The police had found a signet ring with a blue stone like the one they

had said Aled always wore just outside Suzi’s apartment block. They

had also discovered her bag with all its contents intact, mobile, purse

and even her cigarettes. There was no more news. Their hearts sank.

Where had they gone?

Gori waited until the police had left and then he told his story of the

adoption agency that arranged the handover of the half caste child,

with the instructions that the same gem stone must always be on her

person. That was her mother’s express wish. Jaws dropped and then

silence.

Mott told the same story. A different adoption agency in a different

country, but the same stone and the same request. They puzzled and

wondered.

Mott reminisced and explained how they had thought that she would

never be able to have children, and then a kink was found in her

fallopian tubes and a minor op set it right, and then Tanya arrived. She

ruffled the little girl’s hair as Tanya glared.

“Mum! I’m going to throw up!”

Marthe stubbed out another pungent cigarette into the ashtray and

coughed lightly.

Were the two of them stabbed and lying out on the dunes somewhere,

or even miles away, after being driven in a car boot and dumped?

They could only fear the worst but still they hoped against hope.

Six days, seven, eight, and no more news. Nothing.