“Come on, come on,” McGovern was saying. “I’ve got your arm. Take it easy, okay?”

“No!” Lucy screamed. “NO! NO! NO!”

Then there was a loud splash and a surprised outcry.

“My God. Are you all right?” McGovern said.

I was halfway inside when I saw McGovern helping Lucy to her feet. My niece was hysterical, and her hand was bleeding, but she didn’t seem to care. I waded to them as my heart constricted and my blood seemed to turn as cold as the water I waded through.

“Let me see,” I said as I gently took Lucy’s hand and shone my light on it.

She was shaking all over.

“When’s the last time you had a tetanus shot?” I asked.

“Aunt Kay,” she moaned. “Aunt Kay.”

Lucy locked her arms around my neck, and both of us almost fell. She was crying so hard she could not speak, and her embrace was a vise against my ribs.

“What’s happened?” I demanded of McGovern.

“Let’s get both of you out of here now,” she said.

“Tell me what’s happened!”

I wasn’t going anywhere until she told me. She hesitated again.

“We’ve found some remains. A burn victim. Kay, please.”

She took my arm and I yanked it away.

“We need to go out,” she said.

I pulled away from her as I looked toward the back corner, where investigators were talking amongst themselves and splashing and wading as fingers of light probed.

“More bones over here,” someone was saying. “Nope, scratch that. Burned wood.”

“Well, this isn’t.”

“Shit. Where the fuck’s the medical examiner?”

“I’ll take care of this,” I said to McGovern as if this were my scene. “Get Lucy out and wrap a clean towel around her hand. I’ll tend to her shortly. Lucy,” I then said to my niece. “You’re going to be fine.”

I unlocked her arms from my neck, and I was beginning to tremble. Somehow I knew.

“Kay, don’t go over there,” McGovern raised her voice. “Don’t!”

But by now I knew I must, and I abruptly left them for that corner, splashing and almost tripping as I got weak in the knees. The investigators grew quiet with my approach, and at first I did not know what I was looking at as I followed the beams of their flashlights to something charred that was mingled with soggy paper and insulation, something on top of fallen plaster and chunks of blackened wood.

Then I saw the shape of a belt and its buckle, and the protruding femur that looked like a thick, burned stick. My heart was beating out of my chest as the shape became the burned ruins of a body attached to a blackened head that had no features, only patches of sooty silver hair.

“Let me see the watch,” I said, staring wildly at the investigators.