With some grumbling, the rest of the group agreed. Sandy hardly seemed to be in the same room with us any more, her thoughts were so distant. As we left the building, I saw Sandy go to the end of the parking lot and slide into the car, where Joel sat in the front seat, waiting for her. I saw him lean over to give her a kiss on the cheek, and when he did, she gripped his arm and started talking.
Chapter Six
Some days everything just works out wonderful. I didn’t have many of those, and I enjoyed one when I got it.
I got two phone calls the next morning before I started for Little Rock and the stakeout. One was from Mel Brentwood, the owner of Body Time, who asked if I would work that day. I tried explaining to Mel that since the thief had been captured I had moved on to another job. Mel replied that he hadn’t been able to find anyone to fill my position and if it was at all possible, he really wanted me to come in for my former shift. It would be worth the extra pay to not have to worry for one day.
“It might be a little awkward, Mr. Brentwood, having me back now.”
“Oh, they don’t know you were there as a private eye,” Mel reassured me. “As far as they’re concerned, you’re a regular employee who had another job offer. I told Linda to put you on the substitute list.”
I wished Jack were there to advise me. I didn’t want to alienate an important client of Jack’s, but I didn’t want to miss a day watching Beth Crider, either. Perhaps it might be good to lull her into security for a day? Maybe she’d been feeling watched; a day free from observation might make her careless. “Okay, Mr. Brentwood, I’ll be there,” I said. I laid down the phone and it rang immediately.
“Yes?” I asked, a little apprehensive.
“Babe, it’s me,” Jack said.
“How are you? Where are you?”
“Still at the hotel, but we’re about to leave for the airport.”
“We?”
“He’s agreed to come with me,” Jack said in a low voice. “He’s in the bathroom right now, so I can talk for a minute.”
“He just caved?” I asked, incredulous.
“He’s sick and scared,” Jack said. “And a trick beat the shit out of him two nights ago.”
If the boy had been fated to be beaten, this was the right time for it to happen, I thought, but I kept it to myself. I wasn’t always sure if I believed in fate or not, but sometimes it was comforting to believe in something.
Jack went on to tell me he planned to drive the boy home after they landed. Then he’d come to Shakespeare. “No matter how late it is,” he said.
So I was already feeling unusually chipper when I parked my car at Marvel, even though I was back to wearing the loathsome leopard-print unitard. As I slung my purse and lunch bag into my locker, Linda Doan, wearing a zebra-striped workout bra and puffy black shorts, asked me if I’d had a boob implant. Since she was pinning on her “Manager” label at the time, I was tempted to ask her what she’d leak if she stuck her breast, but I abstained, which made me proud of myself.
“No, just me in here,” I said so cheerfully that I checked the mirror again to make sure I was myself.
Even Linda looked surprised.
“You musta gotten some last night,” she observed. “You’re mighty perky today.”
I sure was. Perky. Lily Bard, perky?
As long as I was being such a cheerful team member, I asked, “Did you get any feedback from the calisthenics class?” That had been my idea. I got tired of the cute little classes taught in the aerobics room; they all pivoted around some gimmick. The set of calisthenics we did before karate class had seemed exotic to this bunch. And extremely painful.
Linda’s face took on a reserved expression. Linda was brown from the tanning bed, streaked from the hairdresser, and hard bodied from exercise. She was a little cautious, too, when she perceived that her interest was at stake. “A couple of the women said it was the hardest workout they’d ever had,” Linda said. “And at least one of them wanted to try it again.”
“Great.”
“Byron was telling me you know Mel?” Linda was striving to keep her voice casual, but I could tell we’d come to the crux of the conversation.
I nodded.
“Did he send you here to keep an eye on me?” she asked, abandoning all pretense of having a normal conversation.
“No,” I said. My shoelace was loose, so I squatted down to retie it.
“You stop trying to dodge me,” Linda said in a furious whisper.
“I’m not. I’m just tying my shoe.”
“Well, I don’t believe that you’re just here to work this job.”
“Believe what you want,” I said. I picked up the bottle of spray cleaner and the paper towels and went over to the nearest mirror to begin my cleaning round. I glanced at Linda’s reflection while I worked, and when I saw her expression I knew that she really hated me. I didn’t particularly care, but it would have cleared the air if I’d been able to tell her why I’d really been hired. Mel Brentwood had been clear about that point, though. He wanted me to remain just an occasional employee to the staff at Body Time.
One of the regular clients, Jay Scarlatti, a tall, lean, bony man, had taken a shine to me. He came in every morning after his run to lift some weights; afterward, he’d shower and go to work in a suit his wife had brought in the afternoon before.
Jay was interested in me physically. He had no idea what my character was like. Today, as always, he saw the body in the unitard and not the person who was wearing it.
“Hello, you beautiful thing,” he said this morning, coming up behind me while I was spraying the upholstery of one of the weight benches. “How are you today?”
I wasn’t supposed to beat on the customers, so I replied mildly that I was fine, and I hoped he was well.
“And Mrs. Scarlatti?” I asked.
“Katy’s fine,” he said stiffly.
“That’s good. She seems like such a nice lady, when she brings in your clothes in the afternoon. It’s really too bad you never have time to do that yourself.”
Jay Scarlatti was scowling.
“Being a little emphatic, aren’t you?” he asked, biting the words out.
“Seems like I need to. Are you going to try calisthenics today?”
He looked startled. “Sure, I guess so.”
“Then let’s get into line.”
I stowed away my cleaning things, blew my whistle, and collected a small crowd right away. Linda and Byron got in line, too, since I’d told Byron he might have to lead this exercise when I was off.
“You’ll see,” said a young muscle-builder to his pal. “This is gonna make you sore in places you didn’t even know you had muscles.” He looked excited at the prospect.
So we began, and the first time I asked them to touch the floor right in front of their toes, I heard a chorus of groans and cracking joints. But gradually they improved, and since I’d insisted on discipline from the beginning, I heard no complaints. Linda and Byron were red and panting, but they made it through the rest of the class.
Now that I wasn’t watching for a thief, I actually enjoyed being in the gym all day. And I was so thankful not to be loitering in Beth Crider’s neighborhood that I was extra friendly all day.
Jack had thought he’d get home about ten, so I left some food out on a microwavable plate for him. I got ready for bed and read for a while, then heard the familiar snick of the key in the lock of the front door.
While Jack ate and brushed his teeth, I kept him company. He talked a little about the boy he’d found, about
