On Thin Ice

by Linda Hall

  “You went to jail for killing my grandmother.”

  “I know. That little part of my plan wasn’t supposed to happen. But I’ve had twenty years to make new plans.”

  “You killed Sophia and Jennifer?”

  “Had to. Time was running out. I didn’t know where you were. You kept yourself well hidden. I figured that killing them would bring you right to my brother. And it did.”

  He was a madman. “What about Paul?”

  “Paul was for good measure. I was on a roll.”

  “You’re a monster!” She shrank back from him and leaned against the wall. He moved closer to her.

  “I went to see your grandmother that day. I needed to persuade her to tell you that the wedding should be called off. She was the one who could do it. I told her that you were carrying my baby.”

  “How did you know I was pregnant?”

  “That’s simple. Alec told me. Alec told me everything. He still does. We are close. We’re brothers.” He held up the fingers of his left hand and crossed the second finger over the first.

  “Your grandmother didn’t believe that you were pregnant. I talked to her several times and told her I would kill her unless she managed to get you to call off the wedding. That you had my baby and you had no right to marry Alec. I told her if she didn’t use her powers to call off the wedding I would kill her to get my baby.”

  His grin was wild and feral. She had to remain calm. She prayed that he wouldn’t see the knife bulging in her pocket. Her only salvation would be to maintain her cool. He couldn’t know how afraid she was.

  She asked, “Who’s Vicky? Is she the girlfriend you told your family about?”

  “Vicky?” He looked toward the cabin door and sighed. “No, she’s exactly who she says she is. She’s a tourist coming here to soothe her wounds from a bad relationship. I have her.”

  “What? Where is she?”

  “She’ll be coming with us.”

  “With us where?”

  “To our new house, of course. We’re leaving in a few minutes. Today is our wedding day. You can’t forget that, can you?”

  She stared at him. “We’ll never get any where in this blizzard.”

  Snow slashed against the windows like handfuls of wet sand. He lunged toward her and grabbed her wrists. He was stronger than she expected.

  He said, “It’s time for you to come with me now.”

  “No!” she screamed as loudly as she could. He merely laughed.

  “No one will hear you. You, me and Vicky, we’re the only ones here now. I made sure of that. I sent the e-mail to Steve and Nori about his son’s flight arriving two days early. And boy did I get lucky with a storm! Even your beloved boyfriend is off taking care of his poor benighted brother.”

  She fought against him but he only held her tighter.

  “I’ve finally got you and I’m not about to let you go.”

  “You’re terrible. You’re a monster. I’ll never go with you. Never.”

  She yelled. She kicked. She screamed. But he held her tightly. She said, “You did all of it. The invitations, the e-mails, the wig, the flowers, why?”

  “I’ve loved you from the beginning. I will be your husband and you will learn to love me like you love Alec. It won’t be hard. Alec and I are brothers.”

  “What was the wig and doll’s head all about?”

  “I needed you to be afraid. I needed you to need me. And you did. You needed me to rescue you last night.”

  She shook her head. “You’re crazy.”

  He let go of her hands, and cupped her cheeks in his palms. He brought her face within inches of his own. “I thought of nothing but you for twenty years. You will learn to love me.” His breath was sour and she fought to move her face to the side but once again he brought it even closer. He was about to clamp his lips on top of hers when she spit in his face.

  “I will never love you. Never!”

  He kept the spittle on his nose and grinned at her. “I forgive you for doing that,” he said. “I will forgive you everything. Including the abortion.”

  She stared at him, dumbfounded. He was insane, more insane than she realized. “I never had an abortion.”

  “Of course you did. You got rid of our baby. But I forgive you. I know it was my baby rather than Alec’s.”

  She couldn’t believe he was saying this. Could he be that deluded?

  He continued, “I know you pretended it was Alec’s baby because you were momentarily blinded into thinking you were in love with him. He did that to you, but I’ve known all along that it’s me you really love. That’s why I had to find you. That’s why I’ve been planning this for twenty years.”

