"I see you got my smoothie," she said. "You get that energy powder?"

"Yes. They call it a booster rocket. That what you wanted?"

"That's it. Okay, you look all right to me. You're not a cop, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Then say it. I'm taping this."

"I am not a police officer, okay?"

"All right, come on up then. Go across the street to the apartment building and at the main door push apartment two oh three. I'll see you soon."

"Okay."

He hung up and crossed the street and followed her instructions. At the door, the button marked 203 had the name Bird after it. As in robin, Pierce thought. When he pushed the button, the door lock was buzzed without any further inquiry from Robin over the intercom. Inside, he couldn't find the stairs, so he took the elevator the one flight up.

Robin's apartment was two doors from the elevator.

She opened the door before he got a chance to knock. There was a peephole and she apparently had been watching. She took the smoothie from his hand and invited him in.

The place was sparsely furnished and seemed devoid of any personal object. There was just a couch, a chair, a coffee table and a standing lamp. A museum print was framed on the wall. It looked medieval: two angels leading the newly deceased toward the light at the end of a tunnel.

As Pierce stepped in he could see that the glass doors to the balcony had the mirrored film on them. They looked almost directly across to the Smooth Moves shop.

"I could see you but you couldn't see me," Robin said from behind him. "I could see you looking."

He turned to her.

"I was just curious about the setup. You know, how you work this."

"Well, now you know. Come sit down."

She moved to a couch and gestured for him to sit next to her. He did. He tried to look around. The place reminded Pierce of a hotel room but he guessed atmosphere wasn't what was important for the business usually conducted within the apartment. He felt her hand take his jaw and turn his face to hers.

"You like what you see?" she asked.

He was pretty sure she was the woman in the photo on the web page. It was hard to be certain because he had not studied it as long and as often as the photo of Lilly. She was barefoot and wore a light blue tank top T-shirt and a pair of red corduroy shorts cut so high that a bathing suit might have been more modest. She was braless and her breasts were huge, most likely the result of implants. Nipples the size of Girl Scout cookies were clearly outlined on the T-shirt. Her blonde hair was parted in the middle and cascaded down the sides of her face in ringlets. She wore no makeup that he could see.

"Yes, I do," he answered.

"People tell me I have a Meg Ryan thing going."

Pierce nodded, although he didn't see it. The movie star was older but a lot softer on the eyes.

"Did you bring me something?"

At first he thought she was talking about the smoothie but then he remembered the money.

"Yeah, I've got it here."

He leaned back on the couch to reach into his pocket. He had the four hundred ready in its own thick fold of twenties fresh from the cash machine. This was the part he had rehearsed. He didn't mind losing the four hundred but he didn't want to give it to her and then be kicked out when he revealed the true reason he was there.

He pulled the money out so she could see it and know it was close and hers for the taking.

"First time, baby?"

"Excuse me?"

"With an escort. First time?"

"How do you know that?"

"Because you're supposed to put that in an envelope for me. Like a gift. It is a gift, isn't it? You're not paying me to do anything."

"Yes, right. A gift."

"Thank you."

"Is that what the G in GFE stands for? Gift?"

She smiled.

"You really are new at this, aren't you? Girlfriend, sweetie. Absolutely positive girlfriend experience. It means you get whatever you want, like with your girlfriend before she became your wife."

"I'm not married."

"Doesn't matter."

She reached for the money as she said it but Pierce pulled his hand back.

"Uh, before I give you this… gift, I have to tell you something."

All the warning lights on her face fired at once.

"Don't worry, I'm not a cop."

"Then what, you don't want to use a rubber? Forget it, that's rule number one."

"No, it's not that. In fact, I don't really want to have sex with you. You're very attractive but all I want is some information."

Her posture became sharper as she seemed to grow taller, even while sitting down.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I have to find Lilly Quinlan. You can help me."

"Who is Lilly Quinlan?"

"Come on, you name her on your web page. Double your pleasure? You know who I'm talking about."

"You're the guy from last night. You called last night."

He nodded.

"Then get the fuck out of here."

She quickly stood up and walked toward the door.

"Robin, don't open that door. If you don't talk to me, then you'll talk to the cops. That's my next move."

She turned around.

"The cops won't give a shit."

But she didn't open the door. She just stood there, angry and waiting, one hand on the knob.

"Maybe not now but they'll care if I go to them."

"Why, who are you?"

"I have some juice," he lied. "That's all you have to know. If I go to them, they'll come to you. They won't be as nice as me… and they won't pay you four hundred dollars for your time."

He put the money down on the couch where she had been sitting. He watched her eyes go to it.

"Just information, that's all I want. It goes no further than me."

He waited and after a long moment of silence she came back over to the couch and grabbed the money. She somehow found space for it in her tiny shorts. She folded her arms and remained standing.

"What information? I hardly knew her."

"You know something. You talk about her in the past tense."

"I don't know anything. All I know is that she's gone. She just… disappeared."

"When was that?"

"More than a month ago. Suddenly she was just gone."

"Why do you still have her name on your page if she's been gone that long?"

"You saw her picture. She brings in customers. Sometimes they settle for just me."

"Okay, how do you know her disappearance was so sudden? Maybe she just packed up and left."

"I know because one minute we were talking on the phone and the next minute she didn't show up, that's why."

"Show up for what?"

"We had a gig. A double. She set it up and called me. She told me the time and then she didn't show up. I was there and then the client showed up and he wasn't happy. First of all, there was no place to park and then she wasn't there and I had to scramble around to get another girl to come back over here to my place -and there are no other girls like Lilly, and he really wanted Lilly. It was a fucking fiasco, that's what it was."

"Where was this?"

"Her place. Her gig pad. She didn't work anywhere else. No outcall. Not even to here. I always had to go to her. Even if they were my clients wanting the double, we had to go to her pad, or it didn't happen."

"Did you have a key to her place?"

"No. Look, you've gotten your four hundred's worth. It would have been easier just to fuck and forget you. That's it."

Pierce angrily reached into his pocket and pulled out the rest of his cash. It was $230.

He'd counted it in the car. He held it out to her.

"Then take this, because I'm not done. Something happened to her and I'm going to find out what."

She grabbed the money and it disappeared without her counting it.

"Why do you care?"

"Maybe because nobody else does. Now if you didn't have a key to her place, how do you know she didn't show up that night?"