“Did you go to the church last night? To run the group therapy session?” Eban pressed.

Gleeson covered his face for a moment with one hand. “No. I sent one of my grad students instead.”

“I need their name and the names of the people who attended the meeting last night. I promise I will keep their identities private except for a few police officers who will need to contact them. It’s likely they are some of the last people to have seen Adele Surrey alive. They might have seen the killer.”

Gleeson blanched except for the tip of his nose and ruddiness of his cheeks. “I will arrange to have a list of names delivered to you as soon as possible.”

The arrival of more marked police cars had Darby edging closer to Eban.

Eban held out his card. “If you remember anything else, please get in touch.”

Gleeson took the card and retreated to his sleek black BMW.

“We’re leaving too,” Eban told the sergeant. “Call me when you track down the assistant or figure out who broke into this office, will you?”

Robertson shot Darby a look and she tilted her chin.

“Apparently, you weren’t a hundred percent transparent with me yesterday,” Robertson said quietly.

Eban gave a soft laugh. “I guess I wasn’t, but I didn’t lie to anyone. I pushed for you guys to dig a little deeper when collecting evidence. And I’m not the man who spotted the inconsistencies with the fingerprints on the knife.” His gaze shifted to Darby. “It’s Sergeant Robertson who was responsible for your release yesterday.”

“I’m grateful,” Darby told the man honestly. Because even though she believed she was innocent she knew that was no guarantee of justice prevailing. Adele’s murder had been designed to implicate her further. So far, it had failed but it still shook her that someone had tried this hard.

Robertson shifted his feet uncomfortably. “I was only doing my job, miss.”

“Well, thanks for doing it better than the other guys.” She backed away as more police officers got out of their vehicles. Eban seemed to sense her discomfort and they both turned and left the cops to get on with their jobs.

They climbed into the SUV and Darby was grateful for its protection from both the bitter chill and the angry glares.

“Is this break-in connected to the murders, do you think?” Her teeth chattered.

Eban’s mouth stretched into a thoughtful line. “I don’t know.”

“Can this all be some weird coincidence?”

Eban reversed out of the spot and maneuvered his way through the police vehicles in a way she would never have dared. Out on the main road Eban drove toward the university but she knew him well enough by now to still be unsure as to where they were ultimately heading.

“How about we pick up lunch somewhere and go back to the cabin to eat and regroup?” he said.

Darby was more than happy to hole up there for a week if it meant she could forget the murders and the fact people believed she’d committed them. She wanted to be left alone. Alone with Eban.