Missy DeMeanor Cozy Mysteries Boxset

by Brianna Bates

  Chapter Nine

  Normally Missy was very conscious and careful about what she ate, but she knew they had another workout this afternoon before dinner followed by a morning session tomorrow and then some “fun, light activities” later as promised by Anastasia. Fun and light to Anastasia and Missy were very different things.

  So Missy loaded up on the carbs again, knowing she would need the energy. Holly had just sat down and unusually she was by herself—the men tended to gravitate toward her because she was very pretty.

  Missy brought her tray to the table. “Hey, Holly. Mind if I join you?”

  Holly smiled and dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a napkin. She was eating skinless chicken and nothing else. There wasn’t a carb in sight of her.

  Missy sat and gulped her water. God, she hadn’t felt that thirsty but she could have finished the whole bottle in one long drink.

  “How are you holding up?” Missy asked, which could have been taken in a couple different ways under the present circumstances.

  Holly put her fork down. “Feeling great. I’m on a good cycle right now. After this weekend, I’ll begin tapering until the Games. I think I’ve got a good shot at the overall competition.”

  “That’s great,” Missy said. “I just hope I can finish the six mile run.”

  “Missy.” Holly gave her an encouraging smile. “You’re going to kill it. What’s the farthest you’ve run before?”

  “Almost three-and-a-half.”

  Holly waved her hand. “Oh, then you’ll be fine. If you can do three-and-a-half, you can do six. Trust me.”

  “Really?” Missy wasn’t so sure. It might have been easy for someone like Holly to make that kind of a jump. “It’s almost twice as long.”

  “You’ve got a month to get ready. Tomorrow just do a long run. Try to get to four. Then next week, try to get to four point five. Then the week after that, try to get to five. You’ll be fine.”

  “That’s still a whole mile different,” Missy said, not happy she’d brought the six mile race up. She’d just forgotten about it …

  “If you can get to four-and-a-half or five, you can get to six. Believe me. On race day you’ll be surrounded by a lot of people that will act like a support network for you. And your adrenaline will be going like it never has before. It will carry you through that last mile.”

  “Let’s hope.” Missy smiled. “I’ll bet the three-miler we did last night was easy for you.”

  Holly shrugged. “I had a hard run on Wednesday so I forced myself to go slow last night. I’m not nineteen anymore.”

  Missy laughed. “Just wait till you’re my age!”

  Holly drank her water. “You look great, Missy! I wish I had your curves.”

  “Oh.” She was usually uncomfortable with compliments about her weight. So often they felt back-handed, or ironic. But Holly was sincere. “Thanks.”

  “I mean it.” Holly pointed her bottled water at Missy. “I don’t have the genes to be voluptuous.”

  “Any time you want to trade genes …” Missy laughed.

  Holly laughed too. “Ha! I guess the grass is always greener, right?”

  Missy kept smiling. “So you said you ran easy last night. How much time does it take you to run three miles easily? I want to be impressed.”

  Holly took a bite of her chicken. She dabbed at her mouth before answering. “I was aiming for an eight-minute mile.”

  “That’s like a sprint for me!” Missy said. In her mind, though, she was estimating where Holly would have been on the trails between eighteen and twenty minutes into her run. If she’d run the same trails as Missy, it would have been right …

  “You’ll get there,” Holly said. “If you want. It depends on what you want, Missy. You know what I mean?”

  Missy wasn’t really listening closely. Her mind was spinning at the thought of Holly and Eliana possibly running into each other right where Eliana had fallen.

  “You’re good at everything, though,” Missy said.

  Holly frowned. “My squat is weak. And I can’t bench to save my life. The deadlift is what saves me on the overall. And I can run well.”

  Missy had seen Holly perform all these exercises and, to use one of Anastasia’s favorite phrases, she was an absolute beast.

  “Who were you running with?” Missy asked.

  “Nobody, really. I was going for a positive split to try something new.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I was trying to average an eight minute mile but I started out faster than that. I ran the first half at about seven-thirty and then slowed to eight-thirty for the second half.”

  Missy wanted to ask why, but felt like she was getting away from the point of her questions.

  “So you were with some people for the beginning and then other people for the end?”

  Holly nodded. If she suspected Missy of probing, she showed no signs of it. That was the sign of a clear conscience. Or of a really good actress.

  “How were you doing?” Holly asked. “I mean, until you … you know.”

  Missy thought it was a bit of a strange question, considering her run had been interrupted by the discovery of a dead body. But then again, she’d just asked Holly how she’d been doing.

  “I think we were running about eleven minutes a mile. I don’t usually do trails and the hills were killer.”

  Holly nodded. “I hear that. Sometimes I get shin splints when I do hill work. Those are killer.”

  “I must be cursed,” Missy said, hoping this was a smooth way to change the subject. “Eliana is not the first person I’ve found.”

  Holly looked at her seriously and nodded. “I know! What are the chances?”

  “I probably have a better chance to win the lottery.”

  “I can’t imagine it gets any easier, no matter how many times it happens.” Holly was looking at her intensely now. “What was she like?”

