“Woman’s definitely going through some changes,” Frames said. “We start asking questions about her husband’s affair, which, of course, is news to her. And then we get to the part about the victim, and she freaked. Kids are home from school in the next room. In three minutes, she’s rethinking her life. Whole dentist-wife-thing down the toilet.”

“We asked if she had a red blanket,” Rivas inserted.

Frames waved his arms. “This insults her. Goes off on a riff about color schemes. A dead body is one thing, but a red blanket in her house—”

“I’ll talk to Bennett once his lawyer gets here,” Mahler said. “What else do we have?”

“We’ve got Arturo Peña’s statement to the DA.” Rivas read from the screen of his laptop. “In exchange for this information, the DA agreed to release Peña’s cousin and give Peña immunity on the drug-dealing evidence that was part of his testimony. Peña says he was approached on Saturday night by four individuals who wanted to score some speed. Tall white man, an Asian, a dark-skinned male, and a white female. All well dressed. The female’s height, weight, and hair color match our victim’s. They drove up in a silver Jaguar sedan. The white guy was in charge. Peña described him as gallito, cocky. Had a semiautomatic in his belt that he made sure to show Peña. Bought five grams, paid with hundreds. As they leave, Peña heard one of them call the woman Elise.”

“That matches what Alvarez told me about a drug buy,” Coyle said. “And it also sounds like one of them might be the new boyfriend who drives a silver car and lives in the country.”

“If these three are involved,” Mahler said, “they could be the ‘little men’ our witness, Donald Michael Lee, saw. If one’s Asian, he could’ve used the Cantonese word, faideela, that Lee heard.”

Frames held up one hand. “Okay. A minute ago, you guys are jerking me around about the old Mercedes? How’d these guys get from a silver Jag to a 1960 Mercedes?”

“The uniforms are still processing the DMV search for the Mercedes owner,” Coyle said. “Lot of phone calls.”

Rivas went to the whiteboard. Across the top, the countdown to another possible homicide now said thirty-one hours. Rivas pointed to a timeline written in marker. “Here’s what we know. According to Alvarez, last Tuesday, Elise Durand meets her at Becker’s downtown and has something that looks like blood on her sweater. On Saturday night, our victim is with three men making a drug buy. According to the roommates, on Sunday night, she’s home.