On Thin Ice Page 4

  She felt a shiver of fear. He was to be Alec’s groomsman. “How did he die?”

  “Same as the other two. The brakes on his car failed. He hit a truck.”

  “Where did it happen?”

  “He lived in Augusta. It happened last night. My parents called me this morning.”

  “Had you kept in touch with Paul?”

  Alec shook his head. “A little. Not with Sophia and Jennifer, of course, but I kept in touch with Paul and…”

  Bryan. She looked up at him but didn’t finish his sentence. She didn’t mention the name of the brother who by his horrific actions had effectively stopped their wedding and driven them apart.

  Megan didn’t move. She put down her muffin and wiped her fingers on a napkin. “How is he?” Megan asked drily.

  Alec looked up at her sharply. “I told you he’s dead.”

  Megan put the napkin on the table. “I didn’t mean him. I meant…Bryan.”

  “Good. He’s good.” Alec felt his hands stiffen at his side.

  “Is he still in…?”

  “Prison?” He finished the sentence for her. “No. He’s been out almost ten years now.”

  “You’re in touch with him then? He lives nearby?”

  Alec shook his head. “He doesn’t live near here. He moved to New Mexico when he was released.”

  “New Mexico. Why did he move so far away?”

  “He wanted to start over.”

  “Well.” Megan looked around the room but didn’t finish her sentence.

  Bryan was the little brother he had protected against all the bullies of the world, and he was still doing it. Because of his father’s failing health, his parents couldn’t make the trip to see their youngest son anymore, so Alec had taken over that responsibility. Alec said, “He works at an electronics store.”

  “He was always good at that sort of thing.”

  “He’s a Christian now. He accepted Christ in prison.”

  Megan nodded.

  Five years into his sentence, Bryan had eagerly told Alec that he had found God through a prison Bible study. God had changed him. Correction—He was changing him. It was an ongoing process that God was helping him through, he told his older brother.

  Alec continued, “He still goes to church where he lives. He has a girlfriend. My father can’t fly, so Bryan and Lorena, his girlfriend, are saving up money to fly out here to get married.”

  “It’s weird,” she said. “That a person can kill someone and go to jail, and then just come out and lead a normal life like nothing happened.”

  He looked down at his desk, at the two e-mails side by side. He lined up their edges. “It hasn’t been all that normal. He’s been through a lot of counseling. He’s prayed and paid his debt.”

  “My grandmother is still dead.”

  He looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Megan. I shouldn’t have said that. Nothing will make up for the death of your grandmother, I know that.” He paused. “I never got a chance to tell you how sorry I was then.”

  She said rather thoughtfully, “The confusing thing is that Bryan was someone that I liked. Used to like.”

  Alec agreed. “We all used to like him. He had his problems but he was genuinely likable.” Megan had even dated Bryan a few times. But when Bryan introduced Megan to Alec that summer at camp, it was the end of anything between Bryan and Megan. Bryan had understood when Alec and Megan got together. He’d laughed about it, actually, made jokes about how his older brother had “stolen his girlfriend.” “The best man won,” Bryan had said, playfully punching his brother in the shoulder. They were all still friends.

  “Sophia used to have a crush on him,” Megan said.

  “A lot of girls did.”

  “He was a bit of a rebel, but people liked him.”

  Yes. Bryan was a likable guy. That’s why it had made no sense at the time that Bryan would deliberately push Megan’s grandmother down the stairs to her death. No one could believe that Bryan would actually do that. There was no cause for it. They all got along. Megan and Alec were going to have a big happy family wedding.

  And then Meggie had found her grandmother at the bottom of the basement stairs, her neck crushed. She died in the hospital two days later from a massive head wound but not before she told everyone, including the police, the EMT attendants, and Meggie herself, that it was Bryan who had pushed her down the stairs.

  The accusation was ridiculous, of course. Everyone knew that Megan’s grandmother was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Yet the forensic evidence proved otherwise. They found evidence of Bryan’s presence at the scene of the crime all over the place—hairs on her body, his skin under her nails, evidence of the struggle. In addition, Bryan had a gash on his right cheek made by her fingernails.

