"I don't have a county inspection."

She stared at me.

Then she reached into her jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"This says otherwise."

I took a photograph of it without touching it.

The document carried what appeared to be a county seal.

It ordered me to provide access to my property and remove certain obstructions connected to an emergency drainage issue.

My eyebrows tightened.

"What is this?"

"An official notice."

"I've never received it."

"You were notified."

"No, I wasn't."

She stepped closer.

"Then maybe you should speak to the county."

I looked back at the pool.

"You put broken glass where my daughter swims."

Dana's voice became quieter.

"I didn't do it to hurt your daughter."

"Then why?"

She hesitated.

"Because the pool needs to be drained."

"Why?"

Her eyes moved toward the water.

"Because something underneath it needs to be inspected."

I stared at her.

"You knew something was underneath my pool?"

She said nothing.

I called the police.

Twenty minutes later, two officers arrived.

I showed them the video.

Officer Marcus Lee watched it twice.

Then he looked at Dana.

"Why were you on his property?"

Dana tried to explain that she believed she had permission under the county notice.

Officer Rachel Simmons interrupted.

"That notice doesn't give you permission to destroy his property."

Dana became defensive.

"The situation is more complicated than that."

Officer Simmons looked at the pool.

"Then explain it."

Dana didn't.

Instead, she looked directly at me.

"Ryan, whatever you do, don't drain that pool yourself."

I frowned.

"You just put glass in it."

"I know."

"Then why are you warning me?"

Her face had gone pale.

"Because you don't know what's underneath."

That was the moment I realized something.

Dana wasn't afraid of the broken glass.

She was afraid of what we might discover after removing it.

And suddenly, the strange illnesses Emily had suffered after swimming in that pool over the past year came rushing back into my mind.

The headaches.

The rashes.

The stomach pain.

Doctors had never found a clear explanation.

I looked at the pool.

Then at Dana.

"What have you done to my family?"

She didn't answer.

But the look in her eyes told me that I had just asked the right question.

Chapter 2 — The Thing Beneath the Pool

The next morning, the county sent an inspector named Dr. Elaine Mercer.

She arrived with a small environmental response team and a professional pool crew.

Dana was not supposed to enter my property.

But she stood behind her fence watching everything.

The first task was obvious.

Remove the glass.

The crew drained the pool slowly and collected the fragments.

There were far more pieces than I had originally seen.

One worker filled nearly four large containers.

Dr. Mercer examined several fragments.

"These aren't all from household bottles," she said.