On Thin Ice by Linda Hall Page A

never understood why he would do it. That’s the big thing, the why. Your grandmother was such a nice person. Everyone loved her. I thought Bryan did, too.”
    As Alec talked about the woman who had raised her, Megan felt tears form. He went on, “But he’s paid for it. Ten years in prison. We’re all trying to give him another chance.”
    Megan thought about that. Would she ever be able to forgive the man who had pushed her grandmother to her death? In her own strength, she didn’t think so, but maybe with God helping her, she could. She asked, “Does he come home very often?”
    Brad and Vicky’s laughter wafted up the mountain-side.
    “I try to visit him from time to time. But he still feels lost and humiliated, I think. There are so many thingshere he has to live down. He just doesn’t think people here will ever accept him the way he is now, changed. They’ll still remember the bully Bryan, the angry Bryan, the Bryan who could possibly murder.”
    “Do your parents fly out and visit him?”
    Alec shook his head. A small clump of snow fell from the tree and landed on his cheek. He brushed it away. “My father can’t fly. I’ve offered to take my mother with me, but she doesn’t want to leave my father. So, she’s waiting for Bryan to finally find it within himself to come home.”
    “Maybe with his fiancée?”
    “That’s what we’re hoping.”
    Megan looked down at the expanse of frozen lake.
    “Then tell your mother I’m coming, too. I’d like to visit her. I’d like to be a part of this investigation.”
    “Can you leave today?” he asked.
    “Today?” She raised her eyebrows.
    “I want to get there and back before the storm hits. I’ll call my parents, tell then you’re here and that you’re coming. My mother will like that.”
    I hope so, she thought. He took her arm and headed back down the trail. Could she forgive Bryan? Could she forgive his parents? Could she forgive Alec for not standing by her? Maybe meeting his parents was a start toward a life of forgiveness, a life of grace, a life of peace.
    Brad and Vicky were heading right toward them on the path, but when they saw Megan and Alec, Bradtook Vicky’s arm and steered her abruptly away and down another path. It appeared to Megan to be deliberate. She looked at Alec sharply, wondering if he noticed that too, but he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. She was about to say something, but then decided that she didn’t need to trouble him with the strange behavior of her neighbors. But, down at her cabin she was still troubled by it.
     
    Megan sat quietly in the passenger seat of Alec’s car as they made their way out of town that afternoon. How strange, he thought, sitting so close to her yet having so much time and space between them.
    They were not the same people as they were years ago. And he wondered if they had any future at all together. This crime would be solved, whether by him or by other police officers, and then she would be on her way back to her home and her life in Baltimore.
    How he wished that things could have been different. How he wished he hadn’t messed up so badly back then. And now they were on their way to see his parents. Back when they were engaged, his mother had really liked Megan.
    “You have chosen a wonderful girl to marry,” she had said. “Even though your father and I weren’t sure you were ready for a step such as marriage, we’re both quite taken with her. I think we’re all going to have a long and wonderful relationship.”
    “Do you go back a lot?” Megan suddenly asked him.
    He didn’t immediately know what she was referring to, back here? He said, “I visit my parents about once a month.”
    “How’s your mother? You said she was frail.”
    He shrugged. “You’ll see her. Things have been hard for her.”
    Megan turned to look out at the snow-covered scenery scuttling past them. After a while she said, “I’ve never been back. Just before the trial I left. I never