Murder at Icicle Lodge

When the police were introduced into the conversation, both Max and Stephanie realized that while they were sequestered in a hard-to-reach mountain lodge, there was a world waiting for them right outside, waiting for the snow to stop falling and the roads to clear so it could march right up to them, snap handcuffs onto their wrists, and haul them off to prison for the rest of their lives. The possibility of such action had been lurking in the backs of their minds since they had done their respective deeds, but thanks to Helen’s statement it was thrust front and center. Unless they acted quickly, they would soon be at the mercy of the courts, begging for the leniency and salvation that they didn’t show their victims. They came to the same conclusion at the same time.

Max ran into the kitchen and Stephanie ran for the front door.

Immediately the entire group sprang into action. Freddy and Sloan chased after Max into the kitchen followed by Alberta and Helen, while Jinx, Joyce, and Charlie ran after Stephanie toward the front entrance.

Max grabbed whatever he could from the kitchen counters and hurled them to the floor and into the air behind him to thwart his chasers from reaching him. Freddy deflected a large aluminum salad bowl with his forearm and Sloan jumped on top of the counter just in time to miss being hit in the head with a food processor.

“Sloan, be careful!” Alberta screamed from the kitchen doorway, clutching her sister’s arm.

Just as Max opened the door at the back of the kitchen, Freddy leaped forward and tackled Max, pushing him against the door and slamming it shut. The two men tussled for a few moments until Max broke free and slammed his fist into Freddy’s jaw.

Alberta and Helen cringed and cowered when they heard the impact. By the time they opened their eyes, Freddy was lying on the floor on top of Sloan, who he’d careened into on his descent to the floor.

The women waited for Sloan and Freddy to get up, but neither one of them moved. The only one on his feet was Max, and he was about to leave the room.

“C’mon, Berta, that one’s getting away!” Helen cried.

She threw her pocketbook at Max and while the impact hardly hurt him, it did throw him off balance so he stumbled to the left, which was enough time for Helen to make it to the door and slam it shut once again. Alberta in the meantime ran to the other side of the kitchen so whichever way Max wanted to exit he was going to have to knock down an old woman to do so. Alberta and Helen were betting that he wouldn’t be so violent, but they had forgotten that he was also desperate.

It took Alberta a few seconds to realize what Max was doing, but when she did she was terrified. He grabbed an aerosol can and shook it wildly. At the same time he turned on the stove so flames were licking the air where they should’ve been heating up the bottom of a pot or pan. Max positioned the can behind the flame and pressed down hard on the cap.

Like a cougar—or simply a devoted older sister—Helen sprinted toward Alberta and pushed her out of the way just as a blast of fire spread in a thin, angry line from the stove directly to where Alberta had been standing. Unfortunately, it was where Helen was now positioned so instead of the blast striking Alberta in the face, it struck Helen in her arm.

“Helen!”

Crawling on her knees, Alberta scurried to her sister grabbing the edge of the counter to stand up. She grabbed a towel to pat down the flames that had ignited on Helen’s shirtsleeve. Pulling her sister to the sink, Alberta turned on cold water and placed Helen’s arm underneath the faucet. The water quickly doused the flames and Alberta was able to peel away Helen’s sleeve, which was both wet and charred, to reveal her burned flesh underneath.

“Oh Dio mio!” Alberta cried.

“It’s nothing, Berta, I’ll be fine,” Helen protested.

“It’s nothing?” Alberta scoffed. “You saved my life and look at you.”

“Better a little burn on my arm then your face burned to a crisp,” Helen remarked.

As Freddy and Sloan began to wake and get up off the floor, Alberta rummaged through the refrigerator and brought back a tub of butter. She handed it to Helen and said, “Rub this all over the burn, it’ll soothe it and help it heal until we can get you to the doctor.”

“Thank you,” Helen said.

“What happened?” Sloan asked.

“Your girlfriend will fill you in later. For now will you three do me a favor?” Helen asked.

“What?”

“Go get that bastard who did this and make him pay.”

They all looked around the kitchen, and their eyes fell on the open door that led to the hallway behind Cathy’s office. Max had gotten away.

* * *

Meanwhile, a similar violent scenario had been taking place near the front entrance of the lodge. Just as Stephanie got to the top of the entranceway with Jinx, Joyce, and Charlie running up the stairs behind her, she was struck in the head by a shoe.

“Father Sal!” Jinx cried.

“I was trying to take a nap and you people kept waking me up with your shouting,” he explained. “You were talking so loudly I’m surprised you didn’t wake up Pamela.”

“Did you hear what we were saying?” Jinx asked.

“Of course I did!” Sal protested. “I’m a priest, it’s my job to listen. I overheard Stephanie confess and then saw her trying to flee the scene of the crime.”

“Is it also your job to throw a shoe at the guilty?” Joyce questioned, standing over Stephanie’s unmoving body.

“Well, I may not be without sin, but a shoe is not a stone so technically I’m not contradicting the Lord’s word,” Sal said.

“Guess my grandmother was right, Steph. You are going to pay for what you did.”

Sal bent down to retrieve his shoe just as Jinx saw Stephanie’s eyes open and wink at her. The personal assistant-cum-murderer wasn’t yet ready to call it a day. For her, the fight had only just begun.

Stephanie grabbed Sal’s hand as it was inches away from his shoe and yanked it down hard causing Sal to follow the motion and somersault on the floor. The motion caused his feet to bash into Joyce’s legs and have her topple on top of him.

Next, Stephanie rolled to the left, grabbed the shoe, and swatted Charlie in the face as he lunged toward her, sending him sprawling down the flight of stairs that led up to the front entrance.

