CHAPTER 23
La vendetta è meglio servita fredda.
“You don’t know anything about me,” Cathy seethed. “If you did, you’d know how wrong you are.”
Cathy’s words sounded frighteningly similar to one of the last things Alberta’s daughter, Lisa Marie, had said to her. Instantly, Alberta was taken back to the past, to a time before she moved to Tranquility, when her husband was alive and her daughter was living nearby with her family, and she felt her heart break. If only I did something different, Alberta thought. If only I said something less hurtful maybe Lisa Marie would never have moved away and given up.
The past couldn’t be changed no matter how many hours were spent wishing it could be, no matter how many rosaries were said or how many prayers were made to God, the Blessed Mother, and all the angels and saints. Everything that has already happened remains the same, and the only thing that can be changed is the future. And Alberta was determined to say and do the right thing to uncover the truth and make sure that Pamela’s murderer was handed over to the police.
Alberta was sometimes surprised at how strongly she felt when it came to solving a crime, but thanks to Jinx she had been given a purpose and it made her feel good. Because in a life and death situation, there are usually two sides—evil and good—and Alberta was proud to be on the side of good. Even if being on that side often brought with it more names in the enemies column.
“I thought you were my friend, Alberta,” Cathy said.
That was a bit of an overstatement. Alberta and Cathy had certainly developed a relationship that given some time could have developed into a friendship, but at the present moment they weren’t friends. There was also the matter of some secret piece of information Cathy wanted to share with Alberta. Nothing had yet been revealed or hinted as to the subject matter Cathy wanted to discuss with Alberta other than the fact that the conversation was to be private and kept getting interrupted. After the combative dialogue they were currently having, it wasn’t clear if that conversation would ever take place.
“You shouldn’t take this personally, Cathy,” Alberta said, “I’m only trying to get to the truth.”
“This is almost as riveting as the Battle of the Carmens in ’88,” Charlie commented.
“The what?” Sloan asked.
“At the Calgary Olympics, Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas both skated to music from the opera Carmen in their long programs,” Charlie explained. “Katarina won and became the second woman in history to win back-to-back gold medals. No one else has done it since.”
“That’s fascinating, but Vinny told us not to mention that German skater’s name,” Freddy remarked.
“He told us not to say Katarina’s name in front of Pamela!” Charlie screamed. “Pamela’s dead! She’s beyond upset.”
“Will you two quit it?” Jinx shouted. “We’re trying to solve this murder and you’re not helping.”
“Sorry, Jinx,” Freddy said. “He just pushes my buttons.”
“Like Alberta’s pushing mine,” Cathy said.
“With all the lies you and your ice posse here have been spewing, it’s hard to untangle the web,” Jinx added. “I mean, you’ve all been lying since the first day we got here.”
“I’d like everyone to know that I haven’t lied,” Charlie interjected.
Freddy scowled at the man. “Dude, you seriously need to shut up and let the ladies talk.”
Charlie scowled at Freddy, but since he was still nursing the shiner Freddy gave him with a bag of ice, he did as he was told and didn’t risk another altercation.
“Thank you, Freddy,” Alberta said.
Freddy beamed with pride at the acknowledgment and despite the seriousness of the situation, Jinx couldn’t hide her own smile as she was delighted that two of her favorite people got along so well. But then one of her favorite people had to remind her that they weren’t here to smile or laugh or get closer to each other, they were only here to get closer to the truth of who killed Pamela Gregory. And Alberta was inching toward that goal every time she spoke.
“You can’t deny what you’ve done, Cathy,” Alberta stated.
“I didn’t kill anyone!” she protested.
“But you didn’t do anything once you knew that someone was killed,” Alberta continued.
“Alberta! How many times do I have to say it, I don’t know who killed Pamela!” Cathy shrieked.
“I’m not talking about Pamela, I’m talking about Dimitri,” Alberta corrected. “You knew what Max did and yet you kept quiet about it. Not only that, but you willingly set the stage for another murder.”
