Page 42 of The Perfect Prey

“Hold that door open,” Jessie shouted as she kicked off her heels.She could run faster barefoot.They dashed toward the spa’s back entrance, yanking off their masks.Susannah, who was far more adept in heels, left hers on.

The woman held the door open as instructed.When they arrived, Susannah breathlessly asked, “which way did he go?”

The woman pointed down the hallway to the right and said in a hushed voice, “steam room.”

They headed in the direction she advised until they came to the steam room.Jessie looked at the frosted door with beads of water pouring down it and had a thought.She turned back to the woman, who was still standing by the back entrance with her mouth agape and called out to her.

“Please get a male staffer to go to the men’s locker room and ask for James Nettles.Have them tell Mr.Nettles to come here to the steam room right away.It’s a police emergency.”

The woman nodded silently before darting off.Jessie turned to Susannah.

“If this is our guy, it might be advisable to have someone with a gun with us.”

“Good idea,” Susannah said before reluctantly adding, “did you want to wait for him to get here?”

“No way,” Jessie replied forcefully.“We can’t be sure that woman was right, or for that matter, honest.If that guy is somewhere else in this spa and we wait around, he could get away.And if there’s some side door in that steam room, he might sneak out.”

“Then I guess we’re going in,” Susannah said with a grin as she finally kicked off her heels.“Maybe I’ll actually get to use these handcuffs after all.”

“Just be careful,” Jessie warned.“We don’t know if he has a weapon.”

“I will, and you stay behind me,” the detective replied.“Your husband will kill me if you get another head injury on my watch.”

Jessie didn’t argue with her.It was a fair point, and she could tell Susannah meant it.

“Let’s do this,” she said.

She yanked open the door and Susannah stepped inside as a wave of humid air enveloped them both.Jessie followed, squinting as she entered the white, tiled room, looking for any movement.On the floor at her feet were their suspect’s clothes and the mask.He must have stripped down to blend in.After several seconds, it became clear that they were in a “men-only” steam room.She counted six guys, all sitting on the tiled benches.

“What are you doing?”one of them demanded, understandably startled by the sight of two scantily clad women in an off-limits area.

She ignored the question, scanning each man.She was looking for a guy in good shape with short brown hair.As she stepped forward, several others grumbled in protest.She still couldn’t see faces clearly, but as her eyes fell on one of them, she realized she didn’t need to.

Even from this distance, it was obvious that he didn’t have a towel.Everyone else in there had them wrapped around their waists.She was about to point him out to Susannah when, apparently seeming to know he was made, he leapt forward.

For a moment, Jessie thought he was leaping at her, but it quickly became clear that he was trying to shoot past her toward the door.Without pausing to think, she extended her leg as he dashed by, clipping his ankle.He stumbled and landed unceremoniously on the floor, stomach first.

Susannah appeared out of the mist, dropping to her knees, one of which smashed into the small of his back just above his uncovered backside.Sure enough, she whipped out her cuffs and slapped one of them on his right wrist as she yanked his left arm behind his back.A few seconds later, his other wrist was secure.

“You have the right to remain silent,” she began as the door burst open behind them.Jessie spun around, prepared to take on anyone who might come their way.Instead, Jim Nettles stepped into the steam room.His gun was unholstered and pointed at the tiled floor.

“What did I miss?”he asked

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Jessie toweled off before joining the others.

A mere sixty seconds in the steam room had done a number on her.So while Nettles kept an eye on their suspect in the Elite Spa’s small conference room, which they’d commandeered for the questioning they were about to do, she cleaned up.

Once she was presentable again, she joined Nettles and Susannah, who had just done the same wipe down.Their suspect was wearing a robe provided by the spa.His clothes were in a large plastic bag and would be tested as evidence once they returned to the station.

Without his mask, Jessie got a better sense of him.The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, with brown eyes that matched his hair.He was clean-shaven and had a bland, generic look that she’d label “milquetoast good-looking.”

“Has he said anything?”she asked as she took a seat opposite the man.

“He keeps trying,” Nettles said.“But I told him to wait until you were both back.He’s very antsy, this one.”

Just then, he got a text that made his eyebrows rise.He got up and moved to the corner of the room, his fingers typing the whole time.Jessie was curious as to what that was about, but she had more pressing concerns right now.

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