Page 97 of The Friend Zone Experiment

Helen’s ears pricked up at the mention of her name.

“DAP?” she said. “I haven’t had any contact from anyone there. Are they involved?”

“Ah, no, not the political party,” said Stephen. “That’s my nickname for Siong. You know, because his name sounds likeLim Kit Siang. The DAP leader. He’s the father of Lim Guan Eng, the guy who—”

“Stephen,” said Ket Siong. “Why didn’t you contact us?”

Stephen looked stricken. “I was scared you all would think I was a scammer or what. Helen was talking to you anyway, she said she’d set something up. But you all didn’t guess? You’re not the ones who hired this PI firm?”

“What PI firm?” said Ket Siong.

“I haven’t told Helen about this yet,” said Stephen. “Happened a couple of days ago. I got tracked down by these guys, called themselves enquiry agents. I thought, shit, that’s it for me. But they said they just want to talk to me. Claim they’ve been hired by an unbiased party or unconnected party or something like that. I thought maybe it was you all, looking for me.”

“No, I… we didn’t know there was something to look for.” The termenquiry agentwas familiar. Ket Siong had heard it before, relatively recently—though he couldn’t, at that moment, remember exactly when.

He gave up on chasing down the memory, a wave of self-recrimination rolling over him. He should have thought of hiring investigators. He didn’t have the money for it, but he could have come up with some way to raise the funds.

“But Stephen,” he said, “what happened? You got taken, right? Who did it? Was Freshview behind it?”

“Who took me?” said Stephen. “Fuck if I know! They didn’t give me their business cards. I mean, could be anybody. There are so many candidates. Did Hau show you? It’s all in the USB drive. Do you guys have the USB drive?”

They all looked at Ket Hau. Ket Hau opened his mouth, turned away, buried his face in his palms, and burst into tears.

This was not like the time he had broken down while telling Ket Siong and their mother about the USB drive. His sobs racked his body, his shoulders shaking. He was almost howling, with the pure and terrible abandonment of a child.

“Ko!” said Ket Siong, horrified.

“Oh, now, now,” said Helen.

But Stephen said, “Baby—oh, baby, I’m so sorry.”

“We can end the call,” said Helen. “I’m sorry, I should have prepared you better…”

“No! Hau, baby, talk to me,” said Stephen urgently.

Ket Hau gave his head a savage shake. His shoulders were heaving, his breathing harsh. He said, in a voice guttural with tears, “No.”

It was not clear which of them he was talking to. Helen hesitated, but then Ket Hau grabbed the tablet and stalked out of the room, banging the door shut behind him.

Ket Siong and Helen Daley stared at each other.

“Well,” said Helen.

“Stephenishis boyfriend,” blurted Ket Siong.

“Right,” said Helen, after a moment. “I’m going to make myself a cup of tea, with sugar in this time. Would you like something? Another peppermint tea, or something stronger? I really think you ought to have something stronger. And then we can chat. I’m happy to answer any questions you have. I suspect,” said Helen, glancing at the door, “we’re going to have plenty of time.”

There was no noise coming from Helen’s study, where Ket Hau had shut himself up with the tablet.

“I’m sure they’re just talking things out,” said Helen. “We’ve got excellent soundproofing. My daughter plays the guitar.”

She was a comforting person to be around when your world had been turned upside down several times in the space of twenty minutes. Once she’d made herself a fresh cup of tea and confirmed Ket Siong didn’t want any of her husband’s eighteen-year-old single malt, she sat down and told Ket Siong what she knew.

“I don’t know how much you’ve been following local politics,” she said. “In Sarawak, I mean. But I’ve been hearing for a whilenow, from people in the know, that they think the time is coming. There’s a real groundswell of dissatisfaction with the regime. What Stephen found out before he got kidnapped could make all the difference in the elections. Not just the state elections, either. That’s why he reached out to me. It’s the evidence we need. Stephen lost the documents his informant passed to him. He didn’t have the chance to get his things before he left the country.”

“But what happened?” said Ket Siong. “There were eyewitnesses, they said they saw him get kidnapped…”

“Oh yes, that happened. But he managed to escape,” said Helen. “I don’t know the full story, but I gather it was quite dramatic. He fought off his kidnappers and got away—they probably weren’t expecting a trained martial artist. He managed to get on a plane out of the country. He’s been in hiding since then. He thinks his attackers made out they got rid of him, so they could collect their fee, and that’s why he hasn’t had much trouble. Everyone thinks he’s dead.”

---