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CHAPTER ONE
Alice Chan cut through the waterwith precise, efficient strokes, swimming for distance now rather than time inher last training session of the day. She tumble turned as she reached the endof the pool, pushing off hard, feeling the familiar pressure in her ears as sheheld her breath, gaining as much distance as she could before she surfaced.
Alice dolphin kicked once under thewater for an extra burst of speed as her push from the wall started to losemomentum, then came up, powering forward with a burst of butterfly stroke, hermuscles pulling and pushing with the perfect timing of long practice. A medleylike this was always more difficult than focusing on one stroke, but it wasimportant to put the work in. Alice was getting toward the end of her trainingsession now, so she was breathing hard in the space between strokes, feelingher heartbeat pushing up into the zone that told her she would be makingprogress.
She reached the end of the pool,coming to a halt with her arms on the side, trying to get her breathing undercontrol. She took a deep breath, plunging under the water, sitting on thebottom of the pool and simply letting everything go still inside her. Thiswasn’t about the training. This part was just for her.
Alice loved the silence around herunder the water, the sense of there being nothing else in the world except forher. There was something meditative about being down there, listening to thesensations of her own body, knowing exactly how long she could hold her breathdown there. Her coach didn’t like her doing this, especially when there was noone else around, but Alice loved the water too much not to do it.
Finally, when her lungs started toprotest, she came up out of the water, hauling herself out of the pool withstrong arms. She peeled away her swim cap, revealing a long wave of dark hair. Thepool was silent, still. She was the only one there. One of the perks of beingon the fast track to medals and success was that she got a key to the trainingfacility’s pool. It meant that Alice could use it after hours, and she lovedthat, loved the peace of being able to swim while outside the windows above,there was nothing but a star filled sky.
Alice felt drained now. She’d putout a lot of effort tonight, used up most of what she had in the tank. Shestretched by the side of the pool for a minute or two, trying to recover, then Alicewent back to the locker room, drying off and getting dressed in dark slacks anda cream shirt, dark shoes and an old blue jacket with plenty of pockets. Bluehad always been her color. She stuffed her swimming gear into a bag, not reallycaring about getting it in any kind of order. The interior of her locker wasplastered with newspaper clippings and printouts of results tables, remindingAlice of everything she’d achieved so far in her swimming career.
It was good to have that reminder,that burst of motivation, especially when she had a 6am weights sessiontomorrow, and those always left her questioning why she was even doing any ofthis. No, that wasn’t quite right. Alice knew why she was doing it. She had hergoals: nationals, worlds, Olympics, everything set out in front of her over thenext few years. Everything planned, her destiny set in stone. Sometimes,though, she needed the reminder that it was all going to be worth it soon. Sheneeded that for weights days in particular.
Alice got out her phone, textingher coach, Tony, to say that she was done for the evening. It was important tolog the sessions, even if he wasn’t poolside for this one. There were a couplemore texts there from friends, asking if Alice wanted to head out for a fewdrinks, but Alice politely declined. She had to if she was going to be in anykind of shape for training in the morning.
She was aware that mosttwenty-year-olds wouldn’t live their lives like this. Most went to college, didthe work, had some fun, got wasted occasionally. Alice had to hit the bookslike everyone else, but had to avoid the other side of college life as much aspossible. She had her dreams, and she wasn’t about to compromise on those. Ifpeople called her boring for it… well, she didn’t have to be the same aseveryone else.
Since she had her phone out, Alicetook a moment to check her horoscope the way she did every day after training. Sheknew somewhere deep in her heart that being an Aquarius was a part of thereason she’d always loved the water so much. Alice felt drawn to it, as ifthere was something inside her that knew she belonged there at least as much ason dry land.
Tomorrow might be a day to hunkerdown, thehoroscope read. You want to get away, but sometimes it’s best to havefriends around. A stranger’s hand might not be so helpful.
