by Joanne Fluke
“Well give him time. He’s defeated every other attempt you’ve made to regulate his food.”
“Right.” Even though she’d uttered only one syllable, Hannah gasped a bit. Luckily, Andrea didn’t seem to notice. Perhaps it was because she’d increased the resistance on her skiing simulator. Hannah could see the little graphic that showed her sister skiing up a thirty-percent slope. That was twenty-eight percent steeper than anything Hannah had attempted.
Andrea was silent for a moment and Hannah was grateful. It gave her time to attempt to catch her breath. This twenty-minute workout wouldn’t be so bad if she had half the morning to do it. Unfortunately, they were pressed for time. Their substitute fitness coach, Ronni Ward, would be arriving soon for their body sculpting class and that wasn’t a pleasant thought. Their regular fitness coach was great, but he’d broken his wrist the night after their first class. Ronni Ward had stepped in and things had gone from almost fun to insufferable.
Both Hannah and Andrea had negative feelings about Ronni. The triple-crown Lake Eden Bikini Contest winner wasn’t known for respecting marriage vows, engagements, or understandings. If Ronni wanted someone else’s man, she pulled out all the stops to get him. But poaching other women’s men was only one strike against Ronni. There was a second strike and Hannah considered it even more egregious.
Ronni didn’t have an ounce of niceness in her. It had only taken one body sculpting class to convince Hannah of that. While it was true that Betty Jackson was more than eighty pounds overweight, she didn’t deserve to be ridiculed for her efforts to get in shape. Ronni had asked Betty, in front of the whole class, where she’d found an exercise outfit large enough to fit her. She’d also made reference to Gail Hanson’s buxom figure, pointing her out to the class as an example of someone who’d failed to exercise and had grown too top-heavy. They’d only had two classes from Ronni, but it was clear that she was a master at embarrassing others and making enemies.
“You’re through, Hannah,” Andrea announced, stepping off her ski simulator and taking a seat on what looked like a stationary bike. It wasn’t a bicycle, of course. That would be far too simple. Instead, this diabolical machine involved pedals that didn’t pedal and a seat that slid back and forth, enabling the rider to push forward and back in a rigorous stretch that had given Hannah a charley horse the one time she’d tried it.
Hannah slowed to a halt. She’d been so busy thinking about how much she disliked Ronni that the last five minutes of her workout had practically flown past. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and then turned to her sister. “We’ve got thirty-five minutes until class. Do you want a flavored water?”
“That sounds good.” Andrea gave a little sigh. “Class used to be fun, but now I dread it. I really wish that Ronni was out of the picture.”
“Me, too. Do you want to skip class today?”
“No way. If we skip, she’s won. And I won’t give her the satisfaction. Just get our drinks and go relax by the pool. I’ll join you as soon as I finish.”
Hannah headed off at a fast clip before Andrea changed her mind and thought of other exercises that Hannah should do. Since no one was around to man the thatched tiki bar that sold energy drinks and fruit smoothies, she fed quarters into the cold drink machine to get a bottle of zero-carb, zero-calorie strawberry-flavored water for Andrea and a bottle of zero-carb, zero-calorie peach-flavored water for herself. Then she headed down the red-carpeted hallway to the aqua therapy room.
The scent of chlorine rolled out to greet her as Hannah opened the door to the large area containing the pool and the Jacuzzi. There was the stale odor of sweat in the air, and despite the antiperspirant she’d slathered on earlier, Hannah suspected that she might be contributing to the aroma. Whatever the cause, it was certain that the plug-in citrus room fresheners, specifically designed to mask unpleasant odors, failed to triumph over the potent mix.
The pool looked inviting, with wooden deck chairs arranged in patterns at the shallow end and potted trees dotting the periphery. Hannah removed her shoes and socks and took a seat on the concrete lip of the pool so that she could dangle her feet in the water. They were sore after her trek on the motorized belt of the “walk to nowhere” machine. The pool heater had just kicked in. The pool wouldn’t’ reach the proper temperature until aqua therapy classes started at noon, but that didn’t matter to Hannah. The cold felt good. She opened her bottle of water, took a sip, and sat there feeling righteous about finishing her workout.
Her drink was slightly fizzy and it tasted like peach. Hannah supposed that was all one could ask of a product that was less than a dollar fifty and had no carbohydrates or calories. She sat there for at least five minutes, trying to figure out how the manufacturer could make something taste like peach without actually using peach, but then she realized that her toes had stopped tingling and were numb from the cold.
It was time to warm up. Hannah grabbed her towel and headed to the Jacuzzi to thaw her icy feet. She turned on the jets, flicked on the underwater lights, and was about to dip her toes in the tub when she realized that there was something floating in the center of the water.
The surface was roiling and bubbling so furiously that visibility was limited. Hannah moved closer and spotted one of the red and black exercise outfits worn by the female instructors. Had one of them dropped her clothes in the Jacuzzi?
That didn’t make much sense and the moment she realized it, Hannah felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up in exactly the same way Moishe’s did when he encountered something that frightened him. She braced herself and reached out to grab the material, intending to pull it out of the water to examine it more closely. But instead of grasping nothing but spandex, she felt something under the material, something firm, something muscled, something decidedly human.
“Uh-oh,” Hannah breathed, fighting the impulse to turn tail and run. The only thing that kept her feet rooted to the spot was the thought that Andrea could walk in at any moment. She had to find out who was wearing that red and black exercise outfit and spare Andrea from what could very well be a gruesome sight.
Taking a deep breath for courage, Hannah tugged until the solid mass turned from back to front. She took one look and swallowed hard as she stared down at blond hair, a perfect figure, and lifeless blue eyes. It was Ronni Ward, and she was quite dead.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2008 by Joanne Fluke
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-4256-3