The Hot Pool

I walked into the Gym that night and confronted Swim instructor, Giles Parker.... I had worked on this case for three weeks....His mother in law had hired me to find out if he had indeed killed her daughter, his estranged wife.....I not only got information and evidence confirming as much, but I had him made for two additional murders too...Her attorney , who was planning to take him for big bucks and the new guy in her life , who was planning to marry her as soon as the divorce was final... I had already called the police, before Clerow and I arrived.

"It's all over Giles....The police are on their way ,you might as well sit tight ." I said... I was prepared to pick up a nice payday for getting the evidence on this one....I expected some type of snappy remark, like I usually get when I crack a case and collar a bad guy, instead...Giles Parker leaped up and ran....

"Clerow..he's on the move, let's go?" I said as we both went in hot pursuit of Giles Parker..He ran for all he was worth into the adjacent room where the swimming pool was....I was surprised that there were no swimmers in the pool on a sweltering afternoon like this.

The floor was extremely slippery and Clerow lost his balance and slipped and fell...He skidded
over to where the steps were leading into the pool and came to a stop...I slipped too and also slid
across the floor...Clerow grabbed the legs of my pants and kept me from going in the water...Giles wasn't so lucky...He slipped and fell and slid across the floor and into the pool with a
splash...

The water that splashed on us was scalding....We heard him yelling and screaming in the pool...

"ARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH, OUUUUUUUUUUUU...OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
LAWDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, AGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, urggggggh!"

It was horrifying...I ran to the side of the pool and touched the water...it was boiling hot..I tossed
my hand back...Clerow ran up next to me.....

"Yeoow...boss, this water is hot!" he screamed...

"You're telling me...We better call the medics..." I screamed...

"Too late for that boss...He's done." said Clerow.

He was right! When the Police and EMT guys got there and pulled the body out of the water...
Giles Parker, suspect in three homicides was dead...He had been boiled alive in a swimming pool of incredibly hot water...

The pool was drained and a peculiar device was found on the pool's floor....Some type of electric heater....a bizzare type of heater that was battery powered and triggered by remote control. The
heater had increased the heat of the water to an incredibly hot boiling point. You could have cooked corn on the cob in that pool. I had also noticed that the surface of that pool had been saturated with something so slippery that it was near impossible to walk in there without slipping.

Clerow and I had to caution the cops and emt people when they came in about the floor...It was something that wasn't lost of either of us as we drove home.

"Kev...We done cracked some pretty bizzare cases, but we aint never damn near been killed while cracking one." He said.

"Yeah..I know.....Somebody set that whole thing up man...I'm not sure who the intended target was...." I said.

"You think somebody was trying to clip Giles?" He asked.

"Why? He's not a mob boss, just a pool instructor...He doesn't even have a lot of money..Who would have a motive?" I asked..

"Yeah, you're right Kev...but that slippery floor wasn't no co-incidence and that heater in the pool sure wasn't...That hot pool was meant for somebody man.." said Clerow.

" I can't argue with you man...you right...but I just can't imagine who.." I said as I dropped him off at his house.

"Okay man, but I know you...you thinkin just like I'm thinking and when you decide to look into it...I want in..cause , that could have been me and you in that pool." he said.

I nodded...I couldn't agree more. I drove home and all the way home, I thought about what Clerow had said...Only ,I was too tired to dwell on it now...

The hot steamy water ran through my hair and down my shoulders and Sepia's soft hands lathered me with hot soap as we stood in the shower holding each other and kissing softly...any thoughts of that hot pool was the farthest thing from my mind...as I lifted my wife up against the
shower wall and entered her slowly as the water and the soap engulfed us....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh...ouuuuuuuuuuuuu.." she moaned softly...as she began a rhythmic motion up and down....

I saw a flashback of Giles Parker splashing up and down in the pool and screaming out in pain in my mind...for a split second...then I returned to what I was doing.....

The next morning, I stopped by Homicide...Lt. Sissy Van Buren brought me up to speed on what was going on...

"Kevin, that solution that was poured all over the gym floor is like nothing I've ever seen before..
It's just strange...and this device...this heater....It's not on the market anywhere in the U.S. It was ordered online....It's a CIA type device...We traced it's origin to Eastern Europe... The person that ordered it, used a computer in a cyber bar and a phony name that we traced to a mailbox downtown....That name was phony too..." she said.

"So somebody was trying to kill somebody in there.....huh?" I said.

"Oh definitely...." she said.

" Our boy Giles.....I'm wondering if somebody wanted him shut up for some reason...somebody else who had something to lose? " I pondered.

"Well Kevin, you can look on that angle....I'm looking on another one." she said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"What if that was set up for somebody else? and you ,your friend and our dead triple homicide suspect just happened upon it by accident?" she said.

"Hmmm, that is an angle." I thought... It was time to pay this neighborhood pool another visit.

(To Be Continued.....)