It made sense. Sergei and Jackie were both looking to hit the jackpot, and they had something in common: ice.
“The waitress at the coffee shop told me that as a single mom Jackie frequently held two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. She even worked as a maid. Shaftsbury’s a small town in a small county-how many cleaning services can there be around here? Jackie probably met Sergei at work. The skating rink must have seemed like a way to get back to the life she thought she’d have when she was a kid.” I downed my drink.
“Until the cannoli broke down,” Lucy said, she was more than a little tipsy.
“Zamboni. No more drinks for you. When that didn’t work out Jackie jettisoned Sergei and aimed higher,” I said. “What if Jackie tried to involve her son-in-law in some scheme and he said no?”
“The guy who died in the fire?”
I nodded. “Bobby Crawford. He and Nick were friends. Maybe Nick found out about the scam and that’s what he was going to tell you the night he got killed. Maybe Bobby’s death wasn’t an accident.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We call the cops, like normal people. But only when we get the hell out of this hotel,” I said. “I don’t know who to trust anymore except for you.” I looked around as suspiciously as Oksana had that night in the casino.
Back on the Merritt, we stopped for diet Red Bulls. They didn’t really go with martinis, but Lucy had had three drinks and I’d had one, and I wanted to stay awake and not drive us into a ditch. At the service station’s minimart, I’d call Winters and tell her what we’d learned.
Lucy entered the market and I was just about to dial Stacy’s number when I saw what looked like my own Jeep, blue tarp flapping in the wind, speeding in the opposite direction. I tried to flag it down. It didn’t take me long to figure out what was happening. So I ran into the market to tell Lucy.
“I never called Babe; I think I saw her driving back to Titans.”
The clerk’s eyes were wide and his mouth hung open. Two agitated women in Goth makeup were loading up on highly caffeinated drinks and appeared to be on the lam. Were we dangerous? Were we the ghosts of Thelma and Louise ready to knock over his Plexiglas cubicle? I tried to reassure him.
“It’s okay, Ravi. We just need a couple of drinks,” I said.
“How do you know my name?” he shrieked. “Take whatever you want!”
“Chill. Your name’s on your shirt.” I peeled off a few dollars, then hurried Lucy out of the store, but not before sticking my head back in and telling the frightened clerk to have a nice day.
“What did Stacy say?” Lucy asked, straightening up and popping open a can.
Damn. I still hadn’t called. I tried her number but it was busy. Then I speed-dialed Babe’s other number from the phone she’d given me.
“Where the hell are you?” she said.
“On the Merritt. Did you just pass the Mobil station?”
She had. I told her to turn around and meet us back there.
“All right, but it may take a while, the next exit isn’t for miles.”
We still hadn’t called Winters so I told her we’d wait. And we would have if a blue Isuzu hadn’t pulled into the service station’s lot inches away from Lucy’s rental car, effectively blocking the driver’s-side door.
Jackie Connelly wasn’t as afraid to use the gun as I’d been to use the Taser. Of course, she’d had more practice. She forced us into the wooded area past the place where families on long car trips stopped to picnic or walk their dogs. But not at this hour of the night.
“I wouldn’t let Nick screw this up,” she said, “and I’m certainly not going to let you two. Keep walking.”
Between the martinis and the uneven surface, Lucy stumbled and I held on to her to keep her on her feet. Every once in a while, Jackie prodded me in the back to make me speed up. I tried blaming the shoes again, but she was smarter than Marat and made me kick them off.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for a break like this. I wasted five years with Sergei. Helping him start those two-bit companies. I wasn’t going to waste another five waiting for him to fix his Zamboni.”
Jackie thought she’d gotten her break when Chantel married Bobby Crawford. She went to him with a plan to wring money out of the casino backers. They’d be playing to the investors’ greed. People like that deserved what they got, she’d said. And chances are the casinos would never even be built. But Bobby didn’t go for it. Neither did Bernie Mishkin.
“All my life I’ve been surrounded by underachieving men,” Jackie said. “That’s why I finally went to Rachel.”
I knew the more she told us, the more she’d feel she had to kill us, but she just kept talking. I fingered the phone in my pocket, wondering if I could hit redial or 911 so at least someone could hear our last words, but the phone was Babe’s and had an unfamiliar keypad.
“What are you doing?” she asked, poking me in the back again.
“It’s my rosary.”
“Bullshit. It’s a phone. Hand it over.”
“My phone’s in my handbag. You can have it.” I took my time and walked toward her barefoot, sidestepping the petrified dog poop. I fumbled in my bag for the Taser, found it, and slid back the safety cover.
“That’s close enough. Don’t forget I’ve got your drunken friend here.” She pointed the gun directly at Lucy.
In the dark, the way I held it, the leopard-print Taser even looked like a phone. I pretended to hand it to her but pressed it to her arm instead. She dropped in an instant.
I grabbed Lucy and we ran back to the car. Then we heard the sirens. In the Jeep, Babe jumped the curb and screeched to a halt right near us, having seen some of the action in the headlights. A state trooper’s car followed because Babe had hopped a divider to get to us faster. And Ravi hadn’t been fooled by my have a nice day; he’d called the cops like any normal person would.
Jackie Connelly was in the back of the trooper’s car and the weapon she’d pulled on Lucy and me had been retrieved by the time Stacy Winters arrived. Rachel Page had broken down and confessed to fraud but vehemently denied any involvement in Nick’s murder.
“She couldn’t watch baby brother go to jail for something she’d done. She gave us plenty on Jackie though. And Sergei. Although the elusive Mr. Russianoff seems to have disappeared. No one’s seen him for the last four days.”
“And the Smallwoods and the Crawfords?” I asked.
“In the clear,” she said. “Jackie orchestrated this beautifully. Manipulating Sergei, getting him and Rachel to do her dirty work, and throwing suspicion on anyone who got in her way.”
“As long as you’ve got her in custody, you might want to ask her about the fire at Bobby Crawford’s,” I said.
Stacy was impressed. “All right, maybe you’re not the pain in the ass I thought you were.”
Once I found my shoes, I’d take the Jeep and Babe would drive Lucy’s rental car back to Springfield. I poked around in the dog run.
“Come here,” Babe said, calling me over to the side of the car, “I’ve got something to tell you.”
“Only if it’s good news or funny,” I said. “I’ve about had all the excitement I can handle for one night.”
“You know Caroline Sturgis has been trying to reach you. She’s got an idea she wants to talk to you about.”
“I’ve got an idea too,” I said. “I know a great diner about twenty minutes from here, and I’m pretty sure it’s still open.”