Page 73 of June 7

"Yeah." She glanced at the clock. "Once the boys' team leaves at four o'clock, I'm locking the door."

"Text me when you start, okay?"

"Sure."

During the day, if he needed to talk with her, he always called the landline to the pool because she couldn't carry her phone while she worked. But after work, she'd promised to keep her phone nearby because the answering machine automatically clicked on at four o'clock.

Since no one could be in the building with her when she threw down the bleach, she'd promised Bane to keep her cell phone near in case he called or she needed him.

The excited voices of the boys in the locker room grew in intensity. As one, they yelled out the team cheer.

Seals, Seals, show your fight.

In the water, we'll take flight.

S-E-A-L-S, let's go!

Flip and flop, dive and spin,

Seals, let the games begin.

Thunderous applause echoed in the pool house. Daisy's adrenaline spiked. She remembered the comradery. The chant. The excitement of swimming in competition.

The boys shuffled out of the locker room in a steady stream of half-wet teenage boys. Chad knocked on the counter on his way out. "See you on Monday, Miss Hill."

"Have a good weekend." She waved.

While the boys left the building, she checked the girls' locker room, picked up the trash can, and moved the Lost & Found box off the floor in prep for sterilization. The last thing she did was open the window.

Because the building sat up higher to house the filtration system beneath the building, nobody walking outside was tall enough to see in the locker room windows. Besides, they were marbled glass. The most anyone could see were shadows if the inside lights were on.

Half done with the prep work, she propped the locker door open.

Usually, Liz completes the daily cleaning tasks after rec swim each day during the week. Then they take turns doing the deep cleaning job once a week because that part sucked. No one liked doing it.

Crossing to the boys' locker room, she paused outside the door and listened. Hearing no voices coming from inside, she banged her fist on the swinging door.

"Anyone here?" she yelled.

Not getting an answer, she stepped over and locked the front door. Blowing out her breath, she propped open the locker room and walked to the window above the lockers. Standing on the bench, she pried open the glass pane.

A rush of cool air blew in. She shivered, still wearing her swimsuit.

Going out to the pool, she crossed to the maintenance shed and removed the five-gallon sprayer and the sanitizer. She lugged everything over to the boys' locker room first. Using the sink, she diluted the mixture, pumped the container, and aimed the wand in front of her.

A fine mist sprayed from the end. Working from front to back, she ended up at the pool again and crossed over to the girls' locker room when she remembered she hadn't texted Bane.

She hurried into the office and came to a dead stop. Mr. Owens was standing on the wrong side of the counter in the office.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought everyone left." She brushed off her hands. "I'm scheduled to deep clean tonight. Did you forget something?"

"I haven't forgotten anything." He stepped closer to her. "I remember every little detail."

Mr. Owens' forehead puckered. His eyes narrowed. His professional attitude had left and was replaced with anger.

It suddenly hit her that he hadn't come back inside the pool house because he'd forgotten something. She'd locked the door. He hadn't left.

"I'm not sure what you mean—"

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