The Swimming Pool Mystery Page 3

  “‘Your loving Rocky.’”

  “I knew he was no good,” said Kate.

  “If you hadn’t stopped me, we would have been on our way to Hawaii right now!” Ellen hissed.

  “Do you really think Rocky meant to take you with him?” asked Maya.

  “Of course he did,” said Ellen.

  “Let’s go ask him,” said the police chief. “He’s probably still splashing around in the pool.”

  “You’ll see!” continued Ellen angrily. “Rocky would never let me down! We’ve been writing to each other for months. He’s genuinely interested in me and my job here at the swimming pool. He’s asked me hundreds of questions.”

  Maya and Jerry looked at one another and raised their eyebrows.

  “Come on, now!” said the police chief. “Let’s go and catch a very clever customer.”

  CHAPTER 10

  No Time to Lose

  Jerry, Maya, and the others rushed into the pool area to catch Rocky Bolinder. But he wasn’t there!

  “The pool’s empty!” cried Jerry.

  “Look,” said Maya as she pointed to an open window.

  “He’s making a run for it,” said the police chief.

  “Rocky!” hollered Ellen.

  The others could hear the anger and disappointment in her voice.

  “Come on, kids! There’s no time to lose,” said the police chief as he hoisted himself over the windowsill.

  In the snow outside were the clear tracks of a pair of bare feet.

  The tracks lead around the building and to the parking lot. It didn’t take long before they spotted Rocky Bolinder.

  He had wrapped himself in a towel and was trying to unlock his car. But he was shivering so much that he couldn’t get the key in the lock.

  The police chief marched over and took the key. Then he opened the car and removed Rocky’s gym bag.

  “Now I’ll have to ask my diving friend to come with me,” he said and laid a firm hand on Rocky’s shoulders.

  When they got inside, Rocky got a box of letters dumped on his head. Ellen held the empty box and sputtered with rage.

  “I would never have believed you could do this, Rocky!” she said, weeping.

  “Come here, Ellen,” said Kate. “Forget about him. He’s not worth it.”

  While the police chief returned the stolen watches, cell phones, and wallets to the waiting swimmers, he allowed Rocky to spend a few minutes warming up in the sauna.

  Then he led the diver and the receptionist, Ellen Aspen, away to the police station.

  The next day everyone in town read the following article in the Pleasant Valley Gazette:

  A THIEF DIVES INTO JAIL

  Yesterday, a scamming swimmer was arrested at the Pleasant Valley pool. Olympic champion Rocky Bolinder tricked the pool’s receptionist, Ellen Aspen, into acting as a thief on his behalf.

  This Pleasant Valley Gazette reporter has investigated the case and found that Rocky Bolinder has been swindling fans for years. Pretending to be their friend, the diver duped people across the country into stealing for him. The police chief announced that Rocky has caught a cold, but that is far from his biggest problem. Ellen Aspen has been punishing Rocky from the cell next door by scolding him nonstop for lying to her and using her to commit a crime.

  Pleasant Valley Gazette reporters had a hard time interviewing the town’s young detectives, Maya and Jerry, at the swimming pool, as the new receptionist Bert Anderson couldn’t stop hugging Maya. She had apparently given him a shiny new swimming medal.

  “This may be the finest medal in my entire collection,” Bert announced happily.

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