In But Not Out!

The next morning I visited the Gym with the hot pool. I talked to all of the employees. Most of them told me what I already knew...That the pool was supposed to be emptied and cleaned earlier in the day, but that the guy who was supposed to clean the pool never showed up...So it was never done.

I asked the night manager on duty, Just who was the pool cleaner?.. He told me that it was a guy named Emmett Sanders, who had just been hired. "I told that to the Homicide Detectives who came here earlier today..." He said.

"Did you see anybody in here that didn't belong in here yesterday?" I said.

"Well, you and your buddy, who came to see Giles...that was it..." He said.

"Uh...oh.." I said.

"Wait..Wait...there was a guy, a tall Black guy, real muscular with glasses on.....He was built, but he looked like a nerd though...in the face...He was wearing a jump suit....He had two gym bags and he went upstairs." he said.

"You tell the cops about this guy?" I asked.

"No,I just remembered him...He was quiet...I thought he was going to swim or play basketball."
he said.

"When did he leave?" I asked.

"That's the funny thing...I never saw him leave...I saw him come in...but I never saw him leave."
said the night manager.

"You guys have cameras....Video cameras...Can I see the footage?" I asked.

"Sure..." he said.

I went to look at the footage....There was none.

"What the hell? All the footage from yesterday is gone...I can't believe this.." said the Night manager.

I could..it meant that my killer was a very smart man....I once dealt with a smart man like him once...but he was safely behind bars now.. So who was this guy? This guy who had killed a man and covered it up so well? I walked up to the pool, which was now empty.....I had more questions than answers....

I decided to pay Emmett Sanders a visit. He was supposed to have cleaned the pool and had never showed up.... Upon turning the corner of his block, I realized that this was another dead end....The Police had the entire neighborhood cordoned off and they were bringing a body out of his house in a body bag......I didn't have to be a genius to guess who this might be.....It was Emmett Sanders and he was dead....The reason why he didn't clean the pool.....

That night , I was in Josie's having a beer with Sean Jackson and Clerow....I brought them up to speed on what I had found out..or as the case may be, had not found out!

"Man....I'm spooked......Somethin about this aint right....The guy we was paid to get the goods on winds up dead....only there aint no good reason for him to be dead...Cat who was supposed to clean the pool winds up dead...Some other guy comes in there, only there aint no record of him being there and only one guy saw him and just barely....Somethin aint right Kev?" said Clerow.

"I know Kev...what if your boy Giles wasn't the intended victim, what if it was someone else that was supposed to be there?" asked Sean.

"Like who?" I asked.

"Like you?" said Sean.

"Me? Who would know I'd be there?" I said.

"You been investigatin that pool guy for three weeks, you had been there a number of times..
what if Giles had somebody set that up for you and he ran in there to bring you in there, so you could slip and fall in that water?" asked Sean.

"No that doesn't make sense...who knew Giles was gonna run, and to the pool at that?....If that was the case...why would he run in there if he knew the floor was slippery? He didn't know....he was as surprised as we were. No, this was being set up for something more elaborate..It was like a dry run...only something went wrong." I said.

"I'll say" said Clerow.

"The question is..why did he run in the first place? Almost like he knew the jig was up..Like somebody warned him...." I asked.

"Maybe Giles was the target, and we just don't know why?" said Clerow...

"Maybe ,Maybe is a big word...Maybe is a lot of things.." I said.

"So Kev, what are you going to do?" asked Sean.

"Tomorrow...I'm going to look into Giles Parker's life a little further....see if he talked to anybody
strange within the last few weeks....Something about this mysterious guy seen in the gym seems so familiar...I feel like I've dealt with this guy before..but I just can't put my finger on it." I said.

The three of us nodded and Gus sent us another round of drinks.

(To Be Continued....)