out every corner of the room. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she could see that no one hid in the shadows.
But she had heard that sound.
She padded over to the locker room and pressed her ear against the door. Nothing. No sound at all. She pushed open the door, ready to strike should someone be waiting on the other side. No one.
She backed out, and went to the aerobics room door. She stood to the side of the window and peered out. No one in her sightlines. She opened the door and looked up and down the hallway. Nothing. No indication that anyone had been there. She glanced up at the security camera mounted in the corner of the hallway. Had it caught anything just now? Had there been movement?
She stepped back into the aerobics room and eased the door shut. She had heard something. She knew she had. She couldn’t just ignore it. If there had been someone in the locker room, why hadn’t she been making any other sounds? Why hadn’t she announced her presence? Was she breaking into Casey’s office? Or was it a he?
Casey grabbed an eight-pound balance bar and went back to the locker room. Again, she prepared for an attack as she opened the door, this time with the bar in her right hand. No one came at her. She reached in with her left hand and flicked on the light. The brightness assaulted her, and she squinted at the bright tile and white walls.
“Hello?” Her voice pierced the silence.
No response.
She stood completely still, listening so hard it was almost painful. And then she heard it. A breath. No, a gasp.
Casey flexed her fingers and walked further into the room, swiveling her head from side to side as she passed the areas of lockers, and the sauna. Nothing. No one.
The area with the toilets and sinks was also empty, the clean shine almost blinding.
Which left only the showers.
Casey stepped carefully toward the row of individual showers. The curtains were all closed. Holding the bar firmly in her right hand, she swept open the first curtain to reveal the dressing area and shower stall. Empty. She did the same with the second, and the third. Finally, she stood before the fourth. She tightened her fingers around the bar, and yanked the curtain open.
A woman lay face down on the ground, halfway in the shower, halfway in the dressing area. She was soaking wet, but the shower had been turned off. Was it Krystal? Her blond hair spilled onto the tile floor of the shower, blood mingling with the messy strands, and her shirt lay bunched and torn around her shoulders, deep, bloody bruises dotting her back. Her arm rested in an unnatural position above her head, and her legs sprawled limply over the shower barrier and into the dressing area. A bloody iron hand weight, a ten-pounder, lay on the floor at her feet.
For a brief moment, Casey thought maybe this was where Death had rushed off to, but then the woman took a shuddering breath. Casey knelt beside her. She brushed aside the hair on the woman’s cheek, and gave an involuntary gasp. It wasn’t Krystal, as she had imagined, the victim of some jealous wife or boyfriend. It was Andrea.
Casey bent to look into Andrea’s unfocused eyes. “I’m here, Andrea. I’m going to help you.” She jumped up and raced to the training room. The door was locked. Uttering an oath, she ran back into the aerobics room, got her key, and rushed back to the training room, sliding the key through the lock. She lunged at the phone on the desk and dialed 911. A man answered, saying “Flamingo security.”
“Security? I dialed 911.”
“It comes right to us. What do you need?”
“An ambulance. Women’s locker room.”
“Who is this?”
“Ca—Daisy Gray, the new fitness instructor. Call 911! Now!”
She slammed down the phone and ran back to Andrea. “Help is coming.”
Andrea took another shuddery breath, blowing a bubble laced with blood.
Casey stroked her cheek. “What happened, Andrea?”
Andrea swallowed forcefully, and attempted a smile. “I couldn’t…do it.”
“Couldn’t do what?”
Andrea closed her eyes. “I couldn’t run.”
Chapter Nine
Casey sat in the waiting room at the hospital, shaking her knee up and down. She had blood on her clothes, her muscles had stiffened, and she kept dozing off and waking up abruptly, scaring herself. She hadn’t been allowed to ride in the ambulance with Andrea, but the security guard had wakened Sissy. Sissy was too shaken to