Page 6 of Thin Ice

Liam

Night.

I plugged the phone in and lay there.

Meaningful. My mom said it and now it was mine to figure out. What was meaningful to Alex Harrington? Not expensive — he'd had expensive his whole life. Not practical — he could buy practical without thinking. Something he couldn't get from a store or a catalog, or a family with a checkbook.

I didn't have the answer yet. But the question was in the room now, and it wasn't going anywhere.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep with it still turning.

Chapter 2: Alex

Ileft Ashford at 9:04 on a Saturday morning with a full tank and one piece of information my father didn't know I had.

A few hours to Brackett Lake. I'd driven it enough times to know every mile of it, which meant my hands could do the driving while the rest of me rehearsed.

Eldridge's voice had been living in my ear for days.

The athletic endowment. The boathouse renovation fund. The scholarship pool. The named chairs. Everything, Alex. Going back forty years.

A formal review on the January board agenda. Nothing pulled yet. Just the machinery, warming up where everyone could hear it. My father didn't threaten people. He scheduled things.

And he didn't know I knew.

I ran the dinner the whole way north: anticipate the questions, plan the silences, decide in advance where to put your hands. He would present the review whenever he was ready, and he would watch my face for the shatter.

There would be no shattering. I'd had plenty of time to do my shattering in private.

The road climbed. Farms, then forest, then the long ridge where the trees break on the right side, and there it was — Brackett Lake, white and enormous below.

I pulled onto the shoulder and put the car in park just to look at it. Snapped a photo and sent it to Liam.

Liam

Took you long enough.

Alex

I'm here now.

Liam

Wait till you hear it crack at night. Sounds like the whole lake talking in its sleep.

Alex

That's pretty poetic for you.

Liam

Shut up.

Alex

Hah. Twenty minutes out. Wish me luck.

Liam