Michael Connelly - Chasing the Dime

"You'd better. And under the law he had to file what is called a search warrant return within forty-eight hours. It basically is a receipt for anything that was taken by police in the search."

"Did he?"

"Yes, he filed it and I got a copy. It wasn't sealed -he made a mistake on that. Anyway, it lists personal property that was taken, things like a hairbrush for DNA sampling, on and on. Many items were taken for fingerprint analysis. Pieces of mail, desk drawers, jewelry, perfume bottles, even sexual devices found in drawers."

Pierce was silent. He remembered the perfume bottle he had picked up while in the house. Could such a simple thing now be used to help convict him? He felt his insides churning, his face felt flush.

"You're not saying anything, Henry."

"I know. I'm just thinking."

"Don't tell me you touched these sexual devices."

Pierce shook his head.

"No, I didn't even see them. I did pick up a perfume bottle, though."

He heard her exhale.

"What?"

"Why did you pick up a perfume bottle?"

"I don't know. I just did. It reminded me of something, I guess. Of someone. What is the big deal? How does picking up a bottle of perfume equate with murder?"

"It's part of a circumstantial net. You told the police you went into the house to check on her, to see if she was all right."

"I told them that because that's what I did."

"Well, did you tell them that you also were picking up her perfume bottles and sniffing them? Were you looking through her underwear drawer, too?"

Pierce didn't respond. He felt like he might throw up. He leaned down and pulled the trash can from under the desk and put it on the floor next to his chair.

"Henry, I'm acting like a prosecutor with you because I need you to see the perilous path you are on. Anything you say or do can be twisted. It can look one way to you and completely different to someone else."

"Okay, okay. How long before they do the fingerprint stuff?"

"Probably a few days. Without a body, this case is probably not a priority to anyone other than Renner. I heard his own partner is working on other things, that they aren't seeing eye to eye on this and Renner's going it alone."

"Is the partner your source?"

"I'm not talking to you about my source."

They were both silent for a while. Pierce had nothing more to say but felt a sense of hope as long as he was connected to Langwiser.

"I'm putting together a list of people we can talk to," she finally said.

"What do you mean?"

"A list of people associated in some way with the case and questions to ask them. You know, if we need to."

"I get it."

He knew she meant if he was arrested and charged. If he was brought to trial.

"So let me work on things for a little while," Langwiser said. "I'll call you back if anything else comes up."

Pierce finally said good-bye and hung up. He then sat without moving in his chair as he thought about the information he had just been given. Renner was making his move.

Even without a body. Pierce knew he had to call Nicole and somehow explain that the police believed he was a murderer and the likelihood was that they would be coming to search the home they had shared.

The thought of it sent another wave of sickness through him. He looked down at the trash can. He was about to get up to go get some water or a can of Coke when there was a knock on his door.

Charlie Condon poked his head into the office. He was beaming. His smile was as wide and hard as the concrete bed of the L.A. River.

"You did it, man. You fucking did it!"

Pierce swallowed and tried to separate himself from the feelings the phone call had left.

"We all did it," he said. "Where is Goddard?"

Condon stepped all the way in and closed the door. Pierce noticed he had loosened his tie after all the champagne.

"He's in my office, talking to his lawyer on the phone."

"I thought Just Bitchy was his lawyer."

"She's a lawyer but not a lawyer lawyer, if you know what I mean."

Pierce was finding it difficult to listen to Condon because thoughts about the call from Langwiser kept intruding.

"You want to hear his opening offer?"

Pierce looked up at Condon and nodded.

"He wants to buy in for twenty over four years. He wants twelve points and he wants to be chairman of the board."

Pierce forced the image of Renner out of his mind and concentrated on Condon's smiling face. The offer from Goddard was good. Not quite there, but good.

"That's not bad, Charlie."

"Not bad? It's great!"

Condon sounded like Tony the Tiger, accenting the last word too loudly. He'd drunk too much champagne.

"Well, it's only an opener. It's got to get better."

"I know. It will. I wanted to check with you on a couple things. First, the chair. Do you care about that?"

"Not if you don't."

Condon was currently the chairman of the company's board of directors. But it wasn't a board with any real power, because Pierce still controlled the company. Condon held 10 percent, they had chipped out another 8 percent to prior investors -no one in the Maurice Goddard class -and employee compensation accounted for another 10. The rest -72 percent of the company -still belonged to Pierce. So giving Goddard the chair of a largely ceremonial advisory board didn't seem to be giving away much of anything.

"I say give it to him, make him happy," Condon said. "Now, what about the points? If I can get him to go to twenty million over three years, will you give him the points?"

Pierce shook his head.

"No. The difference between ten and twelve points could end up being a couple hundred million dollars. I'm keeping the points. And if you get the twenty over three years, great.

But he's got to give us a minimum of eighteen million over three, or send him back to New York."

"It's a tall order."

"Look, we've been over this. Our burn rate right now as we speak is three million a year.

If we want to expand and keep ahead of the pack, we're going to need double that. Six million a year is the threshold. Go work it out."

"You're only giving me the chair to work with."

"No, I only gave you the invention of the decade to work with. Charlie, did you see that guy's eyes after we put the lights back on? He's not only hooked. He's gutted and already in the frying pan. You're only nailing down details now. So go close the deal and get the first check into escrow. No extra points and get the six a year. We need it to do the work.

If he wants to ride with us, that's the price of the ticket."

"Okay, I'll get it. But you ought to come do it yourself. You're a better closer than me."

"Not likely."

Condon left the room then and Pierce was alone with his thoughts again. Once more he reviewed everything Langwiser had told him. Renner was going to search his homes and car. Search the car again. Officially and legally this time. Probably to search for small evidence, evidence likely left behind during the transport of a body.

"Jesus," he said out loud.

He decided to analyze his situation in the same way he would analyze an experiment in the lab. From the bottom up. Look at it one way and then turn it and look at it another way. Grind it to powder and then look at it under the glass.

Believe nothing about it at the start.

He got out his notebook and wrote down the key elements of his conversation with Langwiser on a fresh page.

Search: apartment Amalfi Car -second time -material evidence Office/Lab?

Search warrant return: fingerprints Everywhere -perfume He stared at the page but no answers and no new questions came to him. Finally, he tore the page out, crumpled it and threw it toward the trash can in the corner of the room. He missed.