Page 59 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

A cryptic answer, and one that saddened her. As though this wasn’t about Jay at all, but about the Witherborne family.

“Do you know what’s going on, ma’am? But you can’t or won’t tell me? Did Jay stumble on something that got him killed? Was that thing next door?”

“That’s what you’re here to find out.” She flashed a sharp smile. “There will be a small gathering here on Friday. Do make sure the pool is at its best for that. There’s a financial bonus in it for you.”

She turned and vanished into the house.

She’d been suspiciously talkative, almost helpful. I didn’t trust it. Or her. But she had confirmed that the Briars were something else, something of the earth. Whatever that meant. And I didn’t get the impression that whatever was happening, she was behind it. She seemed almost . . . tired. All the evidence pointed to Jeremy Briar killing Jay, and it had something to do with the pools being chemically linked, it had to. Only a pool boy would know how impossible that was. Perhaps that knowing had gotten Jay killed.

I needed to get back to next door to study their pool some more, and soon.

“Hey, Owen.” Fleur padded barefoot out to the pool next to me. An oversized black T-shirt hung off her, draped over tiny shorts. She sat down cross-legged by the edge of the pool and peered into the filter pit. “Wow. All that water goes through there huh?”

“About eighty gallons a minute. The whole pool cycles every eight hours or so. And the part that does the actual work, that white powder packed inside, that’s diatomaceous earth. Fossilized shells. Microscopic sea creatures that died millions of years ago, crushed down fine enough to trap a particle smaller than a red blood cell.” I caught myself. “Sorry.”

Fleur’s eyes got all big and her smile grew. “That is amazing.”

“Is it, or are you just humoring me?”

“No, it really is. Those poor sea creatures, though. Died for rich people.”

“Well, I don’t think rich people pools are the reason they died, or that they care their remains ended up as filter media a million years later.”

“They’re in a better place now.”

“Yeah. The Witherbornes’ filter.”

She laughed and sighed at the water. “I’ve been watching the pool more and more, like maybe it knows how I got here but it can’t speak to tell us.” We both stared at the serene pool for a minute, then she grinned. “I’m trying to remember something, anything, but all I get is salt.”

Theo had mentioned that.

“Salt?”

“Yeah, salt.”

“This pool and the neighbors’ are freshwater.”

“Yeah, I know. But that’s the word that pops into my head. Salt . . . and Theo.”

“You think you remembering knowing Theo?” But he didn’t know her, or so he’d said.

“I know him, somehow, for sure. It’ll come to me. So uh . . .” She lowered her voice. “Speaking of Theo . . . he’s behind me, in the pool house. He told me not to come out here, but it seems like maybe you guys should talk?”

“Ah.” So he was hiding back there.

“He won’t shut up about you. Owen said this, Owen did that, Owen, Owen, Owen. No offense, you’re nice to look at, an’ all, but it’s not helping me remember where I’m supposed to be.”

“Is he angry?” I asked quietly.

“More . . . frustrated, maybe? So, if you could just fix whatever went down, then we can get back to figuring out why I’m here.”

“Fleur . . .” Theo grumbled from the pool-house doorway.

He leaned against the frame, arms folded, his dark clothes contrasting with all the brightness outside.

“It’s true, though,” she told him.

He sighed, pinched his lips together, and finally lifted his gaze to me. “Can we talk?”