“We’re going to walk back to the car,” Gabriel said, his voice rock-steady. “I’ll call the police and Ricky. You can sit with him while I bring the police here. I’ll take care of everything. All you need to do right now is walk out to the car with me.”

That was Gabriel’s real embrace. I’ll fix this for you.

I nodded and started to rise. Then I paused to stare again at that missing strip of skin. I moved around the body, crouched, and reached for James’s shoulder.

Gabriel rocked forward. “You can’t touch—”

“I need to know.”

He didn’t ask what I meant, just caught my hand. “The police will check. I’ll be here to verify.”

I shook my head. “I need to see.”

He hesitated and then bent down to James.

“No,” I said. “I should—”

It was too late. He’d already eased the body up. James’s chest was discolored, either from bruising or from the blood settling. But what I was looking for was there. A symbol painted in blue on his stomach. He’d definitely been strangled. And beaten, too—the blood around his head seemed to have come from his mouth.

“The symbol is the same,” Gabriel said. “I don’t want to open his mouth or check his thigh, but I’m presuming the stone is there and the other symbols.”

“And the bruising?” I pointed at his face and upper body. “Someone beat him. Badly. I don’t remember that with the other murder victims.”

“No, they weren’t. This is clearly a copycat—” He cleared his throat. “We’ll discuss that later. Will you leave now?”

I closed my eyes. Then I felt his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently, and I let him guide me away from James.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

On the walk back to the car, Gabriel dialed 911 over and over until he finally got through. He gave his name and said he’d discovered a body at Villa Tuscana and would be waiting out front for the police. The dispatcher tried to get him to stay on the line. He repeated that he’d be waiting by the roadside, hung up, and texted Ricky.

I kept thinking about how we’d tramped all through the grounds and the house. Sightseeing, trading quips and quotes, wandering about, while James lay murdered a hundred feet away.

“How will we explain that?” I said. “Our footprints everywhere.”

“We were summoned here by duplicitous means. We were trying to figure out why.” After a few steps in silence, he said, “Which is exactly what we were doing, Olivia.”

I said nothing.

“You were having visions. We weren’t enjoying a picnic by the beach.”

I heard the distant police cruisers. The first car crested a rise, lights spinning. Then another engine roared and a motorcycle screamed past the cruiser, the driver hunched over, blond hair whipping back.