Weapons of Mass Distraction by Camilla Chafer

wrong,” I assured him. “Detective Maddox was here right after Jim died, and he said it wasn’t a murder and cleared the studio. Of course, you were going to clean it. What else could you do? Wait for him to change his mind? If it makes you feel any better, at least, you called the agency in to check things over. Plus, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have started investigating, and Solomon wouldn’t have called the ME and suggested running a tox panel. The homicide squad will probably thank you!”
    Michael brightened. “You think they’ll thank me?”
    “Not likely, but there’s always that small possibility.” I held my thumb and forefinger an inch apart. On second thought, I moved them closer together, until there was barely a gap. I figured Maddox would probably be furious to learn he cleared a murder scene right after his boss finished chewing him out. “Listen, here’s the thing, Michael. Montgomery PD is going to take over the investigation very soon. We can turn our evidence over and leave them to it. You pay the agency fees and we’re done. Or…” I hesitated, letting him fill in the blanks.
    Michael stayed quiet for several long minutes. Finally, he looked up and fixed his eyes on me, just when I stopped pacing his room and began to stroke one of his many trophies. “No,” he said, “I want you to stay undercover. The police are only interested in catching the killer. As self-preserving and callous as it sounds, I’m interested in preserving the good name of the gym and I don’t want a serial killer targeting my members. The minute that idea gets out, the members are gone and we’re through. There’re too many jobs at stake for that when you consider my employees too.” I gave him a nod to show that I understood, and waited for him to continue, “Lexi, I want you to keep investigating and remain my liaison with the police. I’m grateful for everything you’ve discovered so far. Now you just need to find the killer.”
    I reluctantly left the trophy alone and took the chair opposite Michael. “What makes you so sure I’ll find the killer here?” I asked, interested in any theory that supported the gym being a target, as much as the victims.
    “Thanks to the poison on the spin bike, we know that at least Jim’s death was set up to happen here. How did the killer get in, Lexi? When did he or she have an opportunity to plant it? We went to ‘members only’ two weeks ago so not just anyone could walk in. Only a client or a staff member could have had access to set up the trap for Jim. And,” Michael continued, leaning forward excitedly, “someone also knew Jim’s routine. I mean, which bike he used and when. I asked Anton. He said Jim always took that same bike and always on the same day.”
    Privately, I disagreed. There were probably a bunch of ways someone could sneak into the gym, and lucky me, I was probably going to have to discover them all. There was another thing that niggled at me though. Despite finding a connection between the three victims, it was only conjecture that they were all killed by the same person for the same reason. For that to be true, the Simonstech angle had to work out. Until we knew a motive, we just had a lot of questions.
    “Okay,” I agreed, “Solomon and I discussed this and we’re happy to keep working the case. There’s a few more things I’ll need from you now that I have my bearings as an employee.”
    “Name it.”
    “A full client list, including anyone who left over the past year. Any records pertaining to the victims. They all filled out a member questionnaire, like I did, right? And I’ll need copies of the security feeds from every camera you have for the twenty-four hours prior to the spin studio being used at the session when Jim died. Maybe we can catch someone on tape. Oh, and I need the security feeds from the day Karen Doyle was in the gym. Maybe we can see something there too.”
    “I’ll have it all ready for you by