Green twisted around and Archie could see what she was looking at. Jack’s island was clearly visible offshore. The house was hidden behind the conifers that ringed the island. But he could make out part of the road, and the dock. Green arched an eyebrow at Archie. “You were at the party on the island?” She gave Archie a once-over and snorted. “I’m impressed.”

Henry’s eyes were still on Archie. His face was impenetrable. “What time did you see her?” Henry asked.

Archie thought about it, piecing together the sequence of events. “A little after midnight,” he said. “About fifteen minutes before I ran into Leo.” The rest was implied. A few minutes after running into Leo, Archie was unconscious. Archie’s head ached. He had no idea what went on after that.

Green lifted her chin back toward the faux–Cape Cod. “The man of the house let his dog out the back door this afternoon,” she said. “Heard Lassie barking its head off. Came down to investigate and found our girl here dead on his dock. Called the cops. He doesn’t know how long she was out here. But it looks to me like she’s been out of the water for at least a few hours.”

“She didn’t drown,” Archie said.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Green agreed.

“How much would she have bled out from the wounds?” Henry asked.

Archie knew what he was thinking. The wounds looked deep. They might cause the sort of arterial spray that Leo was washing off in the bathroom. But Archie had seen the girl alive moments before Star came downstairs with the bag, blood already in her hair. Whoever Leo had killed, it hadn’t been this girl. The timing didn’t fit.

“If they were premortem, she would have bled a lot,” Green said. “Maybe enough to kill her. Of course, I can’t say for sure one way or another at this point, but if I had to guess, she was cut up before she went into the water. She’s not a floater. She’s too fresh. But she spent some time in the lake. Probably after she died. I’ll know more at autopsy.”

Henry ran his hand over the back of his head. “What’s to say she didn’t have a few too many, decide to go for a swim, or fall in, get cut up in the fall, and then pull herself out here? Where she collapsed and died. Dry-drowning. That’s a thing, right? We don’t even know that this is a homicide.”