On Thin Ice Read online

  On this night, Alec tried to put those thoughts out of his mind. He sat on the edge of the bed and opened up the yearbook to the back page. He stared down at the message written there. Megan will always be mine. This didn’t look like Bryan’s handwriting—and Alec should know. Alec had seen many of Bryan’s letters and school papers. Alec had helped his younger brother with his homework. He would get the handwriting analyzed. He made a note of it, and added it to the e-mail to Steve.

  He turned to the front of the book and stared down at a picture of Megan. It was true what he had said to her tonight, he was happy she was with him. But deep in his soul he felt it was more than that. Could he be falling back in love with her all over again? He had told her things he had not told anyone, why he went to police work, his concern for his mother. And she had listened so intently, her gaze almost comforting. She knew what it was to hurt.

  But there was that one thing that was stopping him.

  The lie.

  Maybe it’s time to tell her everything. No. He couldn’t. He couldn’t lose her again. He just couldn’t risk it.

  He had lied for his brother. He had committed perjury in court on the witness stand and nobody knew. Nobody except his brother. Was that why he always felt so protective of him? Was that why he helped him even now? Sent him money when he needed it? Was that why he was worried that Bryan was the only one who could expose him? Was he worried about what Bryan held over his head?

  After Megan’s grandmother accused Bryan of pushing her, Bryan had come to Alec. “You remember that night, bro. You remember when I came home that night. I wasn’t out at her grandmother’s house. The people are going to say I was. People are going to say all sorts of things. But I can’t tell them where I really was. You gotta trust me. You got to tell them I was with you. Because I was. You know I was.” His voice was staccato and breathless and he literally jumped from foot to foot as if he was on drugs. Alec asked him if he was.

  “No. No. No, I’m not. Because I didn’t do it, ya know. I didn’t. You gotta help me. You gotta.”

  Alec knew that he would. He would protect his brother like he had protected him all these years.

  Later, in court, he would say he had spent the evening shooting pool with his brother. But the timeline was off and he knew it. Back then, Alec didn’t believe his brother had pushed Megan’s grandmother to her death. His brother wouldn’t tell him where he had really been that night, only that he didn’t do it. Alec believed him, then. So did their mother. Their father hadn’t said much. He never did where Bryan was concerned. He mostly just holed himself up at work and pretended that problems with Bryan didn’t exist.

  What did Alec think now? He honestly didn’t know. Maybe no one would ever know the truth. His brother had gone to jail. Justice had been served. In the end, his perjury hadn’t mattered. But he had betrayed Megan. And when she had walked away, pregnant with their baby, he knew he didn’t deserve to go after her.

  How could he tell her the truth now? If he wanted Megan in his life, then he knew he would have to continue to keep his secret. He looked out at the moon and made a decision. God had forgiven him his sin. Justice had been done. The whole thing was long over. Megan didn’t need to know. She need never know. But why did that resolution make him feel so miserable?

  He went back to the desk and retrieved a manila envelope from the bottom drawer. It was the kind of envelope with a string and toggle. He unwound the string and pulled out a picture, a five-by-seven color photo of himself and Megan. It had been taken at the winter dance, a few months before they were to be married. She had pulled the sides of her long hair up into a glittery barrette on the top of her head, and the ends of her hair softly curled around her shoulders. Her dress was light blue, caught in at the waist by a wide ribbon. It fell to the floor in satiny folds. She looked happy and confident. She was also pregnant in the picture, but neither of them knew that when this picture was taken.

  He stood next to her, awkward and skinny and miles taller than she was. He wore a flower on his lapel of the same flower variety as the corsage she wore on her wrist. Whenever he stayed in this room, he looked at this picture.

  If he remembered correctly, it was Bryan who had taken the picture. Bryan had been happy for the two of them. Smiling, he had slapped Alec on the back. Alec had winced away from this slap, which seemed more like a punch. “Hey Bryan, easy there, brother.”

  Bryan had laughed and said, “The best man won. I’m just happy for you, bro. Meggie is a great kid.”

  “She is.”

  “Besides, you already know she was never my girlfriend. We’ve only ever been good friends, and I’ve already moved on.”

  And he had. By that time he was dating a girl named Olive. That didn’t last long. He now had a Christian girlfriend and they planned to marry.

  A girl that Megan said she recognized.

  There was a gentle knock on his door. Alec put the picture away before he rose to open the door. His mother stood there, pale and agitated. She said, “I just wanted to make sure you have everything you need.”

  “I’m fine, Mother. Thank you.”

  She remained standing there. It was obvious to Alec that there was something more on her mind.

  “What is it, Mother?”

  “I’m worried about your brother. When I talk to him, I feel I’m talking to a brick. I ask him about work, about Lorena, and he never answers my questions directly. I want to know when they’re getting married and I never get an answer.”

  “I spoke with him, Mother. He’s fine.” Alec could understand his brother’s attitude. His mother could be clingy and whiny at times. No wonder Bryan was backing away.

  “But with these murders, I can’t help but worry. About both my boys.”

  “Both of us are fine.”

  She swallowed a few times before she said, “There’s something wrong with his girlfriend.”

