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He looked at the printed list he’d been sent of the fatalities. There was a nurse on the manifest, G. Lemieux from Belgium. Could that have been a Georgie? But why would she take that name, except to hide her involvement in the massacre?
Could her body wounds be staged? The way her head hung backwards, her arms and legs limp, looked every bit like a dead body to Harper. If that was the nurse from Belgium, where had Lydia gone? And why was her DNA found in the firepit?
That photo was Lydia. He was sure of it. And Lipori was certainly the man who carried her to the car.
He had to talk to her. She had keys to the mystery she didn’t realize she had. Only she could clear up those things. Depending on how it turned out, what they did with Lipori was different in every scenario he could think of.
He dialed Patterson and explained the encounter.
“That just can’t be,” the admiral said.
“I’m questioning your intel. Who was it who survived? Who took that picture, and who helped create the report? Am I looking for someone who is a terrorist or someone in our own government who is working for the other side?”
“That’s the one scenario I don’t want to know about, can’t believe in,” Patterson said.
“Why? Where’s our proof? I need to know these things, because if we have someone working on the inside, she’s in danger, and for that matter, so are all of us. Admiral, you have to help us out here. I can snatch Lipori today, but if he understands what we know, the stakes just went up tenfold.”
“I completely agree, Harper.”
“What about the president and his circle?”
“He’s been pressuring me for information.”
“Someone around him then?”
“As a former SEAL, you think he could be that gullible? I have a hard time buying that.”
“Someone he trusts. It would explain a lot. Someone on the inside.”
“I feel an obligation to explain it to him, but like you said, we need to know who helped create the report with the DNA results, the pictures.”
“So can you trust him? Is that intel only he has, or where did it come from?”
“I’ve tried to put out feelers. I just don’t have an answer yet. I need a day. I’ll circle back before I have to talk to him. In the meantime, try to get hold of her. See if she can give us any clues. I want to think she’s somehow not involved, but, Harper, if she is, I can’t protect her, and you better not either.”
“Understood. This afternoon was one helluva of a find. Now we have to discover how it happened.”
“I’ll reach out to my Italian Special Forces guy too. Maybe you two should meet as well.”
“I’m willing.”
“Let me see if I can arrange it. How are the men?”
“Bored to death. I think that’s about to change. You know how it is, the worse it gets the happier they are. I’d be the same way, except we’re talking about the love of my life, my forever woman I was sure was lost. And now she’s back in my life. Dangerously, back in my life. Admiral, you have to help me here. I can’t lose her again.”
Harper was notified that Lydia’s truck had just driven up to the villa, followed by a car containing Lipori. He excused himself from the phone call to check in with the guys he’d left behind.
“Did others go and come this afternoon? What was the traffic?”
“A team of housekeepers descended on the villa right after you left. They worked about two hours then left with their equipment. We got the license plates if you want to look into them. Also, the guys who left returned with a policeman while they were having the house cleaned. The Civil Guard left before you got home.”
Carl had given him a great report, and Harper thanked him.
“Let’s call a meeting. Carl. Get the boys from town to come in too. You continue to keep an eye on that villa.”
“Roger that. I’ll be right back.”
“You got pictures of the arrivals and departures, the Guard license plates?”
