Page 161 of Everything She Feared

“At poolside Myles was snapping his towel at some girls and calling them names, according to witnesses. Then he pulled Katie’s hair. She told him to stop. Amused, he pulled her hair again, only harder,” Sandler said.

“This time she told him that if he didn’t stop, something, and I’m quoting, ‘something very, very bad would happen to him.’ Myles laughed at her and left.”

Sandler said that the pool was near capacity. The lifeguards were busy breaking up horseplay of older teens. It was estimated that fifteen to twenty minutes after his exchange with Katie, Myles Zuter was found at the bottom of the pool. Adults jumped in to rescue him. Efforts to resuscitate him failed.

“Some witnesses noted Zuter’s exchange with Katie Harmon and rumors circulated that she caused his death,” Sandler said.

The investigation and statements from adults who dove into the water to rescue Zuter showed that he’d been trapped under the water. The drawstring of his swim shorts got tangled in the filtration mechanism and tightened around him. He couldn’t remove them to free himself. Katie Harmon had never ventured to that area of the pool.

His death was an accidental drowning.

“Katie Harmon was distraught, traumatized because of what she’d said to Zuter in the moments before his death. I imagine she’ll carry the guilt of this with her all her life,” Sandler said.

“But she had nothing to do with the boy’s death?” Grotowski said.

“Absolutely nothing. Witnesses said she was at the opposite side of the pool at the time. It was a tragic accident,” Sandler said. “I understand she may be connected to a recent death your way?”

“That’s what we’re investigating,” Grotowski said. “Thank you for this, Dennis.”

“Sure, you bet.”

Grotowski sat back in his chair, then swiveled to tell Tilden and the others. But he was the only one there. While on the phone he’d missed the activity. Everyone was in Acker’s office, including Kelly Jensen from forensics. Grabbing his notebook, Grotowski joined them.

“You’re certain, Kelly?” Acker said.

“Yes. We definitely got prints from the rock. I compared them with Katie Harmon’s and we have zero points of similarity, nothing with minutiae, pores and ridges. The prints on the rock are not Katie’s. But I haven’t run the new prints through the databases yet, or compared them with the others we collected for the case. I wanted to tell you guys right away that those aren’t Katie Harmon’s prints on the rock.”

Benton cursed under his breath.

“Where does that leave us?” Tilden said, turning to acknowledge Grotowski.

Acker interrupted his concentration to read Grotowski’s concern.

“You got something, Larry?”

“Actually, I do.” He glanced at his notes. “Just spoke with the primary investigator on that case in Canada. Turns out Katie Harmon was present when the boy drowned, had words with him, but had nothing to do with his death.”

“What?” Benton said.

“Yup. It was an accidental drowning. She just happened to be there.”

Acker folded his arms, his face creased in thought as he rocked.

“I’ll have to get the prosecuting attorney’s office to stop everything,” Acker said.

“Wait.” Pierce turned to Jensen. “We still need to run the prints from—”

Jensen’s phone rang.

“It’s Erik. One sec.” Jensen held her palm to Pierce and took the call.

“Kelly, I got a hit from AFIS after running the tablet print on Marilyn Hamilton, and boy, did we get something!”

“Go ahead.”

Foy began telling her, and Jensen’s eyebrows lifted in disbelief as she turned to the others who were waiting. She held up a finger.

“Erik, Erik,” Jensen said. “We need to compare your print from the tablet with the one from the rock. I’ll be right there!”

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