  “Lorena?”

  “Have you ever met her? On one of your trips to see your brother?”

  Alec shook his head. Lorena was relatively new.

  His mother bit her lip. “There’s just something funny about that woman. I don’t altogether trust her, if you must know. On the phone, Bryan goes on and on about her, how they’re going to get married. But I’ve never so much as talked to her on the phone. If he phones and happens to say that Lorena is there making supper or something and I ask to speak to her, she’s always too busy to come to the phone. I don’t trust her. I fear that Bryan is been taking taken advantage of. I have a favor to ask, Alec…”

  He waited. He knew what was coming.

  “Can you…?” She paused. “I mean, you’re a policeman. Can you maybe look her up? You know…” She waved one hand. “On those files that you have?” She placed a piece of paper on the desk next to him. “This is all the information I have on her.”

  Alec looked at it. It contained her name—Lorena Street—and an e-mail address. “The thing that has me wondering is that I sent her an e-mail. Now I get so confused with e-mail and stuff, so I know I could have done it wrong, but it didn’t seem to get to her. Just as soon as I sent it the e-mail came back to my own in-box. Does that make sense?”

  “Maybe this is an old e-mail address. You don’t have a street address?”

  She shook her head. “This is all that I have. I asked Bryan once where she lived, but he never answered me. That’s what I mean about him.”

  Alec sighed. How many times had Alec done this? Pulled strings when it came to his own brother? First there was the lie, but it didn’t end there. It never did. He had loaned his brother money. Had Bryan ever paid him back? Maybe once or twice in ten years. And then there was his work. More than once, Alec had intervened for his brother by phoning Bryan’s employer in New Mexico, or he’d flown down there and talked with his landlord, and then reminded Bryan that he had to write out a check on the first of every month.

  Yet when Alec went to church with Bryan, people seemed to know him, to accept him, and he
was never without a lot of Sunday lunch invitations. “I’m trying, bro,” Bryan would say. “With Jesus’s help I’m going to make it.”

  When Alec would urge him to move closer to home, Bryan would vehemently shake his head. “Can’t, bro. Too many people know me there. I’m making a new start here.”

  “Okay, Mother,” he told her now. “I’ll take care of it.”

  After she left, he sat at the little boy’s school desk in the corner of his old bedroom and put his head in his hands. Sure, he wanted Megan back in his life, but would his brother, his family, always have to come first?

  The next day Alec and Megan arrived at the home of Madeline Magill, Paul’s wife. It was the day before Paul’s funeral. Megan had never met Madeleine since the woman was someone Paul had met at college.

  They were met at the door by a small, round woman who introduced herself as being from Paul and Madeline’s church.

  She opened the door for them. “Are you Alec?” she asked.

  When Alec said he was, she said, “Madeline is in the kitchen. The children are down in the family room with some of the kids from church.”

  Alec guided Megan through the house. “The kitchen’s back here,” he said.

  “You’ve been here before.”

  “A few times. Paul and Madeline invited me to their home a couple of times. We tried to keep up the friendship, but they have kids and were involved in different things than me. After a while we had nothing in common. And then I moved to Whisper Lake Crossing.”

  They went into the kitchen where a woman about Megan’s age was sitting at the table, back straight, hands in her lap, staring straight ahead. Several people bustled about and behind her, washing up dishes, clearing up food, setting more food out. Her eyes appeared red-rimmed, but she smiled when she saw it was Alec who had entered the room.

  “Alec,” she said. “I’m so glad you came. All the way from Whisper Lake. It’s been so long. I don’t think I’ve ever been up there. I’ve heard it’s nice. Paul and I always meant to go…”

  “Madeline.” He went to her. She rose and he hugged her lightly and gave her a peck on one cheek. “I am so sorry,” he said. Then her grasp on him became tighter. He held her firmly while her shoulders heaved.

  When Megan was introduced and conveyed her condolences, Madeline said, “You mean the Megan? Paul told me about everything that happened with your wedding. I’m glad that you and Alec ended up together in the end. At least one of us is lucky.” Her eyes filled with tears and Megan didn’t have the heart to correct her. Neither did Alec.

  “Why don’t you sit down? As you can see, I’ve got plenty of food. It just keeps coming. The church is keeping me well supplied. And someone’s always making fresh coffee. Help yourself,” Madeline said.

  Alec did so, and poured three cups of coffee.

  Megan said, “I knew Paul from a long time ago. He was a good friend of ours.”

  “His death came so soon after Jennifer’s,” Madeline interjected. “It’s funny how you can live in the same town even, and lose track of people….” She looked up at Alec. “Remember those times together? You and Paul and Jennifer and her husband Sam and me? You called them reunion parties…”

  “Another girl who was to be in the wedding party also died,” Alec said. “Do you remember Paul talking about a girl named Sophia?”

  Madeline nodded.

  When Alec told her that Sophia had died the same way as Paul and Jennifer she expressed shock, and raised one eyebrow in her expressive face. The woman washing dishes behind her suddenly stopped, as if she were listening.

