Caro scrambled back, away from the body. She could feel wet muck sliding down her shorts and didn’t care. Wet snakes could be sliding down her shorts and she wouldn’t care. The body on the floor…she cared about that.

“Oh, gross!” Jana cried.

“Another body,” Lynn gasped.

“Dana’s been a busy girl,” Todd said. “Where’s my lighter?”

“You dropped it on my back,” the body said, rolling over and sitting up. The four of them screamed in unison. “Ow! Not so loud…my head…”

“You’re alive!” Caro blurted. It was the first thing they taught in her nursing courses: determine if your patient is living or dead.

“Unfortunately, yes.” The body rubbed the back of his head and squinted up at all of them. “Hey, thanks for coming to get me, you guys. I thought I was a goner when she nailed me.”

He got to his feet with some care, then bent, winced, and helped Caro to her feet. She couldn’t help staring at him. He was mussed and muddy and a little pale from the blow to his head, but for all that, yummy besides.

He was dressed in dark blue boat shoes and black swimming trunks, and nothing else. The mat of hair on his chest was dark and curly, the hair on his head a lighter color with streaks of gold, and his eyes were—she squinted in the gloom—dark green…almost exactly the color of the wet leaves all over the boathouse floor. She’d never seen eyes that color before.

“You’re not a dead body!” Caro said again, because she honestly couldn’t think of what else to say to him.

“I’m Turner.”

“Last name Turner or first name Turner?”

“Just Turner.”

“Like just Kramer on ‘Seinfeld,’” Jana said helpfully.

“No, Kramer’s first name was Cosmo,” Todd said. To Turner, “I remember you. Breakfast, right?”

“Yup.”

“Like Madonna, then,” Jana was babbling.

“Or Cher,” Lynn added.

“You guys, could we stay focused?” Caro demanded. “Turner’s not the dead body. In fact, who are you? I didn’t see you at lunch.”

“Oh, I work here. Give tours, run the tourists down the river to some of those riverside restaurants…kind of an all around go-to guy.”

“Oooh, ooh,” Todd said, grinning. “Stop it.”

The body quirked an eyebrow at him, then continued. “I came down here when the storm started kickin’ up to make sure the boathouse was locked up, when—holy crap—you’ll never guess—”

“Dana smashed the lock, damaged the boat, hit you over the head with something, came back told us what happened, and locked herself in.”

Turner was gaping at them. “Well, shit. There goes my story. Figured it was good for a couple of beers at least. Not to mention, you guys know more of what happened than I do.”

“I’ll buy you a beer anyway,” Lynn said.

“I got here in time to hear her rummaging in the boat and got my ‘guests aren’t supposed to use the boats unless I’m with them’ lecture ready, when everything went dark and I went night-night. Didn’t even see her coming.” He rubbed the back of his head and winced. “Girl’s got a swing like a Major Leaguer, I’ll tell you that much.”

“That’s interesting,” Todd said.

“Interesting as in psychotic? Interesting as in laughable? What are we talking about? Help me out.”

“Well, you’re a big guy, a very big guy, pardon me for noticing, and Dana’s at least a foot shorter than you. She would have had to swing up. She must have really wanted you out of her way.”

“Or didn’t like you.”

“At least she didn’t kill me, and believe me, this isn’t the first weekend I’ve had to say that. Well, let’s check the boat anyway.”

They did, and Turner announced, “Even if she hadn’t punched that hole in the stern, I don’t see any spark plugs, do you?”

“What does one look like?” Lynn whispered in Caro’s ear.

“Search me,” she shrugged. “So Dana knows about engines, too. Okay.”

“But…how come?” Jana ventured. “I mean, grody enough that she killed whoever, but why come down here and fix it so we couldn’t get the body?”

“Probably the same reason she won’t tell us who she killed,” Caro said. “Question is, now what?”

“Now we go back up to the mansion and wait for the cops,” Lynn declared. “We’re soaked, it’s getting late, it’s dark—”

“Aw, Mom,” Jana whined, stealing another glance at Turner’s legs.

“—and there’s a body bobbing around the water somewhere…” Lynn shuddered.

Turner looked puzzled. “Well, who is it?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Caro explained. “Obviously, it’s not you. And there’s a few more of us missing. Four or five at least. We don’t know who she killed…or even if she’s done killing.”

“Well, shit! Let’s find out!”

“It’s so nice to have a man in charge,” Todd murmured, taking a deep drag.

Caro giggled. “Want me to look at that?” she asked, indicating the lump Turner kept rubbing.

“Naw. Got worse than this from my mama. Let’s try to round up the others, make sure they’re all okay.”

“There aren’t that many more of us,” Caro reminded them. “Stop me if you’ve heard this, but…who the hell did she kill? And why?”

“I can get the list of guests from the register, and we can go from there.”

“What a great idea!” Caro cried. “Shoot, we should have done something like that first.”

“I thought you wanted to find the body first?” Todd asked.

“Well, now I’ve reprioritized. So, let’s go get that list. You guys? Everybody game?”

“Okay,” Jana and Lynn said at once. They both had identical expressions of hunger on their faces, which made them look more than ever like mother and daughter. Caro supposed they just needed the right incentive to be socially conscious. The right, six-foot, three-inch incentive.

Caro and Todd rolled their eyes. “All right, then,” Caro said. “Let’s go.”