Weapons of Mass Distraction (8 page)

I tucked the address into my pocket. “It's unlikely I'll call but, if I do, I’ll think of something.”

“Great.” Michael relaxed slightly in his chair. “You need to get changed. The gym is officially open for business. Are you ready for this?”

“Never more ready,” I assured him. “How hard can it be?”

Michael grinned. “You’ve clearly never worked in a gym.”

~

Never in all the time I have lived in Montgomery — which means my entire life barring a brief stint in Army boot camp, an ill-considered decision of badly dressed proportions — could I imagine just how many fitness fanatics this town contained. The gym was half full only minutes after the doors opened; the treadmills and cross trainers, rowers and steppers, all whirring to life while Lycra-clad people sweated and powered their way to the land of toned bodies. For the first couple of hours, I simply tucked myself away at the instructors’ station on the gym floor. I waited for them to get on with their programs, and barely had to answer a single question. Even when I made the occasional rounds, tidying weights here and there, stacking mats next to people, and pausing to chat or eavesdrop, I didn’t learn anything useful. By the time Lily came in, it was already noon. My shift was nearly over and my stomach was trying to eat itself.

“Cafe?” I asked Lily when she arrived at the station, clad in cute gray capris and a pristine white, form-fitted top. Headphones slung around her neck completed the look. She might not have worked out today, but her shapely arms and hourglass shape proved she’d been regularly paying her dues.

“Treadmill.”

“Cafe,” I said again, barely holding back a whimper. “If I don’t eat soon, I’m going to bite the head off the next person who asks me to wipe ‘em down with a towel.”

Lily wrinkled her nose. “Yuck. Someone asked you to do that?”

“Three people. Why? For the love of anybody’s deity, Lily, why would anyone ask me to do that?”

“Maybe they can’t reach? Did you have to touch anything nasty?”

“No, but I accidentally whipped one guy across the butt with his towel, and he left me his phone number.”

“Shame you’re taken. Was he cute?”

“If you find age seventy cute. I have a newfound respect for fitness instructors. Plus, can you hear that?”

Lily cocked her head to one side. After a moment, she shook it. “No. What?”

“Huffing. Wheezing. Air con. More huffing. Oh God, the huffing never ends,” I wailed.

“I think we better get you a protein shake.” Lily grabbed me by the elbow and steered me towards the doors. “I’m worried you’re starting to hallucinate.”

I wasn’t hallucinating but I probably was a little low on blood sugar. From the instructor-shirted side of the biz, I saw the gym in a whole new light. Far from a place to work out, hopping happily onto machines, then staggering off them, lifting a few dumbbells, and taking a few classes, all to keep looking good, now all I could see was sweat dripping onto the machines, a discarded water bottle rolling across the floor, and death at every turn. And someone even had the gall to put my neatly organized dumbbell stack into disarray.

“You do look pale,” said Lily, pushing me into a chair at the small cafe before handing me a bottle of pale colored liquid. Next to us were two older ladies in pink sweats, who were deep in conversation. Otherwise, the cafe was empty. “Drink this.”

“I thought I was getting a protein shake. What is it?”

“Vitamin water.”

“Ugh… Oh! This actually tastes nice.” I glugged some more of the vitamin water. “I guess I’m pale because I’m just waiting for someone else to die,” I added. It could happen anywhere. Electrical outlet fault. Malfunctioning deathtrap machine. Air duct poisoning. Ugh, I hoped not to catch Legionnaire’s disease.

“Awesome. Count me in.”

“What?”

“I said ‘count me in.’ I only got to see two corpses. I want to find another!”

I leaned forwards, the cold bottle in my hand as I lowered my voice. “I’m supposed to be figuring out if there’s a killer in here, not enabling another potential murder.”

Lily leaned in too. She looked from left to right, before meeting my eyes. “I. Want. In.”

“Ugh.”

“You can’t be everywhere,” Lily continued. “Plus, I know, like,
millions
of people here and they all talk to me. I come here way more often than you do.”

“Maybe you should ask Solomon for a job,” I sniffed. She was right though. Not that there were millions of people, but she came religiously every day, paying homage to every machine and praising her body in the mirror, and it showed. Plus, she did know a lot of the members.

“I run a bar,” Lily pointed out, missing my sarcasm. “I’m very busy.”

