Page 45 of To Die For

“She was in themen’sjohn. I’m surprised they didn’t get caught.”

“I doubt she would have cared. They were probably in a stall. Maybe she was giving him a blow job, but that wasn’t her style, either. At a guess, I’d say she did all the taking and none of the giving.”

“Do you remember the man’s name?”

“Not offhand. He didn’t come often, and I don’t think he’s been in at all since then. He wasn’t one of the regulars; he paid for a month and worked out a couple of times, then didn’t renew. I’d recognize his name if I saw it, though. Do you keep a separate file on the ones who didn’t renew?”

“Not a paper one. He’d be in the computer, though. Do you have any plans for the rest of the day? I’m going to put a call in to the cops”—mycop, specifically—“and they might want you to meet them at Great Bods to go through the computer files.”

“No, I’ll be around. If I do happen to be out, you can catch me on the cell phone.”

“Okay. I’ll get back to you.”

“That sounded interesting,” Mrs. Bloodsworth said, her green eyes bright with interest. She didn’t bother to pretend that she hadn’t been eavesdropping. After all, I was sitting in the same room with her.

“I hope so. Now, if Wyatt just won’t hang up on me again—”

“He hung up on you?” Now the green eyes fired. “I taught him better manners than that. Let me drop a little word in his ear—”

“Oh, no, don’t do that. Come to think of it, it would be best if I didn’t call him again. I’ll just call Detective MacInnes.” I found the detective’s card, and dialed the number on it.

When he answered, I said cheerfully, “Hello, this is Blair Mallory—”

“Uh—wait just a minute, Ms. Mallory, and I’ll get the lieutenant—”

“Oh, there’s no need. I’ll just talk to you. The thing is, I was just now talking to my assistant manager, Lynn Hill, about her taking over for me at Great Bods when it reopens tomorrow—itisreopening, isn’t it? You have all of that ugly yellow tape down?”

“Uh—let me get back to you on that—”

“Never mind. I’ll find out about that later. Anyway, Lynn is the one who mentioned that she thought Nicole had a sort of thing for married men. You know—the challenge, taking something away from another woman. Lynn said she didn’t say anything about that to the detective who interviewed her because she didn’t think of it at the time, but later on she was running things through her mind and thinks it’s very likely, because of the way Nicole acted.”

“Uh—” He tried to interrupt again, but I just plowed right over him.

“Lynn and I were talking about possibles, and she said a couple of months ago she caught Nicole and this guy in the men’s john doing, well, each other. She can’t remember the man’s name, because he only came to Great Bods a couple of times and hasn’t been back, but she’s sure she’ll recognize the name when she sees it, and if you want, she can meet you over at Great Bods and she’ll go through the computer files of the members who didn’t renew. Are you following this?”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding much more involved and with me now.

“Good. It’s a place to start. That particular guy may not pan out, but knowing she liked married men puts a different spin on things, doesn’t it?”

“Sure does.” Now he sounded almost cheerful.

“Just in case you don’t have Lynn’s number handy, here it is.” I rattled it off. “She’s waiting to hear from you. And if she isn’t at home, here’s her cell number.” Rattled off another one. Then I chirped, “Have a nice day, Detective,” and hung up after he mumbled an automatic reply.

“I’m impressed,” Mrs. Bloodsworth said, grinning from ear to ear. “You’re doing a good imitation of a ditzy blond, but you’re spewing out information so fast he probably couldn’t write it all down.”

“Then he’ll call back,” I said airily. “Or someone will.”

Someone did, of course, within about five minutes. He was royally pissed, too. “If you have information about the case, you call me, not one of my men,” he said very tersely.

“Are you the same man who has hung up on me twice now? I can’t imagineevercalling you again, about anything.”

Silence as deep as the Grand Canyon fell between us. Then he muttered, “Oh, shit,” in the tone of a man who has just realized he’s gonna have to suck it up and apologize, because, no doubt about it, he’d been rude. Not only that, he knew that I was with the mother who had raised him to have better manners than that. This was just one teeny little battle, but he’d been outflanked and I got a great deal of satisfaction out of it.

Finally he heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’ll never hang up on you again. I promise.”

“Apology accepted,” I said briskly. “Now, will Lynn be able to open Great Bods tomorrow?” There’s no sense in beating a horse to death, now is there? I’d won, so I’d be an adult and move on.

“I’m ninety percent certain she will.”

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