I watched Helen sprint through my hydrangeas, dropping the empty black garbage bag in her panic. My hands were shaking as I hit ‘save’ on my phone. I finally had the evidence. I had undeniable proof that my deranged neighbor was trying to destroy my property.
I slid the glass door open and marched out into the midday heat to inspect the damage. The white powder was already dissolving into the pristine water, swirling into thick, milky clouds beneath the surface. I assumed it was poison. Herbicide. Maybe concrete dust meant to completely wreck my expensive filtration system.
But as I knelt at the edge of the blue tiles, the water didn’t smell like harsh pool chemicals. It smelled faintly of copper.
Right before my eyes, the milky clouds began to violently react. They didn’t stay white. The powder bound to something invisible in the water, illuminating the pool from the bottom up in a brilliant, glowing, unmistakable neon blue.
*Luminol.*
My blood ran ice cold. Helen’s crisp blazer, the methodical pouring—she wasn’t a jealous neighbor vandalizing my yard. She was a retired forensic chemist. She wasn’t poisoning my pool. She was testing it.
The glowing blue streaks snaked along the underwater grout lines, pooling heavily near the deep-end drain. The exact spot where I had scrubbed frantically with bleach for three hours last night. The exact spot where my husband had “accidentally” slipped before I rolled him in.
My phone vibrated violently in my palm. It wasn’t a text message. It was a live alert from my front gate security camera.
Helen hadn’t been running away in fear because I caught her. She was running to the front yard to let them in.
Three police cruisers were already parked in my driveway.