Page 100 of Absorbed

“As you are the only minor involved in this investigation, I must inform you that your participation in our line of questioning is considered voluntary. Do you agree that you are here of your own volition and not being forced to respond under any duress?”

“Um…okay…I guess so,” Stacey said.

“I need a simple yes or no answer, please, Ms. Chapman,” the lawyer said, with an exasperated sigh. “Are you participating in this investigation of your own free will?”

“Yes,” Stacey said, her pulse quickening.

“May I also have your permission to record our conversation?”

Stacey nodded.

Ms. Lopez eyed her, and flexed her jaw, breathing out of her nostrils.

“Yes,” Stacey said.

The lawyer set a small tape recorder on the table between them and clicked it on. She asked Stacey for the spelling of her legal name and her birthdate, then wrote them on the top of thepage, along with the time and date of the interview. “Now, Ms. Chapman, let’s start with a rough outline of the morning. What time did you arrive? Who was already present and who was scheduled to work?” she asked.

With her mom and Greg’s help the night before, Stacey had spent two hours planning what exactly she wanted to say. Starting with the end of morning swim, she’d written extensive notes on who was where at what time. She didn’t want to give the impression that anyone was irresponsible when Jessie’s accident happened.

Now that she had to give her formal statement, though, she felt sick to her stomach. She hadn’t realized they’d want her to talk about the whole day. “Um… Jessie lives near me, so I gave him a ride to the pool. We got there at 7:57, and Bob and Melissa were already there. We all had a lot to do to clean the facility and prepare for The Plunge Olympics events. By nine there was a large crowd waiting to come in.”

“You are referring to pool manager Bob Smith and lifeguard Melissa Phillips, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know the maximum pool capacity and do you feel it was adhered to during the morning community event? Or do you have reason to believe it was breached?”

Adhered to? Breached?Stacey shook her head. “Uh, the sign posted by the pool says capacity is 250, and I think it was ‘adhered to’. Bob put up a sign that no one else could come in. But what difference does it make? The drowning didn’t happen during morning swim. It was after, during lap swim, when there were only three people in the pool.”

The woman held her pen between both hands above the legal pad. “Ms. Chapman, your testimony is intended to help us understand ALL of the factors that contributed to the incident in question. Whether there are any patterns of negligence atthe Mesa Valley Community Pool, and which—if any—safety precautions were disregarded.”

“Okaaayyyy…” Stacey’s eyes narrowed at the lawyer. Clearly the woman was trying to bait her into saying something that would get her or another guard in trouble. “Well, we didn’t go over capacity. And as soon as it was apparent we would have so many swimmers, Bob called Mark to come in, too.”

“Yes. Tell me more about that. You are referring to assistant pool manager Mark Rosenthal, correct?” Ms. Lopez asked, flipping back through her notes from her interviews with Bob and Melissa. “What time was he called? When did he arrive?”

“Uh…yeah, so Bob called Mark right around nine, because there was a huge crowd lined up outside. And Mark got there by about nine-thirty.”

“How would you characterize Mark’s attentiveness that morning?”

Stacey knit her brows. “What do you mean? Mark was very attentive.”

“Mr. Rosenthal wasn’t expecting to be working that morning, so the request might have come as a surprise. If he had participated in any late-night activities, or had gotten too little sleep, his ability to perform his job to the fullest extent may have been jeopardized.”

Stacey narrowed her eyes again. Now she was certain Ms. Lopez was trying to get her to say Mark was at fault. “Mark was totally focused, and noticed hazards and swimmers breaking rules that the rest of us missed.”

“Can you expand on that for me?”

Stacey’s nostrils flared as she recounted Mark pacing the deck with the lifeguard buoy, and how he even noticed the middle schoolers at the top of the bleachers. “Mark is a really good lifeguard. From my first day working at the pool, he helped melook for ways to prevent accidents and avoid needing to rescue swimmers.”

“I see. Let’s move on. What time did the morning events end, and how were the patrons cleared from the facility?”

This was the point where Stacey’s notes began. She read from her page. “A few minutes after twelve, Melissa was in the tower and one lap swimmer—a little old lady in a purple swimsuit—was about to get in the water. Bob came into the office, followed by Mark and Jessie.”

Stacey went on to explain how Bob and Mark discussed ways to make the next Plunge Olympics events safer, and that Bob asked her and Jessie to stay for the afternoon to be sure enough lifeguards would be working in case they had another huge crowd. She said Jessie and Mark stayed, while she ran to the pharmacy and Bob went to the city offices.

“Is it standard practice for Bob to leave unexpectedly or for a guard who is on the clock to leave the premises?”

The tape recorder wheels groaned and squeaked.

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