It sounded a little ominous, butwhat did Alice expect, with a heavy weights session coming? Sadly, she wasn’tgoing to get to just hunker down. Tony wasn’t about to accept that Alice’shoroscope wasn’t auspicious enough for training. She’d tried that excuse on himbefore, and he’d just responded by asking her how much she wanted this. He gotthat she loved the water, he had the same love, but he knew what success tooktoo.
Alice turned off the lights in thetraining facility and headed out, heading for the spot where her car was parkeda little way from the building. When she’d first come in, there had been plentyof cars there. Now, it was the solitary vehicle in an otherwise empty lot, litup by a single streetlight a little way away. It cast an orange glow over theblue sedan. Alice loved that car. The moment she’d seen the color, she’d knownshe had to have it.
It was quiet out there, a littleway away from the bright lights of the rest of the campus. Everyone else was inone of the frat houses or the nearby bars, probably already partying. Instead,Alice would have to drive back to her small off campus apartment, eat, showerand get some sleep. She reminded herself again that this was all buildingtoward a bigger dream, that it was all worth it.
As Alice walked over to her car,the stars were pinpricks above her. She wondered about them, spinning away inthe vast depths of space, and how much their influence touched the world. Themoon was up, too, a thin crescent that cast a silvery glow down onto the groundbelow.
Alice was still looking at it whenshe heard a sound somewhere. She looked around, but there was nothing there, noone to be seen. Still, Alice didn’t feel entirely comfortable. In that moment,she was all too aware of just how alone she was out there in the parking lotbeyond the training facility.
Alice started to head toward hercar again, telling herself that there was nothing to worry about, thateverything would be fine once she was safely in her car. She reached into herpockets, searching for her keys. Alice cursed as she couldn’t find them. Shetried to think back to where she’d put them when she’d pulled up. She’d gottenout of the car, grabbed her training gear from the trunk…
“Shit!” Alice swore as she realizedthat she’d thrown the keys into her training bag. She hurried to the car,throwing the bag down on the hood, starting to search through it for the keys.Inevitably, they were buried somewhere deep inside it, impossible to find in ahurry.
Now, she heard the scuff of afootstep behind her. Fear filled Alice in that moment. There was someone there.Someone out there in the dark. Alice turned towards the sound and found herfears confirmed. There was a shadowy figure there, standing outside the brightcircle of the lamp light, so that it was impossible to make out anything aboutthem.
“What do you want?” Alice asked,still searching blindly for her keys in her bag. If she could just get into hercar, she could drive out of there, leave this creep behind, and not have toworry. But she couldn’t find them.
And now he was starting towardsher, moving with the deliberate slowness of a predator stalking prey. Alice’shand moved more frantically within the bag, but when it still came up empty,she threw the bag at him, hoping that it would at least distract whoever thiswas while she ran.
Alice had already been a betterswimmer than a runner, but she ran now, heading for the bright lights of therest of the campus. If she could just get to other people, she could get help,she would be safe! That thought brought a note of hope with it, but it didnothing to wash away the terror currently flooding her veins.
Alice was in shape, but panic stillmade her pant for breath after just a little way. It didn’t help that she’djust come out of a training session, and the energy she’d already expended wasstarting to take its toll.
Still, Alice heard the footstepsbehind her, closing in, making her heart pound like it wanted to break free ofher chest. Alice heard the breathing of the man racing after her, close enoughthat she could have reached out to touch him.
Hands grabbed for her, tacklingAlice to the ground. She tried to fight back, but something jabbed into theside of her neck. Alice realized that it must be some kind of drug, just as thestrength started to leave her body.
The last thing she saw was the skyabove as her attacker started to drag her back towards the training facility.
CHAPTER TWO
Agent Amber Young would never getused to being in the spaces where people had been murdered. At least, she hopedthat she wouldn’t. She hoped that she would never lose the sense of horror thatwas creeping through her even now, the need to find answers, the sense ofsympathy for the dead. The moment she did that, she suspected that she wouldlose something important about herself.
She stood still at the heart of thecrime scene while forensic investigators worked around her. There almost seemedto be too many of them for the apartment, making it seem fuller than it everwould have been otherwise.
