‘So, how can I help you today?’
I took Nisha’s things out of my handbag and laid them out on the desk. ‘My maid has gone missing,’ I said. ‘Her name is Nisha Jayakody. She is thirty-eight years old and she’s been missing since Sunday night.’
‘Today is Wednesday,’ he said, as if I didn’t know.
‘Yes.’ I opened the passport and placed it in front of him. I explained everything in detail: the trip to Troodos, Nisha asking me if she could take the night off, returning home, what we had eaten, what time we had eaten, how I had gone to bed leaving Nisha to take care of Aliki, and, how I had woken up in the morning to find that Nisha had gone. Finally, I explained that a reliable neighbour had seen Nisha heading out at ten thirty that same night.
‘She hasn’t taken her passport,’ I said, pushing it still closer to him, because he had not yet even looked at it. ‘If she had intended to leave, she would have taken this with her.’
‘Ha,’ he said simply, bringing the back of his hand to his mouth, wiping it as if he had just finished eating, and leaning back in the chair.
‘Where is she from?’ he asked.
‘Sri Lanka. She has been working for me for nine years. She has helped to bring up my daughter. Nisha would never leave without saying goodbye to her.’
There was a moment of silence. Then Officer Kyprianou sighed deeply, and looked me straight in the eyes, as if willing me to understand his thoughts, like I was missing some joke. Then he said, ‘It’s only been a few days. Why don’t you leave it and see how it goes?’
‘But she’s never done this before,’ I said. ‘I know something is wrong. Look’ – I tapped the locket and the lock of hair on the desk in front of him – ‘these are her most prized possessions. She wouldn’t even wear the locket for fear of losing it. It was a gift from her late husband. This is a lock of her daughter’s hair. She hasn’t seen her daughter for nine years, since she came here. She would never leave these items behind.’
He picked up the coffee again and took another dissatisfied sip, nodding his head as if to himself.
I wished I had a pin to burst his big, hollow head.
‘I was wondering if you could take down Nisha’s details, investigate—’ but he interrupted me before I had even finished speaking.
‘I can’t concern myself with these foreign women. I have more important matters to attend to. If she doesn’t return, my guess would be that she’s ran away to the north. That’s what they do. She’s gone to the Turkish side to find better employment. These women are animals, they follow their instincts. Or the money, more likely. That’s what I have to say on the matter. You would do best to go home and start cleaning out her room. If she’s not back by the end of the week, call up the agency to find another maid.’
With that, he stood up to signal that our meeting was over, holding out his hand to me.
I rose from my chair and looked at his hand, but didn’t shake it. There was so much I wanted to say, but it was clear this man wasn’t capable of hearing me. I gathered Nisha’s things from the desk and tucked them back into my bag, purposely stepped on the paperwork that was scattered on the floor, and walked out of his shabby little office.
*
When I got home, I saw that Yiakoumi’s maid was in the antique shop, polishing things. I went across the street to have a chat with her, to see if she knew anything.
Yiakoumi was in the back with his feet up on a messy desk. He nodded at me when I entered. ‘Get Nilmini to help you,’ he said. ‘I’m waiting for an important call.’
‘Nilmini,’ I said. She was sitting on a stool amongst items of copper. She looked up. How young and self-contained she was. A beautiful Sri Lankan woman in her early twenties, with such long hair it looked as though it had never been cut.
‘That’s a lovely name,’ I said.
‘It means “ambitious woman”。’ She continued to polish an old urn.
I noticed behind her a pile of tattered books – Alice’s Adventures in in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan. One of them was open on the floor in front of her, pages held back with two pebbles from the beach. She saw me looking.
‘I love reading, madam. In Sri Lanka I wanted to study literature. Sir bought me these books from the market. He said I can read as long as I do my work.’
I nodded and glanced up at Yiakoumi, who was yawning and reading something on his phone.
‘I am wondering, Nilmini, if you have seen Nisha or heard from her.’