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He, Adrían, and Giorgio went ahead.
The face, at least what was left of it, wasn’t recognizable, but it was a male roughly seventy to eighty pounds heavier than Ayesha and a good six inches taller. The man had been stripped down to his underwear and socks, and it didn’t look as though rigor had set in yet, which meant whoever did this had only done so recently.
“Lattimore,” Adrían called. “I’ve seen this.”
“It’s him?”
“Yes, but,” Adrían looked around, “how’d he get in? Everything was locked up tight, and I would have fucking noticed him.”
Joel searched until he found the staff who’d discovered the body. She sat in the grass a few yards away, holding herself and rocking.
He kneeled in front of her. “Hey, you okay?”
“Who would do that?” She frantically shook her head and mumbled something in Swedish. “It’s evil.”
“Do you know who the guy is so we can alert his family?”
“Ja.We’ve worked together for ten years. Tonight, he wasn’t supposed to be here.” She shook her head again, harder. “But he showed up to help when one of our other staff had food poisoning. Lars. Lars is his name.”
“Is that Lars’ car?”
“Ja. The rest of the staff came together, but he was last minute, so he drove.”
Joel, doing his best to keep his composure, patted her shoulder. “Thank you. That really helps.”
“The bride is missing?”
He swallowed. “Yes.”
“Oh, goodness.”
He stood and returned to where the other guys had collected, plus Adrían. While he gave Adrían a hard time and didn’t like Ayesha treating him any kinder than a speck of dirt, it amazed him how easy it was to tell he wasn’t involved. Everything—warning them about Lavigne, looking out for Ayesha, being there today—was genuine.
“We can’t avoid the police for this one,” Julien said, keeping his voice low. “This guy has a family.”
Joel nodded. “I know.”
“From what I can tell, it’s all knife wounds, which makes sense. We would’ve picked up on a firearm. Pozza said all the wounds look like they were done with a dinner knife.”
Joel scrubbed his face. “But we can find her, right? She’s wearing her ring. That thing is tech’d the fuck out.”
“Joel—”
“But you know that. Julien, you know that. So there’s a reason we’re standing here and not headed somewhere to get her. There’s a reason. Fuck, there’s a reason.”
“The guy in the car’s missing a pinky. The tracker in Ayesha’s ring puts her on the premises.”
“But she’s not here,” Joel finished. “She’s not here, is she?”
“Gage found the finger…”
He walked off.
He would be back, but right now, he needed to walk away.
Sweden wasn’t a small country, and that was if Lavigne hadn’t already gotten far enough to be hours ahead of them. One train ride, and he could be days ahead of them.
His phone rang.