Without waiting to tackle Jinx, Stephanie got up and ran into the vestibule, the area between the exterior and the inside of Icicle Lodge. Jinx grabbed a chunk of Stephanie’s hair just as she pushed open the front door, preventing her from getting outside.

“Let go of me!” Stephanie cried.

“Not on your life!”

Twirling around, Stephanie faced Jinx and stared at her with such venom Jinx thought poison darts were going to shoot out of every pore of her flesh.

“Not mine!” Stephanie howled. “Yours!”

With fury, both pent up and newfound, Stephanie pushed Jinx backward, and she landed with a thud on her back. Stephanie looked down at Jinx who was starting to pull herself together, and she smiled devilishly. She pressed a foot onto Jinx’s hip and all it took was one little push for Jinx to roll down the flight of steps and lie motionless at the bottom. Stephanie allowed herself one moment of glory to soak in her victory before heading out into the snowstorm.

* * *

The landscape surrounding Icicle Lodge was seriously out of control. Snow was everywhere, on the ground, in the air, falling slantways, accumulating in mounds, clinging to branches, and turning the land into a world both beautiful and dangerous.

As Stephanie ran toward the parking lot, she saw Max running in the same direction about a hundred yards away. Hot on his tail was Freddy, Sloan, and Alberta. Grateful for the diversion, Stephanie smiled and turned to continue running in the opposite direction. When she saw what came between her and the parking lot, her smile faded.

“Did you really think one tumble down a flight of stairs was going to stop me?”

Jinx was standing directly in front of the entrance to the parking lot where a snow-covered Jeep was Stephanie’s only hope of escape. But there were other obstacles. Joyce was positioned to Jinx’s left and Charlie to her right, so whichever way Stephanie moved she would have to fight off an opponent. Unless she turned around and ran toward Lake Ariel and the mountains. It was not what she wanted to do, but it was her only chance.

Screaming something in Russian that no one understood, but which they all knew was not something that could be repeated around a dinner table as part of friendly conversation, Stephanie ran as fast as she could through the snow aiming for the same destination as Max—the ice rink.

When she was a few yards behind Max, he looked over at her. While he was disgusted by her and what she had done to him, they were both fugitives so he figured it was better to band together with the enemy who was in the same predicament than with the enemy who wanted to make sure you never tasted freedom again.

The wind made it difficult to see very far, but the group was able to witness both Max and Stephanie jump over the side of the ice rink and slide across its length as a shortcut instead of running all the way around. They saw them pass the Zamboni still stranded in the middle of the ice since Patrick was rescued, but lost them after that. While visibility was compromised, their hearing was not.

“What was that?” Alberta asked.

“It sounds like thunder,” Freddy said. “How can this storm possibly get any worse?”

“È una tempest diversa,” Alberta said.

“That’s right, it’s a different kind of storm entirely,” Sloan corrected. “It sounds like a car.”

Careening around the side of the lodge was some sort of sport utility vehicle. It slid a bit as it rounded the curve, but as it bounced over the uneven terrain and got closer to them they saw the writing on the side of the truck—Tranquility Police Department.

“Vinny!” Alberta cried.

The truck barreled past them and around the ice rink at the same time that Max and Stephanie ran through the opening in the barrier that the Zamboni previously crashed through. The truck swerved in front of them causing Max to sprint around the Zamboni shed and Stephanie to run in the opposite direction.

“I knew the chief wouldn’t let us down,” Freddy announced.

But when the door of the truck opened and the driver stepped out, it was obvious that Vinny hadn’t attempted to save the day, but someone else did.

“Tambra?” Alberta cried as she, Sloan, and Freddy ran toward her.

“Why’d you lie to me, Alberta?” Tambra cried.

Alberta wracked her brain to figure out what Tambra was talking about. She was hardly innocent, but she couldn’t remember the specific lie Tambra was referencing. “Which lie?”

“The one about Pamela being among the living.”

“Oh that one! I didn’t want to alarm you . . . wait, you know she’s dead?”

“Of course I do, Vinny told me.”

“He told us not to say anything.”

“To the public, not the police,” Tambra said. “He instructed me to keep quiet until the roads cleared. He was hoping to solve the crime on his own by then.”

“Have you talked to Vinny?” Alberta asked. “Where is he?”

“That’s what I came to find out,” Tambra replied. “After your phone call, I got nervous when Vinny didn’t show up. I called the Pennsylvania state troopers, but they’re dealing with so many weather-related accidents they couldn’t focus. I tried to call and text Vinny, but he never responded.”

“We’ve been doing the same thing,” Sloan said. “We have no idea where he is.”

“I do,” Tambra replied.

“You do?” Alberta said. “Where?”

“He’s here.”

“What are you talking about?” Alberta cried. “We’ve looked everywhere and we can’t find him. We’ve been worried sick.”

“I tracked his phone’s GPS signal and it’s coming from the lodge,” Tambra explained. “He’s on this property somewhere. He has to be.”

“Oh my God.”

They all turned around as Jinx, Joyce, and Charlie caught up with them.

“Jinx, what’s wrong?”

“I think someone is sending us another signal.”

Jinx pointed at the Zamboni shed and specifically to huge puffs of smoke rising out of the roof.

“It’s on fire!” Jinx cried.

Acting on professional instinct, Tambra pulled her gun out of her holster and ran into the shed. The group as one freezing, huddled mass followed behind, but they all stopped when they saw a wall of fire separating them from getting to the man tied up in the back of the room. Vinny, however, was thoroughly relieved to see that he finally had company.