【明報專訊】OVER the past three months, five people associated with Causeway Bay Books have gone missing. Gui Minhai, a co-owner of the bookstore, was the first to disappear, and according to his daughter and other informed sources he was last seen in Pattaya, Thailand, before his disappearance three months ago. The evening before last (January 17), the Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television respectively ran news reports describing in detail how "Gui Minhai" (a different Chinese character was used for "Min") had fled mainland China after his involvement in a fatal car accident years ago, and how, overwhelmed by a sense of guilt, he had surrendered himself to the authorities last October. All this, told by the state media, cannot be proved as those concerned cannot be found, and while it may serve as a kind of explanation, it cannot put to rest Hong Kong people's doubts and fears.