The Drowning Pool

by Jacqueline Seewald

“You are worried.”

  “Did I say that? I’m just looking for any excuse to get you to spend more time with me. In my bed.”

  “Are you feeling sorry you couldn’t stay with me this morning? I know I do.”

  He thought of the thrill of feeling her body against his. “I get hard just thinking about you. So come to the house as soon as you can.”

  * * * *

  Kim didn’t put her phone down immediately. She was still feeling shaken by the strange phone call, more than she’d let on to Mike. Someone must have been watching her. It was a creepy sensation.

  She began packing a few things and also slipped a sharp kitchen knife in her handbag, just in case. Then she locked up her apartment and hurried to her Toyota Corolla. Once on the road, Kim checked her rearview mirror repeatedly. She had a sense of being followed and didn’t like it one bit.

  * * * *

  Bert St. Croix had checked out three of the local watering holes on her list, and now she was down to the last one. She’d had no success but wasn’t at all surprised. She’d saved the Galaxy Lounge for last because she wasn’t sure she wanted to see April Nevins. But now there wasn’t any choice. She probably should have asked Gardner to go there; why hadn’t she?

  As soon as Bert walked into the place, she saw April, even before the other woman saw her. Bert went over to the bartender, identified herself and flashed the pictures of Bradshaw and Page. The bartender shook his head and told her to ask the waitresses. By then, April was there.

  “Come to visit on my turf?” she said with a smile.

  “I’m here on business.” She showed April the picture of Page and asked if April had ever seen him before.

  April licked her lips thoughtfully. “Looks familiar, but I can’t exactly place him.”

  “Did Bradshaw ever come in here?”

  “Rick? Sure, he liked the Galaxy, not just ’cause of me either. He came in even after I stopped seeing him.”

  “Was this guy ever with him?”

  “That’s it! This other guy was in here with Rick, but only one time. I did notice him though.”

  Bert felt a sense of excitement, a quickening in her blood. “Try to remember; did they talk about anything in particular?”

  “I should tell you that I wasn’t the one waiting on them so I didn’t overhear any of the conversation.”

  “Damn! Do you remember who was waiting on them?”

  “Sally, but she quit last week and I don’t think anyone knows where she went. Anyway, she was so spaced out she probably wouldn’t remember who she served five minutes after they left.”

  “Hey, April, your customers are getting antsy! Are you working or what?” The bartender pointed to the order of drinks he’d made up for her.

  “Sorry.” She turned to Bert. “Soon as I serve these people, I’ll go on break and we can talk.”

  Bert agreed to wait. But the time really dragged. When they were alone at a table in the back, April smiled again. “I’ve been thinking about you.”

  “Why?”

  “I need a friend; someone I can trust. I’m lonely. You’re lonely too. Right? So what’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal is you’re still a suspect in a homicide investigation.”

  April lowered her heavily made-up eyes. “I didn’t kill anyone, and I’m not trying to influence you.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  April met her gaze directly. “No, I just feel there’s an understanding between us, a kind of bond.”

  Bert looked away from her. “Tell me more about Bradshaw and the other dude.”

  “The one in the picture?”

  “Yeah, that guy. Try to think, was anyone else with them?”

  “Cheryl was with Rick, which was why I made sure not to serve them.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Yeah, there was another woman, a blond. She was older then Cheryl but not bad looking, kind of classy, good bleach job.”

  “Talk to me about Bradshaw,” Bert said. “Tell me everything you remember about that night.”

  April sighed. “You still consider me a suspect, don’t you? I didn’t kill him.”

  “Then help me find out who did.”

  * * * *

  Bert phoned Gardner at home, sounding excited. “Got something.”

  His own spirits lifted. “Go on.”

  “I’m at the Galaxy Lounge. You won’t believe this, but April Nevins identified Page’s photo. She saw him here one evening with Bradshaw and guess what? They weren’t alone. Want to know who was with them?”

  “Cheryl McNeill,” Gardner said without hesitation.

  “How did you know?”

  “Lucky guess.” Gardner was thoughtful for a moment. “Was there another woman with them?”

  “Yeah, but April had no idea who she was. I tried to get a description, not much use though. She was too busy watching Cheryl and Bradshaw when she had a free moment. She wasn’t serving their table so she didn’t overhear any of the conversation. She vaguely remembers that the other woman was blond and older than Cheryl. Also, she came with Page, not Bradshaw, but that would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

  “Stay with April if you can. Keep asking her questions; maybe she’ll remember more.”

  “Right, I’ll get back to you.”

  After he hung up the phone, Gardner tried to watch TV with the girls, but he couldn’t concentrate. He was worried about Kim. He knew the threatening phone call had troubled her more than she would say. He felt a deep sense of relief when she walked through the door.

  “I brought some of my stuff,” she said. “I’ll stay with you tonight.”

  Every night would have been better, but he knew better than to push it.

  Evie and Jean surrounded her. “Kim, want to sit with us?” Jean asked. “We’re watching a terrific show.”

  “Certainly. I rarely watch television. It’ll be fun.”

