“The first incident involved a friend of mine,” Eban explained.

“The O’Roarke woman?”

“Yeah.” Of course, Frazer would make the connection. Eban cleared his throat. “CNU has a professional interest in Miss O’Roarke’s welfare after she was rescued last year.” He was sick of hiding how he felt about her. “And she means a lot to me on a personal level. Why?”

Eban didn’t know if the pause was in response to the fact he’d declared he had feelings for her when he shouldn’t, or something else.

“Are you with Miss O’Roarke now?”

“Yeah, but she’s in the shower.”

“Good. I don’t want her to hear what I have to say next—not yet anyway.”

Damn. Eban stayed silent. He wasn’t about to keep secrets from Darby, but he wanted to know what Frazer had to say.

“I’m head of BAU-4, which is responsible for ViCAP and investigating crimes against adults.”

“I know who you are.” Everyone in the FBI knew who Lincoln Frazer was. Arguably, he was more famous than the director who was new to the job as of January and still finding her feet as the first female director the FBI had ever had. Hoover would be twirling in his grave.

“My unit has been tracking a serial killer through Alaska for some time now.”

Not what Eban wanted to hear.

“And I think there may be a connection between our killer and the two murders that took place in Fairbanks.”

Fuck.

Eban walked over to the window and looked outside at the wintry landscape. “What makes you think there’s a connection?”

“First, the use of the knife. Stabbings are not uncommon, however, there’s an almost ritual element to the first murder in Fairbanks, one we have observed before. Even after deciding to set up Darby O’Roarke as the fall guy, the killer kept the mode of death eerily similar to several other homicides that have occurred across the state, and it seems to be an integral part of their signature.”

Eban’s mouth went dry. “The way they re-inserted the knife into the exact same wound…”

“Exactly. This killer likes to kill with a single strike. The location isn’t always the same, but the single stab wound has been a common factor. In the case of Martin Carstairs, the killer decided, probably after the murder, to frame Darby by putting her fingerprints on the knife handle and then replacing the knife in the wound he or she had already made. Case closed. No one would think to connect that crime to unsolved homicides in other towns and cities across the state or even to bother entering the details into ViCAP the way you did.”

“This killer doesn’t want to be caught.”

“Despite the popular myth, serial killers rarely want to be caught and those that do, generally turn themselves in.”

Eban ran his hand through his wet hair. “How do you explain the second victim, Adele Surrey? She had multiple stab wounds.”

“That one is more interesting.”

Eban wasn’t sure that’s how he’d describe a body that was barely cold.