“Personal reasons?”
“Yes. You are Doctor Tex Poole, right?”
“That’s me.”
The young man smiled an engaging smile, and it was as if the sun suddenly broke through the cloud deck. He thrust out a hand. “My name is Dudley Checkers, Dr. Poole. But you probably know me as Jaqlyn’s son.”
“I do?”
“My mom told me all about you.”
“Jaqlyn… Checkers you say?” Tex threw his mind back… and a vague recollection stirred of a mousy brown-haired girl with freckles, braces and a lisp.
“She told me how you met, and how you were the love of her life.”
Tex gulped a little at this. “Love of her life, eh?”
“Sure. Don’t you remember? The only reason she broke up with you is because her parents made her. They were Western Baptists, and didn’t take kindly to their daughter dating a person who wasn’t a member of their church. It broke her heart, Dr. Poole.”
“Is that so?” he said, still trying to remember who this Jaqlyn person was exactly.
“And then when she discovered she was pregnant, of course there was hell to pay.”
“Pregnant!” he said. The plot was thickening—in fact it was thickening so fast Tex’s head was spinning.
“Her folks wanted her to have the baby, of course, and I can tell you, Dr. Poole, that I never stinted for love and affection. Oh, no, sir, I did not.” The young man’s smile turned positively Hollywoodian now—wide and toothy. “Mom told me the whole story last month. She died, you see, and didn’t want to leave this world without laying it all out for me—a tearful moment, I can tell you. She told me to go and meet my dad… and gave me his name.” The kid then stuck out his hand. “I’m so happy to finally meet you… Daddy!”
“How did it happen?” asked Charlene as she stared down into the empty pool.
“He must have lost his balance,” said Alec. “If it’s any consolation, he never knew what happened. Simply fell in and… well, died.”
She nodded. She’d always been fond of this uncle of hers, even though they hadn’t been in touch all that much lately. Since becoming mayor of Hampton Cove her schedule had been pretty crammed, and then with romance suddenly sweeping into her life…
She placed a hand on her boyfriend’s arm, and he hugged her close. “We’re still asking around, but so far the story checks out: he was out here, inspecting the work when it happened. No one else around.”
“He’d always been fond of his job. Said building pools was the best job in the world. And he was good at it, too. Best pool builder in the county.”
“I know. If I was in the market for a pool I’d have hired your uncle. He was the best.”
They were in the backyard of a villa that was still under construction. The owners had decided to go all in and had hired Frank Butterwick to put in a pool.
“If only he’d fallen in at the shallow end,” said Charlene as she wiped away a tear.
Abe Cornwall, the county coroner, looked up from his inspection of the body. “Not much I can tell you that you don’t already know,” he said, addressing the Chief. “Contusions consistent with a fall from this height. Death was instantaneous, I’d say.”
“Thanks, Abe,” said Alec, and gently led Charlene away from the grisly scene. “I’ve already called your mom and dad. They’ll be here soon.”
She glanced up when she saw a couple of her uncle’s workers, talking animatedly amongst each other. “Did you talk to them?” she asked. “What did they say?”
“They weren’t here when it happened. None of them were. Your uncle had a habit of being the first to arrive in the morning, and work out the day’s schedule.”
“Who found him?”
“That fellow over there,” said Alec, pointing to a gangly guy with an overbite. “Name is Grant Folkman. Do you want to talk to him?”
“Yeah, I’d like to,” she said, so they walked over to where her uncle’s men were standing around, and Alec nodded a greeting.
“This is Frank’s niece,” he introduced Charlene. “And this here is Grant. You found Charlene’s uncle, isn’t that right, Grant?”
“Yeah—big shock it was, too,” said Grant, dropping down the stub of his cigarette and crushing it under his heel. “He was a great guy, Mrs. Butterwick.”
“Miss,” said Charlene, more out of habit than anything else. “How long have you worked for my uncle, Grant?”
“Oh, about three years now, I think? There wasn’t a lot of turnover, which probably says something about Frank. He wasn’t just a great guy, but a great boss, too.”
“He could yell up a storm, though, couldn’t he?” said one of Grant’s colleagues.
“Yeah, Frank was definitely a yeller,” said Grant with a smile. “But you knew he didn’t mean it. He yelled but not in a nasty way, if you know what I mean.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Grant gave her a shifty-eyed glance. “Do you—do you know what’s going to happen now, Miss? I mean, with Frank gone and all?”
“No, I’m sorry but I wasn’t involved in my uncle’s business. Didn’t he have a business partner?”
“Yeah, but he kinda disappeared,” said Grant with a shrug.
“Disappeared? What do you mean?”
“Just that. He was here one day and gone the next. Frank wasn’t happy about it, but what could he do?”
“And who was this business partner?” asked Alec.
“Um… well, personally I never met him, but I think his name was Pollard? He was what you might call a silent partner?”
“Oh, he sure was silent, all right,” said the other worker. “So silent we never saw him.”
Charlene nodded. “I’m sure my family will sort it all out. My parents will be here soon, and my dad—he helped set up my uncle’s business. I’m sure he knows all about it.”
“Thanks, Miss Butterwick,” said the young man with a nod.
And as Charlene and Alec walked off, she heard him say to his buddy, “Good-looking woman, that Miss Butterwick,” and she smiled.
“I’ll try to get in touch with this business partner,” said Alec.
“No, don’t bother. My dad will sort it all out. He’s in charge now. He’ll decide what to do with the business.”
“Fair enough,” said Alec, and gave her a look of concern. “Will you be all right?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about me,” she said with a wave of the hand. “I’ll be just fine. I’ll wait until my parents are here and then I have to get back.”
“The mall meeting?”
“I canceled it. For now.”
“Good,” he said, making perfectly clear what he thought of the project.
Chapter 10
I was sipping from my bowl of water when I noticed Dooley intently looking at me from the sidelines. It was a little disconcerting, to be honest. I’m one of those cats that don’t like it when people look at them when they’re eating or drinking. I don’t know why, but it simply makes me nervous. Even when it’s a close friend like Dooley doing the staring, it makes me a little giggly. And it made me more than a little giggly now.
“What?” I asked finally, when he wouldn’t stop looking.
“How can you do that, Max?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Do what?” I asked as I licked the few drops of water dangling from my mustache.
“Drink without making sure if the water is clean.”
I frowned at him. “I’m pretty sure that Odelia wouldn’t give us bad water to drink,” I said. “And besides, I also like to think that my sense of smell and my sense of taste are capable enough to make sure that this water is fine for feline consumption.”
“But how can you be sure, Max?” he insisted. “How can you be absolutely sure?”
“Um… Well, I guess one can never be one hundred percent sure, but that’s where trust features into the thing. I trust Odelia not to poison me, so there’s that.”