Page 17 of Absent Remorse

“She is … shewasamazing. Everyone liked her. She used to volunteer with a couple of charity organizations. She was a good person.”

“I’m sure she was,” Simon said. Amber was surprised by the gentle tone to his voice. She was used to him being the all-action FBI agent who was always ready to take down bad guys. “Can you tell us what she was doing in town today?”

“Going to meet up with some of her friends, probably,” Michael Greening replied. “She had this group of girlfriends she would meet up for coffee with pretty regularly.”

“Was it always at the same place?” Simon asked. “The same coffee shop?”

“I think so, yes,” Michael Greening said. “Is that important?”

“Anything we can find out to get a picture of Alicia’s movements may help,” Simon said. Amber could tell that he was holding something back and could guess what. The fact that she went to the same place each time meant that a killer who knew that would have been well positioned to plan this. Of course, they were already fairly certain that the killer had planned his attack thoroughly, so Amber wasn’t sure if it helped that much.

“Was there anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?” Simon asked. Michael Greening had already told them that everyone liked his wife, but maybe Simon was hoping that someone might come to mind if he took the time to think about it. “Had she argued with anyone recently? Did she owe money to anyone?”

“No, nothing like that,” Michael Greening said, shaking his head.

Amber decided that this was the moment to ask a question, the one question that she’d wanted to ask since she got there. “Did Alicia ever visit a gym called First Hit Fitness?”

“What?” The question seemed to catch Michael Greening off guard.

“First Hit Fitness. Was it somewhere that your wife ever went?” Amber asked.

“Yes, I guess so. Not for a couple of months, though. Not since …” Michael Greening tailed off.

“What is it, Mr. Greening?” Simon asked. “What happened there?”

Even with that prompting, it took a few seconds for Michael Greening to start talking again. “There was a problem with one of the instructors there. The guy who ran the kickboxing class. He tried to hit on Alicia, then got handsy with her. Frankly, at the time, I wanted to go down there and punch him for it, but …”

But that probably wasn’t a fight that he would have won, Amber guessed.

“I tried to get him fired instead,” Michael Greening said, “but it turns out he’s a part owner of the gym, so that didn’t go anywhere.”

“Do you remember the name of the instructor?” Simon asked.

“Why? Do you think he had something to do with this?”

Amberdefinitelythought it, when both Rose and Mandy had links to the same class in the same gym.

“We just want to make sure that we cover every base,” Simon said. “What was his name, please?”

“George Parfitis,” Michael Greening said, a look of anger coming over him as he said it. “If he had anything to do with this, I’ll—”

“We have this in hand, Mr. Greening,” Simon said. “And we don’t have any evidence that he had anything to do with this. We just want to talk to him.”

Urgently.As far as Amber could see, the sooner they got to that gym, the better.

CHAPTER TEN

Simon strode towards the doors to the First Hit Fitness gym, glad to have a lead in the case that wasn’t a complex puzzle that needed to be slowly unraveled.

He wasn’t like Amber, with her love of puzzles. He liked things direct, things that he could act on. Give him a bad guy to take down and he was in his element. Give him the chance to run down leads and interview suspects and everything was fine. Puzzles that claimed to hold the key to the murder, though … no, he preferred to leave those to other people.

Amber was following along in his wake as he entered the gym, although the puzzle was currently securely locked in the car. Her presence worried Simon a little. She’d already shown on the Puzzle Killer case that she was brave and committed when it came to finding the truth, but she’dalsoshown a tendency to dive into situations, potentially putting herself in danger. She was still just a trainee, not a fully qualified FBI agent, and that made Simon worry about her safety in all of this.

“Maybe you should wait in the car,” Simon said as they stepped into a brightly lit reception area, the walls painted in swoops of primary colors obviously intended to convey dynamism, a few seats arranged in front of a reception desk that was more like a display counter for sports supplements.

He saw Amber shake her head, though. “I didn’t come with you just to sit in the car. I might be able to help with this.”

Simon thought about asking her to stay behind anyway but that hadn’t worked out so well in the past. Either Amber had gone off looking for information alone, or trouble had come to her. No, it was probably better to keep her with him.

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