Chasing the Dime

24

On Wednesday morning Pierce was on the phone with Charlie Condon when a woman in a gray suit walked into his hospital room. She handed him a card that said JANIS

LANGWISER, ATTORNEY AT LAW on it. He cupped his hand over the phone and told her he was wrapping up the call.

"Charlie, I've got to go. My doctor just came in. Just tell him we have to do it over the weekend or next week."

"Henry, I can't. He wants to see Proteus before we send in the patent. I don't want to delay that and you don't, either. Besides, you've met Maurice. He won't be put off."

"Just call him again and try to delay it."

"I will. I'll try. I'll call you back."

Charlie hung up and Pierce clipped the phone back into the bed's side guard. He tried to smile at Langwiser but his face was sorer than it had been the day before and it hurt to smile. She put out her hand and he shook it.

"Janis Langwiser. Pleased to meet you."

"Henry Pierce. I can't say the circumstances make it a pleasure to meet you."

"That's usually the way it is with criminal defense work."

He had already gotten her pedigree from Jacob Kaz. Langwiser handled the criminal defense work for the small but influential downtown firm of Smith, Levin, Colvin amp;

Enriquez. The firm was so exclusive, according to Kaz, that it wasn't listed in any phone book. Its clients were A-list, but even people on that list still needed criminal defense from time to time. That's where Langwiser came in. She'd been hired away from the district attorney's office a year earlier, after a career that included prosecuting some of Los Angeles 's higher-profile cases of recent years. Kaz told Pierce that the firm was taking him as a client as a means of establishing a relationship with him, a relationship that would be mutually beneficial as Amedeo Technologies moved toward going public in years to come. Pierce didn't tell Kaz that there would be no eventual public offering or even an Amedeo Technologies if this situation wasn't handled properly.

After polite inquiries about Pierce's injuries and prognosis, Langwiser asked him why he thought he needed a criminal defense attorney.

"Because there is a police detective out there who believes I'm a killer. He told me he was going to the DA's office to try to charge me with a number of crimes, including murder."

"An L.A. cop? What's his name?"

"Renner. I don't think he ever told me his first name. Or I don't remember it. I have his card but I never looked at -"

"Robert. I know him. He works out of Pacific Division. He's been around a long time."

"You know him from a case?"

"Early in my career at the DA I filed cases. I filed a few that he brought in. He seemed like a good cop. I think thorough is the word I would use."

"It's actually the word he uses."

"He's going to the DA for a murder charge?"

"I'm not sure. There's no body. But he said he was going to charge me with other stuff first. Breaking and entering, he says. Obstruction of justice. I guess he'll try to make a case for the murder after that. I don't know how much is bullshit threats and how much he can do. But I didn't kill anybody, so I need a lawyer."

She frowned and nodded thoughtfully. She gestured to his face.

"Is this thing with Renner in any way related to your injuries?"

Pierce nodded.

"Why don't we start at the beginning."

"Do we have an attorney-client relationship at this point?"

"Yes, we do. You can speak freely."

Pierce nodded. He spent the next thirty minutes telling her the story in as much detail as he could remember. He freely told her about everything he had done, including the crimes he had committed. He left nothing out.

As he talked Langwiser leaned against the equipment counter. She took notes with an expensive-looking pen on a yellow legal pad she took from a black leather bag that was either an oversized purse or an undersized briefcase. Her whole manner exuded expensive confidence. When Pierce was finished telling the story, she went back to the part about what Renner had called an admission from him. She asked several questions, first about the tone of the conversation at that point, what medications Pierce was on at the time and what ill effect from the attack and surgery he was feeling. She then asked specifically what he had meant by saying it was his fault.

"I meant my sister, Isabelle."

"I don't understand."

"She died. A long time ago."

"Come on, Henry, don't make me guess about this. I want to know."

He shrugged now, and this hurt his shoulder and ribs.

"She ran away from home when we were kids. Then she got killed… by some guy who had killed a lot of people. Girls he picked up in Hollywood. Then he got killed by the police and that… was it."

"A serial killer… when was this?"

"The eighties. He was called the Dollmaker. They all get names from newspapers, you know? Back then, at least."

He could see Langwiser reviewing her contemporary history.

