His son, Philip, had brought him in. He’d taken care of the congenital receding hairline by shaving his head and growing a beard.

Archie had decided against interviewing them in the interrogation room, and instead suggested the conference room where they now sat.

The list of possible key purposes was still on the dry-erase board.

Heil sat next to Archie; August and Philip Hughes, side by side across the table.

August Hughes swallowed hard. “I’ll accept full responsibility,” he said.

His son looked away.

They hadn’t asked for a lawyer.

“You moved the body to the carousel?” Archie asked.

“I did.”

“Why?” Archie asked.

“I’ll accept full responsibility,” he said again. His irises looked almost black, the whites of his eyes more cream than white, and threaded with red blood vessels.

“Why did you do it?” Archie repeated.

Philip Hughes placed a hand on his father’s back. “Tell them, Pop,” he said.

August’s shoulders slumped. “At first I pulled her off the bank because I was afraid the river would wash her back out,” he explained. “I laid her in the grass.” He shrugged a little and frowned. “But it didn’t seem right. She just looked so cold. So scared. I didn’t want her found like that.”

Archie raised an eyebrow. “So you put her on the carousel?”

“Carousel’s been there since 1923,” August said. “It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and recognized by the National Carousel Association. All wood. Hand-carved. It’s the prettiest thing in the park.” He shook his head, eyes closed. “I knew it was wrong. Knew it when I did it. But sometimes right is wrong, know what I mean?”

“You might have destroyed valuable evidence,” Archie said. She had been in the water two days; any trace evidence had certainly been long gone. But August Hughes didn’t know that. “Something that could have helped us catch her killer.”

August’s eyes opened. “She was murdered? I thought she drowned.”

Philip Hughes took a breath, removed his hand from his father’s back, and laid it on his father’s hand. “It’s okay, Pop.”

“Why didn’t you report it?” Archie asked August.

“How could I explain what I’d done?” the old man said. “Besides, I knew the work crew would find her. They take their smoke breaks over there. But it ate at me. I finally told my son this morning. Asked him to bring me down to you all.”

People did a lot of strange things, for strange reasons. Archie had seen some of those things up close. But this? It was up there.

“Why the ostrich?” Archie asked.