Darkness…nothing.

Loraine swam to the ladder and climbed out. She found her robe and took the gun out, a bit of insurance in case he came at her. She hadn't needed it at all.. He was weaker than she had expected, still he'd put up a lot of fight for a drunk. She stood watching his floating naked body. There was no movement. He was dead. Just the way she planned. Give him some booze, show him some bare skin, and he folded.

She took the Ziploc bag of money out of his coveralls and arranged his clothes as though he had undressed for a swim. Taking off his stinking shoes and socks was worse than getting him out of his baggy underwear. Enough exercise for one day, won't need the gym today. What a filthy person to touch, to undress. She'd have to drain and clean the pool as soon as the accident investigators were through. Always something.

She picked up her robe and hurried inside, she needed a shower to wash away the stench. When she was drying off after the long shower, the thought returned-he had touched her body. She had clamped onto his naked back like a leech with her legs locked under him, her hands clutching his dirty hair. He had squirmed and his body rubbed against her, and he had grabbed her legs with his grubby hands trying to get free. That man's hands on her bare legs. Yuck. It nauseated her to think about it. The tragedy of this whole affair was the necessity of touching him. She shuttered. She sat down quickly until the wave of sickness passed. She stepped back in and washed her hair and body a second time.

Then down in the kitchen, wrapped in her robe, she made a Martini and went to her favorite overstuffed-leather chair in the study.

Still early, before nine. Tired already. Need to think about talking to the police in the morning. I went to bed after the eleven o'clock news, Officer, and it was quiet then. He must have snuck over here after a night of drinking. I've chased him out of my pool before. I must have slept through the whole thing. This morning I saw his van here and looked around. Sorry I wasn't awake to help him. I feel guilty, I might have saved him if I'd only known. To think it happened right here in my pool. Tragic isn't it. Such a nice man. He wasn't very old was he? Is there anything I can do? Did he have a family?

She needed to celebrate. She went to the kitchen and made a second Martini. When she had settled back down in her familiar chair, she made a silent toast to her plan. Her getting-rich-off-Al plan. It had worked. She had felt no touch of remorse when at last she heard the news he was dead.




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