Chapter 1
If Katherine Bassi could’ve predicted a time and place for her life to change irrevocably, it would not have been at the Blue Wave Gym on State Street at four forty-five on a Thursday afternoon.
Katherine attended the gym because she enjoyed the yoga class there. But that didn’t start until five o’clock, so at four thirty, she hopped on one of the few available treadmills to warm her muscles up, walking on a machine going nowhere and staring at the bustling pedestrian traffic in downtown Moonstone Cove.
It was a little town nestled in the heart of the Central California coast with pebbled beaches and crumbling cliffs dotted by wind-twisted cypresses. Moonstone Cove was a town famous for three things: abundant vegetables, an annual wine festival, and a small but excellent state university specializing in marine-biology research, which was where Katherine worked.
As she increased the pace on her treadmill, Katherine focused on the steady stretch of her thighs and calves. Properly warmed muscles were a prerequisite to get the most out of her twice-weekly yoga class. The class was focused on flexibility and joint maintenance, two areas Katherine knew were vital for older women.
She was forty-seven and in reasonably good health, which meant her knees ached, her legs twitched at night whether she wanted them to or not, and she’d slowly moved farther and farther back to focus on her monitor at work.
Which was fine. As Katherine’s mother often said: “Aging can be unpleasant until you consider the alternative.”
Katherine wasn’t really looking for change. She had a job she loved, and she’d been married for twenty years to a man she adored. She was the happy and indulgent aunt of four children her sister and in-laws were raising. She didn’t have many friends in Moonstone Cove—even after fifteen years—but she still loved her home. She had a house that overlooked the ocean, and she fell asleep to the sound of the waves every night.
The only improvement she would make was her husband, Baxter’s, feelings about acquiring a dog. Nothing too large. Something medium-sized and fluffy. Katherine had never owned a dog, but the longer she lived in Moonstone Cove—which was undoubtedly a dog-friendly place—the more certain she was that her life would be improved by one.
Baxter was unconvinced; she was working on him.
As she pushed the buttons to increase her treadmill pace, she glanced around the gym.
On her right was a young man wearing a Central Coast sweatshirt, his head down as he listened to music and jogged at a steady pace. On her left was a young woman in a Central Coast Volleyball T-shirt.
The Blue Wave Gym gave a discount to students, faculty, and staff at Central Coast State, so the number of blue-and-green sweatshirts and T-shirts around the aerobic-machine room was noticeable, but plenty of local people from town were mixed in as well.
In the row before her was a middle-aged blond woman in ruthlessly coordinated sportswear, sweating her heart out on an elliptical machine. There were professionals leaving work early and plenty of familiar faces even if Katherine didn’t know their names.
Seeing people from outside the college was one of the reasons Katherine enjoyed coming to this gym. Since she and Baxter were both professors, it was nice to break out of her limited social circle.
“Hey!”
Katherine looked over her left shoulder.
“You dropped your towel.” A freckled woman with a curly cap of short dark hair held a white towel out to her. Katherine had seen her before. She liked the rowing machines and regularly lifted weights.
“Thanks.” Katherine reached back and grabbed it, then folded it in thirds and placed it on the small bar below the control panel on the treadmill, all the while never slowing her pace. “Are you waiting for this machine?”
The woman shrugged. “I’m good. I’ve got time.” Her eyes seemed focused farther down the row of equipment.
Katherine glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’m just warming up before the five-o’clock yoga class. I’ll be done in a few minutes.” It was 4:40, and she would need at least ten minutes to walk to the yoga classroom and set up. Katherine hated being late for anything but especially classes. She slowed her treadmill to cool down.
“I can wait.” The woman’s eyes swept around the gym before coming back to rest again on whatever she had seen down the row. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t move from her spot near the wall.
Katherine returned to the closed-captioned television that was broadcasting the local news. There was something about the classic-car show on Beach Street that weekend. The weather forecast jumped onto the screen. Seventy-five and sunny on Friday. Seventy-three. Seventy-six. Yep, pretty much perfect all week. When you lived on California’s Central Coast, you didn’t get to complain about the weather.
At 4:44, she stopped the treadmill and grabbed her towel. She dabbed her forehead and looked for the dark-haired woman to point out the machine, but she was already on a different treadmill.
Gymgoers were shuffling locations as some left for the day and others switched routines. Katherine saw the color-coordinated blond woman heading toward the hallway where the yoga classroom was located and wondered if she was a new attendee.
Katherine walked toward the aisle, passing another college-aged man running fast on a treadmill. Unlike the people around him, he was running at full speed. A blue-and-green hoodie covered his head, and something familiar about him made Katherine pause at the back of his machine.
It came to her in a flash.
The world around her washed into shades of grey as Katherine saw the man stop and pull a black handgun from under his sweatshirt. It was black and had an odd bar sticking out from the handle. Everything around her moved in slow motion as the young man raised the gun and started firing across the gym.
The sound of screaming was sharp in her ears.
Once, twice, the gun fired again and again. He didn’t stop. The world around her seemed watery and out of focus, but she heard people screaming. Glass shattered. More screaming.
She blinked and her ears popped. The world around her came back into focus and vivid color. No one was screaming. The gym was filled with the familiar sounds of treadmills and pumping workout music. The clock on the wall read four forty-five.
Katherine was frozen at the base of the young man’s treadmill when she saw it start to happen.
He braced his feet on either side of the treadmill, unzipped his blue-and-green sweatshirt, and reached toward his waistband.
This isn’t a daydream.
“Gun!” Katherine screamed and dived for the man, knocking him off-balance. He toppled back and fell on her. The spinning track shot them off the rear of the treadmill and into the next row of machines. “He has a gun!”
The world compressed around her. She was struggling with the man, but he was so much stronger. Where was the gun? She saw it in his hand and reached for it.
He elbowed Katherine in the temple and rolled away, trying to lift the firearm and take aim. She felt something cold and hard strike her temple.
“No!” The blond woman stood over them, her face red and angry. She reached her hand out, and the gun jumped into her palm.
Katherine blinked.
Sounds of chaos filled the gym as people ran and yelled. Someone shouted, “Police!” Throughout the chaos, the sounds of loud electronic music filled the air.