Page 46 of Done Dirty

She looked at me when he said coroner. “What’s happened?”

“We’d like to come in, if that’s all right,” Jack said.

She stepped back and held the door.

The house was cool inside and smelled like coffee. She led us to the kitchen without being asked and sat down across from us with her arms folded on the table.

“I work from home,” she said. “So I can take a few minutes. What’s this about?”

“Do you know a man named Wade Rivers?” Jack asked.

Her jaw tightened. “Yes. He was my Pilates instructor.”

“Mr. Rivers was murdered two nights ago,” Jack said.

She unfolded her arms and put her hands in her lap. “What does that have to do with me?”

“We found a notebook in his studio safe,” Jack said. “Your name is in it. Next to a dollar sign.” He held her gaze. “Can you tell me what that means?”

She looked at him steadily. “I don’t know anything about a notebook.”

“Ms. Brown,” Jack said, “we’re going to find out what the connection is either way. It’ll go a lot easier if you help us understand it.”

Something closed off in her face. “I’d like to know what this is actually about before I say anything else.”

“We’re trying to understand the nature of your relationship with Wade Rivers,” Jack said. “And how your name ended up in a safe next to a significant amount of cash.”

“I was a private client. I left the studio. That’s all there is.”

“Ms. Brown,” Jack said, “we’ve identified pharmaceutical compounds in his condo that aren’t legally available in the United States. Compounds that were likely administered to clients without their knowledge. We’re trying to understand if you were one of those clients.”

The kitchen was quiet. She looked at the table for a long moment.

“I’ve dealt with what happened to me,” she said finally. “My husband knows. We’ve been in counseling. I’m not interested in reopening it.”

“I understand that,” Jack said. “But we have forty-one names in that notebook. And a man who is dead. Whatever you’ve dealt with privately, it’s part of a criminal investigation now.”

She looked at him. Then she looked at me.

“He put something in the smoothies,” she said. “But I could never prove it. You never think these things can happen to you. That you’re too smart to let it happen. But he was supposed to be a professional. He’s got all these initials after his name. His studio is full and popular. Everyone loves him.”

“You weren’t the only one,” Jack said, softly. “And someone killed him.”

“It sounds like justice to me,” she said, anger blazing in her eyes.

“There’s all kinds of justice,” Jack said. “But do you think Wade was a one-man show? Where’d he get the drugs? Wade was a piece of the puzzle. You can help us. There are other victims out there who haven’t put their life together.”

She let out a slow breath through her nose. “I was a group member for a few months. Then he invited me to be one of his private clients. It’s a big deal. He only teaches advanced students and his list is always full. I jumped at the chance.”

She took a deep breath and rubbed her palms on the top of her pants.

“He taught out of his home studio,” she continued. “It’s a nice place. Safe. So I didn’t think twice about going. He was professional when he answered the door, and he started talking about a holistic experience. He didn’t only care about the physical aspect of my health journey, but also internal. He gave me one of his green smoothies and we talked a few minutes about my diet and upping my protein intake. Things like that.

“Then we went into his studio and started the workout. I still don’t know what came over me. I thought it was the workout—your blood is pumping, you’re in a small space with a man who is overtly sexual, and he was attractive. I told myself that’s all it was.”

She shook her head. “But it wasn’t that. It was like my body wasn’t mine. Like I had to have him or I would die, and at the same time I felt like I was watching it happen from somewhere else. Underwater. Like I couldn’t surface. We had sex. I don’t know how long it went on. When I came back to myself another hour had passed and I couldn’t piece together the details. I still don’t have full memory of it.”

She looked up, and there was desperation in her eyes. “I was ashamed. I didn’t know what had come over me and I have never cheated on my husband. Never wanted to. I love my husband. And Wade acted so completely normal afterward that I started to think maybe I’d imagined it or had some kind of hallucination. I was dressed when I came to. I was so confused.”