Spiral

yourself?”
    Tranh maintained the neutral stare. ”No.”
    ”You just happened to—”
    ”I realized the Colonel’s granddaughter had not been in my sight for some time. I thought I should look for her without alarming anyone.”
    ”Veronica wasn’t a good swimmer?”
    ”The Colonel’s granddaughter was an excellent swimmer,” said Tranh. ”But she was also a thirteen-year-old girl who would run about, and the floor here can be slippery.”
    ”So you were afraid she’d had an accident.”
    ”I was not afraid. Only concerned.”
    ”And when you found her?”
    ”From here I saw her bathing suit on the edge of the pool.”
    ”You saw her suit before you noticed Veronica?”
    ”I noticed it first. It was... neon chartreuse, in the pattern of a tiger’s skin.”
    Something in my reaction made Helides break in. ”I told you my son Spiro was using Veronica in his band.”
    ”Spiral.”
    ”Yes. Apparently Spiro commissioned a series of outfits—provocative outfits—for her to help with their ‘comeback.’ But the police believe the bathing suit was off her that day because she’d been... molested.”
    Nobody said anything for a moment.
    The Skipper spoke his next words in a monotone. ”The autopsy gave reason to believe that she was raped while the killer held her underwater.”
    Quietly, I said, ”Forensic evidence?”
    Helides shook his head. ”The chlorinated water—and Duy’s efforts to save Veronica—destroyed what might have...” Suddenly, the Skipper sounded very tired. ”The police can give you any further... details.”
    I went back to Tranh. ”A minute ago, you said you’d noticed Veronica’s bathing suit before seeing her body.”
    ”Correct.”
    ”So, you believed she was dead?”
    ”Veronica was facedown in the pool and not moving.”
    ”What did you do then?”
    ”I jumped into the water and swam to her. When I pulled her out, she was not breathing, so I ran to the phone. There.”
    Tranh tipped his head toward an arrangement of patio furniture and wicker sideboard with some towels the colors of the tiles. I could see a cordless phone on one of the wicker shelves.
    Without looking back at Tranh, I said, ”You didn’t try to give Veronica CPR?”
    ”I was never trained to do it.”
    Now I turned my face back toward his. Throughout my questioning, I couldn’t remember Tranh so much as blinking.
    ”Lieutenant?”
    I glanced at the Skipper. ”Sorry, Colonel.”
    ”Don’t apologize for doing your job.”
    Helides said it in a way that sounded like a hint. I glanced around the room, finally seeing the bracketed mount high on the wall behind us.
    A video camera. ‘You have the attack on tape?”
    Helides shook his head. ‘The camera was generally engaged, as a safety monitor on anyone in the pool. However, that day it had been turned off.”
    ”Why?”
    ”Buford Biggs—one of the players in Spiro’s band—has a son who is intrigued by filmmaking. Kalil wanted to take footage of the party toward editing it into a video.”
    ”I don’t understand, Colonel. Wouldn’t that mean the camera up there should have been working?”
    ”No,” said Helides, sounding even more tired. ”No, Kalil—and Veronica—wanted only his own footage.”
    ”So, no tape from the pool camera.”
    ”Nor from any of the others in the house.”
    I looked to the glass wall, steamed by ambient humidity to the point of being translucent instead of transparent. ”And no one on the waterway or across it would be able to see in here.”
    ”That’s right. In the winter, we keep the door closed.”
    ”The door?”
    ”That glass expanse is more door than window, Lieutenant. It’s designed to allow the entire pool to be used on summer.”
    ”What do you mean by ‘entire’?” I said.
    ”You’re looking at only half the surface area. The rest is outdoors, the glass wall dividing the warmer, interior water from the colder exterior.”
    I stared at the point where the glass wall met and extended down into the water, seeming to be sealed shut against the bottom of the pool. ”Can the wall be opened?”
    ”Only from the inside,” said Helides.
    I was about to say something more when a subtle, skittering sound came from behind us. I turned around but didn’t see anyone.
    The Skipper spoke to me. ”That was just David.”
    ”David?”
    ”My other son. He’s younger than Spiro by ten years, Nina...” A twinge of pain crossed the good side of his face. ”Their mother died bearing