The Pool
The pool was full of dead things: old, dead logs--and a woman's body. The folks from the town are certain that they know who killed her and why. But Bob and Howard aren't convinced.
This is their chance to become real teenage detectives. Yet, it is not easy. Like a wild river tumbling through the western foothills of the Adirondacks, their search turns down one channel, then another and another. But only one has a dead end. The boys' stubborn work opens one clue after another, but will the police chief listen to them? Will Mr. B be a help or a hindrance? What about the Logan cousins? And where will that final clue be found?
It was dark as he began to open the door of his car in the parking lot at the mill. Suddenly a dark figure almost popped up on the other side of the vehicle.
“Close the door! No light; don’t want no-one to see you and me.”
Startled and a bit alarmed, Lloyd looked at the man who spoke, trying to make out who it was.
“What?”
“I said shut it!” The stranger’s voice rose then suddenly fell as he realized that someone might hear him.
Lloyd closed the door. By now his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he recognized Reuben Logan, a large, husky man who was known to be a loner.
“Logan! Why the heck are you hiding beside my car?” Lloyd sounded both curious and annoyed.
“I got you over a snake hole, Wells, an’ if I wanted I could push ya in!” The man muffled a hoarse laugh.
Lloyd squinted with a scowl on his face as he tried to make some sense out of what the other was saying.
“Wells, ya better listen to me, an’ ya better listen good.” Reuben had become very serious and earnest and appeared a bit threatening. Lloyd stepped back from the car, getting a little farther away from the big man.
Reuben talked quietly but forcefully. “Seen ya over at Whetstone Gulf. There ya was, standin’ on that high ridge of the gulf, talkin’ to no-one ’cept yourself.”
“When was that? I haven’t been at that gorge for years!”
“Well then youz got a twin brother, ’cause I seen ya all right. And Lou was with me. Yesterday.”
“Where were you?” An anxious tone of voice began to betray Lloyd’s truth.
“We had been hitchhikin’ on the lower road, and when the car driver let us off we took a shortcut up the cliff an’ over toward my road. We do that all the time. But we don’t go near the edge, that’s dumb. We was goin’ on our own trail, and then we seen ya standin’ by a rock. Could’ve pushed ya off the edge if we wanted!” A rough laugh came out of the dark pit of Reuben’s voice.
“So what?” Lloyd’s voice suddenly became stubborn. “So you saw me on the ridge talking out loud. Just ’cause a person says something doesn’t mean they plan to do it. I could have said, ‘I’d like to jump off the cliff and fly!’ But do you think I’d be dumb enough to do that?”
Reuben rubbed the top of his head and looked at the ground as though Lloyd’s question raised a thought that never had entered his mind. Then, grinning as he shook his head, he looked up at Lloyd.
“I didn’t say ya was plannin’ nothin’.”
“Well, I wasn’t! I didn’t mean that I was!”
Reuben leaned forward as though he wanted to talk privately with Lloyd.
“Oh, ya were. Ya talked about killin’ some woman. An’ ya talked about doin’ it some way that the cops would never think of you bein’ the one. An’ ya said that your wife better not know. An’ then ya stopped and stared across the gorge, an’ then ya said, ‘What if she does?’ We watched ya for fifteen or twenty minutes goin’ over and over this whole thing. An’ Lou and I looked at each other and grinned when ya said, ‘It will be a perfect murder; no-one will ever know!’ An’ all the time the two of us knew!” Again Reuben laughed.