Chapter 3 - The girl in the pool
The first patrol car arrived in six minutes.
It felt like an hour.
Julian tried to leave before officers entered the yard.
He made it as far as the side gate.
Mrs. Harris stood in front of it.
A seventy-four-year-old woman in slippers.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Move, Helen.”
Her hands shook.
But she stayed.
That gave officers enough time to reach him.
Nobody dramatized it.
No cinematic tackle.
One officer ordered him to stop.
Another separated him from us.
Paramedics examined Maya.
Dehydrated.
Bruised wrists.
Minor abrasions.
Exhaustion.
Alive.
That word mattered most.
Then the fire department arrived for the pool.
The moving bag was pulled toward the shallow end using proper equipment.
I held Maya facing away.
She buried her head in my shoulder.
The bag was opened out of her sight.
A medic shouted:
“We have a pulse!”
Everything stopped.
There was a person inside.
Female.
Young.
Maybe sixteen or seventeen.
Unconscious.
Alive.
The bag had not been sealed completely.
An air pocket had remained.
Pure chance.
Or someone intended her to survive.
Nobody knew yet.
A second bag contained clothing.
Women’s clothing.
Several sizes.
A third held electronics wrapped in plastic.
Phones.
Tablets.
Small cameras.
The fourth bag contained something heavier.
Police didn’t open it near us.
They moved it away.
Julian sat handcuffed near the patio.
He kept saying the same thing.
“You don’t understand.”
An officer asked:
“Then explain.”
He stopped talking.
Maya was taken to the hospital.
I rode with her.
She held my hand the entire way.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Is the girl alive?”
“I think so.”
“She helped me.”
My heart tightened.
“How?”
“She gave me water.”
“When?”
“The first night.”
“From where?”
Maya stared at the ambulance ceiling.
“She came from under the pool.”
I thought dehydration had confused her.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a door.”
“A door where?”
“Under the water.”
I looked at the paramedic.
He heard it too.
Maya continued.
“Julian took her down there.”
“Down where?”
“She told me not to tell him I saw.”
Then she gripped my hand harder.
“Daddy…”
“Yes?”
“She said Mommy was down there too.”
My blood went cold.
Elena had been missing for three days.
Until that moment, everyone assumed Julian knew where she was.
May you like
Maybe he did.
Maybe the answer was underneath that pool.
