He found ordinary household rubbish and a few empty containers of cleaning products.
He advised us not to swim until the water had been professionally cleaned and tested.
He did not believe draining the entire pool was automatically necessary, but he wanted a proper inspection before estimating costs.
As he worked, he asked if Victor Sloane had been involved.
I told him Victor had appeared almost immediately with an expensive emergency quote.
Leon grew quiet.
“You’re not the first house on this street to get a surprise cleanup estimate,” he said.
I asked what he meant.
Leon described a family on Alder Lane who had paid for repeated treatments after somebody reported strange debris in their hot tub.
He also remembered a homeowner who had been persuaded to replace an expensive pump after a service visit.
Leon did not know whether those incidents were connected, and he was careful to say so.
But he knew that Victor had referred both households to a company called ClearField Outdoor Services.
I recognized the name from the paper clipped to Victor’s estimate.
ClearField’s mailing address was the same post office box used by his landscaping business.
I asked Leon to send me his findings in writing and to avoid discussing them with other neighbors until we understood more.
He agreed.
By late afternoon, the floating rubbish had been collected and placed in sealed containers for disposal.
The pool looked almost normal again, but the reflection of the evening clouds felt wrong.
Paige brought me a bowl of soup and sat on the step beside me.
“I can handle it if the pool stays closed for a while,” she said.
I told her that wasn’t what bothered me most.
“She waited for somebody to come,” I said.
“And somebody did.”
Paige looked toward Gloria’s fence.
“Then maybe the camera didn’t just catch her doing something,” she replied.
“Maybe it caught a business deal.”
CHAPTER 7: THE WOMAN ACROSS THE STREET
On Sunday morning, my neighbor Mrs. Alma Flores knocked at the door with a small plate of cinnamon rolls.
Alma lived across the street and had known Ben when he still had enough energy to carry groceries for elderly neighbors.
She asked if Paige and I were all right, then explained that Gloria had been telling people my pool contained hazardous waste.
I invited her in rather than discussing it on the porch.
Alma listened as I described what the cameras had recorded.
She was not surprised that Gloria had lied, but the landscaping contractor’s involvement disturbed her.
