"Thanks for sticking it out, Monica. Did you talk to Charlie yet about your transfer?"

"Not yet. But I will."

"Okay."

"Did Mr. Renner call?"

He purposely didn't use the word detective in case someone in the room was listening to their conversation.

"Not yet."

He nodded. He couldn't think of what else to say.

"There are some messages for you on your desk," she told him. "One of them, the lawyer, said it was important but I told her I couldn't interrupt your presentation."

"Okay, thanks."

As calmly as he could, Pierce went back to Goddard and told him he was being left in Condon's hands to work out the investment deal. He shook his hand again and then backed out of the boardroom and headed down the hallway to his office. He wanted to run but he kept a steady pace.

Lights."

Pierce slid in behind his desk and picked up the three message slips Monica had left for him. Two were from Janis Langwiser and were marked urgent. The message on both was simply "Please call ASAP." The other message was from Cody Zeller.

Pierce put the messages back down on his desk and considered them. He didn't see how Langwiser's call could be anything other than bad news. To come from the high of the boardroom to this was almost staggering. He felt himself getting overheated, even claustrophobic. He went over to the window and cranked it open.

He decided to call Zeller back first, thinking that maybe his friend had come up with something new. His page to Zeller was returned in less than a minute.

"Sorry, dude," Zeller said by way of greeting. "No can do."

"What do you mean?"

"On Lucy LaPorte. I can't find her. I got no trace, man. This chick doesn't even have cable."

"Oh."

"You're sure that's her legal name?"

"That's what she told me."

"Is she one of the girls from the website?"

"Yeah."

"Shit, you should have told me that, dude. They don't use their real names."

"Lilly Quinlan did."

"Well, Lucy LaPorte? That sounds like a name somebody dreamed up after watching A

Streetcar Named Desire. I mean, look at what she does. The chances of her telling the truth about something, even her own name, are probably one in -"

"It was the truth. It was an intimate moment and she told me the truth. I know it."

"An intimate moment. I thought you told me you didn't -"

"I didn't. It was on the phone. When she told me."

"Oh, well, phone sex is a whole other ballgame."

"Never mind, Cody. I have to go."

"Hey, wait a minute. How'd your thing go with the big money man today?"

"It went fine. Charlie's ringing him up right now."

"Cool."

"I have to go, Cody. Thanks for trying on that."

"Don't worry. I'll be billing you."

Pierce clicked off and picked up one of the messages from Langwiser. He punched in the number on the phone. A secretary answered and his call was put right through.

"Where have you been?" she began. "I told your assistant to get the message to you right away."

"She did what she's supposed to do. I don't like to be interrupted in the lab. What's going on?"

"Well, suffice it to say your attorney is pretty well plugged in. I still have my sources in the police department."

"And?"

"What I am telling you is highly confidential. It's information I shouldn't have. If it got out, there would be an investigation just on this alone."

"Okay. What is it?"

"A source told me that Renner spent a good part of his morning at his desk today working on a search warrant application. He then took it to a judge."

After the urgency of her messages and her warning, Pierce was underwhelmed.

"Okay. And what does that mean?"

"It means he wants to search your property. Your apartment, your car, probably the home where you lived before moving because that was likely your domicile when the crime occurred."

"You mean the disappearance and supposed murder of Lilly Quinlan."

"Exactly. But -and this is a big but -the application was rejected. The judge told him there wasn't enough. He hadn't presented enough evidence to justify the warrant."

"So that's good then, right? Does that mean it's over?"

"No, he can go back in anytime he wants. Anytime he gets more. My guess is that he was relying on the tape recording -what he called your admission. So it is good to know that a judge saw through that and said it wasn't enough."

Pierce contemplated all of this. He was out of his league, unsure what all of the legal maneuverings meant.

"He might now choose to do a little judge shopping," Langwiser said.

"You mean like taking the application to a different judge?"

"Yes, somebody more accommodating. The thing is, he probably went to the softest sell he knew in the first place. Going somewhere else could cause problems. If a judge finds out a search app has already been rejected by a colleague, it could get testy."

Trying to follow the legal nuances seemed like a waste of time. Pierce wasn't as unnerved about the news as Langwiser seemed to be. He understood that this was because she could never be completely sure he was innocent of the crime. That margin of doubt raised concerns about what the police would find if they searched his property.

"What if we let him search without a warrant?" he asked.

"No."

"He wouldn't find anything. I did not do this, Janis. I never even met Lilly Quinlan."

"It doesn't matter. We don't cooperate. You start cooperating, you start walking into traps."

"I don't understand. If I'm innocent, what trap could there be?"

"Henry, you want me to advise you, right?"

"Yes."

"Then listen and take my advice. We make no overtures to the other side. We have put Renner on notice and that is where we keep it."

"Whatever."

"Thank you."

"Will you know if he goes judge shopping or re-applies to the original judge?"

"I have an ear out. We might get a heads up. Either way, you act surprised if he ever shows up with a warrant. I have to protect my source."

"I will."

Pierce suddenly thought of something and it put a dagger of fear in his chest.

"What about my office? And the lab? Will he want to search here?"

If that happened, it would be too hard to contain. The story would leak out and into the circles where emerging technologies are discussed. It would certainly get back to Goddard and Bechy.

"I don't know for sure but it would seem unlikely. He will be going for locations likely used in the commission of the crime. It would seem like he might have an even more difficult time if he goes in and tries to convince a judge to let him search a place of business where it was highly unlikely for the crime to have occurred."

Pierce thought about the phone book he had hidden in the cabinet in the copy room. A direct connection to Lilly Quinlan he had not already acknowledged having. He had to get rid of it somehow.

He then thought of something else.

"You know," he said, "they already searched my car. I could tell when I got into it that night outside Lilly's place."

There was a moment of silence before Langwiser spoke.

"If they did, then it was illegal. We'll never be able to prove it without a witness, though."

"I didn't see anybody other than cops out there."

"I'm sure it was just a flashlight search. Quick and dirty. If he gets a warrant approved, they'll do it legally and they'll do more than a once-over. They'll go for hair and fiber evidence, things like that. Things too small to have been seen with a flashlight."

Pierce thought of the toast he had given less than a half hour before. He realized that a speck of dust might hold his future either way.

"Well, like I said, let them do it," he said, a note of defiance in his voice. "Maybe they'll start looking for the real killer once I come up clean."