“Liam won that contest,” Gina explained, getting some of her composure back. “He was awarded the hatchet. But it was later discovered, after complaints and reviewing videotape of the event, that he stepped over some sort of line at some point, and he was disqualified. There were allegations that he cheated, although it was quickly hushed up. Duncan came in second, so they named him the winner. But Liam kept the hatchet. He refused to return it or to pass it on to the rightful winner.”
So there it is, Candy thought. Liam really was the killer.
“That’s why Duncan was so upset tonight at the ball, isn’t it? That’s why he hit Liam.” And quickly Candy explained what had happened a short time earlier at the Moose Fest Ball.
“It all makes sense,” Felicia said. “Duncan thought Liam had set him up. The records show Duncan won the contest and should have received the hatchet as an award. But only a few people know the real story. So it was natural for the police to suspect Duncan.”
“But if that’s true,” Candy said, “the truth would have eventually come out. They would have discovered the hatchet wasn’t really Duncan’s in a matter of hours, if not minutes. If you’re right, there must be several people who knew Liam didn’t return the hatchet. He couldn’t hide the fact.”
“Who knows what was on Liam’s mind?” Felicia said obliquely.
“Perhaps,” Gina mused, “Liam thought that by using misdirection—the hatchet everyone thought was Duncan’s—he could buy himself a little time until he had a chance to escape.”
Candy considered that possibility but quickly dismissed it. “That doesn’t make much sense. Victor was killed Thursday morning. Liam was hanging around here all weekend. He was at the ball tonight with Wanda Boyle. He could be the one who’s been feeding her valuable information for her blog. Why would he do all that if he murdered your husband? Why hang around for so long?”
Felicia’s eyes shifted about quickly before they returned to Candy. “He’s always been a glory hound,” she said finally, in a harsher tone. “He can’t help himself. He obviously wanted the attention.”
“But why?” Candy asked. “Why would he kill Victor? For publicity? Because they’re rivals? Why?”
The questions hung in the room for several beats, as all three women looked at each other. Candy heard another soft toot from outside. Maggie was getting impatient—or just worrying about her.
It was Candy who broke the silence. “All three of us need to go to the police,” she said with finality. “You need to tell them everything you know.”
Felicia shook her head. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.” She gave Candy a hard look. “As far as I see it, there are only two options here. You can let us go—or we can make this difficult.” She wiggled her hand under her cloak, where it had remained since Candy had entered the cabin.
Candy got the hint. She knew they were up to something, though she hadn’t quite figured out what it was yet, but she stepped back toward the door. “Okay. Maybe you’re right. Maybe this was none of my business and I’ve gone a little too far. So, I… think I’ll just excuse myself, and let you two get on with whatever it is you have to do.”
Felicia smiled, and her eyes reflected pinpricks of light. “Thank you,” she said. Under the cloak, she slipped something into a hidden pocket. She turned to Gina. “You need to finish packing. It’s time to go.”
Gina nodded. She rose wearily and headed toward the bedroom. “I just have one more bag to finish packing.” She stopped in the doorway, turning back. “Oh, and I looked all over for that red scarf you said you lost,” she told Felicia. “You know, the one with the gold tassels at the end? Well I can’t find it anywhere. I’m afraid it’s gone.”
Forty-Two
Something clicked inside Candy, an almost physical feeling. The realization coursed through her being, and suddenly she saw new avenues of understanding that had not been visible before. She saw Victor’s steel blue Honda Pilot SUV, sitting in front of room twenty-three at the Shangri-La Motel. And she saw a red scarf with gold tassels, tossed into the backseat.
Her body tingled. She felt like she wanted to shake out her hands to calm them. When she spoke, her voice was uneven, a little jittery, though she did her best to keep it steady as she turned her gaze to Felicia. “That’s it, isn’t it? That explains everything.”
Felicia gave her an annoyed look. “What does?”
