Map disappearing after search for nearby items, is this expected or am I doing something wrong?

[GaiusCoffey]

Hi,
I'm making progress, I think. :)
Anyway, I have a setup where I display a map to a specified coordinate and then offer a search field using the "places" library to find nearby things. It works well, returns the correct items, that I can display correctly in the correct location and so on.
Except...
When I do the search, the map just vanishes. (I don't even need to do anything with the result.)
In order to redisplay the map with the newly loaded markers, I literally toggle a bound parameter using v-if="showMap"
Does anybody know why this might happen?
FYI, here is the code I use to obtain the search result:

function findSearchTermsNearMe() {
  let request = {
    location: mapCenter.value,
    radius: '500',
    type: searchTerm.value
  };
  // @ts-ignore
  let service = new google.maps.places.PlacesService(myMapRef.value.$el);
  service.nearbySearch(request, callback);
}
function callback(results:any[], status:string) {
  // @ts-ignore
  if (status === google.maps.places.PlacesServiceStatus.OK) {
    let db:{[key:string]:any} = {};
    let mks:MarkerItem[] = [];
    results.forEach(item=>{
      db[item.place_id] = item;
      mks.push({
        key:item.place_id,
        position:readLatLng(item.geometry.location),
      })
    })
    mapDatabase.value = db;
    markers.value = mks;
    // Hack to make map reappear after it disappears...
    showMap.value = false;
    nextTick(()=>{
      showMap.value = true;
    })
  }
}
`
Thanks,
G