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.“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
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