Cathy began to pace the room and if the weather outside wasn’t still blizzard-like conditions, someone would’ve have barred the door for fear that she would run outside and into the woods. But there was nowhere for Cathy to hide, and by the frantic way she kept shaking her arms at her sides and then running her hands through her hair, it was clear she understood that not only was she being accused of participating in a murder, she also had nowhere to run. There was no salvation except for the truth.
She turned to face Alberta and the others, and finally her body stopped moving. She stood still and breathed deeply. Slowly, her features relaxed and her shoulders lowered, her arms stopped shaking and she temporarily bowed her head as if she needed to avoid eye contact for a few moments while she found the courage and the words to continue. When she found what she wanted to say, she adopted Alberta’s tactic and lobbed an accusation at her inquisitor.
“What would you have done if you suspected someone in your family of committing murder but couldn’t prove it?” Cathy asked. Her voice was soft, but her words were explosive. “Would you turn them in to the police without sufficient proof and risk destroying their life? Or would you believe in their innocence and hope and pray every night and day that your baseless intuition was wrong?”
Alberta looked over at Jinx and Joyce and smiled wistfully. Cathy was using the family card. She may not have known Alberta for very long, but she knew her well and she knew that Alberta would answer the question in only one way.
“That’s exactly what I would do,” Alberta admitted. “But that’s not to say it isn’t wrong.”
“See! You’re just like me,” Cathy said. “So stop persecuting me.”
“She isn’t persecuting you, Cathy, she’s asking questions,” Sloan said in Alberta’s defense. “And you continue to avoid answering. Why did you bring Pamela here if you suspected that Max killed Dimitri, given your past history?”
“I told you! I thought it would finally bring us all together,” Cathy clarified. “I knew it was risky, but for God’s sake, I needed to make this lodge a success and Pamela owed me that much!”
“And she knew it,” Max said. “That’s why she accepted. Pamela knew that she needed to make up for her past sins.”
“She was just a kid when it happened, Max,” Cathy said, shaking her head in sympathy with her fallen friend. “Pamela wasn’t able to fight back against Dimitri and neither were we. He was too powerful.”
“Sounds like Dimitri was more than just a coach to all of you,” Joyce remarked.
“He was like a father,” Cathy said. “So when he betrayed me by not only choosing Pamela over me and Patrick, but deliberately putting me in harm’s way while protecting Pamela, it took me years to come to terms with that. Could you imagine your father acting in such a way?”
“I could,” Charlie confessed. “My old man was a figlio di—”
“Language, Charlie,” Alberta interrupted before he could finish.
“Sorry,” Charlie said, duly chastised. “Daddy was an SOB.”
Thankfully none of the others could imagine their fathers causing them such pain, even though Alberta and Helen’s father, Frank, could be—as their mother would often say—as strict as a Lutheran.
“You may find this hard to believe, but I never blamed Pamela,” Cathy shared. “She was a kid at the Olympics. She was focused on winning gold and that’s all she thought about. I’m not entirely sure she knew that Patrick and I withdrew until the closing ceremonies when we weren’t there. That’s the life of a figure skater, the only thing that matters is what happens on the ice, everything else is unimportant, irrelevant.”
“But what about when the Olympics were over?” Jinx asked. “What about afterward when Pamela shot to stardom and you and Patrick were tossed to the side?”
Cathy turned away and stared blankly at the window most assuredly looking into her mind’s eye and seeing the past. She smiled at some random memory and clasped her arms around her shoulders. When she spoke she didn’t look at anyone as if she was addressing the Pamela she knew from so many years ago.
“She did what she had to do in order to survive,” Cathy said. “The life span of a figure skater to make it big and recoup all the money that she and her family invested into her career is not very long. Pamela couldn’t waste time worrying about why we left the sport. She had to focus on making as much money as possible to repay her parents and sock enough away because at some point thanks to age or injury a skater wakes up one day and can’t skate anymore. Or at least not skate well enough to compete or perform in a show, and what then?”
“You open up a lodge and hope your former teammate will help make it a success,” Alberta said.
“Exactly,” Cathy replied. “And Pamela, despite everything, despite knowing there were still hard feelings, despite knowing that Patrick was still in love with her, despite blaming herself for not doing something to help us, she agreed. And how was she repaid? By getting murdered.”
