My alarm woke me at seven o’clock and I got up, took a shower. After I got dressed, I made myself a sandwich and ate it. I wasn’t sure whether Jill planned to feed me or not. Even if she did feed me, given her obvious focus on health, she might want to give me some kind of tofu concoction. That stuff gags me.
Finally, I locked up my house, got in my car, and headed for the health club. I arrived just before eight o’clock and went inside. The receptionist wasn’t behind the desk, but the door to Jill’s office was slightly ajar. Out in the area where the exercise machines were, some people, most of them women in excellent shape, as far as I could see, were still working out on the machines. Other club members, both male and female, were heading for the locker rooms.
I walked over and knocked on Jill’s door.
“Come in,” she said. She smiled when I pushed the door open and entered her office. “You’re right on time,” she commented.
“I always give my clients what they pay for,” I said. I took a seat in one of the chairs facing her desk.
“You might as well make yourself comfortable,” she said. “The members hang in there as late as they can most nights. Usually at nine I have to go out and chase them out of here.”
“I’m on the clock,” I said. “Doesn’t matter to me where I do my job.”
“If you have sweats, you’re welcome to use the equipment,” Jill said. “I have some bookwork to finish, then I have to close the place up.”
“No staff on to help tonight?” I asked.
She shook her head. “For some reason, Monday isn’t as busy as most other nights are,” she said. “I usually handle closing up myself those nights. The rest of the week my staff stays late, too.”
“Are all the people who work for you in that picture you showed me earlier?” I asked.
Jill nodded. “Why did you ask?” she said.
“Well, maybe I better look at the picture again,” I said. “Just so I know who’s staff and who isn’t. I’ve always figured the more I know about what I’m doing, the less likely I am to mess it up.”
Jill dug the picture out of her desk and handed it to me, then she picked up a pen and began writing something in a book lying on the desk in front of her.
I studied the picture. All of the members of her staff appeared to be younger than she was, and all of them appeared to be in excellent shape, too, both the males and the females. I spotted the blonde guy I’d seen her with. He was standing next to her in the back row. I wondered if he was in any danger from Billy. He could be, especially if Jill was still sharing her favors with him.
After I was pretty sure I’d recognize any of the people in the picture if I encountered them, I laid it on the desk, stood up, and walked out into the main exercise area. Several women were still puffing away on stair climbers and a couple of men were pumping away on the exercise bikes. I’ve never been much of one for mechanical assistance in working out. In fact, until I began working for Roscoe, I hardly ever worked out at all once I left the cops. But, I got so winded chasing a guy I spotted shoplifting when I was working a store security detail told me I was endangering myself if I didn’t get in shape, so I began running, swimming, and doing pushups and sit-ups at home. The exercise has helped. My endurance has improved considerably, and I’m a lot fleeter of foot than I was a year ago.
As nine o’clock approached, the small group of exercisers began drifting toward the locker rooms, all but one determined woman who was working the stair climber with incredible determination. She looked as if King Kong was chasing her up the stairs of the Empire State building. Sweat beaded on her face and arms, and her breasts, even though they were encased firmly in Spandex, jiggled as she pumped away on the machine. She was a good-looking brunette with a very tidy body. I hadn’t been committed to work tonight, I might have tried striking up a conversation with her. The last woman I met here in the health club had turned out to be a lot of fun, maybe the brunette would be, too. She certainly had the all of the equipment for it.
“That’s Serena,” Jill said, appearing beside me. “She’s always the last one here.”
“She’s sure giving that stair climber a workout,” I commented.
“She has a very stressful job and she works the stress out here in the club,” Jill said. “I guess I better tell her it’s time to quit.” She walked over and laid her hand on the woman’s arm.
Puffing like a steam engine, the woman stopped and looked at her. Jill said something and Serena nodded, then she stepped down from the exercise machine, picked up her towel, and headed for the women’s locker room.
Jill walked back over to me. “Would you mind checking the men’s locker room to see that everybody’s gone?” she asked.
“Be happy to,” I said. I started in that direction.
“Sometimes people leave stuff in the lockers,” Jill said as I walked away from her. “If you find anything, bring it to the office.”
“All right,” I said.
The men’s locker room was empty and nothing had been left behind by any of the members. I shut the lights off when I walked out. Jill and Serena weren’t around, so I went into the manager’s office and sat down to wait.
Jill walked in a few minutes later. “Serena’s gone,” she said. “Let’s turn out the lights, lock the place up, and head home.”
“OK,” I said. I stood up and followed her out of the office. She turned off the lights while I walked to the door. Then she joined me and we went outside. I stood there, looking around, while she locked the door.
“Your car or mine?” she asked.
“Will yours be all right if you leave it here?” I asked.
“Probably,” Jill replied. “The parking lot is well-lit, the neighborhood is pretty safe, and ever since I reported what Billy has been doing, the police do make frequent swings through here.”
She’d no sooner gotten the words out of her mouth than a blue and white police car turned off the street and came across the parking lot toward us. Floodlights on the roof of the car came on, bathing us both in bright, white light.
“Jill, this is Sergeant Mills,” a female voice said. “Are you OK?”
“I’m fine,” Jill replied. “This isn’t Billy. He’s a…a friend.”
The lights on the top of the police car went out, allowing me to see a uniformed female standing next to the open door on the car’s driver’s side. A uniformed female officer was standing there.
“I’ll be leaving my car here tonight,” Jill told her.
“We’ll keep an eye on it for you,” the officer said. “Take care.” She got back in the cruiser, then it backed up and pulled out of the parking lot onto the street.
“Working patrol on the night shift is the best detail on the department,” I said, as memories of how much I’d enjoyed being a police officer came back to me.
“Were you a cop?” Jill asked.
I nodded. “Ten years,” I said.
“Why did you quit?” she asked as we walked toward my car.
“My wife didn’t like me being a cop,” I told her. “She hated the hours and the fact I was gone a lot. So I got out.”
I opened the door on the passenger side of my car so she could get in.
“But you aren’t married now, are you?” she asked as she slipped into my car.
I walked around and got in behind the steering wheel. “Nope, I’m not married,” I said. “I’ve been divorced for almost a year now.”