  To top it off, a witness, a neighbor, said she’d seen Bryan and Megan’s grandmother arguing several times. This witness said under oath that the young man had shoved the woman very roughly in the driveway not two days before her death. As to why he would push Megan’s grandmother or what they were arguing about so strenuously remained a mystery to this day.

  “Are you worried Bryan is next?” Megan asked.

  Alec looked at her. That was exactly what he was worried about.

  She looked away. “I can’t do all this. Our son is dead. I’ve had enough pain,” she said.

  His head jerked up at her. He wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly. “Megan?” he said tremulously.

  “Our son was stillborn. There was a heart defect. He never had a chance. I thought you should know.”

  It felt like a punch, as if someone had hit him hard in the gut expelling all of his air. There just didn’t seem to be enough air in the room for him to find another breath. You never told me, he wanted to yell at her. Why didn’t you tell me? Why couldn’t I know this?

  “What…happened?” he asked.

  “I went to live with my godmother in Baltimore and it happened there. The baby was a boy. In my mind I’ve always called him Jack. After my father.”

  He said, “There was nothing the doctors could do?”

  Megan shook her head.

  “Megan.” He looked into her eyes where a tear welled in her left eye and another wandered down her cheek. She brushed angrily at them with her fists. He wanted to go to her, hold her in his arms and never let her go.

  I’ve had enough pain. That’s what she had said. She had lost her parents, his own brother had killed her grandmother and her son had died.

  “Megan,” he said. “I’m so very sorry.”

  How could he have done what he did to her? Oh Megan, Megan will you ever forgive me for putting my family, my brother, ahead of you and the love we had?

  SIX

  His son had died.

  For twenty years he had prayed daily for a child who didn’t exist. But was what she did in not telling him any worse than what he did? Because when all the craziness happened, he had chosen his brother, his family, over Megan.

  Alec remembered when his brother had come home on the night her grandmother died. He had been agitated, full of wild energy. He couldn’t settle down and kept running his left hand over a scratch on his cheek.

  Alec had demanded, “What did you do to yourself? What happened?”

  “Nothing. It’s nothing. I fell. Let’s go shoot some pool.”

  “I’m going to Meggie’s.”

  “No. No you’re not. You can’t. Not now. You’re going to come with me.” He grabbed Alec quite roughly and Alec shook off his grasp. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Alec began to be afraid. This was the old Bryan. The angry Bryan, not the likable Bryan he showed to the world. This was the Bryan who would go stomping through the house shoving his foot through the wall. This was the Bryan who his parents couldn’t control, the Bryan his mother cried over. He decided to go with Bryan that night. He needed to placate him. If Bryan’s old demons were back, Alec needed to protect him. But even with these outbursts, no one could quite
believe that Bryan would hurt an elderly woman, would actually commit murder. In the ensuing years Alec had wondered at his mother’s denial, his father’s preoccupation when it happened.

  It fell on Alec, the oldest brother to protect the youngest son. No one told him to do this, not his parents, not his teachers, it was just something he took on himself.

  And he still did.

  The following morning he’d learned that Megan’s grandmother was in the hospital. She had fallen down the basement steps and broken her neck. She died on Valentine’s Day, the day he and Megan were to be married.

  After Megan left his office, Alec sat at his quiet desk with the door closed and put a hand to his forehead to quell the pain that was starting there. He lifted up the receiver and punched in Bryan’s cell phone number.

  “Bryan? This is Alec.”

  “Hey, bro. What’s happening?”

  “Paul’s dead.”

  “Tell me you’re kidding. Please say you’re making this up.” Was there a hint of fear in Bryan’s voice? “How do you know?” Bryan asked.

  “Mom and Dad called me this morning and told me.”

  “Oh man.”

  “The brakes on his car failed.”

  A silence. “So, just like the others.”

  “Yes. Just like the others.”

