Page 68 of The Friend Zone Experiment

Ket Siong had only nodded, too tired for chat. There was no need to make polite small talk with Stephen. His brother had seen Stephen out.

“The next morning, around eight a.m.,” said Ket Siong, “Stephen drove to the offices of the NGO where he worked, as usual. Avan swerved in front of his car, forcing him to stop. Some men wearing masks came out of the van, took Stephen from his car, and forced him into the back of the van. Then the van drove off. He hasn’t been seen since then.”

He heard his voice wobble on the last line. He paused to take a breath, feeling the dull insistent thud of his heart in his chest.

“Nobody knows what happened to him,” he said.

The women were wide-eyed.

Clarissa was pale. “The police couldn’t find anything?”

“There were issues with the police investigation,” said Ket Siong carefully. “Do you know what Stephen was doing, when he disappeared?”

Clarissa glanced at Alicia.

“You said he was involved in a campaign against Clarissa’s dad’s company,” said Alicia.

Clarissa went red again.

Ket Siong said, “Stephen was from a village called Ensengei in Sarawak. The surrounding forest was a gazetted reserve. Freshview was conducting logging there.”

“Freshview held a licence,” blurted Clarissa. “I—I looked it up.”

Ket Siong wondered if she’d asked her father. He thought not. Low Teck Wee wouldn’t have allowed his daughter to attend this meeting, if he knew about it.

“They said they held a licence, yes,” said Ket Siong. “But there was no consultation, the local community didn’t give their approval. Those are legal requirements. The organisation Stephen worked for was helping the villagers, supporting their lawsuit to challenge the licence. They were successful, at first. But Freshview appealed and won.”

He paused. “You’ll know it’s not transparent, how these things are done. Timber concessions are not tendered. They’re not published. The community finds out after the fact, when the bulldozers show up.”

“You’re overestimating how much I know,” said Clarissa. Herhands were moving restlessly, pleating her cardigan. “My father doesn’t tell us these things.”

“Maybe it’s time you started asking,” said Ket Siong.

Alicia broke the ensuing silence by saying, all in one breath:

“I’m really sorry, but I’m desperate for a wee. Can we have a comfort break?”

It punctured the tension. Clarissa even laughed weakly.

“Of course,” said Ket Siong.

Clarissa shook her head when Alicia gave her an inquiring look. “I’m good.”

Clarissa waited till she’d rushed off to turn to Ket Siong.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” she said. “I can see Freshview doesn’t come off well. I understand why you might suspect… But look, my dad and I don’t see eye to eye on everything. But there’s no way he’d be involved in anything like that. He donates a lot to charity. He’s very community-minded. This would be completely against his principles.”

She believed what she was saying. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

Ket Siong looked away. Stephen would probably say it was a male chauvinist’s instinct, to be discomfited by the mere sight of a woman crying.

“You think your father wouldn’t go so far as to do something like that,” he said. “Get rid of an activist for causing trouble for his business.”

“Yes,” said Clarissa, without hesitation. “He’s not like that. He’s notgreedy. He’d be the first to tell you, he already has more than enough.”

Ket Siong bit back the obvious question of why, in that case, Low Teck Wee had permitted his company to destroy irreplaceable primary rainforest. He wasn’t interested in hearing a defence of Low Teck Wee’s good qualities.

“There were other interests at play,” he said instead. “The rumour was the timber licence was granted by the state premier’s son-in-law.Although the premier’s daughter resigned last year, you’ll know she was on the board of Freshview at the time.”