Visions of cut feet or skinned knees ran through Hannah’s mind, but then she spotted a lump of red near the end of the smear. She walked closer to take a look. It was a smeared, crushed strawberry! Someone had broken the rules. Although plastic bottles or boxes of drinks were allowed in the pool area and the workout rooms, food was only allowed at the tables in the Snack Shack.

The gazebo was a tropical paradise with hanging plants and potted palms. A bar ran the length of one latticework wall. During regular hours, an employee who sold bottled water manned it. A half-dozen stools were arranged in front of the bar. They provided seating for those who’d tired of the steaming water, but wanted to wait for friends who were still enjoying the heat of the tub. Several stools had been tipped over and Hannah wondered why no one had righted them.

There was something shiny on the floor next to the far end of the bar. Hannah walked over for a closer look and immediately wished she hadn’t. It was her silver platter, the very same platter she’d used for Mike’s birthday cream puffs, and it was upside down in front of the flowering hibiscus that thrived in the moist heat.

With the same sinking feeling she experienced every time she came across a bad accident on the road, Hannah lifted one handle and surveyed the smashed cream puffs it had held. Blueberry and lemon filling had overlapped in a puddle of gooey green. There were bits of pastry mixed into a glutinous mash of strawberry and vanilla filling, but there were no chocolate cream puffs. She supposed she should be happy that her great-grandma’s pudding had been such a success, but she felt sick at the cream puff carnage she saw. Mike had told her it was a birthday party at the gym. She’d just assumed he meant the gym at the sheriff’s department, but he’d obviously been talking about Heavenly Bodies. It was clear that the birthday party had gone awry, and from the tipped stools, she guessed that the partygoers had left in a rush. That made her very curious. She had to ask Mike what had happened.

Hannah shivered. Her feet were still cold. She’d clean up the cream puffs and reclaim her platter later, but right now she needed to thaw her frigid digits.

The switch that operated the Jacuzzi was behind the bar. Hannah turned on the heat, activated the jets, flicked on the underwater lights, and headed over to the tub. She was about to dip her toes in the water when she realized that there was something in the center of the Jacuzzi.