Town in a Wild Moose Chase

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