Pierce nodded. He gave up.

"Yes, you can go. Thanks for waiting for the furniture. I hope you have a good weekend, what's left of it, and I'll see you on Monday."

He didn't look at her when he said it or when she got up from the chair. She left without another word to him and he remained angry. He decided that once things blew over he would get another personal assistant and Monica could go back to the general pool of assistants at the company.

Pierce sat on the couch for a while but was drawn out of his thinking reverie by the phone. It was another caller for Lilly.

"You're too late," he said. "She quit the business and went to USC."

Then he hung up.

After a while he picked up the phone again and called Information in Venice for the number of James Wainwright. A man answered his next call and Pierce got up and walked to the windows as he spoke.

"I'm looking for Lilly Quinlan's landlord," he said. "For the house over on Altair in Venice."

"That would be me."

"My name's Pierce. I'm trying to locate Lilly and want to know if you've had any contact with her in the last month or so?"

"Well, first of all, I don't think I know you, Mr. Pierce, and I don't answer questions about my tenants with strangers unless they state their business and convince me I should do otherwise."

"Fair enough, Mr. Wainwright. I'd be happy to come see you in person if you'd prefer.

I'm a friend of the family. Lilly's mother, Vivian, is worried about her daughter because she hasn't heard from her in eight weeks. She asked me to do some checking around. I can give you Vivian's number in Florida if you want to call and check on me."

It was a risk but Pierce thought it was one worth taking to convince Wainwright to talk. It wasn't too far from the truth, anyway. It was social engineering. Turn the truth just a little bit and make it work for you.

"I have her mother's number on her application. I don't need to call, because I don't have anything that will help you. Lilly Quinlan's paid up through the end of the month. I don't have occasion to see or talk to her unless she has a problem. I have not spoken to or seen her in a couple months, at least."

"The end of the month? Are you sure?"

Pierce knew that that didn't jibe with the check records he had examined.

"That's right."

"How did she pay her last rent, check or cash?"

"That's none of your business."

"Mr. Wainwright, it is my business. Lilly is missing and her mother has asked me to look for her."

"So you say."

"Call her."

"I don't have time to call her. I maintain thirty-two apartments and houses. You think I have -"

"Look, is there somebody who takes care of the lawn that I could talk to?"

"You're already talking to him."

"So you haven't seen her when you've been over there?"

"Come to think of it, a lot of times she'd come out and say hello when I was there cutting the lawn or working the sprinklers. Or she'd bring me out a Pepsi or a lemonade. One time she gave me a cold beer. But she hasn't been there the last few times I've been there.

Her car was gone. I didn't think anything of it. People have lives, you know."

"What kind of car was it?"

"Gold Lexus. I don't know the model but I know it was a Lexus. Nice car. She took good care of it, too."

Pierce couldn't think of anything else to ask. Wainwright wasn't much of a help.

"Mr. Wainwright, will you check the application and then call her mother? I need you to call me back about this."

"Are the police involved? Is there a missing-persons report?"

"Her mother's been talking to the police but she doesn't think they're doing much. That's why she asked me. Do you have something to write with?"

"Sure do."

Pierce hesitated, realizing that if he gave his home number, Wainwright might recognize it as the same number he had for Lilly. He gave him the direct line to his office at Amedeo instead. He then thanked him and hung up.

He sat there looking at the phone, reviewing the call repeatedly and coming to the same conclusion each time. Wainwright was being evasive. He either knew something or was hiding something, or both.

He opened his backpack and got out the notebook in which he had written down the number for Robin, Lilly's escort partner.

This time when he called he tried to deepen his voice when she answered. His hope was that she would not recognize him from the night before.

"I was wondering if we could get together tonight."

"Well, I'm open, baby. Have we ever dated? You sound familiar."

"Uh, no. Not before."

"Whacha got in mind?"

"Um, maybe dinner and then go to your place. I don't know."

"Well, honey, I get four hundred an hour. Most guys want to skip the dinner and just come see me. Or I go see them."

"Then I can just come to you."

"Okay, fine. What's your name?"

He knew she had caller ID, so he couldn't lie.

"Henry Pierce."

"And what time were you thinking about?"

He looked at his watch. It was six o'clock.

"How about seven?"

It would give him time to come up with a plan and to get to a cash machine. He knew he had some cash, but not enough. He had a card that could get him $400 maximum on a withdrawal.

"An early-bird special," she said. "That's fine with me. Except there ain't a special rate."

"That's okay. Where do I go?"

"Got a pencil?"

"Right here."

"I'm sure you have a hard pencil."

She laughed and then gave him an address of a Smooth Moves shop on Lincoln in Marina del Rey. She told him to go into the shop and get a strawberry blitz and then call her from the pay phone out front at five minutes before seven. When he asked her why she did it this way she said, "Precautions. I wanna get a look at you before I bring you on up. And I like those little strawberry thingees anyway. That's like bringing me flowers, sugar. Have 'em put some energy powder in it for me, would you? I get a sneaky idea that I'm gonna need it with you."

She laughed again but it sounded too practiced and hollow to Pierce. It gave him a bad feeling. He said he would get the smoothie and make the call and thanked her, and that was the end of it. As he cradled the phone he felt a wave of trepidation sweep through him. He thought about the speech he had given Monica and how she had correctly turned it right back at him.

"You idiot," he said to himself.

At the appointed time Pierce picked up a pay phone outside of Smooth Moves and called Robin's number. Turning his back to the phone, he saw that across Lincoln was a large apartment complex called the Marina Executive Towers. Only the building didn't really qualify as a tower or towers. It was short and wide -three stories of apartments over a garage. The complex covered half a city block and its length was broken up by color gradations. Its exterior was painted three different pastels -pink, blue, yellow -as it worked its way down the street. A banner hanging off the roofline announced short-term executive rentals and free maid service. Pierce realized it was a perfect place for a prostitute to carry out her business. The place was probably so large and the turnover of renters so high that a steady procession of different men coming in and out would not be noticeable or curious to other residents.

Robin picked up after three rings.

"It's Henry. I called -"

"Hey, baby. Let me get a look at you here."

Without trying to be too obvious about it, he scanned the windows of the apartment building across the street, looking for someone looking back at him. He didn't see anybody or any curtain movement but he noticed that the windows of several apartments had mirrored glass. He wondered if there was more than one woman like Robin working in the building.