"I remember the Dollmaker. I was at UCLA law school back then. I later knew the detective who was the one who shot him. He just retired this year."

Her thoughts seemed to drift with the memory, then she came back.

"Okay. So how did that get confused with Lilly Quinlan in your conversation with Detective Renner?"

"Well, I've been thinking about my sister a lot lately. Since this thing with Lilly came up.

I think it's the reason I did what I did."

"You mean you think you are responsible for your sister? How can that be, Henry?"

Pierce waited a moment before speaking. He carefully put the story together in his mind.

Not the whole story. Just the part he wanted to tell her. He left out the part that he could never tell a stranger.

"My stepfather and I, we used to go down there. We lived in the Valley and we'd go down to Hollywood and look for her. At night. Sometimes during the day, but mostly at night."

Pierce stared at the blank screen of the television mounted on the wall across the room.

He spoke as though he were seeing the story on the screen and repeating it to her.

"I would dress up in old clothes so I would look like them -one of the street kids. My stepfather would send me into the places where the kids hid and slept, where they would have sex for money or do drugs. Whatever…"

"Why you? Why didn't your stepfather go in?"

"At the time, he told me that it was because I was a kid and I could fit in and be allowed in. If a man walked into one of those places by himself, everybody might run. Then we'd lose her."

He stopped talking and Langwiser waited but then had to prompt him.

"You said at the time he told you that was the reason. What did he tell you later?"

Pierce shook his head. She was good. She had picked up the subtleties of his telling of the story.

"Nothing. It's just that… I think… I mean, she ran away for a reason. The police said she was on drugs but I think that came after. After she was on the street."

"You think your stepfather was the reason she ran away."

She said it as a statement and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. He thought about what Lilly Quinlan's mother had said about what her daughter and the woman she knew as Robin had in common.

"What did he do to her?"

"I don't know and it doesn't matter now."

"Then why would you say to Renner that it was your fault? Why do you think what happened to your sister was your fault?"

"Because I didn't find her. All those nights looking and I never found her. If only…"

He said it without conviction or emphasis. It was a lie. The truth he would not tell this woman he had known for only an hour.

Langwiser looked like she wanted to go further with it but also seemed to know she was already stretching a personal boundary with him.

"Okay, Henry. I think it helps explain things -both your actions in regard to Lilly Quinlan's disappearance and your statement to Renner."

He nodded.

"I am sorry about your sister. In my old job dealing with the families of the victims was the most difficult part. At least you got some closure. The man who did this certainly got what he deserved."

Pierce tried a sarcastic smile but it hurt too much.

"Yeah, closure. Makes everything better."

"Is your stepfather alive? Your parents?"

"My stepfather is. Last I heard. I don't talk to him, not in a long time. My mother is not with him anymore. She still lives in the Valley. I haven't talked to her in a long time, either."

"Where's your father?"

"Oregon. He's got a second family. But we stay in touch. Of all of them, he's the only one I talk to."

She nodded. She studied her notes for a long period, flipping back the pages on the pad as she reviewed everything he had said from the start of the conversation. She then finally looked up at him.

"Well, I think it's all bullshit."

Pierce shook his head.

"No, I'm telling you exactly how it hap -"

"No, I mean Renner. I think he's bullshitting. There's nothing there. He's not going to charge you with these lesser crimes. He'd get laughed right out of the DA's office on the B and E. What was your intent? To steal? No, it was to make sure she was okay. They don't know about the mail you took and they can't prove it anyway, because it's gone. As far as the obstruction goes, that's just an idle threat. People lie and hold back with the police all the time. It's expected. To try to charge somebody for it is another matter. I can't even remember the last obstruction case that went to court. At least there were none I remember when I was in the office."

"What about the tape? I was confused. He said what I said was an admission."

"He was playing you. Trying to rattle you and see how you'd react, maybe get a more damaging admission out of you. I would have to listen to the statement to get a full take on it, but it sounds as though it is marginal, that your explanation in regard to your sister is certainly legitimate and would be perceived that way by a jury. Add in that I am sure that you were under the influence of a variety of medications and you -"

"This can never go to a jury. If it does, I'm finished. I'm ruined."

"I understand that. But a jury's view is still the way to look at this because that is how the DA will look at it when considering potential charges. The last thing they will do is go into a case knowing a jury isn't going to buy it."

