“Okay, I'll be in again tomorrow. You find out what his address is, because his name could be fake,” she ordered. “And don't get caught.”
“I won’t,” he assured her.
“And if they catch you, don’t implicate me,” she warned. “You’ll find I have some very unsavory mannerisms when fucked with.”
Her desired effect on the young man was unsuccessful, leaving him far more excited by her forcefulness than she had hoped. Nina walked into the deserted ladies’ change room and unlocked her locker to retrieve her vanity case before heading toward the shower. Shedding her sweat-drenched training clothes, she hung her dry shower towel over the partition and turned on the taps.
Steam enveloped her shapely, compact body as the soothing, hot water trickled over her curves and fell to the tiled floor of the shower. Her weary skin received the ecstatic meanders of clear streams that tickled her naked body as she closed her eyes to wet her hair. Nina was delighted that her recently defeated illness had not claimed her hair as it had initially threatened to do. She now had her beauteous tresses back — fuller and longer than before. Nina moaned softly as she submerged her head under the umbrella of gentle liquid and her slender fingers caressed her scalp with shampoo. The obscured Perspex partitions were enough to maintain her modesty, but still showed off her form as she turned slowly in circles under the showerhead.
She knew she had to make haste. It was a few minutes to closing time and she’d never taken the time to shower at the gym before. Usually she went back to her temporary apartment before taking off the sweat-soaked tights and vest she trained in. But tonight she wanted to be clean before she arrived at the B&B, just in case Sam showed up as he’d promised countless times in the past two weeks. He could have forgotten, but that was unlikely. Sam Cleave was the type who would want her to think he had neglected their dinner date and then show up out of nowhere to surprise her.
But he was not the one due to surprise her this evening. From the other side of her cubicle a creeping shape appeared from the dark recesses of the janitor's entrance. The historian had no idea that she was being watched. All she could think of was her rekindled friendship with Dave Purdue after he’d rescued her from captivity — and certain death — when she thought nobody would ever find her. Through her healing thoughts simmered the handsome face of Sam Cleave, the world-renowned investigative journalist. Unlike Purdue, he had been distant since they’d returned to the United Kingdom, but he’d still kept in touch. Nina hoped to see more of him while she was in town, but being due back home in Oban in two days, she doubted Sam would still pay her a visit.
Next to the last cubicle in the row something clicked loudly. Nina snapped back to reality, listening intently. Had she imagined it? Was it a staff member coming to check if the place were empty? It was rather near to closing time after all.
“I'll be out in a minute,” Nina said firmly, hoping that she could assert herself well enough to chase off any peeping Tom or curious staff member. But there was no reply and no movement following her statement, leaving Nina to wonder if she’d just imagined it. No sooner had she stopped considering the sound, when the power went out. Suddenly a clap screamed through the entire restroom, shattering the shower partitions between the janitor's entrance and Nina's cubicle.
Nina fell to the hard tiled floor and lay dead still under the shards of Perspex, while the showerhead wept over her. In the distance, she could hear women yelping in panic and men talking nearby, discussing the sudden power outage and the gunshot they’d just heard. Managers and trainers announced that they’d have the back-up generator running momentarily, but as they spoke Nina heard two frantic women enter the locker room. In the dark from where the shape had been came a light crunch of soles on slivers.
It's moving. Lie dead still. He can't see you in the dark, she told herself.
“I'm getting the fuck out of there, Bets. That was a fucking gunshot. Christ, they shot someone, I tell ya. They shot someone and I'm not standing around to get the next bullet,” the one voice said in an annoying Cockney drawl. “We’ll just stay in here. Just stay here until it's all over, right?”
“We can't leave. Listen! Listen, we can’t hide in here. They’ll lock us in when they chase everyone out. Don't be stupid. Let go of me, Sarah! Geez, it could have been an electrical circuit popping, man. You don't know…”
“Bets!” Sarah interrupted harshly. “Dad was in the armed forces, okay? I know a fucking gunshot when I hear one.”
From next to Nina the crunching steps turned away and within two light treads it was gone. Nina wasn’t sure if she should move. Could it be a trap to determine her vicinity?
No, not yet. Wait. Don't move, Nina thought just as the warm water ran out and the previously pleasant droplets became icy stabs on her chilled skin. But she couldn’t afford to move; not now. With the commotion outside the ladies’ changing rooms, Nina had trouble hearing exactly where the stalker was. Her body was freezing under the cold shower and she cold feel the sharp burn of tiny cuts to her skin. It didn’t even occur to her that she was stark naked.
At once the two women on the other side of the lockers started screaming hysterically, and it was then that Nina once more discerned the crunching footfalls toward their area. Squealing did not help. A loud crack of a fist on bone resounded, followed by a heavy thump. Nina heard how the other shrieking woman's mouth was covered, subduing her cries. Rapid footsteps knocked past Nina's static frame, accompanied by the woman's obscured sobbing. They helped to locate the position of the kidnapper as he moved.
Shit! Shit! Nina thought, contemplating chasing naked after the abductor while someone could still stop him. What if he is a serial killer? What if he is some depraved cannibal or a sick fuck who cuts women up like Jack the Ripper? her empathy urged. Can you live with the fact that you were right there and did nothing to avert a tragedy?
The woman called Sarah was wrapped up in the restrictive clamp of the kidnapper as they exited the maintenance area into the night. Terrified, the woman kicked, but the man who had taken her felt absolutely nothing. Like a machine he walked briskly with her as if she were a rag doll. He didn't notice the petite nightmare running full out towards them from the same exit with a large shard of glass in her right hand.
Chapter 5
“I must say, it is a dashing photograph,” Sam remarked, looking very impressed. He tiled the newspaper to get a better look. “Even a flattering angle too. You know, you are extremely photogenic.”
“Shut the fuck up, Sam,” Nina said, annoyed and miserable.
“No, seriously,” he teased. “And, and look at this headline: “Kidnapping thwarted by Lady Godiva.” Such a catchy tag too. I mean, I would have wanted to read this immediately if I saw this.”
Nina looked mortified. Sam smiled and gave her a rough hug. “Come on, love, you saved a woman's life! For once you’re getting credit for it. Most of the time you’ve saved lives nobody could ever know about. Look at this. People love you!”
“Of course they love me,” she scoffed. “They can see my tits.”
Sam wanted to laugh, but he considered his beloved friend's feelings and tried another way of consoling her about the barely blurred out security camera still of her stabbing the kidnapper in the ankle outside Masterton's Gym & Fitness in the bowels of Quartermile. “Look, Nina, you’re missing the praise of this article. They’re calling you a hero, for God's sake. And you are! What would have befallen that poor woman if you hadn’t interfered? Huh? She owes her life to you and all you can think about is what you were wearing… or,” he shrugged, “not.”