“How did you know where Darby was going to be?” she asked.

The man closed his mouth and looked mutinously at the floor.

Signy sighed. He’d grown up in this city and had moved away for college around the time his parents had retired down to Florida. They had a lot of friends and contacts in town. Hopefully, a friend had spotted Darby at the hotel and given the family a call. The alternative was that one of the cops who’d known about tonight’s operation and who maybe weren’t sold on Darby’s innocence, had called the family and let it slip.

If she discovered that had happened, she’d tell the chief. It wouldn’t make her popular with the guys, but they needed to follow procedure. This case was complicated enough. The last thing they needed was the public going vigilante and hurting an innocent. Not to mention screwing up the investigation and the killer getting off on a technicality.

Technicalities pissed her off.

Signy handed Tim Carstairs over to the booking sergeant and headed back to the bullpen. The hotel manager was sending over the surveillance tapes of the incident. She’d gotten the names of at least fifteen witnesses and it was a slam dunk assault with a deadly weapon charge.

She doubted the DA would go heavy on the guy under the circumstances. Which begged the question, who would go to bat for Darby O’Roarke? Who would be willing to stick their neck out and state unequivocally that Darby was an innocent victim in all of this?

After spending the evening with her, Signy was now willing to stake her career on that fact. But she was betting her and her son’s security on it too. It was one thing for Eban Winters or Elliot Byrne to openly support Darby, Signy was risking a hell of a lot more for a hell of a lot less reward. Eban was in love with the woman and Elliot was being paid big bucks to defend her. Signy was a public servant and if she chose the wrong side, she’d be crucified and her kid could kiss a college education goodbye.

She hadn’t said goodbye to Elliot, she realized suddenly. Everything had gone to shit in an instant and there hadn’t been time for niceties. It left her with a niggle of dissatisfaction that felt weirdly like a loose end. She rolled her eyes at herself.

She was not dumb enough to fall for the charm of a guy like that.

Not even for one night?

She ignored the little voice inside that poked at her.

She headed to the restroom and grimaced at her reflection in the mirror. So much for fantasies of looking even vaguely attractive. She looked as bone-tired weary as she felt. She needed sleep but instead, she washed up and headed back to work. She grabbed a large mug of coffee and walked to the conference room the chief had allocated to turn into a war room dedicated to catching this serial killer.