“It was you,” Candy said breathlessly. “You were with Victor that morning, weren’t you?”
The other two women went silent. They exchanged glances, but neither of them spoke. The room had grown deathly still.
“What makes you say that?” Felicia finally asked. Gina had gone as white as fresh snow.
“You were with him in his car, weren’t you? That morning—in his Honda. He must have picked you up somewhere.” Candy looked around the room quickly as the pieces started falling into place. “This is your cabin, isn’t it? This is where you were staying? But you didn’t want to be seen with him here. Maybe there are people you know staying here, and you had to be secretive. So he picked you up and you rented a room at the Shangri-La.” She paused and gave Felicia a penetrating look. “But you made one mistake. You left your scarf in the backseat of his car.”
Felicia looked stunned. Gina suddenly couldn’t stand on her own two feet. Eyes rolling up into her head, she wobbled to the bed, where she collapsed.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” Candy pressed. “You were having an affair with Victor Templeton!”
“No!” Gina cried out, and she shot to her feet again. “No!” But her emotions and weariness got the better of her, and she sank back onto the bed.
Candy turned toward Felicia.
The other woman looked strangely calm. Her black hair seemed to emphasize the severity of her jawline, her sharp nose and high cheekbones. She held her body tightly, as if ready to spring, and she had a confident look in her dark eyes.
“It was an accident,” she said after a few moments.
Gina was making strange trilling noises, as if she was trying to block out all sound from her hearing, but Felicia continued. “He came after me, if you must know. But I knew he would. You see, I understood Victor. And I understood what drove him.”
“And what was that?” Candy asked.
“He hated Liam. He did everything he could to beat him—but he usually came in a distant second, or even third. But he wouldn’t give up. He competed against Liam for everything.”
“Including women.”
Felicia nodded. “Including women. Including me.”
Another moment of realization. “Ah, so you were Liam’s girl at one time.”
“I was.” In an emotional moment, Felicia averted her eyes, trying to hold back tears. “But he eventually tired of me. That’s the way he is. You see, I understand what drives Liam too.”
“So once Liam cast you aside, Victor swooped in.”
Felicia cast a worried look at Gina. “I didn’t want any of this. You should know that. I tried to hold him off.”
“How did he die?” Candy asked softly.
Felicia swallowed hard. “Like I said, it was an accident.”
A trembling voice nearby, breaking into their conversation, said, “It was my fault.”
Candy turned.
Gina was on her feet again. She stood in the doorway, clasping her hands tightly together in front of her. “I made him do it. I drove him mad.”
“No,” Felicia said.
“Yes!” She snapped out the word but forced herself to speak calmly as she continued. “I was the one who provoked him. I was the one who drove him to violence.”
She paused, allowing herself a breath and a chance to collect her thoughts. She turned her weary eyes to Candy, who could see the sadness in them. “I’ve known for a long time about Victor’s wandering eye,” she said in a rush of breath, as if she was getting a great weight off her chest. “And I know I’m not the most attractive woman in the world.…”
; “Gina—” Felicia began.
But Gina held up a hand. “No, let me finish.” She turned back to Candy. “The truth is, I loved Victor. I really did. When we were first married, we were an amazing team. And when we started sculpting ice, it was even better. But when we started going out on the road, and Liam came into our lives, everything changed. Over the past few years, Victor’s jealously and hatred of Liam has grown deeper with every event, every encounter. Their animosity toward each other cast a dark shadow over the entire circuit. I tried to talk to him. I pleaded with him to let it go. I even suggested we quit the circuit and go back to our normal lives. But he couldn’t.”
Felicia picked up the story. “So yes, Victor came after me, in part because he thought I was still Liam’s woman. He insisted we get together when we arrived here. He said he’d rented us a room in the back of some sleazy hotel, where we’d have some privacy. But we didn’t meet there. I suggested a neutral location—a restaurant way up Route 1.”
“Did you spend the night with him?” Candy asked.
