On Thin Ice (12 page)

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 sort 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 ques
tions 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.

B
ryan 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 someone 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.”

Sugar?
Megan felt like screaming, but forced herself to remain calm. Her best hope lay in playing along with this madman.

“Thanks, Bryan. So you bought us a house? Tell me about it.”

“You’ll love it, sugar. It’s got a big yard with plenty of spare bedrooms for our big family. I want a big family, don’t you? I grew up with only one brother, and he wasn’t much of one, was he? He ended up stealing my girlfriend. I always felt like I was cheated, you know? I always vowed that we would have a big family, don’t you agree?”

“Sure.” She thought hard. “Before we head down to Bath, I have a bit of a problem, Bryan. I have to use the ladies’ room.”

He studied her. “The restroom, huh?”

She shrugged and tried to look as contrite as she could.

He came around and opened her door and got his keys to unlock the chains. He said, “I’ll walk you in. There’s only one bathroom so I’ll wait right outside the door. Any funny business and Vicky will die.”

“Bryan,” she said, and pouted. “There won’t be any funny business. We’re getting married, aren’t we?”

“And don’t try anything funny in there. When you
come out I’m going to go in and look the room all over just to make sure you haven’t written on the walls or anything.”

Once inside the washroom Megan stood in front of the mirror trembling, and she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

Oh God,
she prayed,
I know You’re in control. Please help me think of something. Anything.
She pulled down a piece of paper towel to dry her eyes.

Alec should have known that Bryan would tamper with his brakes. It was Bryan’s battery pack they had found. But in his position as protector/elder brother, he made himself not see it. He had no doubt that Bryan could kill. He had killed before. He had killed Megan’s sweet grandmother, plus three of their friends. Their friends! How and why he did this, Alec didn’t know.

Anyone who had killed three people would want Alec out of the way, too. Fortunately, the snowbank and the lack of other drivers on the road saved him and everyone else from serious harm. He pushed away the inflated air bag. He checked himself for injuries, but he seemed to be in one piece. The next thing was to find his flashlight and phone. He found his cell phone on the floor and called Stu with the particulars and asked him to come with his snowmobile.

He reached around for his flashlight, and found it on the floor of the passenger seat. He picked it up and
at the same time his fingers touched a piece of paper. He picked it up. It was a plain white envelope with his name on it.

What was this?

He opened it up and extracted the small note card. In the same block capital letters that were written on the invitation was written: THE BEST MAN WON

The best man won.

Suddenly its meaning became very clear. Bryan was to have been his best man. It was Bryan. It was like a stab, one more jab. His mother’s friend had been right. Bryan had been here, was still here.

When Stu arrived, Alec filled him in. Stu had brought along a second snowmobile helmet. Alec hopped on the back of the snowmobile. The two of them took off down the road to Trail’s End.

“Something came into the department,” Stu shouted to him over the storm. “Earl reported a stolen snowplow.”

“Who would steal a snowplow?”

“I told him we’d get to it later. Maybe Pete or Peach did. For fun. You know those old guys.”

“Crazy town.”

Stu drove the snowmobile expertly down the road, even though at times it was difficult to see where he was going. Darkness was descending, which would make their search even more difficult.

All of the cabin lights were out when they got there—even the outdoor lights—and Alec suspected a
power outage. But that didn’t make sense. This place was on the town grid and they still had power in town.

Stu pointed at a telephone pole. Through the snow they could see that the wires had been neatly snipped and were dangling in the wind.

“They’ve been cut,” Alec said.

Closer they saw that Megan’s car was there. She hadn’t driven to Baltimore. His fear increased.

He saw no lights from the cabins, no candles in the windows, no flashlights. They went first to Megan’s cabin. All was darkness inside.

“Megan,” he called. “Megan!”

They shone their lights around and Alec saw the wig and the beard inside the cabin. He was puzzled until he remembered the description of Brad—gray hair, gray beard, funny teeth. His light soon found a pair of white gag teeth on the table, along with a pair of sunglasses. Bryan had disguised himself. No wonder he had made himself scarce when Alec came around.

Stu was holding up a lined vest. “What’s this? Looks like a jacket with a bunch of pillows in it.”

“A fat suit,” Alec said without emotion. “My brother dressed himself up in a fat suit.” They put all of the things they could find, including a small paring knife tipped with blood, into plastic evidence bags. Stu shone his light on two packed suitcases standing by the door.

He said, “Looks like she was planning to leave.”

“But got stopped,” Alec said. His fear was turning
into full-fledged dread. She had to be alive. She just had to be. He loved her!

They checked the other cabins. All were devoid of inhabitants. In the cabin closest to Megan’s was a lot of women’s clothing and a few paperback books.

“Didn’t Megan say Brad had a friend named Vicky? This is probably where she’s staying.”

They quickly looked through these things and then went on to the next cabin.

They spent more time in the cabin two doors down from Megan. It contained a lot of camera gear and two laptop computers. Alec said, “I think this is where Bryan stayed. We’ll have to take these computers with us.”

Stu said, “There are no saddlebags on the snowmobile. We’ll take as much as we can and then come back later.”

“Right now the most important thing is to find Megan. Earl said that Brad came around looking for a snowmobile.”

“One problem with that is that you can’t fit three people on a snowmobile.”

Alec thought about that. He didn’t want to think the worst, but if Bryan had killed four people, it would be nothing for him to get Vicky out of the way before he took Megan. Unless Vicky was in on it.

Alec said, “We could spend all day looking through the snow for a body, however I think we have to look
for Megan and Bryan. I’m pretty sure she’s alive and I’m pretty sure he’s got her.”

“You sound sure of that,” Stu said.

“He’s been obsessed with Megan forever. I didn’t see it. He used me to get to her.”
Bath,
he thought suddenly. “He’s taking her to Bath. That’s where we have to go.”

Stu said, “The highways are closed. I don’t think we’ll get through, even with this trusty snowmobile of mine.”

“We have to try.” Alec felt desperate.

“If they’re on a snowmobile, they won’t get far. In fact, I would say we’d better get back to town or we won’t be able to see the road ourselves.”

Alec hopped on the back of Stu’s snowmobile, and away they went. The storm was increasing. And Megan was out there somewhere in the middle of it with a madman.