Free The Trophy Hunter by J M Zambrano

She looked
quickly at her watch. “Come on. I gotta start the class.”
    Out in the gym, Jess presided over a class of
about fifteen women. The stereo boomed out her favorite
selections─classics resurrected from the eighties. Slow pieces
accompanied their warm-up stretches. Diana felt the pull on her
abdomen and allowed herself to do incomplete twists and bends.
    Then things got serious. The Pointer Sisters’
“Jump For My Love” burst from the speakers, accelerating the pace.
As Jess led them in increasingly strenuous movement, Diana found
she couldn’t keep up─even if she stepped when the others jumped. In
less than fifteen minutes she was retreating to the strains of the
Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”
    Back in the dressing room, Diana, dripping
sweat, hunched over a bench. So much for exercise. Jess had been
right. She wasn’t ready. And she really wasn’t ready to get
in the shower where others could see the ugly, red, lumpy line that
now marred the body she used to think looked pretty damn good.
    She must have wallowed in the funk of
self-pity longer than she realized─or dozed off─as Jess’s voice
roused her. “What’re you doing? Holding that bench down?”
    Diana looked up, blinked and replied, “Just
letting the sweat dry.”
    Jess snorted as she stepped out of her
leotard and underwear, grabbing a towel. “That’s what we have
showers for.”
    Diana eyed Jess’s unmarred athlete’s body
enviously. “Some of us don’t have anything left to flaunt.”
    “Flaunt?” Jess paused at the shower room
door. “You still hung up on your scar? Like anybody in here really
cares. We’re all women. Hello! ”
    This brought an involuntary giggle from
Diana. “Is that all women, as in O-I-L?” she shouted at
Jess.
    “You’re better. I can tell,” yelled Jess over
the sound of the water.
    Later, as Jess dried off, Diana bagged her
work clothes and put on her winter coat over her sweats. Then she
took a good look at what Jess was now wearing: skin-tight red lame
top with a black leather miniskirt and knee-high leopard boots with
four-inch heels.
    “Anybody tell you Halloween was back in
October?” she asked.
    Jess shrugged. “It’s my Colfax outfit.”
    “Is business that bad?” Diana laughed aloud,
picturing Jess parading around Denver’s red light district.
    “I’ve got a lead on a missing girl,” said
Jess. “It’s something I’m doing for Dare.”
    “ Dare? As in Darren Rogart?” Diana
raised an eyebrow.
    Jess nodded, something uncharacteristically
sheepish creeping into her expression. “The daughter of a friend.
His time’s kind of tight now that he’s got his kids back.”
    Diana dropped her bag of clothing. “You just
asked about the custody suit when you already knew it was dead in
the water?”
    “Keep your voice down, okay?” Jess looked
around nervously as the room filled with women for the next class.
“He waited for them after school yesterday and just took them.
They’re so happy to be back with him.”
    Diana frowned, remembering the streak of
teen-age girl she’d seen in the Flannigan’s back yard the day
before. That girl must have been Lori. She hadn’t been in school.
“You’ve met them by now?” asked Diana.
    “Not yet. I’m really in no hurry to meet the
little darlings.”
    Diana rolled her eyes as she picked up her
things and followed Jess out of the dressing room, walking slowly
across the gym toward the door to the parking lot. Then she
remembered something else. “I meant to bring your files back
tonight,” she began.
    “That’s okay,” interrupted Jess, lengthening
her stride. “Whenever.”
    “Did you give me the whole thing?” Diana
persisted as she hurried to catch up with Jess. “I mean, there was
so little on Rogart. I’d think he’d have a separate file.”
    Jess flicked a hand dismissively, “You quit
Flannigan. Why would you care?”
    Diana shrugged. “Just curious.” She plumbed
for a better reason. “Concerned