On Thin Ice. Linda Hall

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СКАЧАТЬ that the baby had been his, too.

      Megan pulled off his hat and laid it on her lap and sighed. She fingered a few loose threads and looked out the window. He drove past a few businesses, mostly closed up for the winter now. With temperatures hovering at twenty degrees below, few people were about.

      Megan looked up, seemed to remember something, leaned forward and opened the glove compartment. She said, “This morning someone gave me this.” She pulled a square white card out of a manila envelope.

      He blinked at the large white rectangular card that Meggie held in her hands. The front of it was embossed in cherry blossoms and hearts. He recognized it immediately. It was one of their wedding invitations. She turned it over to show him the back. Written in large block letters were the words, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY NUMBER TWENTY. Their twentieth anniversary would have been on Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day was next week.

      He skidded slightly on the slick road. “Who gave you that?” he asked, quickly regaining control of the wheel.

      “This morning I went into a coffee shop and someone handed it to me. It had my name on it. Meg Brooks.”

      “What coffee shop?”

      “The one with the big boat painted along the side.”

      He nodded. “The Schooner Café. Who gave that to you?”

      She shrugged. “I don’t know. I walked into the coffee shop and a waitress came over and asked me if I was Meg Brooks. When I said yes, she handed me this envelope. She said that someone had come in a few days ago with an envelope to give me when I showed up. When I looked at her in surprise, she said that everyone who comes to Whisper Lake Crossing eventually stops in there for coffee.”

      “Who knew you were coming here?” he asked.

      “Nobody knew I was coming here.” She placed the invitation on her lap.

      Alec shook his head slowly. What was happening here? “Describe the waitress who gave that to you.”

      “She was blonde, big hair, sort of heavy, seemed talkative.”

      “That would be Marlene. She owns the Schooner Café.”

      He did a quick U-turn on the mostly deserted street.

      “Where are we going?” she asked him.

      “The Schooner,” he said. “We need to talk to Marlene. We need to figure this out.”

      Megan nodded. “That’s a good idea. Something weird is happening. I want to find out what.”

      They stopped at a red light. He looked long and hard at her. He wanted to protect her. This time he didn’t want to walk away from her. But this time would he be strong enough to stay?

      THREE

      Megan could tell he was watching her, studying her as they sat across from each other at the Schooner Café. He ordered coffees for the two of them, even though she didn’t particularly want coffee. He hadn’t asked her. He’d gone ahead and ordered. Their waitress was a pretty, dark-haired, tall young woman whom Alec seemed to know.

      “My mother’s just at the bank for a minute,” the girl said in answer to Alec’s question. She poured coffee into two white mugs and set them down on the table between them. “Would you like something to eat? Would you like menus?”

      Megan shook her head and encircled the cup of coffee with her hands. It warmed them.

      Alec added, “No. We just need to see your mother.”

      “She should be back in a minute. You want me to call her on my cell phone?”

      “If you wouldn’t mind,” Alec said.

      Megan looked down into her coffee, stared into the swirling brown liquid.

      She couldn’t meet Alec’s eyes. She was afraid of what he might ultimately ask.

      She had left because of their baby. Her pregnancy was beginning to show and she vowed then that no one would ever know she was carrying Alec’s baby. She was young, unmarried and ashamed. When he left her, when he didn’t believe her, she meant to take their baby away from him forever.

      She pretended to study the saltshaker. Alec took out a small notebook and began writing something down in it. For a long time they sat there thinking their own thoughts and not talking.

      A few moments later the door opened and in breezed the blonde woman who had given the envelope to her this morning. She came over to their table and shrugged out of her bulky pink faux fur coat.

      “Selena said you wanted to see me, Alec? Oh, hello,” she said to Megan.

      “We meet again,” Megan said quietly.

      “Yes. It’s nice to see you.” To Alec she said, “Selena said this was important.” There was concern in Marlene’s blue eye-shadowed eyes.

      “It’s about this envelope.” He showed her. “Do you know who gave this to you?”

      Marlene shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen the man before in my life. He came in here and said that when Meg Brooks showed up to please give her this. Then he handed the envelope to me. I said, ‘I have no idea who Meg Brooks is.’ And he said that in a few days a woman would be coming in here, a stranger, and I was to ask her name and give her this letter.” She looked at Megan. “I figured it was something you were expecting.”

      Megan was about to say something, and Alec said, “What did he look like?”

      Marlene sighed, her eyebrows furrowing. “Well, let me think. I would say he was about your height, Alec. Give or take. Medium build. Really dark hair. I remember that. Black and thick.”

      “Beard? Clean shaven?”

      “I don’t remember a beard. So, probably clean shaven. I like a beard on a man. I would have remembered a beard.”

      “Dark complexion?”

      “I really don’t remember. Not black. But not swarthy.”

      “Didn’t you think the whole thing was kind of odd?”

      “I thought it was odd to begin with, but after a while I really didn’t give it much thought. I figured Meg Brooks must be a relative or something.” Marlene crossed her arms over her sizable bosom and nodded. “Is this important?”

      “It might be. Did he say where he was staying in town?”

      “I got the impression that he wasn’t staying anywhere in town, that he was just passing through.”

      “What gave you that impression?”

      “I don’t know. Just the way he seemed, all in a hurry or something. And he seemed nice enough, so I took the envelope and said, ‘I can’t promise anything, but sure.’ Then this morning Meg Brooks in the flesh shows up.” She looked down at Megan.

      “Did СКАЧАТЬ