"There is nothing to buy. I didn't do it. I just tried to find out if she was all right. That's all."

Langwiser nodded but didn't seem particularly interested in his protestations of innocence. Pierce had always heard that good defense attorneys were never as interested in the ultimate question of their clients' guilt or innocence as they were in the strategy of defense. They practiced law, not justice. Pierce found this frustrating because he wanted Langwiser to acknowledge his innocence and then go out and fight to defend it.

"First of all," she said, "with no body, it is very difficult to make a case against anybody.

It is doable but very difficult -especially in this case, when you consider the victim's lifestyle and source of income. I mean, she could be anywhere. And if she is dead, then the suspect list is going to be very long.

"Second, his tying your break-in at one scene to a possible homicide at another scene is not going to work. That's a stretch that I cannot see the DA's office being willing to make. Remember, I worked there and bringing cops down to reality was half the work. I think that unless things change in a big way, you'll be okay, Henry. On all of it."

"What big way?"

"Like they find the body. Like they find the body and somehow link it to you."

Pierce shook his head.

"Nothing will link it to me. I never met her."

"Then good. Then you should be in the clear."

"Should be?"

"Nothing is ever a hundred percent. Especially in the law. We'll still have to wait and see."

Langwiser reviewed her notes for a few more moments before speaking again.

"Okay," she finally said. "Now, let's call Detective Renner."

Pierce raised his eyebrows -what was left of them -and it hurt. He winced and said,

"Call him? Why?"

"To put him on notice that you have representation and to see what he has to say for himself."

She took a cell phone out of her case and opened it.

"I think I have his card in my wallet," Pierce said. "It should be in the table drawer."

"It's all right, I remember the number."

Her call to the Pacific Division was answered quickly and she asked for Renner. It took a few minutes but she finally got him on the line. While she waited she turned up the volume on the phone and angled it from her ear so Pierce could hear both ends of the conversation. She pointed at him and then put her fingers to her lips, telling him not to enter the conversation.

"Hey, Bob, Janis Langwiser. Remember me?"

After a pause Renner said, "Sure. I heard you went over to the dark side, though."

"Very funny. Listen, I'm over here at St. John's. I was visiting with Henry Pierce."

Another pause.

"Henry Pierce, the Good Samaritan. Longtime rescuer of missing whores and lost pets."

Pierce felt his face redden.

"You are just full of good humor today, Bob," Langwiser said dryly. "That's a new wrinkle with you, isn't it?"

"Henry Pierce is the joker, the stories he tells."

"Well, that's why I'm calling. No more stories from Henry, Bob. I am representing him and he's no longer talking to you. You blew the chance you had."

Pierce looked up at Langwiser and she winked at him.

"I didn't blow anything," Renner protested. "Anytime he wants to start telling me the complete and true story, I'm here. Otherwise -"

"Look, Detective, you're more interested in busting my guy's chops than figuring out what really happened. That's got to stop. Henry Pierce is now out of your loop. And another thing, you try to take this to court and I'm going to shove that two-tape-recorders trick up your ass."

"I told him I was recording," Renner protested. "I read him his rights and he said he understood them. That is all I'm required to do. I did nothing illegal during his voluntary interview."

"Maybe not per se, Bob. But judges and juries don't like the cops tricking people. They like a clean game."

Now there was a long pause from Renner, and Pierce was beginning to think that Langwiser was going too far, that she might push the detective into seeking a charge against him out of pure anger or resentment.

"You really did cross over, didn't you?" Renner finally said. "I hope you'll be happy over there."

"Well, if I only get clients like Henry Pierce, people who were just trying to do a good thing, then I will be."

"A good thing? I wonder if Lucy LaPorte thinks what he did was a good thing."

"Did he find her?" Pierce blurted out.

Langwiser immediately held her hand up to quiet him.

"Is that Mr. Pierce there? I didn't know we had him listening in, Janis. Speaking of tricks, that was nice of you to tell me."

"I didn't have to."

"And I didn't have to tell him about the second recorder once I told him the conversation was being recorded. So shove that up your ass. I gotta go."

"Wait. Did you find Lucy LaPorte?"

"That's official police business, ma'am. You stay in your loop and I'll stay in mine.

Good-bye now."

