The Secrets of the Glen (Scottish Highlands #2)

Chapter 23

‘Do you need some help?’ A young woman with a pile of books in her hands passed Robyn by, paused mid-stride, turned around and peered at her. Robyn realised that she was the librarian, who must have noticed her standing in the entrance to Aviemore Library, looking a bit lost.

Robyn was there on her lunch break. Not that she had an official lunch break yet. She was in Aviemore that morning, sorting out her area in Duncan’s shop while she waited for the paint and materials she’d ordered to finish redecorating Rose and George’s house. She’d had an unexpectedly lovely evening getting to know David’s father a little better while they played a board game in front of the log burner. Then they’d watched the sun go down and chatted while sitting wrapped up in blankets on the balcony overlooking the loch. The one thing he wouldn’t talk about, Robyn noticed, was the accident that had ended David’s ice hockey career. What was the big secret?

Robyn had still been thinking about secrets that morning when they’d left David’s house together to go to work. It was Monday. Although Duncan had to be in his shop all day, Robyn did not. She could be gone as long as she liked. She’d had an idea, and it involved a trip to the local library.

Aviemore Library was part of the Aviemore Primary School and Community Centre, so it was housed in a spacious modern building and was open all week. Robyn wasn’t sure where to start in her quest to discover the truth about what had happened to end David’s career, but if nobody was going to tell her, then she planned to find out for herself. Then perhaps when she saw David next there would be no elephant in the room, at least from her perspective. When it came to her memory loss, though, a fact which understandably David had been surprised to learn the previous day, she still wasn’t ready to talk.

Robyn didn’t want to think about her feeling that she had been to his house before. There had to be a logical explanation as to why she seemed to remember turning up in a car outside the house. She tried to explain away the money. Just a huge coincidence , she thought, trying to convince herself.

‘I need to see some of your local newspapers,’ Robyn said to the librarian, reading the identity badge swinging on a chain from the young woman’s neck.

‘You’ll find the papers in racks in the alcove over there,’ she pointed ahead and then started to walk.

‘No – wait,’ Robyn said darting after her. She caught up with her just as she was about to put the pile of books on a trolley. ‘I’m looking for papers from some time ago.’

‘You’ll be wanting the microfiche, then.’ She put the books on the trolley and pushed it along. Robyn assumed she was going to show her where that was. In a small corner two machines looking like they were out of the ark stood gathering dust.

‘Not much call for them now,’ the young woman said, catching Robyn’s expression. ‘Most people come here to use the free internet.’

Robyn thanked her and then pulled out a chair and sat at one of machines. She fumbled for the switch, realising she probably hadn’t used one of these things before.

‘What year?’ The librarian asked, watching her.

‘Huh?’

‘I’ll need some idea of the year you want to research so that I can get the right film, and even check if it is available as a microfiche.’

‘Oh, right.’ Robyn thought quickly and asked for the last two years.

The librarian raised her eyebrows. ‘The last two years?’

‘Yes, I think so.’ Robyn realised she didn’t know. She furrowed her brow trying to remember if David had mentioned when he stopped playing professional ice hockey. She couldn’t remember. Robyn looked at the librarian, and said, ‘Perhaps three years.’

‘You won’t be needing microfilm, then.’

Robyn turned in her seat to look at her. ‘How come?’

‘Because you’ll find most newspaper content online going back even to the 2000s. Some even have articles online from the 1990s, would you believe.’

Robyn felt stupid. Why hadn’t she thought of looking online?

‘Come with me.’

Robyn followed the librarian and her trolley down another aisle into a cosy corner behind some bookshelves, where there was a row of computer terminals along a desk. ‘There’s one free. I’ll log you on.’

A moment later, the librarian got up. Robyn took a seat in front of the screen. She stared at the keyboard, then at the screen.

‘Are you computer literate?’ the librarian asked, noticing Robyn hesitate.

Robyn turned in the chair. ‘Am I computer literate?’ She didn’t understand the question. ‘What does that mean?’

‘Okay,’ the young woman said slowly. ‘I guess not.’

During her quick lesson in surfing the web, Robyn had made a discovery before she even did her first Google search. ‘I’m obviously computer illiterate,’ she said.

She glanced at two teenagers who were sitting at computer terminals. They had been busy tapping at their keyboards, most likely surfing the internet too, but had stopped what they were doing and had stared at her in disbelief.

Robyn pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows at them, as if to say, mind your own business , and did her first Google search. But I must know how to use a computer, surely. I was at university, studying for a degree . She stared at the screen for a moment, thinking that it didn’t make any sense; selective amnesia meant that she could remember how to do things like dress, read, write, even use a mobile phone – she still had the one that Rose had kindly given her; she was waiting to see if David called or texted. So far, she’d heard nothing. So, why couldn’t she remember how to use a computer and get on the internet? How could she forget how to do something that most people did every single day, and that she imagined was second nature?

Robyn tried to put this mystery to one side and concentrate on the one in hand – what exactly had happened to David that had ended his ice hockey career? And why didn’t anyone want to talk about it?