“Don’t forget Patrick,” Alberta added.
“How could I forget my brother?” Cathy asked disgustedly. “He’s in the other room right now fighting for his life.”
“And how did he get there?” Joyce asked. “Pamela surely didn’t do it.”
“But once again she was the reason for it,” Sloan added.
Lines appeared on Cathy’s forehead as she scrunched up her face and threw her hands in the air. “You people don’t talk in straight lines, do you know that? I can never understand what you’re talking about!”
“That’s because you’re too afraid to listen,” Freddy said.
“Afraid? What am I afraid of?” Cathy asked.
“That Max struck again,” Alberta announced. “Both times because of Pamela.”
“I’m starting to get offended by every untruth that slithers out of your mouth, Alberta.” Max’s voice was as cold as the ice that Pamela died on. “You seem to have quite a lot to say even though you can’t prove any of it is true.”
“I’ve already proven that you were on the cruise with Dimitri,” Alberta stated.
“Based on the eyes of some man in a newspaper photo,” Max countered.
“And I’ve proved that your name isn’t Max Morrow, but Maksim Morozov.”
“So I changed my name to sound more American and how do you say? Assimilate.”
“And thanks to Dimitri’s widow, Galina, I also know a little bit about Simi that I don’t think the rest of our group has figured out yet,” Alberta teased.
“Gram, I’m the one who spoke with Galina,” Jinx said, astonishment filling her voice. “How did you pick up on clues that I didn’t even know existed?”
“Maybe you’re not as smart as the old lady?” Stephanie suggested. “Or you’re just stupid.”
“Lovey, I’ve told you before, sometimes you have to listen with your heart and not your ears,” Alberta said. “If you did, you might have heard Galina divulge Simi’s secret.”
“I don’t have any secrets!” Max bellowed.
“So you’re willing to admit that you were also in love with Pamela?” Alberta asked.
“What?” Cathy shouted.
“Galina said that Simi wanted more from Pamela than just being one of her coaches,” Alberta explained. “But it wasn’t meant to be. Based on how you acted when she was here, like a frightened, lovelorn puppy, I’m guessing you still love her and didn’t like hearing that Patrick and she were having an affair.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Stephanie shouted. “I told you before there were no clues that Pamela and Patrick were sleeping with each other.”
“Then how did this get in Patrick’s bedroom?”
Everyone saw the piece of gold jewelry Alberta was holding up, but no one knew exactly how it confirmed Patrick and Pamela were having an affair.
“Gram, could you maybe explain how that bracelet is a clue?”
“Because it’s an ID bracelet with the name Pamela etched on it that I found under Patrick’s bed,” Alberta explained. “Proof that Patrick and Pamela were sleeping together. Isn’t that right, Max?”
“Max, is this true?” Cathy asked.
“And how did it make you feel, Max?” Alberta asked. “Knowing that Patrick had the one woman you were denied.”
“Don’t be shy, Max,” Stephanie said. “Alberta might be old, but she’s not innocent, nothing you say will offend her. Tell her, in fact, tell everyone how you’ve been in love with Pamela your entire life.”
“Come on!” Charlie shouted. “First you want us to believe you weren’t on the cruise ship with Max, and now you want us to believe you know his innermost thoughts. You’re like my wife, you make my head spin!”
Stephanie smiled devilishly, and more than ever appeared nothing like the awkward, insecure personal assistant she professed to be. “Let’s just say that I know Max a lot better than most anyone else here.”
“Shut up!”
Grasping the air with his hands, Max couldn’t contain the anger and rage filling his body. He pounded his fists on the table causing it to jostle and jump an inch off the ground. His cheeks were beet red and some spittle was clinging to his lips. He was furious and for the first time since initiating the interrogation Alberta felt uneasy. She had the sneaky suspicion that very soon things were going to get out of control. But what choice did she have? She couldn’t just call for a time-out. She couldn’t tell everyone to go back to their rooms and sleep it off. No, there was nothing else she could do but continue down the path she had started. She did, after all, take the first step. She might as well take the next one.
