At nine o’clock, Kevin blew his whistle to
signal that the pool was closed. The few lingering students
gathered their towels and headed for the gym doors but Danny wasn’t
among them. Maybe he left already, Kevin thought. The fact
that he hadn’t noticed—and that Danny didn’t even bother to say
goodbye—bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Quickly Kevin checked the locker rooms that
branched off near the deep end, but they were empty at this hour.
Now he had the pool all to himself. He’d swim two laps around the
perimeter to warm up before running through his competition strokes
for practice. Climbing up onto one of the starting blocks that
lined the shallow end of the pool, he bent his knees a few times
and pumped his arms to get the blood flowing, then took a deep
breath a
