On Thin Ice by Linda Hall Read Free Book Online Page B

trembled as she zipped up her jacket, and on her way back to her cabin, she thought about what he had said. The sheriff. What did Brad want with the sheriff? Why was he looking at her that way when he talked about the sheriff? And why did that request make her feel so uneasy?

SEVEN
    A t quarter after nine the next morning, Megan saw Alec’s car drive up the road and past her cabin and toward the lodge. She stepped into her boots and stood on the back stoop of the cabin as she watched him park near the lodge. He made his way not up the wide steps to the lodge door, but to another cabin close by. A brown dog bounded out to meet him and Alec bent down and scruffed him around his head.
    She hated to admit it, but she loved the sight of him.
    After she had escaped from the clutches of Brad and Vicky last night, she had sat at her laptop and done some online searching. She read again the accounts of the deaths of Sophia, Jennifer and Paul. Who was doing this? She wondered. None of it made any sense.
    All night she had gone over lists in her head; old school friends, people who liked her, people who didn’t like her, current clients, former clients. But ifsomeone wanted to kill the wedding party, then why wait twenty years? Her head hurt from all the thinking.
    She grabbed her jacket and put it on. She decided to walk up to the cabin that she had seen Alec enter. The snow that had been threatening last night had turned itself inside out and the morning shone with sun. It was even a bit warmer. She stepped into the felt-lined boots that Nori had loaned her, which belonged to one of her daughters. As clunky and big as they were, they kept her feet warm. She trudged up the cleared pathway. She didn’t see either Brad or Vicky. Good.
    She knocked on the cabin door. Alec opened it. He seemed surprised to see her. She entered the warm room. A brown dog bounded playfully at her feet.
    “That’s Chester,” Alec said with a grin. “Steve’s dog.”
    “Where’s Steve?”
    “I don’t know. I came here looking for him. I’m heading up to the lodge next.”
    She bent down and patted the top of Chester’s head.
    “I told Steve about us,” Alec said.
    “That’s good. I guess.”
    “He has some interesting ideas.”
    “Really?”
    Alec said, “Come for a walk with me. I want you to see something.”
    He wanted to go for a walk? “Okay.”
    “I also want to talk to you about something.”
    “Okay.”
    They took off up what looked like a snowmobile trail. It was plowed and easy to navigate. The path became steeper and more slippery as it went farther into the woods.
    They had climbed up the trail and were at a cleared place which overlooked the lake. It was gorgeous, full of sun in the early morning.
    “This is what I wanted to show you,” he said. His smile was shy. He wanted to show her this? Why? She asked him that.
    “Because this is such a great view.”
    She wondered if he was thinking about the first time they had hiked a path together. The two of them had climbed Mount Katahdin in Maine with a group from camp. That day was the day they fell in love. That was the day he had kissed her for the first time. As they stood together now, she found herself softening. Had he taken her up here so she would remember? Why did being with this man confuse her so much?
    Down below them on the lake, Brad and Vicky were snowshoeing. She could almost hear their laughter way up here.
    “My cabin neighbors,” Megan said. “Interesting people. I had shrimp and tea with them last night.”
    “Shrimp and tea. Interesting combination.”
    “It is.”
    “That’s them?” He pointed.
    “Yep.”
    “The guy looks sort of familiar.”
    “That’s what I thought. But I think it’s just because he looks like every picture of Santa Claus we’ve ever seen.”
    Alec shook his head as if trying to loosen an annoying thought. “I wanted to tell you about Steve’s good suggestions,” he said.
    “Suggestions about what?”
    “He thinks