Green and Whitworth are silent for a moment, disbelieving. Then Green feels an electric charge building in his back. They settle in to watch the afternoon progress from a distance. They don't want to be close enough to be considered witnesses to what will happen today. But they can't imagine leaving, either.
Divers return to the river bed.
The car is intact, right side up, embedded in river silt. By 6 p.m. Schmitz and Strong have arranged for high-powered tow trucks to come from St. Joseph, and cables are attached to the car. Yellow nylon straps are wrapped around the trunk so it won't pop open on the trip to the surface. The chugging of the cable winch is the only sound along the shore this evening. Nobody speaks much as the car is dragged out of the mud, slowly along the river bottom toward shore.