Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 143779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
“I’ve got an ambulance coming,” the man named Pete said. “I’m going to meet them. I’ll bring them up as quick as possible.”
He ran out of the room.
She started to try to push up again.
“No. You are staying down until the EMTs get here.” He moved so she could rest her head on his leg.
Her eyes closed again. “I’m glad you’re here.”
And Hutch was left holding her hand as he started to sort through what had happened.
Chapter Five
Noelle sipped her tea and tried to wrap her head around the fact that she’d been choked out.
Choked out. That was the term Hutch had used.
It was also apparently why he wanted her to be careful about what she said.
“This is something the police do? My father has been a cop all of my life and I’ve never heard anyone at the station talk about choking someone out.” The mug warmed her hands, but nothing had made her feel safer than looking up and seeing Hutch’s blue eyes staring down at her. She’d started to panic as she’d come back to consciousness, but then she’d felt his hand in hers, seen his eyes, and known she would be okay.
He was a rat fink for not bothering to mention that he could now tell when her heart rate went up or down and how much exercise she got, but she wasn’t even going to argue. He’d been able to find her. He’d known she was in trouble and he’d come for her.
It made her realize how alone she’d felt for the last year.
“Not anymore.” Hutch was pacing the floor of her living room. “The practice was outlawed completely a few years back, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still know how to do it. It’s not something you learn in a typical self-defense class. I would bet this guy is either a cop or former military.”
“Did you get any kind of look at him?” Kyle asked. “There were mirrors in the locker room. Did you see him?”
“It could have been a woman. She was in the women’s locker room.” Hutch walked ten steps to the left, taking him past her dining room table.
She thought about the moment she’d realized she was caught and there wasn’t anything she could do. She forced herself to take a long breath. “No. I didn’t get a look. I knew someone was in the room with me. I saw my locker was open and a minute later I lost consciousness. I think it was a man. I was pulled back against a muscular chest. He was definitely taller than me.”
“You’re five foot two, sweetheart. Everyone is taller than you,” Hutch pointed out.
“I still think it was a guy.” Something about the way he’d smelled. She’d been going over and over it. “He smelled like…sandalwood. That doesn’t tell me a lot, though. It’s the smell of the soap they have in the men’s locker room. The women’s is lavender. We voted.”
“So we think at some point he took a shower that day.” Hutch seemed to mull that over. “In the men’s locker room. I need to see a list of everyone who used a key to get into that locker room. Better yet, I saw a security cam on that hall.”
“I’m sure we can probably figure out a way to get a copy,” Kyle said.
“Oh, I’ll get whatever data I need.” Hutch started to pace again.
There were some problems with that scenario. “I don’t know that it will help. First of all, at least half the company uses the gym at some point of time in the day.”
“But I’m only interested in the hour around the attack on you, and I’m interested in who was in the men’s locker room,” Hutch pointed out.
“The locker rooms can be opened by any key,” she explained. “It was why Pete could get in. So a man could use his keycard to walk in, but I doubt he would use the hallway entrance. It would be simple to enter through the men’s locker room and then come around to the gym entrance. You don’t need a keycard to get into the locker room from the gym.”
“Would there be a record of who came in and out of the locker rooms?” Kyle was seemingly calmer than Hutch. He’d come up with the EMTs and Pete, who’d hovered around, too. Pete hadn’t left until the EMTs had.
“I would bet my life there’s a record for who went in,” she replied. Genedyne was big on records. The one place they didn’t have security cameras were the locker rooms.
“Let’s not joke about that right now since you almost lost yours.” Hutch had his hands on his hips and looked as prim as a really hot guy could manage.
From what she could tell it hadn’t been all that close. Yes, she’d lost consciousness briefly due to her carotid artery being squeezed, but all of her vitals had been stable and she felt perfectly fine now. Physically, at least. Emotionally she was kind of a mess. “All I’m saying is the keycard would tell you when a person went in, but it doesn’t keep track of people going out. There’s also the possibility that whoever did this was smart enough to enter with another employee. Then his keycard wouldn’t show him going in. And the EMTs said I was all right. I didn’t even need to go to the hospital.”