“Heart of the city, downtown. I wouldn’t be surprised if she never left. Even though she spun us all kinds of tales about hitchhiking around the country, living off the land, none of her details came together correctly and what I get from her file is the bio of a natural-born compulsive liar.”

I said, “Des Backer traveled around the country for ten years. Did she claim to be with him?”

“As a matter of fact, she did, Doctor. Not as a constant companion, off and on. She spun weird yarns about living in forests, eating roots and shoots, foraging for wild mushrooms, whatever. But like I said, when it came to closing the deal on the finer points, as in dates, towns, cities, states, she fell apart. Bureau shrinks labeled her a histrionic personality.”

Milo said, “They examined her?”

“I’ve seen no clinical report.”

I said, “Meaning the diagnosis probably came from reviewing the file.”

“Do you disagree with the diagnosis, Doctor?”

“I don’t know enough to agree, or disagree.”

Lindstrom frowned. “No offense, but the psych stuff doesn’t really matter, does it? Same for Fredd’s nature-girl tales. Maybe part of it was true, maybe she was double-, triple-, quadruple-bluffing. The point is, no eco-crimes during that period can be traced to her, so either she was real good at covering her tracks or she and the other Seattle kids weren’t any big deal in the first place.”

I said, “Five years ago, Des Backer was in architecture school. Doreen’s turning to prostitution around then says they’d probably parted ways well before.”

“And…?”

“I’m just trying to nail down the time line.”

“I won’t argue with your logic.”

Milo said, “So she gets busted for hooking. How’d that lead to federal snitch?”

Lindstrom said, “I haven’t said anything about turning her.”

“Her identity was erased, cut the crap.”

Lindstrom played with a strap of her tank top. “Yes, we turned her, but it wasn’t the prostie part that scared her, it was the dope. We’re talking kilos of weed, pills in neat little bags plus some chunks of rock. Enough to put her away for a real long time.”

“She was a major-league dealer?”

“The stuff was found in the basement of a rooming house where she habitually took johns. Downtown Seattle, not far from the Pike market.”

“She just happens to be rooming with all that?”