“But with enough free time to go hunting for another body?”

“Do you want my help or not, hotshot?”

“I want your help,” I said grudgingly, taking another sip. It tasted funny, but it was okay. It was… Just at that moment, a light bulb went off in my head. It didn’t taste funny enough
not
to drink. Karen took a sip of her bottle right before she collapsed. “Poison,” I said. “It’s poison.”

The women at the table next to us turned around. Their eyes fixed on my bottle. One of them got up and returned her unopened vitamin water to the counter. Her friend hurried over to the water fountain and emptied her vitamin water bottle.

“It’s not poisoned,” said Lily, smiling at them. It was a good move. Reassuring. How could anyone not trust a face like that? “Lexi is just thinking out loud. She got a new house. Rat problem.”

“Big rats,” I agreed, but my mind was whirring. Karen could easily have ingested something that harmed her. I trusted the labeling on the bottle even though it tasted a little odd. Karen could have done the same. Could she have ingested a fast acting poison? Then there was the tiny bead of blood on Jim’s thumb, and the strange tacks taped to the underside of the bike. Was it conceivable that something entered his bloodstream too? Something powerful enough to kill him?

Could the two of them have been dosed with the same poison?

The problem with all my questions, was the biggest question of all. The three lettered question. The one my nieces and nephews used to drive me nuts… Why? Why would anyone want to poison Jim Schwarz and Karen Doyle?

And if they were poisoned, why was Lorena stabbed?

Was this one big plot? Or three individual, unrelated cases? Did someone murder all three, or were we looking for a trio of murderers? Right now, I had more questions than answers.

“You’ve got that look on your face like you discovered something,” said Lily, raising her voice a little louder for the benefit of our eavesdropping companions. “Like you discovered a really big rat.”

“A really big one,” I agreed. “Or three little, evil ones.”

Lily frowned. “Nope, you lost me.”

“I need to call…” I stopped and looked at the eavesdroppers. I couldn’t say “my boss” given that I was wearing a staff t-shirt, or Solomon, because I shouldn’t have mentioned him under any circumstances. After all, I was undercover. I had no connection to the agency. The eavesdroppers smiled encouragingly. One of them leaned over. “You need pest control, honey.” She handed me a card, which she fished out from the oversized purse she held in her lap. “My son is the best rat-catcher in Montgomery.”

“You must be so proud. Thank you,” I said, taking the card and laying it on the table. The image of the dead rat printed on the card didn’t do a lot for my appetite, but it didn’t kill it either.

“He’s single,” the lady continued.

“A real catch,” said her companion and they both giggled.

“Lexi already has a boyfriend,” said Lily, “and she’s very dedicated to her new job. She just started here. Relief cover for Anton.”

“We love Anton,” said Mother Rat-catcher. “He’s the best.”

“We heard what happened,” her companion confided. “Such a tragedy. And that nice, young lady too. You know, I was in the gym that day. I actually saw her going into the gym. She looked so healthy with her towel and water bottle. To think she would be dead that same day. Tragedy.”

“Tragedy,” echoed her friend as they gathered their things. “Nice to meet you, dear. Good luck with the rat problem.”

“Good luck! I’ll tell my boy you’ll call,” added Mother Rat-catcher like I was making a date with him. I hoped he wouldn’t sit by the phone because if so, it would be for a very long time.

We waited until they were gone, leaving the small cafe clear, before I called Solomon.

“How’s your first day so far?” he asked.

“I don’t think I want to work in a gym,” I told him, honestly. “It’s really not me.”

“Okay. What have you discovered?” I started to tell him, but he interrupted me, “Not what you’ve discovered about why you don’t want to work in a gym.”

“Shame. That list is long. Anyway, it’s not a discovery I’m calling about. More of a hunch.”

“Go on.”

“I told you the about the handlebars and the pinprick on Jim’s finger, right? That there was something really strange about it. I think you should check for poison.”

“Poison?”

“Yeah. Poison. Karen Doyle too. I don’t know if she was poisoned, but I know she had a water bottle when she was on the treadmill and she drank from it. That would be an easy way for someone to get poisoned.”

“Poison?” Solomon said again.

“Uh… yeah.”

“Lexi, what did you think we were swabbing the handlebars for?” he asked, very slowly.

