“He didn’t take it, Lieutenant Sturgis? My record says he did.”
“Lara Rieffen did.”
“Her?” said Melendez. “How come?”
“I thought you might know.”
“I have no idea, Lieutenant. The two of them must’ve worked something out-maybe Dan had an emergency. She doesn’t volunteer for anything.”
“Not a workaholic?”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“Where can I find Paillard?”
“He’s off today.”
“Give me his cell and his home landline, please.”
“Dan did something wrong?”
“Not at all.”
“Good,” said Melendez. “Him, I like.”
Daniel Paillard was at Universal Studios with his girlfriend.
“This is a big deal?”
“Probably not,” said Milo, “but tell me about it.”
“Nothing to tell,” said Paillard. “She came to me the day before, said she needed time off next week, was I willing to swap. I said sure, why not.”
“What day did she need time off?”
“She never said.”
“She never collected on the trade?”
Silence.
“Dan?”
“I guess she didn’t,” said Paillard. “I guess I forgot-looking a gift horse, you know? Am I in trouble? I mean it was between the two of us.”
“You’re not in trouble.”
“I mean, I’d been working my ass off for weeks, all those gang shootings,” said Paillard. “When she came to me, I didn’t see any problem long as the job got done-did she screw up?”
“Is she a screwup?”
“She’s green,” said Paillard.
“Do me a favor, Dan. Don’t tell her about this conversation.”
“She’s in some other kind of trouble?”
“Not yet,” said Milo. “Be discreet, Dan, and I will be, too.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” said Paillard. “She’s green, maybe a little lazy, that’s really all I can say about her.”
Milo swung his desk chair around, faced me. “Lazy rookie but she makes herself out as gung-ho. A faker like Scoppio. She processed the bodies, made comments about Doreen’s clothes being cheap. That takes on a whole new flavor now.”
I said, “Rieffen trading shifts the day before the murder says she knew Backer and Doreen would be up in that turret. Doreen lived with her and Scoppio, so that’s no mystery. If Scoppio’s our Port Angeles hoodie, we’ve got fifty grand of motive. But the scene’s always reeked of personal to me, so it could’ve gone beyond the money. Kaplan said the three of them looked grim when they were together. Maybe the gloss was off the relationship.”
“Threesome gone bad.”
“Possibly because threesome had turned to twosome.”
“Doreen threw her roommies over for Backer,” he said. “Old flame reignited. So to speak.”
“Backer and Doreen were paid by Helga to blow up Teddy’s palace, scoped the scene and found the turret a fun place. Ned Holman saw them use it two months before the murders, they could very well have turned it into their private party spot, could’ve even taken Rieffen and Monte up there. Either way they’d be easy to track. The scene’s always pointed to two killers. Now we’ve got a new pair.”
“Rieffen’s involved in the murder, makes sure she’s assigned to the scene. Cute. The obvious reason is monkeying with evidence, as in concealing any record of her presence and Scoppio’s. She was up there before I arrived, Lord knows what she did during that time.”
I said, “One thing she didn’t conceal was the semen stain on Doreen’s leg. On the contrary, she called it to your attention and that makes me wonder if she was playing head games. Backer always used condoms, we’ve assumed he made an exception for Doreen. What if he didn’t and the semen came from someone else?”
“Monte chokes out Doreen then abuses her corpse? Why would Rieffen point out the stain? And why not wipe it off right at the murder?”
“Maybe Monte didn’t want her to. Proud of himself, playing his own head game. On her own, Rieffen might’ve been more cautious. Or she thought it was fun, too. In either case, she knew the stain would be gone by the time the body got to Jernigan. That’s exactly the kind of high-risk adrenaline rush psychopaths crave. Rieffen takes control of the evidence, making herself look sharp-eyed in the process. Then she finds a quiet moment at the crypt and destroys the evidence, making the rest of the coroner’s staff look incompetent.”
“It’s not enough that I succeed,” he said. “You have to fail.”
“Antisocial, self-aggrandizing puffery at its finest, Big Guy.”
“One speck of DNA could’ve screwed the deal-if anyone would bother to analyze the stain. But she’s a goddamn C.I., would know how to do it right.”
“No reason to analyze DNA,” I said. “The way the bodies were posed, the obvious donor was Backer.”
“Speaking of Backer, maybe we’re talking foursome down to twosome. They all knew each other. One shot to the head, Desi’s out of the picture, they get the storage key. Leaving Doreen to deal with two armed baddies, piece of cake subduing her. Rieffen trains the little gun on her while Monte jams the big one. Then he strangles her, delivering an incredibly demeaning coup de grâce. Then they reposition the bodies.”
“They left Backer’s I.D. in place, but took Doreen’s because she’d lived with them, could be traced to them.”
“Rieffen and Monte living with a pyro, and Monte’s copping the fifty G’s says they knew about the plot. What if the foursome was a business arrangement, Alex?”
“They were all involved in the fire,” I said.
“Eliminate Backer and Doreen and the share doubles.”
“Foursome,” I said. “Two other kids were suspects in the Bellevue fire. Kathy Something, I forget the boy’s name.”
He snatched up his pad. “Kathy Vanderveldt, Dwayne Parris. Lindstrom said they turned out fine, she went to med school, he went to law school.”
“Lindstrom never actually met them, she’s relying on the previous agent’s notes. What if Kathy and Dwayne planned careers in medicine and law, but fell short? A C.I. deals with the human body but works under a physician’s supervision. A paralegal-who tells people he’s a lawyer-has to answer to an attorney.”
“Wannabes, they change their names… the Feds being their usual thorough selves miss it.” He faced his computer. “Okay, let’s see what we locals can come up with.”