Love You More - Lisa Gardner [63]
“So Brian was working hard with you when he was here and hard on the ship when he went away. Any reason he was working so hard?”
Jessica shrugged. “To look better. To feel better. He was an active guy. When we first started, he wanted to improve his fitness so he could tackle some bigger mountains skiing, biking, that sort of thing. He was active, but thought he should be stronger. We took it from there.”
Bobby set down his notepad, regarded her for a moment. “So Brian wants to improve his skiing and biking. And in order to do that, he’s spending how much money a week …?” He waved his hand around the well-kept room in an obviously well-equipped gym.
“Couple hundred,” Jessica said. “But there’s no price tag for good health!”
“Two hundred a week. And how many hours of training, grocery shopping, food prep …”
“You gotta commit if you want results,” Jessica informed him.
“Brian committed. Brian got results. Brian was still following the program. Why? What’s he looking for? Forty pounds of muscle later, what was he lacking?”
Jessica regarded him curiously. “He wasn’t still trying to bulk up. However, Brian’s not naturally a big guy. When a … smaller man …”
On behalf of men everywhere, Bobby winced.
“When a smaller man wants to maintain bigger results, he has to keep working. That’s the truth. High protein, big weights, day after day. Otherwise, his body is going to return to its preferred size, which in Brian’s case was closer to one eighty, not two twenty.”
Bobby considered that information, which, as a smaller guy, wasn’t great to hear.
“Sounds like a lot of work,” he said at last. “Not easy for anyone to maintain, let alone a working parent. Time to time, I bet Brian’s schedule got a little busy, his hours squeezed. He ever … seek additional assistance?”
Jessica furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“Products to aid his speed/ability to add muscle?”
Jessica frowned harder; then, she got it. “You mean steroids.”
“I’m curious.”
Immediately, she shook her head. “I’m not down with that. If I thought he was juicing up, I’d quit. Screw the two hundred a week. I dated a guy into ’roids. No way I’d go down that road again.”
“You were dating Brian?”
“No! I didn’t mean that. I mean associating with someone abusing steroids. It makes people crazy. The stuff you see on the news—it’s not a lie.”
Bobby regarded her levelly. “And for your own training?”
She met his gaze just as levelly. “Sweat and tears, baby. Sweat and tears.”
Bobby nodded. “So you’re not a proponent of steroids—”
“No!”
“But what about other trainers in the gym? Or even outside the gym. Brian got some great results very fast. How sure are you that it was all his sweat and tears?”
Jessica didn’t answer right away. She chewed her lower lip again, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I don’t think so,” she said at last. “But I couldn’t swear to it. Something was going on with Brian. He just got back into town three weeks ago, and this time around … He was moody. Dark. Something was on his mind.”
“You ever meet his wife?”
“The state trooper? No.”
“But he talked about her.”
Jessica shrugged. “They all do.”
“They?”
“Clients. I don’t know, being a trainer is like being a hairdresser. The ministers of the grooming services sector. Clients talk. We listen. It’s half our job.”
“So what did Brian say?”
Jessica shrugged, obviously uncomfortable again.
“He’s dead, Jessica. Killed in his own home. Help me understand why Brian Darby embarked on a major self-improvement program and it still wasn’t enough to save him.”
“He loved her,” Jessica whispered.
“Who?”
“Brian loved his wife. Genuinely, deeply, soulfully. I’d kill for a man to love me like that.”
“Brian loved Tessa.”
“Yeah. And he wanted to be stronger for her. For her and Sophie. He needed to be a big man, he used to joke, because guarding two females was four times the work.”
“Guarding?” Bobby asked with a frown.
“Yeah. That’s the word he’d used. Guess he’d screwed up once and Tessa had gotten on his case. Sophie was to be guarded. He took it seriously.”
“You ever sleep with