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incident room complete with a pin board containing a map of the locality, a white board for briefing and priorities, emergency designated phone lines installed and a team of detectives, albeit crammed into the tight space.
    He glanced across at the map of Stratford centre on the board beside him. Coloured pegs marked the location of the college and the Old Thatch Tavern. Red marker indicated Min Li’s movements up to where she was last seen. Next to the map was a photo of Min herself, a headshot taken off Tom’s phone. She had quite obviously posed for the photo, tilting her head and looking directly into the lens, and it gave the impression that she was now staring back at Jackman. Her mouth was slightly parted to reveal crystal white teeth. She had a clear complexion, long dark hair. But what really struck Jackman were the eyes. An unusual hazel.
    “The cameras track her as she turns the corner of Rother Street, then nothing. We know she was dressed in a long skirt and heels. She couldn’t have walked far.” Jackman rubbed his chin. “We’ve appealed for witnesses. If she’s staying with anyone close by, then surely they would have come forward by now?”
    “Unless she’s hiding away from someone or something?” Davies’ voice shot up from the side of the room.
    “I think we need more from the parents,” he said. “Uniform spoke to them briefly, but… ” His eyes scanned the room until they found DC Russell perched on the corner of a desk. Her red hair was pulled back tight from her face and wound into a bun at the back of her head. “Kathryn, I want you to be a point of contact for Mr and Mrs Li. Update them on where we are with the investigation, try to establish a relationship and keep the lines of communication open. Does Min have a secret email address, another phone, a confidante? I believe the father speaks reasonable English, not sure about the mother. Get an interpreter on board if you need one.”
    Russell looked up from her notes and nodded as Jackman paused, “Get onto the Chinese consulate as well. See what you can find out about their family background. The officer who spoke to them earlier said they have no other family or close friends in this country, but we’ll need to get that verified. Find out as much as you can about her father’s business interests. Is there anything unusual there? We can’t rule out the possibility of kidnap, although there’s been no ransom call yet.”
    Silence echoed around the room as Jackman continued, “According to her boyfriend she is a popular girl, grade A student. No reason for anyone to hold a grudge against her. We haven’t located a body. Is that because we haven’t found her yet or because she is still alive somewhere?”
    “I spoke to the college nurse this morning,” Davies piped up from her makeshift seat on the edge of a desk, which was bowing slightly. “No record of mental health issues, not being treated for depression.”
    Jackman nodded his thanks. That made another line of enquiry less viable. Depressed people sometimes took desperate measures. The possibility of suicide seemed unlikely here, although they couldn’t rule out a history of mental illness. They’d have to rely on the Embassy to dig up that information and goodness knows how long that would take.
    “Any news on her phone?”
    Davies shook her head. “We can’t site it. Been switched off since 10.50 last night. We’re just going through billing at the moment but it’s not throwing up anything exciting.”
    “Okay, let’s see what the appeal for witnesses brings in and what we can put together ourselves regarding Min Li’s movements yesterday. The local news will put out an appeal on their hourly bulletins and the Stratford Mail have agreed to publish the details on their website within the hour. I want a team sent down to the college to interview anybody who had anything to do with her and another team to go through every ounce of CCTV footage from the pub. We