“That’s the real reason you killed Dimitri, isn’t it, Max?” Alberta said. “Because he separated you from Pamela. He banned you from ever coaching her again and Pamela, the dutiful student, obeyed him and rebuffed every one of your advances.”
“If it weren’t for him we would’ve been together!” Max howled. “He took everything from me—my career and the only woman I ever loved! I should’ve killed him years ago!”
“And yet it wouldn’t have changed anything when it came to Pamela,” Alberta said.
“What?” Max replied, totally confused. “No, it would’ve changed everything.”
“No, because Pamela never loved you,” Alberta corrected. “She loved Patrick.”
Max looked like he was about to explode. “Damn him!”
“And that’s why you tried to kill him too.”
Alberta looked over at Cathy after she spoke and could see that the woman was in turmoil. A man she knew almost her entire life, a man who she regarded as a family member, had tried to kill her brother. She didn’t know what to do with the flurry of emotions swirling around in her head. She had no idea how to react or how to rationalize Max’s actions. And so she shut down.
Cathy reached to her side and grabbed the back of one of the dining room chairs. Cautiously she sat down and allowed her body to relax. She looked at Max with perplexed eyes that begged him to contradict every word that she had just heard. But he couldn’t. All he could offer was an apology.
“I’m sorry, Cathy,” Max said, his voice breaking. “I didn’t mean to hurt him, but I couldn’t bear it. First Dimitri and then—”
“Patrick loves you like a brother, Max,” Cathy said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Like I do. How could you?”
Cathy quietly cried and Max, at the other end of the table, bowed his head and his body started to quiver. They were both devastated that the truth had come out. Joyce, however, still had no idea how Alberta had come to the realization that Max was actually Russian, not to mention Dimitri’s assistant coach.
“Berta, I know that you’ve done some pretty impressive things,” Joyce said quietly as she stood next to her sister-in-law. “But how in the world did you figure out Max was Russian? Was it just because of your call with Galina?”
“Yeah, Gram, I just accepted the fact that you put two and two together,” Jinx added. “But it’s still adding up to thirty-seven in my head. How’d you do it?”
Without letting the rest of the group hear, Alberta quickly explained that she overheard Max saying words that she had never heard of and they were either dismissed as English words that he muttered or that weren’t heard correctly. Yept is a common Russian exclamation , sem’ya means “family” and d’yavol means “devil.” But when Alberta found the recipe for the gingerbread cookies, Max made it with a spice she had never heard of, prynka. It was a Russian spice very uncommon in America and not even that familiar to Russian bakers.
“It always comes down to food with you, doesn’t it?” Joyce said, clearly impressed.
Jinx, on the other hand, was excited by the news.
“Wait a second,” Jinx whispered so only Alberta and Joyce would hear. “I thought I heard Stephanie calling Cathy a prostitute.”
“Lovey, I think Cathy’s many things,” Alberta declared. “But I wouldn’t say prostitute was one of them.”
“It isn’t,” Jinx confirmed. “Because prost doesn’t mean prostitute in Russian.”
“What does it mean?” Joyce asked.
“How should I know? I don’t speak Russian,” Jinx said. “But it sure sounds Russian and I’m convinced Stephanie is faking her Italianness no matter how many excuses she comes up with so chances are really good that our faux Italian is really a comrade.”
“I think I can prove it,” Alberta said.
“How?”
She smirked and told Jinx and Joyce to watch.
“Kak vy sebya chuvstvuyete?” Alberta said in a solid Russian accent.
“Ya v poryadke, pochemu?” The second after Stephanie replied she knew that Alberta had bested her and forced her to reveal her true heritage.
“You’re Russian?” Jinx asked, shocked by Stephanie’s words and flawless accent.
Her cover blown, Stephanie no longer had to keep up a façade. In a few seconds she transformed from the mousy assistant into a poised young woman. It was startling to watch and intimidating. There was suddenly a new person in the room that no one had ever met and no one knew how she was going to act.
“Of course I’m Russian,” Stephanie replied, her voice now tinged with an accent that previously remained dormant.
