Free Thin Ice by Marsha Qualey

drowned and Mom said I couldn’t have the party.”
    Claire opened a cooler and quickly grabbed some milk. Two percent, a whole gallon, staples for two.
    I crouched down to Hannah’s size and met her face-to-face. “Do you like manicotti?”

CHAPTER 22
    “Why can’t they find his body?” I was feeding the woman; she could give me answers. “If they can recover bodies from an ocean, why not a river?”
    With her fork, Claire made tracks in the red sauce on her plate. “This was good.”
    “My neighbor was an official Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow when she was in high school. I’d never heard of such a thing, but her daughters insist it’s for real. She’s also an electrical engineer and teaches at the technical college.”
    Claire smiled. “I wonder if all engineers are naturally good cooks.”
    “Good at following recipes, I bet. Why can’t they find him, Claire?” Her wide blue eyes bored down. They were milky blue and rimmed in long lashes, probably the very thing that enchanted my brother. She sighed and her chest heaved.
    Okay, maybe it wasn’t the eyes.
    They sure didn’t charm me. All I could see in them was yet another adult measuring my competence and wondering, What can Arden handle?
    She wiped a bit of sauce with her finger, then licked. “They may never find him. If he hasn’t been recovered by the spring melt, the chances are good he won’t be.”
    “Why?”
    Hannah’s soft voice floated in from the living room; she was singing along with the theme to Doug. Good, she’d be hooked for at least thirty minutes.
    “The current will get too strong and the water will be too high. Either the body will be carried all the way to Lake Superior or it will be snagged someplace. If it’s snagged in an underwater rock hole or crevice, it could be stuck until it decomposes. Or, if it’s in a surface snag, well, either way it’s vulnerable to scavengers.”
    Like fish.
    “What exactly do you suppose happened that night, Claire? Have you thought about it?”
    This time her eyes didn’t measure; instead, they practically spat out judgment: Dumb question. “Of course I’ve thought about it Thought about how I spent hours that night trying to pretend it was no big deal that this guy I was involved with hadn’t shown up for dinner. I’ve thought about what would have happened if I’d sucked down my pride and called the tavern or called here earlier. I’ve thought about the last time I saw him and how we argued about his stupid new sled. Have I thought about it? Obsessed might be a better word.”
    “Me too. Mostly I think about the phone machine and how things might be different if he or I had turned it on that day. Usually we do. I know you called. I didn’t answer because I was in the tub.” Soaking safely in hot water while my brother thrashed and died in cold. “And I wonder sometimes how long he held on before slipping in. That’s almost the worst—thinking of him trying to get out, and struggling, then…” We both digested that horror in silence. Claire kept playing with her fork and the smear of marinara sauce on her plate.
    “The area of the river where he drowned is one of the most dangerous spots,” she said. “It comes through the bridge with extra force because it’s been narrowed, then it rushes toward that lowhead dam. The riverbed is rocky, with plenty of snags and holes for entrapment. More than likely his body was forced by the current under the ice into one. That’s where it will stay until the water warms. Do you want me to go on?”
    “Yes.”
    She sighed. “Even just a few yards down from where they found the sled, it’s too dangerous for diving.”
    “When it’s warmer?”
    “Especially then. The current will be too strong from all the rain and melt. It’s hard to believe he tried crossing where he did. There’s always that open patch, and the surrounding ice seldom thickens. Scott didn’t know how treacherous it was, he wasn’t that experienced. I