All the lights were on in the kitchen when he entered the house, and he immediately grabbed a pencil on the counter to dim them. He walked up the back stairs to his dark bedroom, disrobing and hanging his clothes in the large closet before he walked down the main stairwell, wrapped only in a large, finely spun towel. As he passed the second floor landing, he was stopped by an accented voice coming from the library.

“Back so soon?”

He turned to look at the older gentleman who was reading in front of the lit fireplace.

“A fire, Caspar?”

The older man shrugged. “I turned the air-conditioning down so it at least felt like fall.”

He chuckled. “Whatever you prefer. And the library was a bit disappointing.”

“Trouble finding an assistant?”

“No, I found a rather good one, in fact. I might meet her again. No, the Lincoln documents were not what I’d hoped.”

“Unfortunate.”

The man shrugged his shoulders. “The client isn’t going anywhere.”

“Off for your swim then?”

He nodded and started to move down the stairs again.

“Will you be needing anything tonight?”

He walked up the stairs and back toward the library. “Nothing, thank you.”

“Enjoy the pool. It’s a beautiful night.”

“Enjoy your air-conditioning… and your fire,” he said with a minute smile ghosting his lips.

He heard Caspar chuckle as he continued down the stairs. The man walked through the sitting room and past the breakfast area where Caspar ate in the morning to the French doors leading onto the brick patio.

He folded his towel on the back of a pool chaise and quickly dove into the water, cutting through the green-lit pool with effortless efficiency.

He swam up and down the mirrored rectangle for hours, enjoying the stretch of his lean muscles and the calming buoyancy of the salt water that filled the pool.