"I believe you, mind. It's just. If it's a spooky star whistle, then - ... ah. Hm." He frowns.

"You can see why I want to help her get out of this. Even if I didn't have other very good reasons."

"Absolutely. That man is dangerous. Let us keep you together and the two of them as far apart as possible.

And... Parker doesn't know where you live, yes?"

"He has no reason to and I sure hope he does not?"

"Fantastic. Just checking."

"I haven't sent him a letter of 'Please meet me at such and such address for fisticuffs, yours sincerely, William Jing.'"

"Very prudent of you. I'd suggest continuing to hold off on that one.

...Oscar and I talked to him once, but he shouldn't have any reason to know we're connected, and he wouldn't have my address anyhow, so - so I think we're good there."

"I'm glad you're willing to help."

Cool. Sure, Terrence will incorporate that into his belief system. In the meantime he works on trying to get his essay published, heads to Oscar's shop. 

When he arrives, Oscar's shop's windows are dark.

Huh. Weird, he thought it was open today. Does it look normally closed or does it have signs of being permanently closed?

It looks like it's permanently closed.

Uh-oh.

...Well, he's going to talk to Oscar as soon as he has a chance.

... But since he's out and about today, he supposes he'll take the chance to look for other little progressive bookshops who might have literary magazines he can browse to find a suitable candidate for his essay.

He finds a few likely candidates.

Cool! In that case, he'll buy an issue of each and bring them home, and then write to each proposing his literary essay for their next issues. ... Under a pseudonym.

And then he thinks, 'wait, I'm an idiot', and goes out to buy a PO box to use as the address on the letter, because he doesn't want anyone associated with the magazine - or threatened there or whatever - leaking his address to someone who might, hypothetically, want to kill him. And then he sends the letter from there. Boom. Terrence is such an expert at this 'being a political radical' thing.

That afternoon, Jing Yi goes out to see if he can find any information on that missing tramp.

This is, of course, potentially a wild goose chase. Drunk tramps rarely get reported as missing. But drunk tramps do, at least, more commonly get arrested, which will give him some on paper proof that he actually existed.

How Do Files Work, We Just Don't Know.

This is not Jing Yi's strong suit. He finds his eyes glazing over around filing cabinet #8 and realizes that he's been reading the same sentence five times without processing it.

He is good at his job-- being undercover and watching people-- and much less good at paperwork that isn't even in his mother tongue. This was maybe a predictable flaw with his plan.

...he could probably find someone who deals with local drunks. Which might be the local drunks themselves, of course. If he can get multiple witnesses who all think Leary went missing at the same time... it's not a lot, but it does Point in a Direction

After a little while of working the bars, Jing Yi discovers two bartenders who are willing to testify that Leary went missing at approximately the expected time, and none that think he showed up anywhere afterward.

Did they perchance see a brown haired man, yay high, around at any time?

Nope!

...It was a long shot, anyway. He thanks them for their time, and then heads back to the apartment to update Evie.

Evie is sewing at Terrence and Jing Yi's apartment.

Hopefully they can get her back to working in her shop soon. "I thought I should let you know what I've been working on about Parker."

She sets aside her sewing. "Oh?"