  Her eyes were wide. She had to get away from this madman, but how? She squirmed and he chuckled. “I love the way you playact. Pretending that you hate me, but I know the truth. I know what’s in your heart.”

  She saw her chance. With one quick movement she reached into her jean pocket, pulled out the paring knife, thrust it forward and watched horrified as it sank into his jacket. Had she even broken his flesh?

  He yelled and staggered backward, his eyes wide and full of horror as he gazed at the knife handle sticking out of his arm. Then his demeanor suddenly changed. Smiling, he calmly pulled it out of his jacket, threw it from him and it clattered on the floor. He was bleeding a little, but he hadn’t been injured badly. Probably it had just nicked his skin.

  He grabbed her arms more harshly this time. “Okay,” he said. “You want to play rough I can play rough. I like rough games.” From his pocket he extracted a thick cable tie and bound her wrists together in front of her. She looked down helplessly at them.

  She thought about Alec, who was even now on his way to take care of his little brother. How could one family produce one son who was so good and decent and another who had turned so terribly wrong? It came to her then too, that she wanted Alec. She wanted to give them another chance. She didn’t want Bryan to win. She also began to realize how hard it must have been for Alec, how torn he would be most of the time. Family was family, after all.

  She didn’t want to die. She realized that her only salvation might be to play along with Bryan. She said, “Hey, Bryan.” She lifted her hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt you with a knife. You’re right. I was just playing along. But this wrist thing has gone a bit too far, don’t you think?”

  He chuckled. “You’re not getting away from me. We’re leaving now.”

  “I was thinking, why don’t we wait out the storm here?” She glanced outside. “We’ll never be able to get anywhere in this.”

  “You underestimate your old friend Bryan. Get on your coat.”

  “How can I get my coat on with my hands tied up with like this?”

  He picked up the bloody paring knife from the floor and with one quick snip the ties were undone. She wanted to run, but she didn’t know where Vicky was. An innocent person like Vicky shouldn’t be caught up in all of this. She put on her mittens and coat and tried to come up with a plan. He was watching her carefully. There would be no grabbing of another knife. Then she remembered that her car keys were deep inside the pocket of the jacket she had just put on. She carefully zipped it up making sure they didn’t jangle. She didn’t know how, but they might come in useful.

  The snow was already knee-deep and falling fast when they ventured outside. He pointed down at the frozen lake and laughed. “Aren’t I clever?”

  She couldn’t believe her eyes. A big dump truck with a blade was out on the ice. Its lights were on and it was idling on the lake.

  “A snowplow?” She looked at him.

  “Of course. What better way to get where we’re going?”

  They plodded in the deep snow. “We’ll drive to our new home in this.”

  Bath, she thought. They were on their way to Bath. All she could do was pray that Alec—or someone—would clue in.

  He told her to climb up into the passenger side of the snowplow and she did so. There was some s
ort of shackle attached to the metal floorboard and he chained her ankles to it and locked the chain in place with a key. Then smiling, he pocketed the key in the inner pocket of his jacket. He went around and got in the driver’s seat and started up the huge and powerful machine. Bryan leaned over and did up her seat belt. “Safety first,” he chuckled.

  He thrust the gearshift forward and they started lumbering across the lake.

  She asked him, “Where’s Vicky?”

  “Safe.” He said this without looking at her.

  Safe. She looked behind her where the snowplow’s tracks were being swallowed up by the snow as quickly as they were made.

  Would anyone find her here? Alec was gone. Steve was gone. It was just her and a crazy man in a huge snowplow.

  Alec should have left last night. Right at this moment, he should be sitting in the airport in Boston waiting for the flight to Albuquerque. But he just couldn’t bring himself to leave.

