rest of the group trickled into the therapy room in near silence. Janet and I were sitting on the left side of the table, Melanie and Carla on the other. Firella came in and pulled out a chair on my other side, and Sandy scooted in the room with her gaze cast on the floor. She worked her way down to the end of the table without meeting anyone's gaze. Tamsin came in last and sat at the end closest to the door.
"We needed to meet tonight to find out how everyone's handling what happened. As you all know by now, the woman you found dead was Melanie's sister-in-law, Saralynn. She used to be married to the man who raped Melanie. They'd just gotten divorced."
Firella shook her head. "Sunday dinners must be hell in that family."
Melanie nodded. Her plump, doughy face looked pinched and her eyes were definitely red. Her hair was frizzy as though she'd tried a home permanent that didn't work. But the same determination that had led her to prosecute her attacker when no one else in the world wanted to seemed to be getting her through this latest crisis.
"How are you getting along with your husband after all this?"
"We're fine," Melanie said. "He loves me and I love him, more than anything in the world, and he's not going to let me down. His brother is a no good piece of trash and Deke's always known it. Ain't Deke's fault his mom and dad turned out a bad 'un."
"That's wonderful, Melanie," Tamsin said. She didn't sound convinced, though. I leaned forward a little to get a good look at our counselor. "Do you think your brother-in-law could be responsible for the death of his wife?"
"No, seeing as how he's in jail," Melanie responded tartly.
I noticed that the ones who hadn't known this looked disappointed. Everyone, it seemed, would have been glad to have Tom Kleinhoff to blame for this murder.
"Why aren't you telling us how you feel about this?" Firella asked. She leaned forward so she could look right into Tamsin's face. "Why aren't you telling us what happened in here Tuesday night?"
This sudden aggression surprised almost everyone except me.
Tamsin flushed a deep plum color. "I've admitted I was hiding in the therapy room when Saralynn Kleinhoff was killed," she said in a low voice. I saw Sandy lean across the table to hear. "I've admitted to being scared when I knew there was a killer in the building. I don't think that's too surprising."
"But..." I began before I thought. I had leaned forward to focus on her myself. I stopped before I voiced my doubts.
"What, Lily?" Tamsin asked. But only because she had to; you could tell she was scared about what I was going to say. We were supposed to bare all to Tamsin; what about her being honest with us?
"Tell us exactly what happened," I said, with careful emphasis. "As far as we can tell, it could have been any one of us pinned to that wall in your office. How come Melanie's sister-in-law and Janet got attacked, and you didn't?"
"Are you blaming Tamsin for not getting hurt, Lily?" Firella asked. "Are you blaming the victim for the crime, so to speak?"
"Yeah, where are you going with this, Lily?" Carla croaked.
Good question.
"I just want to know exactly what happened. We come here every week." I simmered for a minute. "We're supposed to feel safe here. How did this person who killed Saralynn get in? How'd he get out without us seeing him?"
Everyone around the table looked thoughtful after hearing my questions. I wasn't sure why I was maneuvering our therapist into telling us something that would surely upset her, but I was determined to do just that.
"As I told you the night of the incident, Lily," Tamsin said with reluctance, "Saralynn was supposed to come early so I could give her the little talk I give everyone before she joins the group. I'd asked her to come in at seven fifteen, a little earlier than I'd asked you to come. You were the last one to get the lecture the first night you all came, and I remembered I'd had to rush through.
"I was a little worried about Saralynn having such a close relationship with Melanie, how that would impact the group, and we talked about that a little bit."
"You didn't hear anyone else in the building?" Firella asked.
"I may have. Now, I think I did. But it could have been someone staying