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.
13
Pierce drove and Robin directed. It was a short trip from the Marina to Speedway in Venice. He tried to make the best use of his time on the way over. But he knew Robin was reluctant to talk.
'So, you're not an independent, are you?'
'What are you talking about?'
'You work for Wentz -the guy who runs the website. He's what I guess you'd call a digital pimp. He sets you girls up in that place, runs your web page. How much does he get? I saw on the site he charges four hundred a month to run your picture but I have a feeling he gets a lot more than that. Guy like that, he probably owns the apartment building and the smoothie shop.'
She didn't say anything.
'He gets a share of that first four hundred I gave you, doesn't he?'
'Look, I'm not talking to you about him. You'll get me killed, too. When we get to her place, that's it. We're done. I'll take a cab.'
'Too?'
She was silent.
'What do you know about what happened to Lilly?'
'Nothing.'
'Then why did you say 'too' just then?'
'Look, man, if you knew what was smart for you, you'd leave this thing alone, too. Go back to the square world, where it's nice and safe. You don't know these people or what they can do.'
'I have an idea.'
'Yeah? How would you have any fucking idea?'
'I had a sister once…'
'And?'
'And you could say she was in your line of work.'
He looked away from the road to Robin. She kept her eyes straight ahead.
'One morning a school bus driver up on Mulholland spotted her body down past the guardrail. I was away at Stanford at the time.'
He looked back at the road.
'It's a funny thing about this city,' he continued after a while. 'She was lying out there in the open like that, naked… and the cops said they could tell by the… evidence that she had been there at least a couple days. And I always wondered how many people saw her, you know? Saw her and didn't do anything about it. Didn't call anybody. This city can be pretty cold sometimes.'
'Any city can.'
He glanced back at her. He could see the distress in her eyes, like she was looking at a chapter from her own life. A possible final chapter.
'Did they ever catch the guy?' she asked.
'Eventually. But not until after he killed four more.'
She shook her head.
'What are you doing here, Henry? That story has got nothing to do with any of this.'
'I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just… following something.'
'Good way to get yourself hurt.'
'Look, nobody's going to know you talked to me. Just tell me, what did you hear about Lilly?'
Silence.
'She wanted to get out, didn't she? She made enough money, she was going to go to school. She wanted to get out of the life.'
'Everybody wants to get out. You think we enjoy it?'
Pierce felt ashamed of the way he was pushing her. The way he had used her hadn't been too different from the rest of her paying customers.
'I'm sorry,' he said.
'No, you're not. You're just like the others. You want something and you're desperate for it. Only I can give you the other thing a lot easier than I can give you what you want.'
He was silent.
'Turn left up here and go down to the end. There's only one parking space for her unit.
She used to leave it open for the client.'
He turned off Speedway as instructed and was in an alley behind rows of small apartments on either side. They looked like four-to-six-unit buildings with three-footwide walking alleys in between. It was crowded. It was the kind of neighborhood where one barking dog could set everybody on edge.
When he got to the last building, Robin said, 'Somebody took it.'
She pointed to a car parking in a spot below a stairway to an apartment door.
'That's the place up there.'
'Is that her car?'
'No, she had a Lexus.'
Right. He remembered what Wainwright had said. The car in the space was a Volvo wagon. Pierce backed up and squeezed his BMW between two rows of trash cans. It wasn't a legal space but cars could still get past in the alley and he wasn't expecting to be there long.
'You'll have to climb over and get out this side.'
'Great. Thanks.'
They got out, Pierce holding the door as Robin climbed over the seats. As soon as she was out she started heading back down the alley toward Speedway.
'Wait,' Pierce said. 'This way.'
'No, I'm finished. I'm walking back to Speedway and catching a cab.'
Pierce could have argued with her about it but decided to let her go.
'Look, thanks for your help. If I find her, I'll let you know.'
'Who, Lilly or your sister?'
That gave him pause for a moment. From those you least expect it comes insight.
'You going to be all right?' he called after her.
She suddenly stopped, turned and strode back to him, the anger flaring in her eyes again.
'Look, don't pretend you care about me, okay? That phony shit is more disgusting than the men who want to come on my face. At least they're honest about it.'
She turned and walked off again down the alley. Pierce watched her for a few moments to see if she'd look back at him but she didn't. She kept on going, pulling a cell phone out of her purse so she could call a cab.
He walked around the Volvo and noticed that blankets in the back were used to cover the tops of two cardboard boxes and other bulky items he couldn't see. He climbed the stairs to Lilly's apartment. When he got there he saw that the door was ajar. He leaned over the railing and looked up the alley but Robin was almost to Speedway and too far to call to.
He turned back to the door and leaned his head in close to the jamb but he didn't hear anything. With one finger he pushed the door, remaining on the porch as it swung inward.
As it opened he could see a sparsely furnished living room with a stairway going up the far wall to a loft. Under the loft was a small kitchen with a pass-through window to the living room. Through the pass-through he could see the torso of a man, moving about and putting liquor bottles into a box on the counter.
Pierce leaned forward and looked in without actually entering the apartment. He saw three cardboard boxes on the floor of the living room but there seemed to be no one else in the apartment except the man in the kitchen.
