Shakespeares Counselor Page 0,46

being shown the ropes by one of the young men who seemed to stream through Body Time on a regular basis. They liked working out, Marshall had told me one day when he was feeling discouraged, so they thought they'd like working at Body Time. The fact was, as I'd found myself from my recent experience at the gym in Little Rock, that working for low pay in a gym is just the same as working for low pay at any other job. This particular young man was one I vaguely recognized as being a friend of Amber Jean Winthrop. In fact, I was almost certain he was one of the crowd by the Winthrops' pool, the day Howell Three had gotten so upset.

Tamsin was looking lumpy and lost in her Wal-Mart workout ensemble of cotton shorts and black sports bra, topped with a huge T-shirt that must have been borrowed from her husband. Cliff was not faring any better, projecting discomfort and uncertainty though he was wearing an old pair of sweatpants that he must have saved from college and an equally ancient T that was full of holes.

"What a role reversal," Tamsin said, with a wan smile. "Here we are in your place of power, instead of mine."

She hadn't taken the words right out of my mouth, since I never would have said that out loud, but she'd taken the thoughts right out of my head. And it was interesting that she thought of the health center as her "place of power." The assault that had taken place in her own office must have shaken her to her mental and emotional foundations. Considering that, she'd made a great recovery.

"You're gonna start coming in every morning?"

"Well, we're going to try. Cliff and I both have been eating too much; we've just been so nervous. That's what I do when I'm nervous, I head for the doughnuts. Jeez, do you have any body fat at all?"

"Sure," I said, feeling awkward.

"I'm glad you feel well enough to come in this morning," Tamsin said, her dark eyes uncomfortably sympathetic.

"Thanks for your visit while I was in the hospital," I said dutifully. "I enjoyed the flowers."

"When I lost my baby ..." she began, to my discomfort. But just at that moment, Cliff gestured to her to rejoin him, since the young man was explaining yet another piece of equipment.

I left before Tamsin could speak to me again, on purpose. At the moment, I didn't want to assume anyone else's problems, since my own were bearing down on me.

But later that day, I would've been glad to have listened to Tamsin talk her heart out. Correction. Maybe not glad, but I would have tolerated it with a much better grace. Hanging around doing nothing was not a state of affairs I was used to. I cleaned my kitchen cabinets, slowly and carefully, only slightly violating Jack's dictum. I was in a silent house, since Jack had assumed my stakeout on Beth Crider. He called home once on his cell phone to find out how I was feeling and to tell me he was having no more luck catching her out than I'd had.

That night, when he was drying the dishes while I washed, Jack expressed disgust that we hadn't closed the books on Beth Crider.

"Maybe she's really hurt," I said, without conviction.

"Huh." Jack didn't seem troubled by doubt about that. "In the years I've been a private detective, I've investigated one case where the guy was really hurt as badly as he claimed. One. And every now and then, I still drive by his house to check, because I can't quite believe it."

"The level of cynicism here is pretty deep."

"Absolutely. Did you have any time to check Beth's credit rating today?"

"Sure did," I said. Jack had a computer program that seemed able to call up anything about an individual's financial history. To me, it seemed frightening that he didn't have to produce any kind of ID, or explain his purpose, in buying this program. Joe Doe could buy one as easily as law enforcement personnel. "If I did everything right, nothing seems to have changed on her credit history."

"Then she's smarter than most of them, but we'll nail her," he said, confidence running strong in his voice. "Next week, you can take over surveillance, if you feel well enough. I should spend some time in the office, returning phone calls."

I managed to keep my face still, but I had to acknowledge to myself that