  Alec held the receiver to his ear and looked at the e-mail messages still lying side by side on his desk. “I’m calling because I want you to be careful.”

  A bit of a chuckle from his brother. “Don’t worry, bro, I’m pretty safe here. I’m not likely to go driving a car anytime soon. I never got my driver’s license after getting out. I don’t trust myself at the wheel.”

  “Just watch your back.”

  “Lorena does the driving for the two of us.”

  “That’s good. Have you gotten any strange e-mails lately?”

  “E-mails? None that I can really think of. You want me to go back and look in my trash folder?”

  “I would, yes. And let me know. Mom and Dad would want you to be careful.”

  “Don’t worry. If I feel in peril, I’ll just rob a bank. That’ll land me in jail. I’ll be safe in there.”

  “Don’t joke, Bry. This is serious.”

  Bryan promised he would be careful.

  Afterward Alec felt heartened by the call. Bryan sounded good. Maybe things would get better. Maybe church was good for him. Maybe Lorena was good for him.

  Yet always, always, there was that sliver of fear when he hung up from talking to his brother that things were not as good as Bryan made them out to be. He knew he needed to go out and see him. It had been a while. He needed to make sure his brother was okay.

  She had always blamed her sins for her aloneness in this world. A Christian girl getting pregnant when she was eighteen was bad. She knew better. She’d been raised by a good church-going grandmother yet she had slept with her boyfriend. Just once. And had gotten pregnant. No wonder God was judging her.

  When she first feared that she might be pregnant, Alec was the first person she told. They sat quietly on the park bench when she told him. The town was all decorated for Christmas. In the distance there were carolers.

  She’d been surprised at his reaction. Instead of being upset or even afraid, he’d been pleased. He’d smiled. His dark eyes sparkled. Then he laughed. He had clasped his hands around her waist and danced them around the snow in the park.

  Megan looked out of her kitchen window to distract herself from those thoughts. A woman was making her way toward Megan’s cabin now, over the mounds of snow and rocks and roots in the back behind the cabin. The lights of a cabin glowed behind her like squares of bright yellow against the black sky.

  When Megan opened the cabin door, the woman said, “I thought I would come and introduce myself.”

  This was the woman she’d seen that morning with her husband in town.

  “Hello,” Megan said. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

  The woman wore a red plaid coat and a striped knitted hat with pom-poms. The whole outfit was rather endearing. She held the length of her brown hair with one hand to keep it from swirling around her face in the wind. She had broad cheeks and a generous smile.

  “I’m Vicky.” The white streak in her hair didn’t make her look older, it made her look charming.

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Megan.”

  “I arrived the other day. I’ll be here a week,” Vicky said.

  “I think I saw you this morning in town with your husband.”

  Vicky laughed out loud, a boisterous sound, and leaned her head back. It was almost, but not quite a cackle. “My husband? We just met. That’s Brad. He’s in the cabin beside mine. Even though he’s a bit older than me, we seemed to really hit it off. I’ve always liked older men.”

  “Wow.”

  “He’s just such a big sweetie. You heard about the storm coming next week? I’m wondering if I should leave now or wait until the deluge of snow is over. It’s supposed to be one low-pressure system after another for a while. And that means snow, snow, snow. How long are you staying?”

  Megan said she hadn’t given much thought to the storm, but that her stay depended on how long her business would take.

  “Business,” Vicky said, and stuck out her tongue. “Me, no business for me. I’m on the rebound from a bad relationship and needed some time away. That’s why I’m here. Trying to get centered. I saw a catalogue with this place listed, so I phoned. Voilà! I’m here, and what a beautiful place.

  “I’m sure this will be good for me. I’ve never done anything quite so spur of the moment before, coming to a cabin like this by myself. And then meeting a nice guy right off the bat. Brad and I had dinner last night at his place. I was over there introducing myself and then before you know it, he’s panfrying trout and eggs. We were going to head up to the lodge last night but we never quite made it.” Her eyes twinkled and Megan thought that it didn’t take Vicky too long to become interested in someone else after coming off a bad relationship.

