Chasing the Dime

18

Cathode Ray's was a hangout for the tech generation -usually everybody in the place had a laptop or a PDA on the table next to their double latte. The place was open twentyfour hours a day and provided power and high-speed phone jacks at every table.

Connections to local Internet service providers only. It was close to Santa Monica College and the film production and fledgling software districts of the Westside, and it had no corporate affiliations. These combined to make it a popular place with the plugged-in set.

Pierce had been there on many prior occasions, yet he thought it an odd choice by Glass for the meeting. Glass sounded like an older man over the phone, his voice gravelly and tired. If that was the case, then he would stand out in a place like Cathode Ray's.

Considering the paranoia that had come over the phone line from him, it seemed strange for him to have picked the coffee shop for the meeting.

At three o'clock Pierce entered Cathode Ray's and took a quick scan around the place for an older man. No one stood out. No one looked at him. He got in line for coffee.

Before leaving the office, he had dumped what change remained in his desk mug into his pocket. He counted it out while waiting and concluded that he had just enough for a basic coffee, medium size, with a little left over for the tip jar.

After hitting the cup with heavy doses of cream and sugar, he moved out to the patio area and selected an empty table in the corner. He sipped his coffee slowly but it was still twenty minutes before he was approached by a short man in black jeans and a black Tshirt. He had a clean-shaven face and dark, hard eyes that were deeply set. He was much younger than Pierce had guessed, maybe late thirties at the most. He had no coffee, he had come straight to the table.

"Mr. Pierce?"

Pierce offered his hand.

"Mr. Glass?"

Glass pulled out the other chair and sat down. He leaned across the table.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to see your ID," he said.

Pierce put his cup down and started digging in his pocket for his wallet.

"Probably a good idea," he said. "Mind if I look at yours?"

After both men had convinced themselves they were sitting with the right party, Pierce leaned back and studied Glass. He seemed to Pierce to be a large man stuck in a small man's body. He exuded intensity. It was as if his skin were stretched too tight over his whole body.

"Do you want to get a coffee before we start to talk?"

"No, I don't use caffeine."

That seemed to figure.

"Then I guess we should get to it. What's with all the spook stuff?"

"Excuse me?"

"You know, the 'make sure you're alone' and 'what do you do for a living' stuff. It all seems to be a little strange."

Before speaking, Glass nodded as if he agreed.

"What do you know about Lilly Quinlan?"

"I know what she was doing for a living, if that's what you mean."

"And what was that?"

"She was an escort. She advertised through the Internet. I'm pretty sure she worked for a guy named Billy Wentz. He's sort of a digital pimp. He runs the website where she kept a page. I think he set her up in other things -porno sites, stuff like that. I think she was involved in the S and M scene as well."

The mention of Wentz seemed to bring a new intensity to Glass's face. He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward.

"Have you spoken to Mr. Wentz yourself?"

Pierce shook his head.

"No, but I tried to. I went to Entrepreneurial Concepts yesterday -that's his umbrella company. I asked to see him but he wasn't there. Why do I feel like I am telling you things you already know? Look, I want to ask questions here, not answer them."

"There is little I can tell you. I specialize in missing-persons investigations. I was recommended to Vivian Quinlan by someone I know in the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit. It went from there. She paid me for a week's work. I didn't find Lilly or much else about her disappearance."

Pierce considered this for a long moment. He was an amateur and he had found out quite a bit in less than forty-eight hours. He doubted that Glass was as inept as he was presenting himself to be.

"You did know about the website, right? L.A. Darlings?"

"Yes. I was told she was working as an escort and it was pretty easy to find her. L.A.

Darlings is one of the more popular sites, you could say."

"Did you find her house? Did you talk to her landlord?"

"No and no."

"What about Lucy LaPorte?"

"Who?"

"She uses the name Robin on the website. Her page is linked to Lilly's."

"Oh, yes, Robin. Yes, I spoke to her on the phone. It was very brief. She was not cooperative."

Pierce was suspicious of whether Glass had really called. It seemed to him Lucy would have mentioned that an investigator had already inquired about Lilly. He planned to check with her about the supposed call.

"How long ago was that? The call to Robin."

Glass shrugged.

"Three weeks. It was at the beginning of my week of work. She was one of the first I called."

"Did you go see her?"

"No, other things came up. And at the end of the week Mrs. Quinlan was not willing to pay me for further work on the case. That was it for me."

"What other things came up?"

Glass didn't respond.

"You talked to Wentz, didn't you?"

Glass looked down at his folded arms but didn't reply.

"What did he tell you?"

Glass cleared his throat.

"Listen to me very carefully, Mr. Pierce. You want to stay clear of Billy Wentz."

"Why?"

"Because he is a dangerous man. Because you are moving in an area that you know nothing about. You could get very seriously hurt if you are not careful."

"Is that what happened to you. Did you get hurt?"

"We are not talking about me. We are talking about you."

A man with an iced latte sat down at the table nearest them. Glass looked over and studied him with paranoid eyes. The man took a PalmPilot out of his pocket and opened it. He slid out the stylus and went to work on the device. He paid no mind to Glass or Pierce.

"I want to know what happened when you went to see Wentz," Pierce said.

Glass unfolded his arms and rubbed his hands together.

"Do you know…"

He stopped and didn't go on. Pierce had to prompt him.

"Know what?"

"Do you know that so far the only place in which the Internet is significantly profitable is in the adult entertainment sectors?"

"I've heard that. What does -"

"Ten billion dollars a year is made off the electronic sex trade in this country. A lot of it is over the net. It's big business, with ties to top-flight corporate America. It's everywhere, available on every computer, on every TV. Turn on the TV and order hardcore porn courtesy of AT amp;T. Go online and order a woman like Lilly Quinlan to your door."

Glass's voice took on a fervor that reminded Pierce of a priest in a pulpit.

"Do you know that Wentz sells franchises across the country? I inquired. Fifty thousand dollars a city. There is now a New York Darlings and a Vegas Darlings. Miami, Seattle, Denver and on and on. Linked to these sites he has porn sites for every imaginable sexual persuasion and fetish. He -"

"I know all of that," Pierce broke in. "But what I am interested in is Lilly Quinlan. What does all of that have to do with what happened to her?"

"I don't know," Glass said. "But what I am trying to tell you is that there is too much money at stake here. Stay away from Billy Wentz."

Pierce leaned back and looked at Glass.

"He got to you, didn't he? What did he do, threaten you?"

Glass shook his head. He wasn't going to go there.

"Forget about me. I came here today to try to help you. To warn you about how close you are to the fire. Stay away from Wentz. I can't stress that enough. Stay away."

Pierce could see in his eyes the sincerity of the warning. And the fear. Pierce had no doubt that Wentz had in some way gotten to Glass and scared him off the Quinlan case.

"Okay," he said. "I'll keep clear."