Chapter Ten
Never had a cat looked so innocent. Hannah stood next to the Kitty Valet and met Moishe’s guileless gaze. “I know your new feeder is lots of fun, but please don’t eat all your kitty crunchies while I’m at work today. Save some for tonight, and maybe even tomorrow. The instructions say that it stores enough food for three days. And that’s for a family with two cats! I know you love to eat, Moishe, but you’re going to get sick if you keep on emptying the whole thing every time I leave.”
He was purring! Her cat was purring! Hannah sighed deeply and gave up lecturing. Chances were that Moishe didn’t understand a word she was saying. And even if he did, he’d ignore her advice the second the door closed behind her.
“Okay, I’m gone,” she said to the cat, who probably wasn’t listening anyway. “I’ll be home around six, and I want to see some food left in that bowl.”
As she walked down the covered staircase to the parking garage, Hannah was frowning. She was worried about Moishe. He’d always been a big eater, but last night when she’d come home from work, she’d found the Kitty Valet that contained his food completely empty.
Even though her feline friend hadn’t been sprawled on his back on the rug groaning, Hannah had still called his vet. It just couldn’t be good for Moishe to eat that much food! But once she’d answered several questions that Dr. Bob had asked about Moishe’s behavior, he’d assured her that once the novelty of unlimited food without human intervention had worn off, Moishe’s eating habits would return to normal.
It was cold this morning, five below zero according to Jake and Kelly on KCOW Radio, and Hannah wished she’d asked Andrea to pick her up. Her sister’s Volvo had heated seats, a welcome luxury in the Minnesota winter. She wondered, idly, how much it would cost to install them in her cookie truck but decided it would probably be several times more than she could afford.
The radio helped her to keep her mind off the cold. Hannah listened to one more pseudo news item on The News at O’Dark-Thirty, something about a pet horse who came inside the farmhouse whenever he smelled cookies baking. That didn’t sound so unusual to Hannah, especially if the cookies were carrot cookies. And thinking about carrot cookies reminded her that she’d promised to bake Terry’s Carrot Cake Cookies for Grandma Knudson, who was trying to convince her grandson, the reverend, that they were an excellent way for him to get his vegetables.
Another fifteen shivery minutes later, and Hannah arrived at the Tri-County Mall. She had a standing appointment to meet Andrea so that they could do their workout routine before class started. She pulled up by the back door at Heavenly Bodies, greeted Andrea, who was just pulling into a parking space, and they went in together.
The only good thing about exercising early in the morning was the absence of noise. The incessant beat of the workout music, the buzz of conversation, the clatter of weights, and the occasional grunt and groan were silenced. The only sound was her own labored breathing as she went through her exercise routine.
Never a big fan of muscle aches and pains, Hannah found this morning’s workout particularly grueling. Perhaps it was because Andrea performed every bend and stretch so effortlessly. She even made her mile on the machine Hannah had nicknamed the Walk to Nowhere look like fun.
“So how’s Moishe’s feeder working out?” Andrea asked, not a whit out of breath despite the fact she was currently duplicating the rigors of cross-country skiing.
“Fine,” Hannah answered, choosing a one-syllable word so that her sister couldn’t hear her pant. They could talk about the fact that Moishe’s feeder was working a little too well later, when she could breathe.
“How long has it been now? Two days?”
“Yes.”
“And he hasn’t pried the tops off yet?”
“No.”
“Well, give him time. He’s defeated every other attempt you’ve made to regulate his food.”
“Right.” Even though she’d uttered only one syllable, Hannah gasped a bit. Luckily, Andrea didn’t seem to notice. Perhaps it was because she’d increased the resistance on her skiing simulator. Hannah could see the little graphic that showed her sister skiing up a thirty percent slope. That was twenty-eight percent steeper than anything Hannah had attempted.
Andrea was silent, and Hannah was grateful. It gave her time to catch her breath. This twenty-minute workout wouldn’t be so bad if she had half the morning to do it. Unfortunately, they were pressed for time. Ronni Ward would be arriving soon for their Classic Body Sculpting class, and that wasn’t a pleasant thought.
“You’re through, Hannah,” Andrea announced, stepping off her ski simulator and taking a seat on what looked like a stationary bike.
“I am?” Hannah slowed to a halt. She’d been so busy thinking about how much she disliked Ronni, the last five minutes of her workout had practically flown past. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and then turned to her sister. “We’ve got twenty-five minutes until class. Do you want me to get you something cold to drink?”
“That sounds good.” Andrea gave a little sigh. “Class used to be fun, but now I’m dreading it. I really wish that Ronni was out of the picture.”
“Me, too. Do you want to skip class today?”
“No way. If we skip, she’s won. And I won’t give her the satisfaction. Just get our drinks and go relax by the pool. I’ll join you as soon as I finish.”
Hannah headed off at a fast clip before her sister changed her mind and thought of other exercises that she should do. Since no one was manning the counter at the Snack Shack, the large area with a fountain in the center surrounded by scores of round tables for eating, drinking and socializing, she fed quarters into a vending machine to get a bottle of zero-carb, zero-calorie strawberry-flavored water for Andrea and a bottle of zero-carb, zero-calorie peach-flavored water for herself. Then she headed down the red-carpeted hallway to the Aqua Therapy room.