  * * * *

  Kim enjoyed spending time with Mike and his daughters. She was again feeling a sense of family, of connection. It was a good feeling. Not so great was a gnawing fear, an awareness that she could be in real danger. It took her back to the fall when she’d almost been killed. She would have to be vigilant. Stalkers were scary people.

  After the girls were in bed for the night, she and Mike sat together wrapped up in each other’s arms on the sofa.

  “You really are a dangerous man to love,” she said.

  “Not too dangerous. I promise.”

  Kim touched his dark, wavy hair, studying the rugged features. “Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep,” she said.

  “I’ll try not to. Just do me one favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, sending sensual ripples through her body. “Take tomorrow off from work.”

  “Mike, I just got back from vacation.”

  “Call it a sick day or a personal day then. Just do it.” His eyes were intense.

  “I’m probably no safer here than at work.”

  “I’ll have a car watch the house.” He slowly kissed the palm of her hand.

  “You don’t need to do that.”

  “I think I do.”

  He kissed the nape of her neck and she found that, too, was a sensitive area and shivered.

  “You can be awfully stubborn.”

  “But sexy?” There was that wicked smile of his again.

  “Don’t think I’m not on to how you operate. You use sexual attraction as a weapon of persuasion.”

  “Is it working?”

  She put her lips to his and kissed him deeply. He let out a low groan. Without another word, he lifted her into his arms and carried her upstairs to his bedroom.

  “Mike, put me down, I’m too heavy to carry. You’ll hurt yourself.”

  “You hardly weigh anything. Now quiet down. You don’t want to wake the girls.”

  Maybe it was the heightened tension and anxiety, but they made love as t
hey never had before.

  She matched his hunger and need with her own. And when her own urgent climax came upon her, he joined her in a sublime, passionate union.

  * * * *

  As he drove down the single lane county highway, Gardner’s thoughts wandered. He’d lived and worked in this town for too many years to just write it off. Evie wasn’t even born when he started building their house. What he’d liked best was the rural aspect of the land. Coming from a city background, it meant something to live near farms and forests. The township was forty-two square miles in size, a good part of it still undeveloped. There were dense woodlands and even a few lakes. Best of all, they weren’t far from the Pine Barrens with their stark, eerie beauty. Gardner couldn’t help but wonder what the township would be like in the future. He felt somehow that what he did now would make a difference; but maybe that was just self-delusion.

  What worried him most was the indifference of the residents. They had so little regard for others. Very few of the people who moved into the housing developments, townhouses or garden apartments stayed for any length of time. Webster was a bedroom community, a place where New Yorkers lived because they couldn’t afford New York City or were afraid of the dangers. Too many residents thought of the town as just a place to sleep as they commuted back and forth from the city each day. Public apathy in civic matters was a tradition in Webster. The only thing that the voters seemed to unite in was defeating the school budget year after year. But who could really blame them? The taxes were strangling them.

  Although he might outwardly shrug and say that the graft and corruption were just part of the system—the inherent nature of how the game was played—Gardner cared about upgrading the community. He felt that he had a stake in Webster’s future. If nothing else, he could make a contribution by seeing to it that Webster was a safe place to live.

  He’d decided to come home for lunch to check on Kim. As he drove up to the house, Gardner noticed that the lawn needed mowing again. There were things he tended to neglect, but he tried not to feel guilty. A question of priorities, he told himself.

  Kim looked very happy to see him, almost relieved. She actually threw her arms around him.

  “Was there another phone call?”

  Kim pulled away from him. “I don’t want to bother you about it.” She looked pale; small worry lines in the form of creases appeared at the corners of her warm brown eyes.

  “I think you better tell me about it right away.”

  She began anxiously smoothing her summer dress across her hips. Without warning, Kim burst into tears. This was so totally unlike her. He knew from personal experience that Kim was a very brave woman.

  He took her into his arms and hugged her. “Honey, whatever was said, it won’t seem so bad if you share it with me. I might even be able to do something about it.” He smiled at her, touching her tears with his index finger as if to take away her anguish.

  “All right,” she agreed.

  “Let’s sit down in the kitchen and talk. I’d love a cold drink.”

  “I’ll fix lunch for you.”

  He followed her out to the kitchen where the family ate most of their meals. It was a sunny, spacious room wallpapered with bright yellow flowers. He watched as Kim sliced some tomatoes fresh from the garden and put a substantial serving on his plate along with some chicken salad.

  “There’s lemonade and iced tea,” she offered.

  “Before anything else, sit down and talk to me. Everything else can wait.” He gripped her hand.

  She nodded, sitting down opposite him. “He said terrible things. I’m fairly certain it was the same man who called before.” She stopped then, bit her lower lip, and he had to prod her on.

  “What exactly did he say to you?”

  She ran her hand through her hair. She was wearing it down today, the way he liked it. But he couldn’t think about that now, couldn’t let the chemistry that sizzled between them distract him.

