Page 40 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

Something I couldn’t see.

But that was impossible.

I straightened into a crouch and eyed the pool. If there was something foreign in there, the chemical balance would be off. But I needed my test strips to be able to look for any obvious warning signs. I eyed the pump house. Unless the pump had an in-line indicator? Some of them did, and the Elite system was the type to have all the bells and whistles.

I got to my feet, then scooped up my phone. The screen had a new diagonal crack, and showed thirteen missed calls from Pretty Boy.

What the heck did Theo want so urgently?

Twenty-three new text messages.

He’d have to wait. The neighbors’ pool had just tried to eat me, and I needed to get to the bottom of it. Not literally.

I hurried to the pump shed and flung open the doors again.

Alright, if the pool was severely contaminated, there’d be signs.

I grabbed the hoses and pulled them out of their snug brackets.

Yes, there it was. An inline warning indicator—a little window in a hose—showed red.

The pool’s chemical balance was off enough to trigger a visual warning.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped a foot away from Jeremy, pressed a hand to my heart, and laughed like I’d been caught with my hand in a cookie jar. “You startled me!”

“You look a little pale.” He moved stealthily for an older guy.

“Me? I’m fine. I . . .” I pointed at the transparent tube in the piping. “You have a problem with your pool, see there?” A big problem. A problem that tried to pull people into it and eat them. A problem that may have killed Jay? A problem Jeremy was aware of, as he was looking at the little red window and didn’t seem concerned.

“It does that sometimes. It goes back to normal⁠—”

As he spoke, the strip turned green.

“There, see,” he said. “It’s fine again. But any problems are what I pay the pool boy for.” He smiled, and for a second there were too many teeth behind his lips. Not just a few, but a whole extra row. A blink, and everything was fine again. Just like the warning indicator. Blink, and it’s all good.

Was I losing my mind?

“Tomorrow, then,” Jeremy said, his tone suggesting my interview was over. “Do you need someone to see you out?”

“Uh, no, I got it, thank you.”

“Great. I’m looking forward to seeing you, Owen.” He thrust out his hand. I automatically shook it, and felt the same pull briefly, as though the world around me was tilting while I stood still.

I tugged my hand back, and the dizziness passed.

Jeremy sauntered off and vanished back inside his house.

What in the heck was going on here?

I watched him go. Bet said my gut instincts were unreliable, but something was definitely wrong with Jeremy Briar and his pool. I just had no idea what.

Tomorrow, I’d come back and properly test the water—if I could get a sample without drowning. The pool would tell me its secrets. It would talk to me. Water never lied.

On the way back to my car, I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the string of messages from Theo.

got a problem