“Um…” I actually didn’t think about it, and I began to color. “Poison?” I squeaked, pulling a face.

“You got it.”

“Oh, right. Well, I think Karen Doyle’s water bottle should be checked for poison too.”

“It’s pretty hard to poison someone with water.”

“I don’t know if she was drinking water. Maybe she had a protein shake or something. That would disguise the taste of anything weird. Her face went all puffy and her lips, too. Now that I think about it, it could have been an allergic reaction.”

“Do you happen to have the bottle?”

“I gave the bottle to you with the other evidence I gathered.”

“Okay. Flaherty caught a case so I’ll make a call to the ME and suggest running a tox panel while they autopsy. I think she’ll go for it since Karen Doyle was pretty young to die of natural causes. I'll suggest she looks at Jim more closely too based on the evidence you found.”

“Great!”

“What about Lorena?” Solomon asked.

“Keep up, boss. Lorena was stabbed,” I said before I hung up. I reached for the laminated menu that was sandwiched between the condiments. One side had smoothies, shakes, and blended fruit juices. The other side had healthy food. For a gym, it looked pretty good.

“What did he say?”

“My hunch was useless. He already planned on swabbing the evidence I collected from the spin bike for poison, but he is going to tell the ME to run a tox panel on Karen too. I think I embarrassed myself.”

“Not the first time,” said Lily. “Not the last either. I hope you brought nice clothes to change into. We have a fitting to make.”

Chapter Six

With Lily and Jord’s wedding fast approaching in less than two weeks, we were at the final stages of dressing. I couldn’t have been happier for my best friend and brother, finally finding true love with each other, although Lily discovered it at least ten years before. Jord eventually woke up and realized he could lose his perfect woman. Well, I was more than happy. I was thrilled, but distracted. The thrill was fine. The distraction would only dissipate after we cleared up the mess at the gym, but for now, as Lily tried on her wedding gown, that enigma was far from my thoughts.

“It’s beautiful,” I told her, for the umpteenth time. “Really beautiful.”

“I know,” agreed Lily, eyeing herself in the mirror. “So what if it’s not the dress I really wanted? It’s five thousand dollars less, and who can argue with that? I want to be independent, just like you. If you can do it, so can I.”

“Exactly,” I agreed, smiling at Lily’s reflection, both of us avoiding the tiny trace of disappointment in her eyes. I had to applaud her attitude though, she could easily have gone to her distant parents and asked for more money, but she didn’t, insisting that she didn’t want them to just throw cash in her direction. I wondered if it had anything to do with Lily barely seeing her parents recently, as they rarely came home to Montgomery.

“But do I get the short veil or the long veil?” Lily asked.

“Try them all on again,” I suggested, bouncing on the soft ottoman like a kid in a candy store.

“Or maybe a tiara.”

“Both.”

Lily glanced at me. “It isn’t too much?”

“Pah! Who cares? Try them all. Excuse me! Miss! Can my friend try on your tiaras?” I asked, looking around for the assistant who had shown us in only fifteen minutes before.

A beige-suited woman appeared from behind one of the expansive swathes of curtains that draped the fitting studio. She was holding two flutes of champagne, which she set on a small table away from Lily’s gown. Lily introduced us briefly. Her name was Sharon and I recalled she wasn’t just a store assistant. She owned the Perfect Brides boutique. “Of course. Did you have something in mind?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Lily, turning to her left and giving her skirts a swish. “All of them.”

“An excellent choice,” agreed Sharon, beaming as if she’d never seen an undecided bride before. “I’ll gather some for you to try on. Short veil or long veil to accompany?”

“Yes,” said Lily.

The woman smiled and nodded, resisting a laugh at Lily’s infectious enthusiasm for all things bridal.

“Do you think Jord will like it?” Lily asked, smoothing a non-existent crease from the front of the skirt.

I stood next to her, a half-foot shorter thanks to the small podium, which added a good six inches to her height and we gazed at her dress in the reflection of the mirror. It was beautiful. A strapless, fitted, satin bodice, overlaid with creamy-white lace and a skirt that flared from her hips to the floor. Times had changed since the days when Lily wouldn’t even look at the price tag. Her mother might have simply set up an account with the store and told her to buy whatever she wanted, but Lily steadfastly refused. I knew what Lily really wanted was some of her mother’s time and that wasn’t available.