Renner hung up and Langwiser closed her phone.

"I told you not to say anything."

"Sorry. It's just that I've been trying to reach her since Sunday. I wish I could just find out where she is and whether she's okay or needs help. If anything's happened, it's my fault."

There I go again, he thought. Finding my own fault in things, offering public admissions of guilt.

Langwiser didn't seem to notice. She was putting away her phone and notebook.

"I'll make some calls on it. I know some people in Pacific that are a little bit more cooperative than Detective Renner. Like his boss, for example."

"Will you call me as soon as you find out something?"

"I have your numbers. Meantime, you stay away from all of this. With any luck, that call will scare Renner away for the time being, maybe make him second-guess his moves.

You're not out of the woods on this yet, Henry. I think you're almost in the clear but other things could still happen. Keep your head down and stay away from it."

"Okay, I will."

"And next time the doctor comes in, get a list of the specific drugs that would have been in your system when Renner recorded you."

"Okay."

"Do you know when you are getting out of here yet?"

"Supposed to be anytime now."

Pierce looked at his watch. He'd been waiting almost two hours for Dr. Hansen to sign him out.

He looked back at Langwiser. She looked ready to go. But she was looking at him like she wanted to ask something but wasn't sure how to ask it.

"What?"

"I don't know. I was just thinking that it was a long jump in your thinking. When you were just a boy, I mean, and you thought your stepfather was the reason your sister left."

Pierce didn't say anything.

"Anything else you want to tell me about that?"

Pierce looked up at the blank television screen again and saw nothing there. He shook his head.

"No, that's about it."

He doubted he had gotten the line by her. He assumed that criminal defense lawyers dealt with liars as a matter of course and were as expert at picking up the subtleties of eye movement and body inflection as machines designed for it. But Langwiser simply nodded and let it slide.

"Well, I need to go. I have an arraignment downtown."

"Okay. Thanks for coming to see me here. That was nice."

"Part of the service. I'll make some calls while I'm driving in and let you know what I hear about Lucy LaPorte or anything else. But meantime, you really need to stay away from this. Okay? Go back to work."

Pierce held his hands up in surrender.

"I'm done with it."

She smiled professionally and left the room.

Pierce detached the phone from the bed's side guard and was punching in Cody Zeller's number when Nicole James stepped into the room. He put the phone back in its place.

Nicole had agreed to come by to drive Pierce home after he was checked out by Dr.

Hansen and released. She silently registered pain as she studied Pierce's damaged face.

She had visited him often during his hospital stay but it seemed as though she could not get used to seeing the stitch zippers.

Pierce had actually taken her frowns and sympathetic murmurings as a good sign. He would consider it to have been worth all the trouble if it got them back together.

"Poor baby," she said, lightly patting his cheek. "How do you feel?"

"Pretty good," he told her. "But I'm still waiting on the doctor to sign me out. Almost two hours now."

"I'll go out and check on things."

She went back to the door but looked back at Pierce.

"Who was that woman?"

"What woman?"

"Who just left your room."

"Oh, she's my lawyer. Kaz got her for me."

"Why do you need her if you have Kaz?"

"She's a criminal defense lawyer."

She stepped away from the door and went back closer to the bed.

"Criminal defense lawyer? Henry, people who get wrong numbers usually don't need lawyers. What is going on?"

Pierce shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't really know anymore. I got into something and now I'm just trying to get out in one piece. Let me ask you something."

He got off the bed and walked up to her. His balance was off at first but then he was okay. He lightly touched her forearms with his hands. A suspicious look came across her face.

"What?"

"When we leave here, where are you taking me?"

"Henry, I told you, I'm taking you home. Your home."

Even with the puffiness and the road map of stitches, his disappointment was visibly evident.

"Henry, we agreed to at least try this. So let's try."

"I just thought…"

He didn't finish. He didn't know exactly what he thought or how to put it into words.

"You seem to think that what happened with us all happened so quickly," she said. "And that it can be fixed quickly."

She turned and headed back toward the door.

"And I'm wrong."

She looked back at him.

"Months, Henry, and you know it. Maybe longer. We hadn't been good together in a long, long time."

She went through the door to look for the doctor. Pierce sat on the bed and tried to remember the time they were on the Ferris wheel and everything seemed so perfect in the world.