'Nothing that I could. What is it about Addie that interests you?'
'I'm not sure. Just a feeling that something about her isn't right. Do you have the same feeling?'
'No,' Pearl lied.
'I deal in favors made and repaid,' Sellers said. 'That's why I took time out of my busy day to talk with you. Why I just told you what I know about Adelaide Price. And I think I put your mind at rest about your theory of me being the shadow woman. All I want in return is for you to tell me whatever else you find out about Addie Price.'
'Whatever's connected to the investigation and newsworthy, you mean?'
Sellers shrugged. 'Oh, sure. I'm not interested in her personal life.'
Both women laughed.
Then Sellers said, surprising Pearl, 'You and Quinn aren't completely over.'
'Maybe not as far as he's concerned,' Pearl said. 'But yes, we're over.'
Sellers winked. 'Because of Yancy Taggart?'
Pearl felt the rush of blood to her face and knew Sellers would enjoy having made her blush. 'How do you know about Yancy?'
'I told you, it's my business to find out things. Yancy's getting it on with one of the investigating officers, so he might become part of the story.'
'I don't agree.'
'Well, Yancy's got a way of becoming a big part of whatever he gets involved in. You'd be surprised at his connections, with his lobbying for those crackpots who want windmills on skyscrapers.'
'They aren't crackpots, and it's not windmills. They're wind turbines, and it makes more sense than it seems to when you first hear it.'
Sellers grinned silently at her.
'Well, maybe not,' Pearl said.
'What I know about Yancy is he's damned convincing. He can make those wind turbines seem like good sense, at least long enough to pry money from wealthy donors. If he was still a tobacco industry lobbyist, everybody'd still be smoking.'
Pearl deadpanned it and said nothing. For all she knew, Sellers was trying to confirm things she didn't know for sure. Or maybe she had some other motive.
'Guys like Yancy can be exciting,' Sellers went on. 'Full of charm and schmaltz. Oh, sometimes they have other sides you wouldn't expect, redeeming facets to their personalities. But then so does everyone else. Hell, you wouldn't believe it, but sometimes I have a kind heart.'
Pearl gave her a level look. 'Are you trying to get me deeper in your debt by warning me about Yancy?'
'Warning? No, that'd be too strong a word. I would say, though, a man like that, who's been around and plays around, you need to be careful.' Sellers stood up, indicating that they'd talked long enough and she had to get back to newspaper biz. 'But you're a cop. You've been around, yourself, and you understand people. You sure don't have to be warned. But it wouldn't hurt if somebody who sometimes knows more than you do was kind of looking out for you.'
Pearl knew the game. Sellers was offering to feed her information about Yancy in return for whatever information Pearl might give her about the investigation. Or about Addie Price. After all, both women dealt in information.
For the first time since entering the modest, stifling cubicle, Pearl wondered if this conversation was being recorded. Sellers was the type who probably recorded everything. And used it whatever the consequences. Well, the hell with it, Pearl thought. She was sure she hadn't said anything incriminating or even out of line, and she didn't intend to.
Pearl stood up. 'Thanks, but I can pretty much look after myself.'
'I would agree with that,' Sellers said. 'And I hope we've cleared up that shadow woman thing.'
'Sure,' Pearl said.
Sellers walked her out through the maze of green desks, swivel chairs, and maelstrom of activity, staying slightly ahead of her in the manner of a guide escorting someone through a dangerous jungle.
Lies, lies, lies, Pearl thought, all the way back down to the street and the jungle outside.
After leaving the offices of City Beat Pearl used the unmarked she was driving to swing by her apartment. Her conversation with Cindy Sellers had upset her more than she wanted to admit.
Once inside the apartment, she decided simply to eat an early lunch there and then do some work on her laptop at the kitchen table. There was no need for Quinn to know her exact whereabouts. If he wanted her, he could contact her on her cell phone.
When her shoes were removed and the air conditioner had cooled and dehumidified the kitchen, she settled down at the table with a container of sharp cheddar cheese, some crackers, a cold can of Diet Coke, and her notebook computer.
Since Cindy Sellers revealed that she'd probed into Yancy's affairs, and Cindy was the fourth estate's dubious representative, Yancy was part of the investigation. Therefore Pearl was working on the investigation. Right there at her kitchen table, cheese and crackers and all.
She smiled, knowing Quinn wouldn't buy that line of reasoning.
That was okay; she didn't plan on having to sell it to him.
She snacked with one hand and worked the computer with the other, following links from relevance to remoteness and learning everything possible online about Yancy Taggart, registered lobbyist. She was driven by a desire to dig deeper, to know everything Cindy Sellers knew and more.
So at one time Yancy had lobbied for the tobacco industry. Well, so what? He'd probably believed in the merits of smoking the same way he believed in wind-powered skyscrapers.
Pearl followed obscure links and visited sites she hadn't seen before.
Yancy seemed to have been honest and forthcoming. He'd told her about the tobacco industry job, and a lot of other things that she confirmed. He did hold a degree in communications and had put it and his ebullient personality and deviousness to good use. Pearl could find nothing to suggest that he was or had been married, or that he'd fathered any children.
There was a photograph of him posing with half a dozen successful business types in suits, and with correspondingly beautiful women, at some sort of convention two years ago in Miami. His arm was about the waist of a gorgeous blond woman with a dress that looked already ripped half off. The men were identified in the photo but not the women.
Humph, Pearl thought.
She fed the other five men's names into Google and worked for another two hours. Three of the men were fellow lobbyists, one was in insurance, and the other was mayor of a small town in Texas. All innocuous enough.
Yancy seemed never to have crossed swords with the law in any serious manner.
Pearl drained the last of the warm Coke and shut down her computer. Then she closed the laptop's lid, sat back, and smiled as she thought about Yancy.
Passed!
Realizing she was still hungry, she ate another cracker.
What was that? Music?
She listened more closely, fitting the faint notes together. The theme from Dragnet. Coming from her cell phone in her purse, where she'd left it on the arm of the sofa in the living room.
Pearl got up from the table and dashed out of the kitchen. She made a beeline for the phone and snatched it up, flipped it open, and pressed TALK all in the same motion.
'Where are you Pearl?' Quinn asked.
'Climbing into the unmarked, on the way to the office,' Pearl said. Lies, lies, lies.
'You have another destination. We've got another Carver victim.'
One last cracker and Pearl was on her way.