  “You want to come over? Brad wants to meet you.”

  “Me? Now?”

  “A little while ago, he said to me, ‘Have you met the woman in the farthest cabin over? What’s she like? We should get together all three of us,’ and so I thought, since it’s just the three of us here right now, why don’t you come on over to my cabin now. Brad’s cooking up shrimp with his special shrimp sauce.”

  Megan thought about it. Maybe it would be nice to get her mind off everything for a while. “I can bring crackers and cheese,” she said. “Let me just finish off my e-mail.”

  “You people with your e-mail. Brad’s the same way. Always with his laptop, day and night. Me? I don’t even have a computer. Don’t have TV either. Just me and my animals and my organic garden. Who goes on vacation and brings their computer?”

  She came into Megan’s cabin and said, “Wow, you certainly got the deluxe model. I don’t even have a fireplace. Just a bitty woodstove. This is beautiful.”

  “Yes. It is nice.” Megan had booked the most expensive cabin because she wanted a separate bedroom. Some of the cabins were little more than one room.

  “Brad’s is like this too,” Vicky said. “Brad is a documentary filmmaker. He’s doing a documentary on the lake. You should see all the gear he has. Cameras, that sort of thing.”

  On the way to Vicky’s cabin, she said, “Nori said you design Web sites.”

  Megan said she did.

  “Well, between you and me, I think it’s the Web site thing that has Brad interested in meeting you. He told me he’s in the market for a new Web site for his film company.”

  When they got to Brad’s cabin, he called out, “Come on in, you two beautiful ladies.” When Megan approached, he took one of her hands in both of his. “So nice to meet you.” Even though they were inside, he wore his sunglasses.

  Megan watched Vicky fuss with the fire and Brad panfry shrimp on the woodstove in a big cast-iron frying pan. Brad
was a heavy man with wild hair and a shaggy gray beard, a bit of a crooked nose. But, what Megan noticed were his large white teeth which seemed to protrude a bit oddly and crookedly from his mouth when he laughed. Which was often. She wasn’t surprised that Vicky was attracted to this mountain man. He seemed nice and could cook, obviously. He wore a plaid cotton shirt and jeans and moccasins.

  The little cabin smelled wondrously of garlic and butter and Megan found herself relaxing. Almost.

  A kettle on the woodstove was whistling and Brad said, “I’m making tea for you ladies.”

  The three of them stood around the steamy kitchen rich with aromas and drank tea and ate shrimp. At one point Vicky nudged Brad, “Tell her about your monster film.”

  “Monster film?” Megan put her tea on the counter.

  “He’s working on a film about the Whisper Lake monster.”

  “I didn’t know there was a Whisper Lake monster.”

  Brad leaned forward, grinning with all his teeth and said, “Yep.”

  “So where does he go when the lake is frozen?” Megan asked.

  For a moment his face darkened. “Well, I guess that’s the question, isn’t it?”

  Megan felt an instantaneous flutter of disquiet which dissipated as quickly as it had come.

  “Yeah, Brad,” Vicky said. “That’s what I keep asking. Wouldn’t it make more sense to come here when the lake isn’t frozen?”

  Megan could hear the wind outside high in the trees. “I plan to,” he said quietly. “This is just the beginning. Just the beginning, ladies.”

  After her second cup of tea and more shrimp, Megan felt satisfied. She was tired, yet Brad talked on and on. Vicky had drawn her knees up and seemed content to listen to Brad’s exploits. He’d been to the top of Mount Robson in Canada. He’d been bungee jumping in South Africa and done a film about clock-makers in Germany. After a full recounting of his African safari, Megan was dying to get back to her cabin and her comfortable bed and away from this man who now seemed pompous and self-absorbed her. She couldn’t understand how Vicky could hang on his every word. When there was a lull in the conversation, Megan yawned and said, “Well, I think I should be getting back to my place. I’m dead tired.”

  “No.” The way Brad said it so quickly took both women by surprise.