The Loch by Fran Dorricott

Author:Fran Dorricott [Dorricott, Fran]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-11-14T12:00:00+00:00

Eleanor

There’s nothing for it but to sit and wait. Beth and Tim insist that we stay a while, and other than traipsing around the whole village some more, or heading back to Loch House, there isn’t anything else we can do. This thought itself pains me more than I’d like to admit, so I usher Clio towards a table – about as far away from the one we sat at on Saturday as possible – and order us both another drink, though I opt for a decaf tea because I’m not sure I can handle any more caffeine on an empty stomach without losing control of my hands.

‘This is such a mess,’ Clio says. She rests her head in her hands and massages her scalp, mussing her short hair. The humour we both found in our stories last night is well and truly gone now, but I’m surprised to find this comforts me.

‘I keep thinking it’s a dream,’ I agree. ‘I hope that any minute now we’ll wake up and it’ll be yesterday morning and Michaela will be in the house begging us to go shopping with her. And then we’ll come here and have another lunch and it’ll be awful and amazing and then she’ll want to go on a fucking walk—’ I stop myself.

Clio flinches.

‘Do you really think, after she texted us, she could have …’ She stops, picks at a cuticle. ‘She’s a good swimmer.’

‘She’s an excellent swimmer.’

‘How do lochs even work? Aren’t there rivers involved or something?’ She shakes her head. ‘God, I keep picturing everything that could have happened. And I’m not sure what’s worse, the idea that she could have ended up in the loch or that there’s another alt—’

I cut her off with a stare that’s so icy I even surprise myself. If Michaela stays gone, we will, at some point, be forced to ask the question: is she hurt? Right now, though, I can’t face it. Maybe that makes me a coward, but I know what my limits are.

Clio pulls her phone out and starts to type furiously into it. I watch her face as she slowly gets more and more frustrated.

‘What?’ I ask.

‘I’m trying to google about the girls that disappeared or whatever, but there’s hardly any information. You’d think it would be super obvious, but all I’m getting is like black hills South Dakota, totally different place.’

‘Did you try Scotland?’

‘Have you got any idea how many girls have ever gone missing in Scotland?’ Clio mutters. ‘Friggin’ impossible. I need more information. All I’m getting is some American horror TV show.’

‘There must be something,’ I say. ‘Maybe you’re just not looking in the right place. What’s that podcast that Michaela was listening to – can we find that?’

‘And how exactly am I supposed to find one true crime podcast in a sea of thousands? We don’t even know what platform it was on, and she said it was only an episode. I’ve tried searching for Loch Aven, but nothing is coming up.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.