Death of a Snowman by Harper Lin

Author:Harper Lin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harper Lin Books

CHAPTER 9

I drove Mirabelle’s adorable navy Mini Cooper to the community centre. The parking lot was full, probably because of all the seniors who enjoyed swimming during the day.

A middle-aged receptionist with hair like a beehive sat at the front desk. She smiled at me when I came in.

“Hello,” I said. “I was wondering if I could see Camille Frankfurt?”

“Do you have a membership?” she asked.

“No.”

“I’m afraid you need a membership for access to the gym.”

“Oh, I don’t need access. I’m not here to work out. I just wanted to talk to her.”

“In that case, she is in the gym training someone at the moment. I don’t know when she has a break, so you can go right on in and ask her.”

“Thanks.”

I used to go to the centre a lot as a child. Swimming was my favorite activity. I probably never even stepped into the gym more than twice growing up. Even now, I’d do yoga, Pilates and Zumba—anything other than being in a gym with all those sweaty machines. I just hated the smell of human sweat and mechanical machinery. Now that I was a celebrity, however, there was no avoiding gyms, or trainers, for too long, and I had to face the unpleasant odors more times than I could bear on some weeks when I had to be especially fit for a photo shoot or something.

The dreaded smell hit me when I walked past the pool and went into the gym portion of the building. There was also a squash court and a basketball court at the centre.

As I expected, the gym contained mostly retired seniors. I spotted Camille helping a man who appeared to be an octogenarian with leg lifts. Camille looked just like her profile picture except that a red headband held her blond hair away from her face and she wore red track pants to match. At the sight of her, I knew why she looked so familiar. I had shaken hands with her during Emma Wild Day.

When she saw me, her jaw dropped. She had been holding up the old man’s leg, and she dropped it as she stood up and jumped in excitement. I cringed, hoping that a bone didn’t crack.

“Emma Wild?” Camille squealed.

“Hi, Camille.”

“Wow, I can’t believe you know who I am.”

“Of course,” I said. “I remember meeting you at the meet and greet.”

“There must’ve been hundreds of people there.”

“Well, I did look you up before I came,” I admitted.

“Are you here to work out?”

“I’m here to talk to you actually. If you have a moment.”

“Me?” She abruptly turned to her client. “Let’s take five, Bernie.”

Bernie panted and stayed on the ground. With a weak arm, he felt the ground for his bottle of water.

“Is there a place more private where we can talk?” I asked.

“Sure. We can go to the squash court. It’s hardly ever booked at this time of day.”

We left the gym, and left Bernie to his well-deserved break.

There were no seats in the squash court and we had to stand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.