that, though perhaps it’s more a smirk. ‘It was bad,’ he says before turning his attention back to his plate.
‘I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it,’ I say, feeling awkward. I shouldn’t have brought it up.
‘It’s OK,’ he says.
‘Did you ever want to go home?’ I ask.
‘This is home now, I suppose,’ he says, looking up at me, and I remember something from last night. I said the exact same words to him about London. I’m sure of it. It feels good to get a piece of last night back, even if the fragment isn’t very useful; perhaps it signals that there are other memories lying in wait, ready to be retrieved.
‘But it never really does feel like home, does it?’ I say.
‘No,’ he agrees. ‘The sun is never as warm as it is at home.’ He glances at me. ‘It’s something we say in Albania.’
I smile. ‘Do you still have family there?’ I ask, trying to be subtle. I’m angling to find out if he’s married or has kids. For some reason if he has got a family it will make me feel just a little bit more at ease about him.
‘They’re all dead,’ he answers.
‘Oh God,’ I stammer. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘It was a long time ago. You weren’t to know.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say again. ‘Did they die in the war?’
He nods and a small muscle pulses in his jaw.
‘No wonder you don’t want to go back.’
The rest of the food comes and we eat for the most part in silence until finally Konstandin pushes aside his plate and pulls out his phone.
‘What were their names again?’ he asks. ‘Joaquim and Emanuel?’
I nod, taking a final bite of my food before pushing my plate aside as well.
‘What else do you remember about them?’ he asks.
‘Nothing,’ I say. ‘That’s the problem.’
‘What do you do?’
‘Excuse me?’ I ask, frowning in confusion.
‘What do you do?’ Konstandin repeats.
‘You mean as a job?’ I ask, confused as to what my job has to do with anything.
He nods.
‘I work for a housing charity.’
‘Did they tell you what they did for work?’
‘Design.’
I inhale sharply. The answer came to me so quickly and out of the blue. ‘How do I know that?’ I whisper.
Konstandin shrugs. ‘It’s the question that people always ask in conversation. When we first met you asked me about how long I’d been an Uber driver.’
‘You’re right,’ I say, a blurry memory coming back to me, of Joaquim and I sitting next to each other, talking in the bar. He looked so interested in what I had to say about my job. I remember feeling suspicious at the time because no one ever shows that much interest in my job, not even my mum.
‘What kind of design?’ he asks. ‘Do you remember?’
I scour my memory, trying to retrieve another clue. ‘I’m not sure. I think he said they were in business together though.’
Konstandin nods and pulls out his phone. He types something and then a few seconds later turns the screen to me. ‘Is this them?’
‘Oh my God,’ I whisper as I stare astonished at the photo on his screen. ‘Yes, that’s them.’
I grab the phone and pull it closer to my face. It’s Joaquim and Emanuel, dressed more casually than they were last night – in jeans and open-necked shirts. Emanuel is leaning against a desk with a computer on it and it looks like they’re in an office. I zoom in on their faces. Yes, it’s definitely them. I’m so relieved I almost laugh. It’s ridiculous to admit it out loud but I was starting to believe that maybe I’d imagined them or dreamed it all. Seeing them makes me feel dizzily triumphant. We’ve found them.
‘I typed in their names and the Portuguese word for design,’ Konstandin tells me. ‘They do graphics, logo design, branding that sort of thing it looks like.’ Konstandin takes back the phone and taps on the page. ‘But it doesn’t seem like they have many clients. Here, see.’ He shows me the screen. ‘They mention a couple of small clients, a T-shirt company, a bar, nothing big. And I think maybe they just started the business this year. That’s probably why they’re also escorts. They need the money.’
He puts his phone to his ear.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask.
‘Calling them.’
My eyes widen in alarm. Don’t we need a strategy first? He can’t just ask them where Kate is. What if they’re the people who’ve done something to her? But before I can speak up one of