  Madeline said, “Maybe that’s why that police officer was questioning me so thoroughly. He asked if Paul had any enemies. Had anything strange been happening that day or two before he died? Had I seen anyone lurking about? Paul had just taken the car in to have the oil changed. So I would’ve assumed the mechanic would check the brakes, wouldn’t you? That’s what I told the police. I assume they went and talked with the mechanic, but I haven’t heard anything. But that’s what it was, wasn’t it, brakes that failed? How can that be?”

  “I’m here as your friend,” Alec said, “but I’m also here to try to find out what happened to Paul, because we think the same thing happened to Sophia and Jennifer.”

  “You think…” Madeline said. “You think Paul may have been…killed? Intentionally?”

  Alec leaned toward her, his elbows on the table. “This is very important, Madeline. Have you seen anyone around? Anyone lurking at all? Any stranger at the door? Even one person?”

  She shook her head. “The police asked me that. I said no. I can’t remember anything unusual. I never saw anything—”

  “I did.” All three faces looked up to the doorway. Standing there was a big woman in a denim jumper with salt-and-pepper hair pulled tightly back from her face. She stood uncertainly in the doorway.

  “You did?” Alec asked

  “Yes. I live across the street.” She entered the kitchen. “My name is Polly. The police never asked me any questions. I thought Paul’s death was an accident. But I remember seeing someone.”

  “Please,” he said. “Sit down, Polly.”

  Nervously she sat down across from Madeleine. Polly reached out and touched Madeline’s wrist. “I’m so sorry, Maddie.” Then to Alec, she said, “We’ve been neighbors for twelve years. Our kids played together. If I had any idea…”

  “Please,” he said writing in his notebook. “You said you saw someone? Or something?”

  “I saw someone. It could have been nothing, I don’t know. But I heard you talking and I remembered. A couple of weeks ago, it was the middle of the night and I couldn’t sleep so I got up and made tea.”

  “What did you see?” Madeline asked. “Did you see someone in our garage?”

  She looked from Madeline to Alec. “I took my tea to the living room window….”

  Alec put his hand up. “Can you tell me what day this was?”

  She told him. He wrote it down.

  “Do you know what time it was?” he asked.

  “It was three thirty-three. I remember it exactly. I looked at the time on the DVD player and thought that it was funny that I was up and sitting in my living room chair at exactly three thirty-three.”

  Alec urged her to continue.

  “I took my tea to the window and looked at the streetlight.” She paused.

  “And you saw someone? Someone saw you?” This came from Madeline.

  Polly shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. I saw a movement under the streetlight. It frightened me because you don’t often see people walking around in the middle of the night in this neighborhood. I saw a man and he was walking slowly. He kept going down the street until he disappeared.”

  “Did you get a look at him?” Alec asked.

  “I watched him,” she said. “My lights were off. He couldn’t see me, so I watched him. I would say he was medium build.” She looked at Alec. “About your size. Thin. Tall. He wore a long dark coat. No hat. And, I remember his hair.”

  “Hair?” Madeline asked. “What about his hair?”

  “It was thick and very dark. I would say black. Either that or dark, dark brown.”

  Megan glanced up at Alec sharply. The man who had delivered the invitation to her at the Schooner Café had black hair, so dark and so thick that Marlene had mentioned it specifically.

  Alec was writing rapidly.

  “Polly,” Alec said, looking up at her. “Do you think we could go over to your house and you could show me exactly where you saw this person?”

  Polly nodded.

  “I’ll come,” Megan said.

  “I’ll come, too,” Madeline said.

  The four of them tromped through the snow across the street to where Polly lived. When they got to her living room, the precise window she’d been sitting at, Alec took command and asked questions that put her at ease, yet got the information he needed. Megan’s admiration for this man was growing.

&
nbsp; Polly pointed out exactly where the man had walked to and from. No, she hadn’t seen a car, she said. The man walked slowly and seemed to pause at each driveway, ever so slightly before moving on to the next one.

  She said, “I thought at first he had a dog from the way he kept stopping and starting. But he didn’t. Oh, Maddie, I should have remembered this. I had no idea Paul’s car had been tampered with. If I’d had any idea…oh, this is simply terrible.”

  Alec took down more of Polly’s information and told her that someone from the local police department would be contacting her. He gave her his card, told her to contact him if she remembered anything more, and they made their way back to Madeline’s house. Alec hugged Madeline once more and then they left.

  “Black hair,” Megan said as Alec drove away from the neighborhood. “The guy who dropped the invitation to me had black hair.”

  “I know.”

  The school yearbook and guest list were on the backseat and Megan brought them to her lap. “Who do we know from the old days who had black hair?” She thumbed through the book, paying special attention to the three people who had police records.

  Of the three people, Jeff’s hair was fair and Daniel’s head was shaved. Only Anna had black hair.

  But both Marlene and Polly had seen a man. They were probably back at square one.

  NINE

  The sighting of the black-haired man was new information, and Detective Brantley Peterson of the Augusta Police Department listened with interest as Alec told him again about the invitations, the wedding that never happened, and why. Alec laid it all out, finally. Some of the story had been held back in his previous conversation with the detective who handled Jennifer’s accident, but it was time that the police knew about his connection to what was going on.