The scent of chlorine rolled out to greet her as Hannah opened the door to the area containing the pool and the Jacuzzi. There was the stale odor of sweat in the air, and despite the antiperspirant she’d slathered on earlier, Hannah suspected that she might be contributing to the aroma. Whatever the cause, it was certain that the plug-in room fresheners, specifically designed to mask unpleasant odors, failed to triumph over the potent mix.
The pool looked inviting, with wooden deck chairs arranged in patterns at the shallow end and potted trees dotting the periphery. Hannah removed her shoes and socks and took a seat on the concrete lip of the pool so that she could dangle her feet in the water. They were sore after her trek on the motorized belt of the Walk to Nowhere machine. The pool heater had just kicked in. The pool wouldn’t reach the proper temperature until Aqua Therapy classes started at noon, but that didn’t matter to Hannah. The cold felt good. She opened her bottle of water, took a sip, and sat there feeling righteous about finishing her workout.
Her drink was slightly fizzy, and it tasted a little like peach. Hannah supposed that was all one could ask of a product that was less than a dollar fifty and had no carbohydrates or calories. She sat there for at least five minutes, trying to figure out how the manufacturer could make something taste like peach without actually using peach, but then she realized that her toes had stopped tingling and were numb from the cold.
It was time to warm up. Hannah grabbed her towel and headed to the Jacuzzi to thaw her icy feet, but the first thing she saw when she climbed up the steps to enter the latticework gazebo was something that stopped her cold. There was a red-colored smear on the floor that looked a lot like blood.
Visions of cut feet or skinned knees ran through Hannah’s mind, but then she spotted a lump of red near the end of the smear. She walked closer to take a look. It was a smeared, crushed strawberry! Someone had broken the rules. Although plastic bottles or boxes of drinks were allowed in the pool area and the workout rooms, food was only allowed at the tables in the Snack Shack.
The gazebo was a tropical paradise with hanging plants and potted palms. A bar ran the length of one latticework wall. During regular hours, an employee who sold bottled water manned it. A half-dozen stools were arranged in front of the bar. They provided seating for those who’d tired of the steaming water, but wanted to wait for friends who were still enjoying the heat of the tub. Several stools had been tipped over and Hannah wondered why no one had righted them.
There was something shiny on the floor next to the far end of the bar. Hannah walked over for a closer look and immediately wished she hadn’t. It was her silver platter, the very same platter she’d used for Mike’s birthday cream puffs, and it was upside down in front of the flowering hibiscus that thrived in the moist heat.
With the same sinking feeling she experienced every time she came across a bad accident on the road, Hannah lifted one handle and surveyed the smashed cream puffs it had held. Blueberry and lemon filling had overlapped in a puddle of gooey green. There were bits of pastry mixed into a glutinous mash of strawberry and vanilla filling, but there were no chocolate cream puffs. She supposed she should be happy that her great-grandma’s pudding had been such a success, but she felt sick at the cream puff carnage she saw. Mike had told her it was a birthday party at the gym. She’d just assumed he meant the gym at the sheriff’s department, but he’d obviously been talking about Heavenly Bodies. It was clear that the birthday party had gone awry, and from the tipped stools, she guessed that the partygoers had left in a rush. That made her very curious. She had to ask Mike what had happened.
Hannah shivered. Her feet were still cold. She’d clean up the cream puffs and reclaim her platter later, but right now she needed to thaw her frigid digits.
The switch that operated the Jacuzzi was behind the bar. Hannah turned on the heat, activated the jets, flicked on the underwater lights, and headed over to the tub. She was about to dip her toes in the water when she realized that there was something in the center of the Jacuzzi.
The surface was roiling and bubbling so furiously that visibility was limited. Hannah waited until the object resurfaced again, and when it did, she was puzzled. It looked like one of the red-and-black exercise outfits worn by the female instructors at Heavenly Bodies. Had one of them dropped her clothes in the Jacuzzi?
That didn’t make much sense, and the moment she realized it, Hannah felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up in exactly the same way Moishe’s did when he encountered something that frightened him. She braced herself and reached out to grab the material, intending to pull it out of the water to examine it more closely. But instead of grasping nothing but spandex, she felt something under the material, something firm, something muscled, something decidedly human.
“Uh-oh,” Hannah breathed, fighting the impulse to turn tail and run. The only thing that kept her feet rooted to the spot was the thought that Andrea could walk in at any moment. She had to find out who was wearing that red-and-black exercise outfit and spare Andrea from what could very well be a gruesome sight.
Taking a deep breath for courage, Hannah tugged until the solid mass turned from back to front. She took one look and swallowed hard as she stared down at blond hair, a perfect figure, and lifeless blue eyes with a deep indentation between them.
“Hannah?” Andrea called out from the doorway. “Are you going in the Jacuzzi?”
“No,” Hannah said, standing up quickly and blocking the sight as best she could. “Go out to the security station and tell whoever’s on duty to call Mike at the sheriff’s station.”
“But why?”
“Just do it, Andrea. And don’t come any closer.”
Andrea gasped. “Don’t tell me there’s someone…”
“Don’t think, just do it!” Hannah ordered, and she gave a relieved sigh when Andrea turned and ran down the hallway.
Even though she tried to keep her gaze on the tropical wallpaper, or the flowering plants, or the colorful tile that covered the floor, Hannah’s eyes were drawn to the sight she didn’t want Andrea to see. It was Ronni Ward, and she was quite dead. It seemed that someone else had wanted her out of the picture even more than they had!