Blond and Blue
Two months have passed and no one has seen or heard from Loraine.
It's as if she's vanished from the face of the earth, none of her phone numbers are active anymore. She doesn't even make contact with Lorrich, her beloved son. Both Andre and Aziel have hired a private detective, but so far it has not yielded any results. Loraine just disappeared without a trace.
Lorrich constantly asks about his mother, he has never been separated from her for so long. Some nights he cries himself to sleep, begging her to come back in his prayers. More often he blames himself that she left, that he did not help her enough when she came home tired and she now wants to rest without him. The lively, self-assured boy from before is completely disappeared and Lorrich is now passive and silent. The change in his behavior has also been noticed at school.
Aziel officially filed a missing person’s report with the police but has not taken any public action. He fears that Loraine may feel uncomfortable if her private life is once again widely covered in the media. So, the friends decided among themselves to keep her disappearance quiet and to investigate for themselves.
The police disclaim any criminal act in this matter.
The CCTV of the hospital clearly shows Loraine walking to the counter, signing the documents, pulling her trolley behind her and leaving the hospital. In the parking lot, she gets into a white Range Rover with heavily tinted windows. It is striking that the serial number on the car is missing. The driver cannot be seen, he does not step out. The vehicle slowly drives away and on the city cameras, it is seen driving in the streets for a while. It heads towards the Brooklyn Bridge but then turns around and passes an area where there are no cameras. And inexplicably it is nowhere to be seen, never came out from that neighborhood.
And a search in that area turned up nothing. A white Range Rover was discovered in a resident's garage, but that one had a license plate and according to the owner, he’s the only driver. He is a coach of a youth soccer team in Brooklyn. Seeing a photo of Loraine, he steadfastly denied ever meeting her or being near the hospital that evening. Since the police could not catch him in any criminal offense, they had to let him go. He was then monitored for weeks, but no irregularities were discovered.
Every time the detective or the police report that there are no particulars in Loraine's case, something breaks in Aziel. He hardly smiles anymore, appears stiff and alert, and communicates only in a businesslike manner. It looks like it's running on autopilot. He devotes two days a week entirely to Lorrich, who now spends more time with the Fellogans. On those days, they look at photo albums with Loraine's photos and Aziel tells him about his mother's life in New York and Barbados before he was born.
“Daddy Aziel, will mommy ever come back? Doesn't she miss us?” he asks more often. After that, Aziel always gets into a fight with his emotions, that's the same question he struggles with.
It is especially the evenings where he lies alone in bed and screams Loraine's name in despair that are the worst. The loneliness and uncertainty gnaw at him deeply, more often he wants to give up hope that he will see Loraine again. But then Andre stands there, dragging him forward and telling him to be strong for his woman. When she returns, she must by no means find a broken man.
At this moment he is once again in bed, his thoughts swirling to the day of the twins' funeral. He'd put off that day as long as possible, hoping Loraine would show up to say her final goodbye to her children. Two boys, innocently lying in small boxes decorated with Batman and Spiderman themes. He has covered the boys' deaths widely in the special pages of virtually every newspaper, praying that wherever Loraine may be, she would read it. He's sure she'd run home to be with him at the heartbreaking moment. He knows how she struggled with the grief of losing their children.
In vain.
After a month, authorities informed him that he could no longer postpone the funeral.
It turned into a painful service with Lorrich constantly crying and asking for his mother. On Aziel's arm, he said goodbye to the two beings who would have filled their lives with joy if they were allowed to live. The group of friends stood next to Aziel as strong support. Despite the Covid measures, a large number of people have come to offer their condolences.
But the great absentee remained Loraine, much to the dismay of all present.
Thinking about it again, he begins to suspect that Loraine might still be in a state of shock and unconsciously forgot everything. The loss was a huge emotional blow to her, one she couldn’t handle. There is no other explanation for banning her children is not in her character.
Now that he somewhat calmed down emotionally, he thinks back to the conversation he had with Andre several weeks ago. The man said an unknown number had called him. A woman was on the other end of the line and claimed to have seen what had happened in the hospital. According to her, the head nurse knows more about the case, she had smuggled a blond, blue-eyed man in a nurse's outfit through the employee entrance. The unknown man was in Loraine's room and the two had spoken briefly. She couldn't hear the conversation, but the man left the same way he came in and moments later Loraine checked out at the counter with a signed approval of the head nurse.
The woman claimed that the same man was in a white vehicle waiting for Loraine to get in when they disappeared. Andre passed this conversation on to the police, but like Aziel, they hadn't paid much attention to it. Aziel slaps herself on the forehead. It makes no sense yet to search for the tipster but to work out her information properly. Blonde hair and blue eyes are almost all of New York. But there is only one man with blond hair and blue eyes who could convince Loraine to go with him.
Aziel grabs his phone and calls Andre.
Sleepy, he accepts the conversation. “Aziel! At this time, really? It's close to midnight. Make it very important what you have to say to me now,” he says plaintively.
“Be assured. Do you remember talking about an anonymous call you had on the day of Loraine's disappearance? The woman was talking about a blond man with blue eyes who spoke to Loraine in the ward?”
“Oooh gosh, Aziel. This whole country is full of blond guys with blue eyes. Is in the genes of the white race, my friend, nothing special about it," he responds, clearly waiting to put his head back on the pillow. “Yes, but not all of them can approach Loraine, get her to leave the hospital and not tell me anything about it”, Aziel replies.
At these last words, Andre is now wide awake. His eyes widen. “You mean …… do you mean…”, he stutters, his mouth refusing to speak what his mind already knows.
“Danner!” they exclaim at the same time...
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