Felicia raised her eyebrows. “Things just happened. I… I’m not really sure I remember all the details. But yes, we went back to the room he’d rented. Gina found us in the morning. And that’s when…”
Candy turned back to Gina. “How did you know where to find them?”
Gina’s gaze had been distant, but now she refocused. “I… I don’t know.” She had to think about it. “I received a text message,” she finally said.
“From who?”
“I don’t know. The sender’s name was blocked. But it told me where to find my husband. So I went to get him. And when I found him, he… he got very angry, like it was me who had done something wrong. He acted like I was ruining his life.” She paused as a wave of emotion threatened to wash over her. “He… he said he didn’t love me anymore.” She paused again, in an effort to keep her emotions under control. “And that’s when I told him I was having an affair with Liam. Just to hurt him.”
Candy sensed the underlying message. “But you weren’t, were you?”
Gina sniffled as she shook her head. “I knew what it would do to him if I told him. I knew how he would react. That’s why I said it. It wasn’t true… but it doesn’t matter now. He…”
She faltered again, and Felicia continued for her. “He attacked her,” Felicia said, and nodded at the scarf around Gina’s throat. “Show her.”
Reluctantly Gina nodded. When she had unwrapped the scarf, Candy could see the bruises around her neck.
“He started choking her,” Felicia said angrily. “He was hurting her.” Her eyes grew hard. “So I had no choice. He had brought a bottle of Champagne with him, but we hadn’t opened it. It was the only weapon I could find. I hit him in the head with it—hard.”
“She saved my life,” Gina said as her hand went involuntarily to her neck. “I’m not sure what he would have done. When Felicia hit him, all three of us fell.” She held Candy’s gaze, her eyes clear. “Only two of us got up.”
“He must have… hit his head on the edge of a table as he fell. It cracked something. I… I don’t know for sure. It was an accident,” Felicia said for the third time, to solidify the point. “I’m sorry it happened. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I was just trying to help Gina.”
“But why didn’t you just go to the police?” Candy asked.
“Because I didn’t want to go to jail,” Felicia said defiantly, “and because I wouldn’t let him ruin the lives of two women.”
When they’d told her the rest, how they’d found a toboggan leaning up against the motel wall, how they’d bundled Victor up in a blanket, laid him out on the long flat sled, and hauled him deep into the woods, she’d listened, fascinated yet saddened, since the desperation in both women’s voices was evident.
They’d taken turns pulling the toboggan, and it sounded like they’d struggled every step along the way. “We thought if someone found him in the woods they’d think his death was an accident,” Gina said, sadness and regret evident in her voice. “We just didn’t think he’d be found so soon.”
When she finished, they were all silent again. Candy thought over everything she’d just heard, but some of it still didn’t make sense to her. “I don’t understand,” she said after a few moments. “Victor was found with a hatchet in his back. But you didn’t put it there?”
Gina shook her head. “We never had the hatchet. Victor died from a head wound.”
“But how did Liam’s hatchet get in Victor’s back?”
“We don’t know,” Felicia said. “Someone must have tampered with the body. All we can tell you is that Victor went crazy and tried to hurt Gina—so we did what we had to do to defend ourselves. In some way, Victor got what he de-served. And neither of us is going to pay for it, because we’re leaving.”
“But you can’t,” Candy said. “You have to go to the police. You have to tell them what happened.”
“And go to jail for twenty years?” Felicia sneered.
“They’ll understand it was in self-defense. You can’t run all your lives. You have to give yourselves up.”
“We’re still talking jail time,” Felicia said. “And why? Because of Victor? Or because of Liam? That’s something neither of us is willing do.”
She nodded at Gina. “We have to leave,” she said, softly yet firmly.
Equally firmly, Candy said, “I can’t let you go.”
Felicia reached under her black cloak and withdrew a small pistol. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
Forty-Three
Felicia motioned toward Gina with the gun. “Get your stuff. We’re going.”
