At the next table, a girl Finn recognizes sits with three boys, watching something on an iPad. Could she be a friend of London’s? Someone whose face she remembers from sleepovers at Victor Street? As she approaches their table, Finn realizes that whatever they are watching sounds familiar. The girl, who has been looking at her while the other three watch the screen, tilts her iPad sideways as Finn walks over, making sure she can see what it is.

Drop, bang, flip. Shit.

“The Conqueror of Kakabeka,” the girl says, gesturing to the iPad. “What an adorable sobriquet. I know you. You’re the other twin.”

This is what you get for leaving, Finn thinks. Forever known as the other twin.

“I’m London’s aunt,” she says, feeling this is a more pertinent relationship to focus on. She shoves her hands into the pockets of her shorts, tries to appear casual. The video starts playing again – they obviously have it on some kind of loop. The girl places the iPad screen up on the table, volume at full. Drop, bang, flip.

“Ugh,” she says, reaching her hand out across the table towards Finn. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what your family must be going through right now.”

The three boys laugh, although now that Finn is closer she’s not sure if two of them are actually boys or not. “Uh, thanks,” she says. “You guys are friends with London?”

“Oh yeah,” the girl says. “We’re super close.”

“Super close,” the one most likely to be a boy says, a big grin on his face.

The girl turns to him, eyes wide. “Andy, she must be just devastated about this.”

“Well, actually,” says Finn, “she, uh, she went missing last night.”

The four of them glance at one another, and Finn could swear she sees something pass between them. “Oh, dear,” the girl says. She pulls a long red Twizzler from a bag on the table and sticks one end in her mouth, and when she leans back in her chair Finn can see she is wearing a black-and-white-striped shift dress that barely skims her crotch. With her thick black bangs and red lips she looks like something out of a French New Wave film, and definitely not someone you would find in the food court of the Thunder Bay Mall. She seems like someone that London could be friends with, Finn thinks. So why does she suddenly feel like she’s being duped?

“Do you have any idea where she may have gone?” Finn asks, deciding to forge ahead.

The girl sighs loudly, chewing on her Twizzler. “Unfortunately, I do,” she says. She raises her eyebrows questioningly. “Should I tell her?” she asks the other three. “I feel kind of weird about it.”

“Anastasia, you can’t,” one of the androgynous ones says. “You promised you’d keep her secret.”