“Have you ever been stabbed, SSA Winters?” Torgerson asked like he was a freaking boy scout.

More than one person had come at him with a knife but none of them had connected. Eban shook his head.

“I have. Even a small wound hurts like hell.”

Eban frowned and addressed the ME. He wasn’t discounting the detective’s personal perspective but something being painful was not necessarily the same as it being incapacitating. “What do you think, Doctor?”

“The wound is deep and did nick the heart which would have immediately impaired his abilities. Perhaps he fought the perpetrator and that’s why the knife went in twice. It is unusual to have two wounds and only one entry point though. It’s also possible the victim was so intoxicated he did not feel the pain as much as he would under normal circumstances, or the levels of intoxication inhibited his ability to think clearly about his actions.”

Eban stared at the dead man. “Could he have been drugged?”

The ME pinched his lips thoughtfully. “Possibly. We’ll know when we get the tox screen back.”

“When will that be?”

“A few weeks?”

Eban swore silently. He wanted to rail about the slowness of the system, but these were the confines everyone faced. He hated it even when he wasn’t desperately wanting the main suspect exonerated.

“How can we get those tests prioritized?” he asked.

The ME smiled. “Maybe a request from the FBI will be more effective than I usually am?”

Eban nodded. He’d do what he could. He itched to go talk to Darby. To wrap his arms around her and ease her stress. However, until he figured out exactly what had transpired last night then he didn’t have much to offer her in terms of hope, and he couldn’t afford for this police department to shut him out of this investigation.

“I appreciate your help, Doctor,” Eban told the man. He laid his card on a table near the door. “Please call me when you have results, and if the FBI can expedite anything, I will let you know.”

The man nodded. “Mind telling me what is so important about this particular case? It isn’t often that the FBI gets involved with a local murder.”

Detective Torgerson’s blue gaze swung in his direction.

“The FBI’s interest in the case is confidential at this time. I’m sorry.”

The ME harrumphed and looked less than impressed as he turned away. “I need to finish up. This young man needs to be put to rest.”

“Yes, sir,” Eban agreed.

He and the detective left the room and removed their protective clothes. Eban took a deep breath of sterile air.

He wasn’t only doing this for Darby, he realized. He was also doing it for Martin Carstairs. Martin deserved justice. Eban hoped that didn’t mean incarcerating Darby. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with that. “Where is Carstairs’s family based?”

“His parents are flying in from Florida tomorrow. His two brothers are coming in from different parts of the country, assuming they make it in before this blizzard hits tomorrow.”