  “Well, it was clear that she’d fallen.”

  “Did she break her neck, like everybody is saying?”

  “I really don’t know.” Missy sipped her water.

  “I heard her head was twisted?”

  Missy frowned. “I don’t really want to go into details.”

  Holly nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. But something like this doesn’t happen often, so I was curious.”

  “Were you and she close?”

  Holly gave her a look. “Really?”

  “What?” Missy asked innocently.

  Holly was still giving her that look. “You must have heard by now.”

  She knew if Holly talked to Richie, Missy could be caught in a lie. So she decided to keep it vague. “Richie mentioned you two had an argument once.”

  “Argument is a nice way of putting it.” Holly shook her head. “I really shouldn’t say anything else because you’re not supposed to say bad things about the dead.”

  “You seem pretty level-headed, though. I can’t imagine you getting angry with anybody.”

  Holly had a good laugh at that. “I’m super competitive! It doesn’t take much to get me going!”

  “I never would have thought that.”

  Holly leaned back. “You should have seen me in high school and college. I took no prisoners. I wanted to win everything I ever did. I’ve mellowed out a lot over the years.”

  Missy paused to see if Holly would fill the gap.

  She did. “But people like Eliana bring that younger girl out in me. God.” Holly shook her head. “I really couldn’t stand her.”

  Missy thought that Holly was being very honest about her feelings. Would a guilty person do that? Or would they try to add nuance and color to paint themselves in a more favorable light?

  Holly went on. “We both wanted to be the best, but we couldn’t have been any more different. I went about my business quietly and always tried to help everybody else. Eliana was loud-mouthed, obnoxious, and a braggart and she didn’t think about anybody. She could have been in t
he gym all by herself and would have been happy. In fact, that was pretty much how she acted. She didn’t think about anybody else. I mean, anybody other than Anastasia.”

  “They were close?”

  “Incredibly. I never got the whole story, but there was a rumor going around that Anastasia helped her get out of a bad domestic situation.”

  “Eliana?” Missy couldn’t believe it. The woman had been scary. She couldn’t imagine her being intimidated by anyone.

  “Hard to believe, right?”

  “Very.”

  “And the other rumor is Eliana lent Anastasia some money when she was just starting out. She didn’t ask for a piece of the ownership, she just handed some cash over. After that, WiredFit really took off and they were inseparable.”

  “Wow.” Missy thought about all that history between the two women. “So when they had their falling out, it must have been really …”

  Holly folded her arms. “I hate to say this, but it was inevitable. Eliana was just … I’m not going to say what I’m really thinking about her because it’s not nice. But she just made a lot of enemies. Anastasia lost a couple members because of it. So it put her in an awkward position. On the one hand, Eliana had helped her out financially early on and without that help, who knows what would have happened to the gym? On the other hand, she rubbed paying customers the wrong way. Anastasia had to walk a very fine line there, out of loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her customers who were paying her bills.”

  Missy had to ask. “Is that why they had a falling out?”

  Holly hesitated. “I know more than most people, but it’s really not my place to share. I was told things in confidence so I really can’t repeat them.”

  “I understand.”

  “Let’s just say.” Holly got up, grabbing her tray. “That I wasn’t surprised by what happened.

  “Because not too many people liked Eliana?”

  Holly thought about her answer. “Because Eliana was Eliana. That was another difference between me and her. I can’t stand people who …”

  Holly stopped and smiled. “Sorry, but I really shouldn’t say anything else. It wouldn’t be right.”

  Missy was on the edge of her seat, but Holly walked away quickly.

  ***

  After lunch, Missy called Tyler. To get a signal this afternoon, she had to walk all the way back to the field where they’d exercised in the morning.

  “Hey, Melissa.”

  He did not sound himself. “Is something wrong?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I already told you there was nothing wrong.”

  “Oh.” He was keeping something from her. “Okay. Sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?”

  “Because I …” She tried to gather her racing thoughts into something intelligible. “You just don’t seem yourself, and everything I say seems to make you mad.”

  “I’m not mad, Melissa.” He sighed. “Work is hard right now. How is it going today?”

  She didn’t want to change the subject. Tyler never complained and rarely brought work home with him. But something was really bothering him.

  “Good. I’m not as sore as I expected,” Missy said. “We did circuit training this morning, and we’ve got another session before dinner. I just hope I make it through the weekend.”

  “You will.” There. That was more like the Tyler she knew and loved. “I know you will. What’s going on with the investigation?”

  “I really don’t know,” Missy said, which was a bit of a lie. It was true she hadn’t spoken to Lieutenant Simon again, but it was also true that she’d been poking around after swearing she wasn’t going to get involved.

  “But?” Tyler asked, easily reading her like he always did.

  “But nothing.” Missy frowned. She never kept things from Tyler. And couldn’t do it now. “Actually, people have been talking …”

  “You mean you’ve been asking questions,” Tyler said, matter of fact.

  “Okay, maybe a few,” Missy said.

  He was silent.

  It was so weird not knowing what was bothering him. “I think she was pushed.”

  “You do?” His voice was flat.

