I had a shower to wash the scent of chlorine and Jin off me, then toweled myself dry and put the robe back on. After peering out the door and testing the air to ensure Jin's scent had well and truly faded, I headed back up the stairs to the changing room.
Once dressed, I walked around to the reception area.
"All finished?" the blonde said brightly, as I handed back the locker key.
"Yes. And when Jin comes looking for me, please tell him I do not appreciate being taken for granted." I slipped into her mind as I said it, handing in the stolen keycard and making her believe a guest had found it near the stairs.
"Of course," she said, without skipping a beat. And if the amusement in her eyes was anything to go by, she'd absolutely delight in making such comments to Jin.
I nodded my thanks, but on turning away, caught sight of her computer. Would a receptionist have membership lists on her computer? She'd have to, wouldn't she?
I slipped into her mind again, making her do a search through the database. And discovered that Jan Tait wasn't the only woman who had signed up for a gold pass.
Karen Herbert, the latest victim of the serial killer, had too.
And so had every other victim. Jack wasn't going to let me walk out on Jin for very long, that much was obvious. Not when the club he worked at had finally provided a link between all the murdered women. Jin was a source of information not yet fully explored.
None of which changed my determination to walk out now. I glanced around to ensure no one was paying us any particular attention, then got the woman to download onto a disk all the membership files and employee details possible. The gold pass membership files were restricted, and I wasn't about to push my luck by getting her to try and load those. Jack could order one of his tech plebs to do that. Although I'm sure the caramel cow would just wet herself at the thought of showing off her technical skills. She certainly had them. I'd caught her hacking into my files once.
I slipped the disk into my pocket, then erased my tracks in the woman's mind and headed out the door. Once I'd returned my pass to the guard and was safely ensconced in my car, I grabbed my phone and dialed jack.
"She reports twice in a twenty-four-hour period," he said, by way of hello. "This is indeed a time for miracles."
"You've been hanging around the cow too much. You've picked up her smart mouth."
"The only woman in my employ who has the sass to backchat her boss is the one I'm talking to. And it's not nice to call someone a cow."
"It is when they have tits the size of hers. And don't tell me you haven't noticed."
"Are you ringing for a reason? Or do you just want to piss me off?"
Both, usually, but I didn't think it would be wise to admit that. "I think I've found the link between all our victims."
"What? How?"
"All five were members of the gold pass section of the Hunter's Club, the upmarket health and fitness club Jin part-times at. From what I've seen, the gold-pass club is a word-only membership for people with special requirements."
"What sort of special requirements?"
"They need extreme pain to get their rocks off."
"All of our victims had healed scars on their backs and arms."
"They should have massive scars if what I've just seen is any indication of what they go through." I hesitated.
"It's quite possible I've met the woman lined up to be the next victim. Her name is Jan Tait."
"You got all her details?"
"I grabbed everything off their computer that I could. The gold-pass membership files will require hacking skills to get into."
"We'll handle that end. You stay on Jin."
Yeah, right. "Um... there's been bit of a development in that area. I'm afraid I just walked out on him."
His sigh was a sound of frustration. "Can you do nothing the easy way?"
"Trust me, I had no option. But I'll follow him for the rest of the night, see where he goes and who he talks to."