  “First, he said to tell you that he knows where you live. Then he asked how you’d like it if something bad happened to one of your kids, like maybe not coming home one day. He said you’re being watched and so am I. He claimed that I must not have given you his message yesterday and I better do it this time or I’d be really sorry. He said, and I quote, ‘If your boyfriend doesn’t stop nosing around in matters that don’t concern him, we’ll give him something to really worry about.’ He told me to have a talk with you. It wasn’t much of a conversation. He did all the talking.”

  Gardner was furious; in his entire life, he’d never been so angry. He tried not to show his feelings to Kim and gnashed down on his back molars to hold on to his self-control, but she must have suspected because her look was questioning.

  “I’ll take care of it,” he told her in a tight voice. He took her hand and caressed it, then kissed each fingertip in turn. “Will you trust me to handle the situation? There’s nothing I care about in this world more than you and the kids. I won’t let anything happen to any of you. Do you believe me?”

  She nodded her head vigorously.

  “Good. I want you to forget this for now.”

  “Not so easy. You’re the one in the most danger, aren’t you, Mike?” Her eyes were like searchlights.

  “No more than usual. It’s just a lot of cheap macho talk. One of the suspects is a self-important blowhard who overreacts.”

  “You think this man’s the killer?”

  “Honestly? I just don’t know, but I’m going to find out quick. That’s a promise.”

  * * * *

  Bert was waiting for him back at headquarters. He hadn’t seen her yet today. She’d been assigned elsewhere in the morning.

  “Anything else from April?”

  “Couldn’t talk to her much more. She took a short break, but then had to go back to work. She did remember that Page was flirting with Cheryl, or at least he tried to take her hand a few times.”

  “Right in front of Bradshaw?”

  “She thought that Bradshaw was encouraging it. He, in turn, was paying attention to the other woman at the table who, incidentally, did not look like a bimbo according to April. This lady was class, expensive clothes and jewelry.”

  “We have to go after Page, hit him hard and get him talking.” He saw that Nash was in his office. “I’ll let the captain know.”

  Bert gave him look of disapproval. “Why tell him anything? It might just get back to Page.”

  “In spite of everything, I think he’s a straight cop.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  Gardner walked directly into the captain’s office, which was unusual since he always knocked first, but he was in a strange mood. Nash viewed him with a cold expression.

  “We’ve established a definite connection between Bradshaw and George Page. A witness saw them together.”

  “Just how reliable is your witness?”

  “Reliable enough.”

  “Damn you!” Nash exploded, his face reddening. “Couldn’t you just leave it alone? You’re supposed to be a professional, for Christ sakes.”

  “And just how professional am I supposed to feel when Page threatens my family? What if it were yours?”

  “Mike, why this super cop routine? That’s not your style. Just lay off Page.”

  “If we really are professionals, as you claim, then his money and influence shouldn’t buy him any special treatment or favors from us. I’m not out to get the guy, only to find out the truth. He’s hiding something, and I need to know what it is.”

  “So damn determined to make me choose up sides, aren’t you? Well, if Page killed Bradshaw, nail his ass—but make sure you get evidence that’ll hold up in court. I know you’ve been busting your balls on this case. Just do it right.”

  Gardner didn’t say anything more to Nash; he extended his hand. Nash pushed it away. “No, just get the hell out of here! I’m jeopardizing my pension, and I’m not happy about it.”

  Bert was waiting for him. He explain
ed the gist of the conversation.

  “I’ve got no use for people like him.”

  “In three years, Nash can retire on a comfortable pension. He could even work at something else if he chooses. He’s not ready for a rocking chair. Plus, he’s got three daughters to support, two of them still in college.”

  Bert shook her head, braids turning. “All the more reason not to trust him.”

  Soon, they were trying to plan a strategy. Whatever Page was hiding, the lady who had dinner with him, Bradshaw and Cheryl McNeill might be the key. He was pretty certain that woman was Page’s wife. There was only one thing to do: he had to find a way to get into the house and talk with her.

  Feverishly, his mind began devising a plan that would get him inside the gates of Page’s self-styled fortress. He and Bert went down to the police garage, looking for the right sort of vehicle. He found one finally in a white panel truck used for surveillance. Gardner checked it out; there were even several pairs of white coveralls inside as well as caps. Perfect. “I’m going to get into Page’s place, but it’ll be undercover. And I don’t want you involved.”

  “How come?” Bert was challenging him again. That figured.

  “For one thing, they’re likely to recognize you. And the two of us together, for certain they’ll make the connection. Besides, I don’t want you in danger of being thrown off the force. Not when you just started getting used to working here.”

  “I’ll make my own decisions,” Bert said.

  * * * *

  General Exterminators was a company run by an old friend. Gardner had worked with Jim Blodgett in a disadvantaged youth program several years ago, and the two of them came to respect each other. Jim, a large man in his early fifties, had a way with troubled kids, just as Gardner did.

  They shook hands, made a little small talk, and then Gardner got down to business.

  “I need a favor.” He pointed to the white panel truck he’d signed out of the police garage. “I’m working undercover and need some equipment to make me look like an exterminator.”

  “Not a problem.”

  Gardner felt both gratitude and relief. Maybe he could pull this off after all.