Whatley tied the tape to a stake as he talked. “Just got here about fifteen minutes ago,” he said. He was wearing a bright yellow plastic rain bonnet snapped over his hat, and it was beaded with rain. “A National Guardsman found the body in a logjam about thirty minutes ago.” He caught himself. “Guardswoman,” he corrected. He lifted his hand in the direction of the person who’d been helping him with the tape. “Anyway, this is her.”

The soldier was a young black woman, and clearly pregnant. She snapped her heels together and stood at attention. She was wearing an orange reflective vest over her maternity fatigues and holding one of the ten-foot steel poles Archie had seen them using to break up the floating debris.

“Private Jen Auster, sir,” she said.

“What were you doing over here?” Archie asked gently.

“Clearing flotsam, sir. They sent us over here to push the larger logs out. Helps break up the smaller stuff. Keep it all moving.”

A massive logjam clotted the area under the bridge, held in place by the massive concrete pilings. The fifty-foot mass of rolling logs and snapping branches was a death trap. Getting a body disentangled from that would have been no easy job. Not with these currents.

“Who got him up on land?” Archie asked.

“Him, sir,” Private Auster said.

A lanky man in National Guard fatigues trotted their way. Archie recognized him immediately.

“Carter,” Susan said.

Carter loped toward them, grinning. “They sent me over here to get me away from the reporters,” he said. “Something easy, they said. Easier than hauling sandbags, I guess.” His eyes brightened. “I lassoed him.”

“Let me guess,” Susan said. “You did rodeo, in addition to lifeguarding.”

“Got a gold belt buckle for calf roping. Grew up in Pendleton, ma’am. Not a lot else going on.”

Archie didn’t have the heart to tell him that he should have left the body to the cops. It would have been nice to at least have a photograph before it had been moved. The retrieval and the blanket may have contaminated evidence. What was it with people moving bodies in this town? They needed to run some public service announcements about that. “You’ve had a busy twenty-four hours,” Archie said.

“You, too, sir. Sorry to hear the kid went missing.”

“You covered him up?” Susan asked Carter.

“Right after we called you all,” Carter said. He gave her an awe-shucks grin. “It seemed like the respectful thing to do.”

“That’s so nice,” Susan said.