Read The Secrets of Tree Taylor for Free Online

Reddish blond haircurled along his forearms and legs and burst like a hairy sun across his bare chest. His permanent sunburn made him the color of cherry Kool-Aid. As always, a dab of zinc oxide accented his nose, bright white under his dark shades.
    D.J. had graduated with Jack. His folks wanted him to go to the teachers college in Maryville, but he took the manager’s job at the pool instead. “Did I hear someone say ‘rain dance’?” he bellowed.
    “My idea,” Sarah said.
    “And a fine idea it was, young Sarah.” He turned to me. “What say ye, fair Tree?”
    I spotted one promising cloud, wispy and white but low to the ground. I stuck out my finger and registered a breeze out of the southeast. “I do see a rain dance in my future.”
    “Right on, Tree Man!” D.J. exclaimed.
    D.J. always closed the pool at the first hint of lightning, and often at the first raindrop. If the weather cleared, he’d reopen … unless it was close to closing time. Then we’d go home early.
    I looked around the pool, hoping not to see any drop-off kids, the ones whose parents wouldn’t show up until the last possible minute. But there they were—three boys, ages six to nine, huddled on towels.
    “A lot of good rain will do us,” I muttered. “The Cozad boys are here. Their mother won’t pick them up, even if I dance up a thunderstorm.”
    “Somebody ought to tell her we’re not babysitters,” Sarah complained.
    * * *
    The afternoon dragged on. With school out, the pool had become the town hangout. And babysitting service.
    And dating service.
    I’d been trying hard not to look at Wanda and Ray. But I couldn’t help myself. Their towels were touching.
    “Man!” Sarah exclaimed, and I was afraid she’d caught me staring at Wanda and Ray. But I was wrong. She had just come back from her break. “Have you heard the rumors flying around? Two seventh-grade girls claim they know for a fact that the Kinney shooting was a hunting accident.”
    “Right. What was he hunting in that house? Cockroaches?”
    “Then there’s Mikey Mouse.” That was her name for Michael the Lifeguard, who could be pretty Mickey Mouse when it came to pool rules.
    “What’s Michael know about it?”
    “Nothing,” Sarah said. “But he thinks he does. Mikey says he heard that Mr. Kinney died in the ambulance.”
    “That’s crazy!”
    She shrugged. “Don’t shoot the messenger. At least
I’m
out there interviewing people.”
    She was right. I grabbed my notebook from my basket. “My turn!”
    Sarah handed me a pencil and gave me a little shove. “Go! I’ve got the baskets covered. Investigate. Interrogate. Initiate.”
    I loved my best-friend-who-was-a-girl. Sarah would have been behind me if I’d told her I’d decided to fly to the moon.
    I headed poolside and moved in the opposite directionfrom Wanda and Ray. Two of Jack’s friends let out howls of laughter as they made their way to the pool.
    Only the whistle blew right then and Lifeguard Laura shouted, “Everybody out! Swimmers’ break!”
    The taller of Jack’s friends swore.
    I couldn’t blame him. D.J. claimed that getting swimmers out of the pool at the top of every hour was a safety thing. I didn’t buy it. Like if somebody drowned at the bottom of the pool, this would be our chance to see him? But the Cameron swimming pool guards did the same thing.
    It took all of my courage to walk up to Jack’s classmate, Ben, even though most of Jack’s friends liked me okay.
    Ben’s basketball-sized head didn’t fit his hockey-stick body. He had to keep hiking up his paisley trunks. He squinted down at me. “Hey, Tree. What’s happening? Jack around?”
    I shook my head. “But I wanted to ask you what you thought about the Kinney shooting?”
    “That was pretty crazy,” Ben said.
    I think he was about to say more, when the not-Ben guy butted in. “Look at her!”
    Lifeguard Laura stepped to the edge of the pool, first making sure all eyes were aimed her way. She raised