Robbins took the pan out of his hands. “I’ll take that,” Robbins said. “Get the computers. The equipment. Biohazards. And make sure you get the TV out of my office.” He leaned in to Archie. “Flat-screen,” he explained.

They heard a splash and both turned to see Susan Ward appear at the bottom of the stairs. She was wearing rainbow-striped rubber boots tucked into jeans and a knee-length yellow rain slicker. It was unzipped, revealing a blue T-shirt with white bubbly writing that read CONSERVE WATER, SHOWER TOGETHER. She kicked at the water like a kid in a wading pool and grinned at them. Her lipstick was the same bright berry color as her hair. “Whoa,” she said. “Cool.”

Robbins lifted his fingertips to his temple. “This is still a secure area, people,” he hollered up the stairs. He gave Archie a tired look. “You told her Stephanie Towner was murdered?”

“Stephanie Towner was murdered?” Susan said. There was a series of splashes as she sloshed over to them. Her face glowed pink under her freckles.

Archie hadn’t told her anything. She just had a way of showing up. Sometimes Archie wondered if she ever went to the Herald offices at all.

Robbins stared at Archie, waiting for an answer, still holding the pan with the skull.

Archie shrugged. “I didn’t tell her,” he said.

“I came because I heard the morgue was flooding,” Susan said. She leaned close to Archie and said out of the side of her berry-red mouth, “I got a tip from someone I know at Emanuel.”

Then something seemed to occur to Susan and she glanced down at the water they were all standing in. “Are we going to get electrocuted?”

“Probably not,” Robbins said.

“Electrocution is the second leading cause of fatalities during floods,” Susan said.

“We’re not going to get electrocuted,” Robbins insisted. “Power’s shorted out. The emergency lights run on batteries.”

Archie wondered why so many alarms were going off, if there wasn’t any power.

Robbins seemed to read his mind. “The alarms all are coming from very expensive equipment that doesn’t like getting unplugged.”

Susan opened her mouth to ask another question, but then Archie saw her eyes travel to the aluminum pan. She did a double take. “Is that a skull?”

“Some dog walker found it in West Delta Park,” Robbins said.

“Oh,” Susan cried in recognition. “I wrote about him.” She bent her knees so her face was level with the skull. “I wrote about you,” she said to the skull.

Archie had read that column. No, Archie remembered—Henry had read the column to him. Susan had come up with some theory that the dog park skeleton had something to do with the Vanport flood. Henry had been irritated by it.

But that was not why they were here.

“Talk to me about Stephanie Towner,” Archie said.

Robbins jerked his head in Susan’s direction. “You okay with her listening in?”