The man looked at the body on the floor.
Then at his associate still being held by the back of the head, his face meeting the floor at an angle that gravity had decided on and was not negotiating, blood coming from his nose now in a slow dark drip that was marking the office floor with the patience of something that had nowhere to be.
Then he looked at Liam.
"Uhh," he said.
Just that word. Like a specific sound of a brain that had prepared for one situation and had been presented with a completely different one and had not yet finished sorting through what that meant.
"Liam."
Elsa came around the desk and crossed the office and put her arms around him and held on with the grip of someone who had been frightened and was now on the other side of it and the relief had not yet finished moving through her body.
"You're here," she said. "I'm so glad you're here. I knew everything would be fine when you showed up. Oh, James is outside... I think they—"