  He couldn’t stop worrying about Megan. Yes, he’d left Stu in charge of the case. Besides, Megan was probably in Baltimore by now. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. His suitcase was packed, but he couldn’t walk out that door. And the longer he left it, the worse the roads were getting to be. He bowed his head. For a long time he stayed that way. When he looked up he had made his decision.

  He wouldn’t go. Instead, he would work on the case. Megan was gone, but maybe it was time to meet the elusive Brad and Vicky.

  Today was Valentine’s Day. He didn’t know why he felt such a foreboding, he just did. Both he and Megan had received wedding invitations with Happy Twentieth on them. Was there some significance to the date?

  He didn’t want to think about his brother, didn’t want to blame the brother he had defended and protected his whole life, but his thoughts went unbidden back twenty years.

  After every date Alec had with Megan, Bryan would come into his room and ask him all about it. Even late at night Bryan would go into Alec’s room and ask lots of questions.

  How is she? Where did you go? What did you talk about? What did you say? What did she say? Did you kiss her? At that point Alec would answer lightly, “And that, bro, is where my answers stop.”

  Then there would be good-natured tussling between the two of them, lots of laughter. Bryan always ended up playfully punching Alec’s shoulder and saying, “The best man won.”

  Could it be that Alec mistook all of Bryan’s questions not as brotherly interest in Alec, but interest in Megan herself?

  Alec ran a hand over his face and looked out at the blizzard. He called Megan on her cell phone. But a recorded message said that the lines were not operating. What lines? Megan should be home in Baltimore by now. He couldn’t even leave a message. He checked her business card. He didn’t even have her home number, just her cell phone number and e-mail.

  He called the forensics lab in Augusta, where he had shipped the battery pack to be checked for fingerprints, to ask if there had been any headway made on the battery bar code.

  “We just got that in. Turns out it’s from a hobby shop in New Mexico. Las Cruces, New Mexico.”

  When Alec hung the phone up he knew how wrong he’d been about Bryan. Megan was right. Bryan was obviously responsible for all that happened. Maybe Bryan was holing up in one of the cabins at Trail’s End even now. Steve said he had checked them yesterday and had found nothing, but if Bryan was smart enough to carry out this plan, he was smart enough to stay hidden.

  Alec needed to get out to Trail’s End. He hoped Megan was home by now, but there were two other guests out there who might be in danger.

  The wind was coming in with a fury and snow had already drifted against his door. He wondered how much time he had before his four-wheel drive would not make it down the road at all. He grabbed his gun, his flashlight, his radio. He dressed in layers and layers of warm fleece and went outside. He swept off his car in the wind, started it and prayed that he wasn’t too late.

  His car fishtailed dangerously, but he managed to keep it on the snow-covered streets. His was the only vehicle on the road. All the smart people had heard the weather forecast and the police warnings urging people to stay home and inside tonight. His only luck would be that Bryan wouldn’t be able to get anywhere either.

  He headed down the road that led to the Trail’s End turnoff.

  He steered right. Then left. He tapped the brakes. Still nothing. So far he wasn’t panicking. He’d taken enough winter defensive driving courses that he knew how to get out of a skid on an icy road. And yet, when he tapped on his brakes ever so slightly, the way he’d been taught, nothing was happening. He tried again. Awareness dawned on him. His brakes were gone. By the time he figured this out, he was careening sideways down the road. Ahead of him was an embankment that led down to the lake. It was coming quickly, too quickly. He felt in those seconds what Paul must’ve felt as his car sped over the cliff, or what Sophia or Jennifer felt.

  He gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his hands spasmed.

  Megan, he thought wildly, I’ve made such a mess of things. And then going an awful speed, his car hit the snowbank.

  FOURTEEN

  Bryan managed to maneuver the huge and awkward snowplow across the lake. He skirted around the fishing shacks and drove up the road used by the cars and the trucks to access the fishing sheds.

  “I know all the back roads to Bath,” he bragged.

  “How did you know I lived in Bath?” She glared at him.

