Missing in Tokyo by Graham Marks Page A

live?’
    â€˜Are you, like gonna go
round
there?’
    â€˜I just want to talk to her, Andy. Like I said, no one’s in trouble here.’ Tony started to tense up again. ‘Look,
you
can give me the address, or I can go to the office and get them to tell me. Either way, I am going to find out where she lives. So why not make my difficult life just a
tiny
bit easier, Andy? Can you do that?’
    Andy found he that he could provide the address, and that he could also give up Suzy’s mobile number and surname as well. Tony felt bad about having played the heavy, but he’d also had it with playing games; he was sure Andy would understand, maybe later, when one of his own kids had disappeared when he or she was halfway round the world.
    Sitting in the car, a few yards down from Suzy’s house and on the other side of the road, he thought about what to do: phone first or just go and knock on the door? Tony pulled the handle and nudged the door open. Right now the direct approach seemed like the best way forward.
    Crossing the road he went up the path and stood in frontof the house, reached to his right and pushed the bell. Somewhere inside, behind the decorative leaded-glass panels, he heard it ringing. Then nothing. Then, faintly, footsteps and through the glass he could just make out the silhouette of a figure coming down the stairs towards him. It looked like a man and Tony found himself wondering, as the door opened, why he’d taken a day off work.
    â€˜Mr Barrett?’
    The tall, casually dressed man, his chin and head covered in a close crop of silver hair, nodded. ‘That’s right, how can I help?’
    Tony put out his right hand and they shook. ‘I’m Tony Grey, Adam’s dad.’
    â€˜Ah, so he does have parents.’ Suzy’s father smiled. ‘Nice to meet you at last. I’m Chris … Sorry to hear about your daughter. It must be terrible.’
    Tony ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Thanks … look, um, is Adam here?’
    â€˜Here, now? No, don’t think I’ve seen him for a couple of days. Sorry, rude of me keeping you out there on the step, come in.’
    Tony looked at his watch. ‘Maybe another time, I have to get back … my wife. Is Suzy in?’
    â€˜No, she went out after we’d had some lunch, said she was doing revision round at a friend’s. Why?’
    â€˜We can’t get hold of Adam and we need to talk to him – to do with Charlie – and I thought he might be here, or Suzy might know where he was.’
    â€˜I’ll call her, hang on a tick while I get the phone …’
    Tony watched Suzy’s dad hurry down the hall; he was trapped now, not able to go before he came back. Seconds later he saw him reappear, a cordless phone pressed to oneear, already in conversation; as he got nearer Tony could hear what he was saying.
    â€˜â€¦ I don’t exactly know why, they just need to talk to him … I also don’t know how – is it some big secret where you live? Look, Suzy, if you know something … I’m not
accusing
you of anything – and watch your tone of voice, young lady.’ Suzy’s dad looked up and mouthed ‘sorry’. ‘Right, come home now. No. I mean it, right now, because you do
not
want me to have to come and get you.’
    Tony watched Suzy’s dad jab a finger at the phone and put it down on a table which, much like the dresser in his house, was covered in post.
    â€˜Don’t ask me what that was all about, and I apologise for the scene, but I know my daughter, and she is hiding something …’
    Suzy had taken the longest twenty minutes to get home and now, sitting at the kitchen table, Tony had to admit she did look as guilty as hell, shifty, nervously picking at a loose thread on her denim bag and seemingly unable to look either of them in the eye. Not the best circumstances under which to meet your son’s