Killer Memo (Stella Knox FBI Mystery Series Book 5) by Mary Stone

Author:Mary Stone [Stone, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

21

The walls of Ivan’s Gym on Montgomery Avenue were painted in no-nonsense shades of gray and black. A maze of steel bars and machines for chest extensions, arm curls, squats, and pull-ups lined the main floor. Lines of punching bags took a beating from half a dozen muscled men in high shorts and low-cut tank tops. The place stank of sweat, leather, and testosterone.

Thwack.

The smack of fists on leather made Dani wince. Something about the sound had always set her teeth on edge, even when she was the one doing the smacking.

Two of the men gave their punching bags a reprieve as Mac held open the door and the very pregnant Dani entered. She ignored them and stepped around a barbell that had been left in the middle of an aisle. These gym rats didn’t appear to have a mind on safety.

The deeper she walked into the room, the slower the sound of thwacking fists became, and the greater the number of eyes on both of them grew.

At the end of the hall, a weight lifter lay on his back, benching nearly two hundred pounds. Standing beside the bencher, spotting, stood a man with his hands on his hips. He had his eyes on the women, though. His black hair was combed straight back on top and shaved close at the sides, so that his full beard stopped at the bottom of his ears. He wore tight, black shorts and a black tank top with the word COACH emblazoned across the front in bold, white letters.

He stood there unmoving, his gaze fixed.

Ivan Scheffler. Had to be.

Dani and Mac walked between two lines of men, all of them with arms like piles of inflated balloons and expressions that made Dani wonder if they’d ever spoken to a woman who wasn’t their mother.

The thwacks stopped. Grunts, which had accompanied each successfully raised weight, fell silent. Only the loud, steady beat of techno music bounced off the walls.

Dani walked slow and steady. The rubber flooring made her footing unsure. Now both men’s eyes bore into her—the spotter and the lifter—their gaze heavier than any of the weights they were tossing around.

“One. One. Two. Three. Five—”

“What are you counting?” Dani whispered to Mac.

“Fibonacci sequence. I do it when I’m surrounded by anything that makes me nervous. When I want to take my mind off stuff, basically.”

The coach watched them steadily approach, his head cocked to one side, his dark eyes fixed on Dani.

Dani clenched her jaw.

When they were almost to him, the coach addressed them. “I think you two ladies are in the wrong place. Men only.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Do I look like I want a workout?”

From somewhere to their right, a man sniggered. “Looks like someone’s given you a good workout already.”

A wave of low laughter rippled around the room.

Dani pulled out her ID and shoved it toward the coach.

“Ivan Scheffler?” She spoke loudly so that her voice was clear above the techno beats. “I’m Special Agent Danielle Jameson. This is my colleague, Special Agent Mackenzie Drake.

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