She glanced at the teenagers, who had lost interest in their weird neighbour two computers down.

Robyn looked at her watch, yawned, and stretched in her chair. Surfing the web had taken her down all sorts of rabbit holes in the last hour. She’d read so many news stories that her head was spinning from so much information.

Giving her eyes a break from the screen for a moment, she noticed the two teenage boys at the computer terminal had gone and had been replaced by another teenager, a girl this time, with a very bad case of acne.

Robyn looked back at the screen, resolving not to get drawn into reading any more current news articles. She did a search instead for David’s name, along with professional ice hockey teams in Scotland, and the word accident . A lot of different articles came up, but nothing about one hockey player in particular.

Robyn was on to reading yet another article, about ice hockey in general, not about David or an accident, when the sound of a voice right behind her made her jump. ‘How’s it going?’

Robyn turned in her seat. The librarian was back with another trolley full of books. She’d stopped beside Robyn’s chair while she placed a couple of books on the shelves just to her left.

Robyn sighed heavily.

‘That good – huh?’

Robyn looked at her, surprised to find that the bespectacled young lady had a dry sense of humour. ‘Is there a knack to this? I just can’t find what I’m looking for.’

Robyn rubbed her bleary eyes; she had no idea how people worked at computer screens all day. She’d only been here an hour.

The librarian leaned over Robyn and peered at the screen. ‘What are you looking for?’

‘I want to find out—’ Robyn stopped abruptly. Perhaps it was not a good idea to tell her exactly what, or rather who, she was researching. This was a small town. What if it got back to David, or his father, what she’d been doing there?

‘I was researching news stories about ice hockey players who originally came from this area.’

‘Sounds interesting.’

Robyn wondered if she was just being polite. Unless you were a huge ice hockey fan, then this was about as interesting as watching paint dry.

‘So, what you want is the sports pages, if it’s a local sports personality …’

Robyn wouldn’t exactly call David that, but he had been on the cusp of joining the Elite Ice Hockey League, which probably explained why he was quite well paid at that time, and why he was well known in Aviemore. In a small town where most people live out their lives in obscurity – Robyn thought of Duncan still working in the shop he’d stepped foot in decades ago, all because he’d fallen in love – making it in something like sport, or film, or anything that took you out of your comfort zone and everything familiar, would seem like quite an achievement, she imagined.

Robyn stepped to one side so the young woman could type something into the keyboard.

‘There you go.’ The sports page loomed large as life.

‘There’s more where that came from. They’re in date order. Just click there to view them.’

‘Wow – how did you do that?’

‘It’s magic,’ she whispered.

Robyn swivelled her head to look at her over her shoulder.

Her expression gave way to a smile. ‘You’ll get the hang of it after a while.’

Robyn nodded and returned the very helpful librarian’s smile. She turned her attention back to the computer. When the sports section flashed up, she stopped and scanned the page; nothing. She repeated this exercise for half an hour.

Her initial enthusiasm for her fact-finding mission had waned. She glanced at her watch. Although she didn’t have to return to the shop at any particular time, she imagined Duncan would be worried and wondering where she’d got to. It would not surprise her if he sent Alec to fetch her. She had said she was popping to the library. Perhaps he’d think she was choosing a novel. Perhaps I will , she thought, although there was no shortage of old paperbacks she could borrow at Lark Lodge.

Robyn contemplated where she would stay that night. Duncan was doing his best to persuade her to return with him to David’s place that evening, and spend another night there, although the plan was to take her to Gayle’s after work – she had yet to decide whether she was collecting some clothes, and returning with Duncan, or not. That depended on David. She checked her phone, still expecting him to text and ask her to head home to Lark Lodge. She sighed. There was still nothing.

She saw the teenager putting her notepad and pen away in her bag. She’d finished on the computer. All the computer terminals were now free, the desks deserted; Robyn was alone.

She randomly clicked on another webpage, her concentration waning. She scrolled half-heartedly to an article in a local paper wondering if she should ask Duncan again. Or David. This was such a waste of time when she knew the very people who could tell her all about the accident. She wasn’t just being nosy. Something told her they were keeping a secret for a reason, and she desperately wanted to know what that was.

She imagined if the librarian knew what she was doing, she might ask her why it really mattered that she found out David’s secret. She knew that she would most likely find out in time. But as someone who obviously had secrets of her own, which even she wouldn’t know about until her memory returned, she couldn’t bear the thought that David was keeping things from her. Before she got too involved, she had to know everything.

‘It’s happened to me before,’ she said under her breath. She was sure of it. Was it the father of the child that she had lost who had kept secrets from her? Who was he? The question resurfaced that played on her mind from time to time – had she been running away from him on Christmas Day? She shuddered at the thought. That was why she didn’t want any nasty surprises with David. She even wanted to know what had made him cash in his investments, and then leave all that cash in his house.

Robyn turned her attention to the computer screen once more. She was about to click on the sports section in another local paper when a headline on the front page immediately caught her eye – Ice Hockey Star’s Fall From Grace.

Robyn’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of David’s name straight after the attention-grabbing headline. She took a deep breath and proceeded to read the article.