as Casey had suggested, and turned the speed up to high.
Casey quickly adjusted it. “Let’s start out nice and easy, get you warmed up, okay? Now, what kind of exercise have you been doing lately? For real,” she added, as she spied the twinkle in his eye.
His shoulders slumped, and he leaned way over toward her, gripping the arms on the machine. “I haven’t actually been doing any. But there’s a cute lady, see, and I need to do something to get her attention.”
“Ah. Someone here?”
He glanced around fervently. “Not in this room, thank goodness. But she lives in my building. The Palm. I love her. She’d been seeing someone else for a while, but I think she’s free now. Free for me.”
“Okay. Let’s see what we can do to get you ready for her.”
Marcus giggled, and pushed his speed button again. Again, Casey reached over and turned it down. “Any kind of exercise you specifically like? Other than sex,” she said, when his eyes sparkled dangerously.
“Woman, you’re taking all the fun out of it.” But he was grinning as he said it.
Casey laughed. “Okay, come on, Marcus, let’s go.” She got him off the treadmill and over to the machines, where she herded him from place to place, dodging jokes and slaps on the back as he told them. At the end of the half hour, when she placed him on the treadmill, she was exhausted, but entertained. “So when are you going to ask this woman out?”
“Oh, not for a bit. She’s really busy these days, you see, with the murder and all.”
“Really? Why is that?”
“Because she’s in charge.”
“Of what? The investigation?” Marcus couldn’t be in love with Detective Binns. She was way more than even he could handle. Besides, she didn’t live in the Palm.
“No, silly. Our apartment complex.”
“You’re in love with Sissy?”
Marcus jumped, and smacked his hand over her mouth. “Quiet, now. Don’t need to go broadcasting my intentions to the entire world.”
“But…” All kinds of objections came to Casey’s mind, the main one being that Sissy was entirely too young for Marcus, and putting the two together would be almost too much giddiness to bear.
“Oh, come now,” Death said. “You’re really going to tell me that this cute, little old man doesn’t have what it takes to please Sissy? He’s got more going for him than most people I’ve seen.”
Death was right. “Sorry, Marcus. I’ll be quiet. And she’s a lovely woman. Very…colorful.”
Marcus sighed, his eyes drifting toward something in the unseen distance. “She lights up my world.”
“But…who was she seeing before? Someone here?”
Marcus’ face darkened. “She would never tell me. She was very secretive, and every time I’d ask she’d just say he was wonderful, and he made her feel like a woman, but that their relationship had to be kept a secret so the others wouldn’t get jealous.” He thumped his chest. “I could make her feel like a woman. I’d make her feel so much like a woman she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.”
“I believe you could.” Casey looked at Death, wondering if their minds were again working in tandem. “This other guy, do you know anything else about him?”
Marcus frowned. “He was young. Too young for her. She liked to brag about it.”
Casey had been afraid of that. “Okay, Marcus, enough about him. From what you say, that’s all over. Now we’ll get you in shape to take her on.”
He smiled. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“Now keep the speed down for today, you hear me? I’ll be checking.”
He sighed dramatically. “Yes, ma’am.”
Casey got him settled, then went to the door to wait for her next client.
And to wonder just how many people knew that Sissy had been one of Brandon’s adoring harem.
Chapter Eighteen
Casey got through her next client and class with nothing more out of the ordinary than one of the women passing out during cool down. Turned out she’d been awakened by the emergency vehicles two nights earlier and hadn’t been able to sleep well since. Once Casey got her sitting up against the wall, the woman also admitted to not eating anything but cabbage for the past five days, because she needed to lose five pounds by Thursday in order to win a bet with her sister, who lived in Arizona.
Incredible.
Two of the woman’s friends promised to get her back to her room and feed her, so Casey let them go.
“No wonder she smelled bad,” Death said. “Like sauerkraut, gone bad.”