  “I make it my business to know everything about you. Actually,” he said after a pause, “your grandmother told me.”

  “She wouldn’t.”

  “She did. We were great pals. She liked me, as a matter of fact. At first.”

  “You fooled her.”

  “I fooled a lot of people. Do you know I even go to church? They think I’m some sort of Christian down there. Good thing I know all the lingo. But that was all part of my plan. I’ve been working on perfecting my plan for twenty years. Alec took you away from me once, and he won’t get away with that again. I made sure of that. I made it so he is flying down to New Mexico.” He laughed.

  Megan turned away from him. He was a monster. All she could do was stare out of her window and pray. She prayed that God would make her brave. She prayed that God would make her strong. She prayed that Vicky was okay. Her prayers seemed to be working, because even though the storm was all around her, even though she had no idea where she was, or even if she would get out of this alive, she was beginning to feel a kind of peace that could only come from God. She knew that whatever happened, God loved her. God had always loved her. God had grieved with her when she was five and her parents died. He had sorrowed with her when her grandmother died and her wedding was canceled. He had been right beside her when Jack died, and the rest of her life loomed dark as a tunnel in front of her. He was never punishing, just loving. She looked back at her captor, and realized that he could never hurt her.

  The blade in front was down and it looked like he was planning on plowing all the back roads to Bath. There were few cars on the road on this treacherous evening, which was probably a good thing. The truck bumped and lurched on. Bryan raised the blade a bit and they picked up speed.

  About an hour later, he pulled alongside a gas station. “I’m getting pretty good at this snowplow business,” he said. “I thought all these gears and gizmos would be hard to manage, but it’s not. I should get me a job doing this. I wonder how much they pay.”

  Megan didn’t say anything. Her ankles hurt from the chains and she was shivering. The window on her side was iced up but Bryan’s side was clear. He must have blocked her defroster so she couldn’t see out.

  He opened up the door and snow blew in on top of her. “I’m gonna go get us some coffee and food. The mother of my children needs to keep her strength up.”

  Megan watched him go into the gas station. She tried banging on the window, but there was no one around. She prayed that someone would come outside, that some
one would see her. She prayed for Vicky. She prayed for Alec.

  “God,” she breathed. “Show me what to do.”

  “Megan?” She heard a quiet voice from the back.

  Megan turned around, as much as her shackled legs would allow.

  “Vicky? Is that you?”

  “I’m on the floor in the back. Brad chained me here. He covered me with a blanket and tied a scarf around my mouth. I managed to work the scarf loose, but I’m so cold I can’t even feel my fingers.”

  “Vicky! I can’t believe you’re there!”

  “I am. Boy, I’ve heard about having bad luck with men, but this takes the cake. And I’m freezing.”

  “There’s some heat coming in at my feet. See if you can move the blanket a bit and you may feel it.”

  Megan heard movement from the back. “Got it. Great. This is much better.”

  “He isn’t who he says he is.”

  “That’s an understatement if there ever was one. He doesn’t even look the same. You know him?”

  “His name is Bryan Black.”

  “Who is he?”

  “Old boyfriend.”

  “Well, I guess you can pick them too, huh?”

  “All of what he wore was a disguise, including those funny teeth.”

  A groan from the back. “Megan, can you drive this thing? Can you get us out of here?”

  “My ankles are chained to the floor. My keys are in my pocket and on my key ring is my little penknife. But a lot of good that will do against this chain. I haven’t even tried.”

  Bryan was emerging from the truck stop. He held a tray with two coffees and a bag of food. “Shh. He’s coming back. I’ll pretend I don’t know you’re there.”

  “Good. We’ll think of something.”

  “If you know how to pray, pray.”

  Bryan was climbing up onto the snowplow, a big grin on his face. “Hey sugar, I got you a coffee. But I can’t remember how you take it. I guess that will be one of the things we’ll be learning about each other, how we take our coffee, what foods we like. It’s going to be so much fun getting to know each other.”