472 Ba
ch 93

Desperate was not enough. Loan felt as if something was squeezing his chest, and it was not just the fact that he could not see her.

At dawn, on his way to his room, he met his brother Zack in one of the corridors and ended up walking like a wounded animal in front of him and his sister-in-law Andrea.

—I swear something happened to him… I feel it here! —he exclaimed, touching his chest as if he had ever really put his heart into that… “casual thing” they had.

—Well… you can always go ask, right? —Zack tried to calm him down. Do you have his full name?

“Yes, it’s Danna McKenzie, she’s one of the best skaters on the Scotland team, but I didn’t see her with them last night,” Loan said. After she didn’t arrive, he had gone to the opening party and she wasn’t there either. “So yes, it could very well be that she didn’t want to see me, but she’s not on the team either?” he denied insistently. I don’t know, my instinct tells me otherwise.

And since he was used to following his instinct, the best thing he could do was go and ask, but before he reached the door his sister-in-law stopped him.

—Honey, you can do it, but remember that if the matter is delicate, one of her friends will not speak to you as she would speak to me—he reminded her and Loan agreed under protest to stay with Zack and wait for news.

However, this did not take long, because shortly after her brother received a call from Andrea asking him to take him to the training rink.

As soon as they arrived, her sister-in-law guided them to one of the rest areas where there was a short, petite girl, who after the introductions was horrified by Andrea’s request.

—I need you to tell Loan everything you told me.

—Listen, I told you because you’re your friend… but I’m not going to repeat it from the rooftops! —the girl got annoyed.

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—You do have to tell him, because Loan is the one… interested —Andrea explained to him and he saw her eyes widen.

She had no idea what her sister-in-law meant by “interested,” but it was clear that Selina somehow knew of her existence.

—Is this…? —she asked, pointing at him and observing him closely.

—Yes, I think so, so please tell him.

By this time Loan’s heart was already beating at full speed and he was desperate.

—Please tell me what happened to Danna —she begged.

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—It was last year. Two… two or three months after the last championship —he heard her murmur—. Danna asked for a vacation just when we were going to start a new routine, the coach didn’t want to give it to her and then we heard him talking to Danna’s mother, he told her that she had a lot of talent, but that he wasn’t going to take her back after a year away, that she had to choose between her career and…

“So what?” he asked her.

“And the baby,” Selina finished.

Loan put her hands on her head, closing her eyes as she tried to process the news.

—Baby…? How…? Danna was pregnant?

He had never slept with Danna without protection, and he knew that she was extremely careful too, but she was smart enough to assume that condoms were not one hundred percent effective.

—What happened, Selina? You have to tell me! What happened to Danna? —he pleaded.

—Look… the truth is we don’t know. Danna’s mother forced her to continue with the practices and assured the coach that she already had a date to solve that —the girl answered anxiously—. But in one of the practices… well… the coach forced her to do an axel, it’s one of the most difficult jumps… and Danna fell.

Loan pursed her lips as she covered her mouth with her hands. What kind of animal would force a pregnant woman to practice figure skating?

“Did you lose…? Did you lose the baby?” she asked desperately.

—We don’t really know. They took her to the hospital because she was bleeding a lot… and Danna never came back. We tried to replace her, but her mother never came back to the rink either.

Loan fell silent, sensing what had happened. He wanted the earth to swallow him up, but he couldn’t just leave things like that.

—And do you know where she lives now? Do you have any information about her so we can replace her? —he asked the girl.

—Well… maybe I know something that can help you.

Loan handed her his cell phone and waited for her to type in everything she knew about Danna. Unfortunately it wasn’t much, but at least she knew her city and the name of a juice shop she liked to go to. Her old phone wasn’t working anymore so she didn’t have too much information, but it was enough for Loan to make the decision to follow her.

He remained silent all the way back to the hotel and as soon as they arrived he told Zack and Andrea his decision.

—I have to go replace her. I have to know what happened to her. Maybe the baby wasn’t mine, or maybe she lost it, but Danna… I can’t stay without knowing what happened to her. I wouldn’t be at peace for the rest of my life.

He said goodbye to them and since he hadn’t even unpacked, the only time he wasted was waiting for Zack’s plane to be ready.

Arriving in Glasgow, Loan prepared to begin his search. Although it was a huge city and the information he had was vague, he was determined to replace Danna. He checked into a hotel and then took a taxi, but when he gave the name of the juice shop he wanted to go to, the driver politely asked him which one he wanted to go to.

He soon realized that replaceing Danna there would not be easy because it was a huge city. The clues he had about her only gave him very broad results. The juice shop had more than twenty franchises throughout the city; and although he visited each one asking if anyone knew Danna or had seen her face, he was not able to replace out anything.

On the third day she decided to change her strategy, after all she was a professional skater, someone had to know her, she just had to replace the ice where she trained…

But that wouldn’t be easy either, there were at least thirteen professional rinks in Glasgow, not counting those at universities and educational centres. I had never asked Danna if she was in school at the time, so another arduous task began, that of ruling out ice rinks.

Finally, a man in front of him frowned when he saw the photo.

“It’s the girl Mac,” said the man, who had been the janitor at the university’s rink for many years.

-Sorry?

—Miss McKenzie… Danna.

“Yes, yes, that’s her!” Loan exclaimed, his heart racing. “Do you know where I can replace her?”

The man looked sad.

—No, not really, we never saw her again after the… accident. She was always very kind to me, so I kept an eye out for her , but she never came back.

Loan bit her lower lip in despair and looked around.

“She studied here?” he asked.

—Yes, in fact she was about to graduate—the gentleman murmured—. But we never saw her again.

Loan gulped. The university must have had a record of her. She thanked the janitor and an hour later she was shelling out a considerable sum for the basic file on Danna McKenzie. Thanks to that she had an address, so it wasn’t long before she arrived in a middle-class neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.

“Hello, good afternoon. Is Danna home?” he asked the woman who opened the door, but from her confused expression he knew that this was another dead end. The family who lived there had bought the house six months ago.

Gathering her courage, Loan wandered into the neighbors’ house where she heard all sorts of speculation, but at least she came away with one name: Ailsa Frasier. She was Danna’s mother.

No one had any idea where she had moved or what had become of her life, and Loan had no choice but to turn to a professional. Two days later, after an arduous investigation, she walked into the office of the best detective in the city and gave him that name.

“I need to replace this woman, Ailsa Fraser,” he said.

“How much time do we have?” the detective asked.

“The job is due yesterday,” Loan said, placing a wad of cash on the table. “Find her and I’ll pay you double.”