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Brad’s blond eyebrows shot toward his hairline. “Wow, that’s not what I expected you to say. What’d she do?”
“She died,” Liam said bluntly.
Brad’s mouth formed a shocked O, and he stared at them for several seconds before recovering. “Oh, man, that sucks so bad. How’d she die? No, never mind. My girlfriend’s big into crime shows, and we’ve seen a lot of them, so I know you can’t give me details. But still. This is pretty much the worst thing I’ve heard all month. No, like all year. Let me just switch gears.” He pushed the pamphlets to the side of the desk. “What’s her name again?”
Liam repeated it, and Brad typed it into his computer.
“Were you acquainted with her?” Liam asked.
“No, but we’ve got over five hundred members here. Let me just see...” Brad scrolled through the screen and made a few clicks. “Okay, here we go. Lindsey Albright. Yeah, I recognize her photo. She joined back in March. Last time she checked in was June thirtieth.” He sat back, shaking his head. “Man, I can’t believe she died. Like, she wasjust here.”
“Yes, it’s difficult to accept,” Cora said. “Anything else?”
He scanned her membership profile. “Just that she has two protein shakes left on her punch card. If you want to talk to the rest of the staff—Oh, hold up. She was a Booty Buster.”
Liam peeked at the screen but saw only a grid of names. “What’s that?”
“It’s our summer fitness challenge. Says here she swam the most laps in her category last month. Way to hustle, girl,” Brad said in admiration. Then he seemed to remember why they were there. “You could try checking her locker.”
Cora sat forward. “Lindsey had a locker here?”
“Yeah. They’re normally just day lockers, but the Booty Busters get to have one for the duration of the challenge. It’s one of the perks if they sign up.” He checked the screen and wrote Lindsey’s locker number on a sticky note, then handed it to Liam. “Number 433 downstairs on the women’s side. I’ll get someone to block the doors while you check it out. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thanks,” Liam said, already heading for the door.
“Hey, you sure you don’t want to join?” Brad leaned back in his chair and linked his hands behind his head. “Looks like you work out, man. What do you bench, two, two twenty-five? I can hook you up with some training sessions at a discount if you sign up today.”
Liam looked at Brad like he was cracked in the head. “You want me to give you money. So you can force me to exercise?”
“No pain, no gain, shut up and train,” Brad said, grinning.
Liam opened his mouth to tell Brad exactly what he could do with his training, but Cora laid a hand on his arm and said, “I’m sure my partner would love to stay and hear all about your membership options, but perhaps another time when we don’t have a murder to investigate.”
“Right, yeah. No worries.” Brad thumped his fist on the table. “I’ll just give you my card when you guys are done.”
“Don’t feel like joining the gym?” Cora teased Liam as they crossed the gym floor. A few men were on various exercise machines that looked and even sounded like torture devices from the way the men heaved and grunted. One was squatting in front of a mirror with a bar and metal plates attached to the ends. He looked uncomfortable, and his face was bright red. Another man was lying on a bench, pushing a bar attached to heavy weights while a man stood over him, shouting encouragement. In all the things Liam had seen so far since arriving in this life, this was one of the most perplexing.
“I don’t understand why they’d do this,” he said as they passed two people whipping giant ropes between them. “It’s as if they plan to go into battle, or they’re preparing for an event, which would require them to build a home or fight for their lives. But from what I’ve seen, most people here live quite comfortably and have an abundance of everything at their fingertips.”
“Exactly,” Cora said with a laugh. “Our jobs don’t require us to hunt and gather like the cavemen. Now most of us sit behind desks and have food prepared at the push of a button. Hence, the obsession with exercise. It balances out the laziness.”
“I suppose, but this indoor nonsense is bollocks,” he said as they took a hallway with a sign labeled pool. “I’d rather eat dried squirrel meat than stay in a tomb like this, surrounded by other people who look just as miserable as I’d feel. If I’m ever restless and have an excess of energy, you won’t find me here. I’ll be outside with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face. This is unnatural.”
“Okay, a couple of things,” Cora said in amusement. “One, have you actually eaten dried squirrel meat? No, wait. I don’t want to know. Two, you act like you’ve never seen people working out in a gym before.”
“Of course I haven’t.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “One of these days, Liam, that inhuman metabolism of yours is going to catch up with you, and you may just find yourself joining the rest of us poor mortals.”
“In this purgatory on earth? Never.”
Cora laughed. “Let’s see where you are in ten years, and you can tell me that again.”
It wouldn’t be purgatory, that was for sure. Within the next few weeks he’d be headed someplace much more permanent. If he wasn’t careful, it could be a lot worse than this.
They found the women’s locker room at the end of a long hall. It smelled like bleached towels, damp concrete and chlorine. Lindsey’s locker was in the right corner on the last aisle. It was locked, so it took another fifteen minutes for someone to come down with the master key.
Finally, Cora donned a pair of rubber gloves from her pocket and pulled the door open.