But Gina shook her head. Her expression had changed. A few minutes earlier she’d been ready to run, but at the sight of the gun she collapsed in on herself, losing her resolve. “Felicia, put that away.”
“Shut up. Just do as I say.”
“But you can’t hurt anyone else.”
“We’re in this together. You know that. We’ve talked about that.”
“But maybe Candy is right,” Gina said, sounding ex-hausted. “If we start running now, we’ll never stop, and I don’t want to live this way for the rest of my life.” She looked with pleading eyes at Felicia. “I think Candy’s right. We should go to the police and turn ourselves in.”
“We have a car outside,” Candy added in an encouraging tone. “We can all go together. I’ll help you explain what happened.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Gina insisted. “We have to tell them.”
A dark look crossed Felicia’s face. “Fine,” she said, shifting the gun toward Candy and back to Gina. “You go ahead and turn yourself in. Tell them everything that happened. But you’re not the one who smashed in Victor’s head with a bottle of Champagne. They’ll let you off easy.” Her voice grew tight. “But not me.”
Ominously she waved the gun between the two of them. “So what am I going to do with the two of you?”
Candy tensed. “Felicia, don’t do anything crazy.”
“I’ve already done something crazy,” Felicia said. “One or two more somethings won’t make much difference at this point, will they?”
“Yes, they will,” Candy said in her most convincing tone. “It’s like you said. Killing Victor was an accident. The police will understand that. But killing us…” She let her voice trail off.
Gina continued, speaking calmly. “We’ll tell them what happened. They’ll understand.”
But her words were lost, for Felicia was already moving. She crossed the room in a half dozen steps, keeping the gun pointed at them the whole time. “Don’t be naive, Gina. We covered up a murder. We dumped the body in the woods. They may not lock us up for the rest of our lives, but one way or another, the next few years will be hell. And I’m not going to put myself through that.”
“So what are you going to do?” Candy asked, steeling herself.
Felicia thought about it briefly before she said, “I’m going away.”
&nbs
p; “But where will you go? You’ll be running from the law for the rest of your life. They’ll come after you. They’ll find you.”
“Let them try,” Felicia sneered. “They’ll never find me. And at least I’ll be free.” She motioned toward the luggage by the door, then pointed the gun at Candy. “The two bags on the left. Carry them out to the car.”
Candy hesitated. In her mind she ran through a number of scenarios but quickly realized the best approach was just to do whatever Felicia asked. Still, she hesitated, which caused Felicia’s dark side to flare.
“Now,” she growled, “or I’ll put a hole in you.”
Candy doubted Felicia would take such an extreme measure but she had no interest in putting her theory to the test. She glanced at Gina, who was grim-faced, and then did as Felicia asked, moving cautiously to the door and taking one of the heavy bags in each hand. As she lifted them, she struggled and stumbled a little, causing Felicia to bark at her as she opened the door, letting in a blast of cold air. But Gina rushed forward, taking one of the bags from Candy’s hand and heading out the door into the dark night.
Outside, Candy immediately thought of Maggie and surreptitiously looked over toward the far side of the parking lot, where the Subaru wagon was parked. But it was partially obscured by the trees along the front of the cabin, and she couldn’t get a clear view of it.
Felicia impatiently poked her in the back with the muzzle of the gun. “Wait here,” she instructed as she walked to the driver’s-side door, opened it, and reached inside, pulling a small lever that popped open the rear hatchback door. “Put the bags in there.”
Candy hesitated again. Felicia was several steps away from her. She toyed with the idea of dropping the bag and making a run for it, perhaps trying to get to Maggie’s car, or perhaps even hefting the bag up and flinging it at Felicia in an effort to throw her off balance long enough for her and Gina to escape.
But again she quickly decided against it. She was too tired, too cold, and too cautious to put herself and Gina in further danger. So she did as Felicia instructed, and lifted the bag up into the back of the vehicle. She then helped Gina lift the other bag in.
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