  “Yes.” Missy told him why. “I was going to give Simon a call to make sure he knew what I knew.”

  “You should do that.”

  “Tyler, what is the matter?”

  He sighed. “It’s nothing. I’m distracted. I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

  “Of course.” She was really worried. He was not himself. “I hope I didn’t do anything.”

  “No, it’s got nothing to do with you.”

  “Okay.” Was it another woman? No. Tyler was not that kind of man. Then what? “I can tell you don’t want to talk about it, Tyler, but I really think you should just get it out. Whatever it is, it’s bothering you.”

  “Sorry, Melissa, but we just got a call. I’ve gotta hit the road. I’ll give you a buzz later.”

  “Oh, okay. I love you.”

  “Love you too.” He hung up.

  What was going on with him?

  Missy turned to head back. It was a hot day, and she was sweating again before she reached the cabins. Lieutenant Simon’s SUV was parked out front, and she saw the detective leading Carl away from the cabins.

  Marie came out of the women’s cabin and she waved at Missy. “Miss, we need to talk!”

  “What’s up?”

  Marie motioned they had to move away from the cabin. Uh-oh. Now what? Was Carl about to be arrested?

  Missy waited in the shade of some oak trees for Marie to join her. They walked in silence away from the cabin, sticking to the tree line to avoid the sun. When they were far enough away, Marie stopped.

  “I can’t believe this is happening.” Marie looked around, to double-check and make sure they were alone. “Everybody has been talking and now I’m convinced Eliana was killed.”

  Missy nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Did you hear Oliver quit the gym?” Marie asked.

  “No.” Missy frowned. “But he’s here this weekend?”

  Marie nodded. “Anastasia didn’t tell anybody that Eliana was rejoining before we got here. So when Oliver found out, he told her he was resigning and demanded his money for this month be refunded.”

  “Did he and Eliana have an argument too?” Missy was having trouble keeping track of all the people who had something against the woman.

  “Not directly. But Oliver almost quit when she called Carl a you-know-what. He marches with the LGBT community whenever he gets a chance.”

  “So when he found out that she was coming back, he said that was it?”

  Marie nodded. “But Anastasia convinced him to stick around, take the weekend, and think about it. He’s a great guy, and she doesn’t want to lose him.”

  “He is really nice.” Oliver had helped her get the form for cleans right after she joined. “I mean, really nice. I can’t imagine him killing Eliana.”

  “I’ve seen him get angry before.”

  “Like when?” Missy hadn’t.

  “We went out to Hank’s one night for wings. Everybody decided to indulge for a change. Viktor Frost was there.”

  “I know where this is going.” Missy shook her head. Viktor was very vocal about his political views, which contrasted pretty sharply with Oliver’s. Not to mention the fact that Viktor was the kind who always said what he was thinking, usually finding the most offensive way to do so.

  “Viktor was being Viktor, and next thing we knew, Oliver was screaming in his face.” Marie nodded. “I was shocked. Like you said, I never pictured Oliver getting like that but he’s got buttons that can be pushed.”

  “Like we all do,” Missy said.

  “I think the lieutenant is talking to Carl right now to get more details around that time Eliana called him that name, so he can better understand how Oliver might have … you know.”

  It was possible. Maybe
Eliana had heard Oliver was going to quit the gym now that she was back, and had been prompted to say something to him. Maybe that had set him off.

  “Did Eliana date anyone from WiredFit?” Missy asked. The conversation she’d overhead last night was still bothering her.

  “She dated Jeremy.”

  Missy remembered that from her conversation with the guy. “Did she cheat on him, or vice versa?”

  Marie frowned. “Why? Did you hear something?”

  “Keep this between us. It’s probably nothing, but I accidentally overheard some people talking about a cheater. This was right after I got back to the cabins last night after we found Eliana. I assumed they were talking about her, or about someone she dated.”

  Marie shook her head no. “We all would have heard about that if it happened, I think.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.” Marie gave her a look. “Eliana was dating this guy for awhile. He started coming to the gym, always with her. Then one night he doesn’t show up. I asked her pretty innocently where he was. She went into great, graphic, and gory detail about how he’d run around on her. She’d just found out. Then she proceeded to tell every woman in the place about the man’s infidelity. Again in graphic detail. I think if Jeremy had done that to her, she would have done the same thing. Especially if Jeremy had done that.”

  “Hmm.” She just couldn’t believe the conversation she’d overheard had been about someone else. The timing didn’t make sense. Why would two people have a private conversation an hour after Eliana’s death about someone else’s infidelity? Maybe they’d been talking about a mutual friend and it had just been discovered. Maybe it had nothing to do with Eliana’s death at all.

  “This is crazy,” Marie said.

  “That’s understating it,” Missy said.

  Chapter Ten

  The afternoon wore on. Missy laid down for a bit, but felt herself tightening up so she went outside and kept moving around. Last thing she needed was for the lactic acid to build up prohibitively and prevent her from doing the evening session. At this rate, she didn’t know if she’d have it in her to do anything tomorrow—she was really tight and sore in the legs now—but she was determined to exercise tonight.