“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?”