“No. I left early. Stef and Davis said they saw you and Martin leaving together. Davis said it looked like Martin was holding you up. He thought you might have been drunk which was a first. He figured Martin was making sure you got somewhere safe to sleep it off.” Jacqui’s skin was pale, her mouth tense.

Darby pulled a face. “They can talk. How many times have I given them a ride home because they were over the limit? I only had the whisky they served with the haggis.”

“But you never drink hard liquor.” The woman hugged her arms across her chest. “We figured it went straight to your head.”

Darby stared at her friend in dawning horror. “Straight to my head, three hours later? How does that even make sense?”

Eban watched Darby as realization sank in. Her friends thought she was capable of murder. They thought she’d done this because the cops said she had. Torgerson had told everyone they weren’t looking for anyone else and now, somewhere, a killer was sitting back and gloating.

The cops shouldn’t have handled the case this way. Not until they knew for sure that they had all the facts. Not until after a trial even, but the public was always hungry for facts, trying to ascertain if they were safe. Now, as much as Eban wanted to shield Darby from this ugly reality there was nothing he could do. Except protect her. Support her. Find the real killer.

“You all actually believed I killed Martin?” Darby murmured.

Jacqui bit her lip. “We know that last summer messed you up.”

Eban shifted his stance and Jacqui’s eyes flickered over him again. “Davis figured you killed Martin to avoid going back out there this summer.”

Going back this summer? Over his dead body.

This time it was Darby who threw Eban a nervous look. He narrowed his eyes at her.

She ignored him and turned back to her so-called friend. “If I decide not to go out to Indonesia next summer, I’ll talk to Professor Nilsson about it. I wouldn’t hurt Martin or anyone else when I can adapt my research program.”

“We were only speculating about what might have happened.” The other girl shrugged, apparently unconcerned with how those speculations might hurt an innocent person accused of a crime. Especially one who was supposed to be her friend.

“What else did you come up with? A psychotic break? Or maybe I’m part of some satanic cult?”

Jacqui’s eyes widened and her expression turned defensive. She opened her mouth to speak but Darby cut her off.

“Did it cross your mind even for a moment that maybe I didn’t do it?” Darby’s eyes were massive now.

“But the cops—”

“I don’t care about the cops. The cops don’t know me. You know me,” Darby insisted sharply.

“Yeah, but it’s not like you get close to anyone. Not anymore. I mean you don’t talk about what happened—”

“I don’t talk about being abducted and sexually abused by armed men? Do you want details, Jacqui, so that next time you’re doing fieldwork you can wake up in terror at every noise? Or break into a cold sweat when a strange man stares at you for a fraction too long?” Darby was shaking now.