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that any investigation I commission could make the killer take another life.”
    I turned that over. ”Another reason to stay with the police investigators already assigned to the case. Not many killers would go after a badge.”
    The Skipper closed his eyes a moment, the right lid fluttering when he reopened them. ”Lieutenant, the police have had this case for over a week, and if they are telling me the truth, they’ve discovered nothing. I need a fresh approach, and I need it...” Another hard swallow. ”... soon.”
    I was pretty sure that this time I got what he meant. ”Colonel—”
    ”At least let me walk you through what we believe must have happened. Then decide.”
    I owed Nicolas Helides that much. And a lot more.

THREE

    Since the stroke, I pretty much confine myself to the downstairs rooms.”
    Not hard to understand, as I followed the Skipper and Duy Tranh along a wood-paneled corridor, Justo staying behind in the den. Like someone with polio, Helides grasped a single aluminum brace in his left hand, but he used it more as a ski pole than a crutch, pointing it forward and then vaulting a little when its white rubber tip made contact with the beige carpet.
    ”And now to the right.”
    The Skipper turned as he said the words, that dank smell of chlorine noticeable as I reached the branching hallway. The carpeting gave way to tile laid in a blue and ivory checkerboard pattern, and Helides preceded me into a gleaming, humid space with a glass wall on the side facing the Intracoastal and the moored sailboat. We moved more deliberately on the damp tiles, coming to a stop near the end of a pool that was Olympic-size in length and four lanes across.
    ”Before the stroke, I used to swim every day. Now Duy helps me walk through the water at the shallower end. Physical therapy for the muscles that still work.” The Skipper pointed his wobbling brace at the far corner of the pool—the northeast one, if the Intracoastal ran due south by the house. ”Veronica was found there.”
    ”By who, Colonel?”
    ”By me,” said Tranh.
    I glanced at him, got a neutral stare from the dark eyes. ”How long had she been missing from the party?”
    Helides shook his head. ”Not that kind of a party, Lieutenant. Not so formal, I mean. People drifted in and around the house all afternoon, and just about everyone had been in the pool at some point before Duy came in here.”
    I looked away from Helides. ”Were you going for a swim 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