"Because I knocked for fifteen fucking minutes and then me and the guy waited for another twenty. I'm telling you, she wasn't in there."

"Do you know if she had something set up before the gig with you?"

Robin thought for a little bit before answering.

"She said she had something to do but I don't know if she was with a client. Because I wanted to do it earlier but she said she was busy with something at the time I wanted. So we set the time she wanted, and so she should have been there but wasn't."

Pierce tried to imagine what questions a cop would ask her but couldn't guess how the police would approach this. He thought about it as if it were a problem at work, with his usual rigorous approach to problem solving and theory building.

"So before she was to meet with you she had to do something," he said. "That something could have been meeting a client. And since you say she worked nowhere else but the apartment, she had to have met this client at the apartment. Nowhere else, right?"

"Right."

"So when you got there and knocked on the door, she could've been inside with or without this other client but just not answering."

"I guess so, but she should've been done by then and she would have answered. It was all set up. So maybe it wasn't a client."

"Or maybe she was not allowed to answer. Maybe she couldn't answer."

This seemed to give Robin pause, as though she realized how close she might have come to whatever fate befell Lilly.

"Where is this place? Her apartment."

"It's over in Venice. Off Speedway."

"What's the exact address?"

"I don't remember. I just know how to get there."

Pierce nodded. He thought about what else he needed to ask her. He had the feeling he had one shot with her. No second chances.

"How'd you two get together for these, uh, gigs?"

"We linked on the website. If people wanted us both, they'd ask and we'd set it up if we were both available."

"I mean, how did you two meet in order to have the link? How did you meet in the first place?"

"We met at a shoot and sort of hit it off. It went from there."

"A shoot? What do you mean?"

"Modeling. It was a girl-girl scene and we met at the studio."

"You mean, for a magazine?"

"No, a website."

Pierce thought of the doorway he had opened at Entrepreneurial Concepts.

"Was it for one of the websites Entrepreneurial Concepts operates?"

"Look, it doesn't matter what -"

"What was the name of the site?"

"It was called something like fetish castle dot something or other. I don't know. I don't have a computer. What does it matter?"

"Where was the shoot, at Entrepreneurial Concepts?"

"Yeah. At the studios."

"So you got the job through L.A. Darlings and Mr. Wentz, right?"

He saw her eyes flare at the mention of the name but she didn't respond.

"What's his first name?"

"I'm not talking to you about him. You can't tell him you got any information from me, you understand?"

He thought he now saw a flash of fear in her eyes.

"I told you, everything you tell me here is private. I promise you that. What's his name?"

"Look, he's got connections and people who work for him who are very mean. He's mean. I don't want to talk about him."

"Just tell me his name and I'll leave it at that, okay?"

"It's Billy. Billy Wentz. Most people call him Billy Wince because he hurts people, okay?"

"Thank you."

He stood up and looked around the apartment. He walked over to the corner of the living room and looked into a hallway that he guessed led to the bedroom. He was surprised to learn there were two bedrooms with a bathroom in between.

"Why do you have two bedrooms?"

"I share the place with another girl. We each have our own."

"From the website?"

"Yes."

"What's her name?"

"Cleo."

"Billy Wentz put you with her, too."

"No. Grady did."

"Who is Grady?"

"He works with Billy. He really runs the place."

"So why don't you do doubles with Cleo? It'd be more convenient."

"I probably will. But I told you, I was getting a lot of business with Lilly. There aren't many girls that look like her."

Pierce nodded.

"You don't live here, do you?"

"No. I work here."

"Where do you live?"

"I'm not telling you that."

"You keep any clothes here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have any clothes besides those? And where are your shoes?"

He gestured to what she was wearing.

"Yes, I changed when I got here. I don't go out like this."

"Good. Change back and let's go."

"What are you talking about? Where?"

"I want you to show me where Lilly's place is. Or was."

"Uh-uh, man. You got your information, that's it."

Pierce looked at his watch.

"Look, you said four hundred an hour. I've been here twenty minutes, tops. That means I get forty more minutes, or you give me two-thirds of my cash back."

"That's not how it works."

"That's how it works today."

She stared at him angrily for a long moment and then walked silently past him toward the bedroom to change. Pierce walked over to the balcony doors and looked out across Lincoln.

He saw a man standing at the pay phone in front of Smooth Moves, holding a smoothie and looking up at the windows of the building Pierce was in. Another smoothie, another client. He wondered how many women were working in the building. Did they all work for Wentz? Did he own the place? Maybe he even had a piece of the smoothie shop.

He turned around to ask Robin about Wentz and from the angle he was at was able to look down the hallway and through the open bedroom door. Robin was naked and pulling a tight pair of faded blue jeans up over her hips. Her perfectly tanned breasts hung down heavily as she bent over in the process.

When she straightened up to pull the zipper closed over her flat stomach and the small triangle of golden hair below, she looked directly at him through the door. She didn't flinch. Instead, there was a defiant look on her face. She reached over to the bed and picked up a white T-shirt, which she pulled over her head without making any move to turn or hide her nakedness from him.

She came out of the bedroom and slipped her feet into a pair of sandals she pulled from under the coffee table.

"Did you enjoy that?" she asked.

"Yes. I did. I guess I don't have to tell you, you have a beautiful body."

She walked past him and into the kitchenette. She opened a cabinet over the sink and took out a small black purse.

"Let's go. You've got thirty-five minutes."

She went to the front door, opened it and stepped out into the hallway. He followed.

"You want your smoothie?"

It was sitting untouched on the breakfast bar.

"No, I hate smoothies. Too fattening. My vice is pizza. Next time bring me a pizza."

"Then why'd you ask for the smoothie?"

"It was just a way of checking you out, seeing what you would do for me."

And establishing some control, Pierce thought but didn't say. Control that didn't always last long once the money was paid and the clothes were off.

Pierce stepped into the hallway and looked back into the place where Robin made her living. He felt an uneasiness. A sadness even. He thought about her web page. What was an absolutely positive girlfriend experience and how could it come out of a place like that?

He closed the door, made sure it was locked, and then followed Robin to the elevator.