“I knew you weren’t Italian!” Jinx cried. “But seriously, I didn’t think you were Russian.”
“I can’t believe this,” Max uttered. “You’ve been covering up your true nationality all this time?”
“I’d still be fooling all of you if it weren’t for the old broad here,” Stephanie said. “I have to admit, Alberta, you’re old, but you’re smart. How’d you figure out I’m Russian?”
“I’ve had my suspicions, but it all just clicked when Jinx said she overheard you say prost, which is the word for ‘excuse me,’ and I knew my suspicions were right,” Alberta said.
“Since when did you learn Russian?” Joyce asked.
“I hardly know the language, just a few phrases I picked up since I’ve been spending more time in the research library thanks to Sloan,” Alberta explained.
“I’m glad I could help,” Sloan said smiling.
“What other clues were there, Mrs. Scaglione?” Freddy asked.
“The tattoo on Stephanie’s shoulder is a hammer and sickle, isn’t it?” Alberta asked.
“Part of my country’s flag,” Stephanie confirmed.
“Well, one of your country’s flags,” Alberta corrected. “The other one is red, white, and green, which were the colors you wore when you first arrived. I don’t know if it was a deliberate costume choice, but the combination struck me as odd, and when I noticed they were the same colors as one of the Russian flags, it all added up. Stephanie Rangusso might sound like an Italian name, but there’s nothing Italian about you.”
Now that Stephanie’s nationality had been revealed, it was time for her true identity to come out in the open as well.
“If you aren’t Stephanie Rangusso, then who are you?” Cathy muttered.
Smiling in disbelief, Stephanie replied, “None of you know?”
“Hold on a second,” Sloan said.
“What’s wrong?” Alberta asked.
“Everyone’s ignoring the most obvious question of all,” Sloan said.
From the silence in the room it was obvious that no one knew what that obvious question was.
“I think you’re going to have to spell it out, Sloan,” Alberta announced.
“If Max met Stephanie on the cruise, which was before she reinvented herself and became Pamela’s assistant, then Max must know her real identity.”
“Tell us!” Jinx cried.
“Such a typical impatient American,” Stephanie hissed. “Always so quick to judge and speak and act. You could learn from how the Russians do things. They take their time. They plot, they make sure that they control the situation, isn’t that right, Simi?”
“You need to stop talking,” Max ordered. “Right now.”
“Why?” Stephanie asked. “You’re afraid I’ll tell the truth and it’ll make you look even guiltier?”
“No one needs to know,” Max pleaded.
“No more lies, Simi!” Stephanie screamed. “You knew that killing Dimitri when he least expected it, when his defenses were down and he thought his enemy had long forgotten their quarrels and had given up any thought of revenge, was the perfect time to commit murder. What’s that old saying about revenge?”
“La vendetta è meglio servita fredda,” Alberta said.
“It’s best served cold?” Sloan translated.
“Yes!” Stephanie shrieked. “Revenge is best served cold . . . like a good soup. I was right there when you served Dimitri his soup, I saw your eyes and I knew, but before I could intervene he had taken a sip. And that’s all that he needed to do to finish out your plan. Right in front of Dimitri’s daughter.”
“Of course!” Alberta cried. “That makes perfect sense.”
“It does?” Joyce asked, then corrected herself, “I mean, it does!”
“You were right all along, Jinx, I’m not Stephanie Rangusso, I’m Stefania Vasilievsky, Dimitri’s daughter.”
“Dimitri had a daughter?” Cathy cried.
“Papa didn’t like to brag,” Stephanie informed. “He had some dealings with some not-so-legitimate businessmen and so he made sure very few people knew about my mother and about me.”
“I didn’t suspect you were Russian, and I would never have guessed you were Dimitri’s daughter,” Jinx said. “I have to admit it, Stephanie, you fooled me twice.”
“My name’s Stefania, isn’t that right, Simi?”
“Yes,” Max replied guiltily.
“Well, Stefania, you’re more than just the coach’s daughter,” Alberta declared.
“And just who do you think I am, little Mrs. Amateur Detective?” Stephanie asked.
“You’re also Pamela Gregory’s killer.”