Michael Connelly - Chasing the Dime

Pierce felt his face flush with heat. And anger. The long ago arrest was supposed to have been erased from his record. Expunged was the legal term. He had completed the probation and did the 160 hours of public service. That was a long time ago. How did Renner know?

"You're talking about the thing up in Palo Alto?" he asked. "I was never officially charged. It was diverted. I was suspended from school for a semester. I did public service and probation. That was it."

"Arrested on suspicion of impersonating a police officer."

"It was almost fifteen years ago. I was in college."

"But you see what I'm looking at here. Impersonating an officer then. Running around like some kind of detective now. Maybe you've got a hero complex, Mr. Pierce."

"No, this is totally different. What that was back then was I was on the phone, trying to get some information. Social engineering -I was soshing out a number. I acted like I was a campus cop so I could get a phone number. That was it. I don't have a hero complex, whatever that is."

"A phone number for who?"

"A professor. I wanted his home number and it was unlisted. It was nothing."

"The report says you and your friends used the number to persecute the professor. To pull an elaborate prank on him. Five other students were arrested."

"It was harmless but they had to make an example of us. It was when hacking was just getting big. We were all suspended and got probation and community service but the punishment was more severe than the crime. What we did was harmless. It was minor."

"I'm sorry but I don't consider impersonating a police officer to be either harmless or minor."

Pierce was about to protest further but held his tongue. He knew he would not convince Renner. He waited for the next question and after a moment the detective continued.

"Says in the records you did your community service in a DOJ lab in Sacramento. Were you thinking of becoming a cop then or something?"

"It was after I changed my major to chemistry. I just worked in the blood lab. I did typing and matching, basic work. It was far from cop work."

"But it must have been interesting, huh? Dealing with cops, putting together the evidence for important cases. Interesting enough for you to stay on after you did your hours."

"I stayed because they offered me a job and Stanford is expensive. And they didn't give me the important cases. Mostly the cases came to me in FedEx boxes. I did the work and shipped it all back. No big deal. In fact, it was kind of boring."

Renner moved on without transition.

"Your arrest for impersonating an officer also came a year after your name came up on a crime report down here. It's on the computer."

Pierce started to shake his head.

"No. I've never been arrested for anything down here. Just that time up at Stanford."

"I didn't say you were arrested. I said your name's on a crime report. Everything's on computer now. You're a hacker, you know that. You throw in a name and sometimes it's amazing what comes out."

"I am not a hacker. I don't know the first thing about it anymore. And whatever crime report you are talking about, it must be a different Henry Pierce. I don't remem -"

"I don't think so. Kester Avenue in Sherman Oaks? Did you have a sister named Isabelle Pierce?"

Pierce froze. He was amazed that Renner had made the connection.

"The victim of a homicide, May nineteen eighty-eight."

All Pierce could do was nod. It was like a secret was being told, or a bandage ripped off an open wound.

"Believed to have been the victim of a killer known as the Dollmaker, later identified as Norman Church. Case closed with the death of Church, September nine, nineteen ninety."

Case closed, Pierce thought. As if Isabelle were simply a file that could be closed, put in a drawer and forgotten. As if a murder could ever really be solved.

He came out of his thoughts and looked at Renner.

"Yes, my sister. What about it? What's it got to do with this?"

Renner hesitated and then slowly his weary face split into a small smile.

"I suppose it has everything and nothing to do with it."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does. She was older than you, wasn't she?"

"A few years."

"She was a runaway. You used to go look for her, didn't you? Says so on the computer, so it must be right, right? At night. With your dad. He'd -"

"Stepfather."

"Stepfather, then. He'd send you into the abandoned buildings to look because you were a kid and the kids in those squats didn't run from another kid. That's what the report says.

Says you never found her. Nobody did, until it was too late."

Pierce folded his arms and leaned across the table.

"Look, is there a point to this? Because I would really like to get out of here, if you don't mind."

"The point is, you went searching for a lost girl once before, Mr. Pierce. Makes me wonder if you're not trying to make up for something with this girl Lilly. You know what I mean?"

"No," Pierce said in a voice that sounded very small, even to himself.

Renner nodded.

"Okay, Mr. Pierce, you can go. For now. But let me say for the record that I don't believe for a moment you've told me the whole truth here. It's my job to know when people are lying and I think you're lying or leaving things out, or both. But, you know, I don't feel too bad about it, because things like that catch up with a person. I may move slow, Mr.

Pierce. Sure, I kept you waiting in here too long. A fine, upstanding citizen like you. But that's because I am thorough and I'm pretty good at what I do. I'll have the whole picture pretty soon. I guarantee it. And if I find out you crossed any lines in that picture, it's going to be my pleasure, if you know what I mean."

Renner stood up.

"I'll be in touch about that polygraph. And if I were you, I might want to think about going back to that nice new apartment on Ocean Way and staying there and staying away from this, Mr. Pierce."

Pierce stood up and walked awkwardly around the table and Renner to the door. He thought of something before leaving.

"Where's my car?"

"Your car? I guess it's wherever you left it. Go to the front desk. They'll call a cab for you."

"Thanks a lot."

"Good night, Mr. Pierce. I'll be in touch."

As he walked through the deserted squad room to the hallway that led to the front desk and the exit, Pierce checked his watch. It was twelve-thirty. He knew he had to get to Robin before Renner did but her number was in the backpack in his car.

And as he approached the front counter he realized he had no money for a cab. He had given every dollar he had on him to Robin. He hesitated for a moment.

"Can I help you, sir?"

It was the cop behind the counter. Pierce realized he was staring at him.

"No, I'm fine."

He turned and walked out of the police station. On Venice Boulevard he started jogging west toward the beach.

As Pierce went down the alley to his car he saw that Lilly Quinlan's apartment was still a nest of police activity. Several cars were clogging the alley and a mobile light had been set up to spray the front of the apartment with illumination.

He noticed Renner standing out front, conversing with his partner, a detective whose name Pierce did not remember. It meant Renner had probably driven right by Pierce on his way back to the crime scene and had not noticed him or had intentionally decided not to offer him a ride. Pierce chose the second possibility. A cop on the street, even at night, would notice a man jogging in full dress. Renner had purposely gone by him.

Standing -or maybe hiding -next to his car while he cooled down from the jog over, Pierce watched for a few minutes and soon Renner and his partner went back inside the apartment. Pierce finally used the keyless remote to unlock the door of the BMW.