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“My name is Erica Nellenbach. I’m the head coach of the club. What can I do for you?” Erica didn’t smile, merely regarded them with cold indifference. She was a tall woman with a large beak of a nose, her hair pulled back in a severe bun.
“We didn’t mean to interrupt your lesson,” Lacey said, stepping up beside Nico.
“Yes, well, you’re lucky I’m here. The place is normally empty at this time of day. Classes don’t start until three. But Lily needs some one-on-one attention. And jump rope provides valuable conditioning for a young gymnast,” Erica said, as if Nico had asked the question. Which he hadn’t. It made him wonder why she offered the information in the first place.
Erica lifted her chin and stared down her nose at them again, and Nico began to understand this was Erica’s stock-standard attitude, designed to make everyone feel inferior.
He decided to ignore her aloof disapproval. “We believe a lady by the name of Zoya Kibel worked here, and we’d like to ask you some questions regarding her work ethic and interaction with her colleagues,” Nico said, pulling out a notebook from his top pocket and making a show of flipping the pages, but he was really studying her face.
Finally, a flicker of emotion flashed across her features. Was it unease? “What do you mean worked here?” she asked in a clipped voice. There was a slight accent, probably Germanic, Nico concluded.
“We’re sorry to inform you that Zoya was found dead two days ago,” Nico said, keeping all emotion out of his voice.
Erica’s face paled. “Dead? You’re kidding, right?” It seemed the woman wasn’t made completely out of stone after all. Her hand flew to cover her mouth.
“No, we’re not,” Lacey interceded, her face a mask of concern.
“Oh,scheisse,” the woman muttered under her breath. But Nico caught the German swearword. He didn’t think a woman like this was easily rattled, and this news seemed to have come as a great shock. “I wondered why she didn’t turn up to work yesterday. I had to get Janine in at short notice to cover her class. She’s usually very committed to her job. I just thought…” Erica didn’t finish her sentence. “How did she die? When?” she demanded.
“We’re not at liberty to share those details at the moment,” Nico replied blandly.
“So, it wasn’t normal for Zoya not to turn up for work?” Lacey asked, jumping into the breach.
Erica shifted her sneakered feet and pursed her lips. “No, she was usually reliable. She was very committed to her group of gymnasts. She taught our junior development squad, aged six to ten. The talented ones who might make it through to the state or national competitions.” Erica’s face relaxed a little as she talked about the gymnasts. “But it happens more than you think. Coaches call in sick at the last moment, or find another job and leave me in the lurch. When you work with young women who don’t take things as seriously as they should, it makes it hard to find good employees.”It’s no wonder the other coaches might want to escape a shift or two, Nico thought. Having to work with this woman would be his own personal nightmare.
He was very good at keeping his thoughts under wraps, however, and so he asked, “You didn’t try and contact her? To see why she’d missed work?”
“No, I was too busy,” Erica snapped. Then she seemed to relent a little. “If she hadn’t turned up today, I was going to call her.”
“Right,” Nico said vaguely, not impressed with the woman’s answer. She clearly cared more about her club than she did about her employees. “And how many days did Zoya work here?”
“Four days. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.”
“And she worked her full shift on Saturday?” Nico asked. Erica merely nodded. And Nico did a mental calculation. Zoya’s body had been found on Tuesday. If she’d been killed sometime on Saturday night or Sunday, that fitted with the theory she’d been in the water for around three days.
“Thank you,” he replied, consulting his notes. “How were her relationships with her work colleagues? Did she get on well with everyone? Were there any disagreements that you know of?”
“Disagreements? Of course not. We are all very civilized here. We all get on perfectly well. Zoya was a good employee and was friends with all the other coaches here.” Erica stood up straighter, clearly resenting his implication that everything might not be perfect in this gymnastics paradise. Nico doubted that. There were always minor altercations and personal disagreements in any workplace. But Erica seemed intent on sticking to her dogma.
Nico saw Lacey raise an eyebrow in his peripheral vision, but tried to ignore her skepticism. He was quickly running out of questions and decided to wrap up the interview. He could always ask her to come down to the station if he thought of anything more. The idea that he might inconvenience Erica Nellenbach didn’t worry him in the slightest. In fact, his lips twitched with the urge to smile.
Lacey grasped his mood and took over.
“Thank you for your time, Mrs. Nellenbach. We do need to ask one more thing of you, please. We’ll need a list of all Zoya’s work colleagues, as well as everyone associated with this club. Parents, gymnasts, that sort of thing. Along with contact details for all of them.”
“Well, that’s preposterous. That list includes hundreds of people, you can’t possibly expect me to give that all to you now.” Erica was back to glaring down her nose at Nico and Lacey.
“No, just a list of employees and their contact numbers for now would be good,” Lacey replied with a tight smile. “The rest you can send over later. Tomorrow would be fine. But this afternoon would be better.” The smile was still painted on Lacey’s face, but Nico could recognize the effort it cost her to keep it there.
“Fine. Claire can do a list.” Erica’s mouth was a thin line of disapproval. “As for employees, we have at least twenty on the books at the moment. I have quite a few part-timers. There’s Janine, who I just mentioned.” She began ticking the names off on her fingers. “Claire who works the front desk. Then there’s—”
“A typed record sent to us as soon as you can, will be fine, thank you,” Nico interrupted. “Here’s my card. My email is on the back.”
Erica’s mouth thinned even more, as if asking her to find a list of employees was tantamount to mutiny. She was obviously above that sort of task. Nico wanted to show Erica a picture of the second murder victim to see if she knew of any connection between Zoya and the second body. But her face had been too badly mauled, and so Nico came to the conclusion that he’d gain nothing by freaking the woman out showing her a mutilated face that she most likely wouldn't be able to recognize. A certain perverted part of him wanted to pull out the picture anyway.
“If that’s all then, Detective?” Erica fixed her glare on him and he noticed for the first time the ice-blue color of her eyes. She was certainly one cold fish, and he felt sorry for her husband, or children—if she was even married.
“Yes, thank you. You’ve been very helpful,” Lacey replied, even though Erica had just pointedly ignored her. “Don’t forget the list of employees,” she added cheerily, turning on her heel to head back across the vast gymnasium floor. Nico snapped his notebook shut, thanked the woman for her time, and was one step behind Lacey. Their boots tapped out a noisy tattoo as they walked to the exit, the sound echoing around the high ceiling.
