Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly Page B

left.
    â€˜Where did you hire a private detective, there in Tampa or out here in L.A.?’
    â€˜Out there. Not much use to hire one here.’
    â€˜How did you hire one out here?’
    â€˜The policeman in Missing Persons sent me a list. I picked from there.’
    â€˜Did you come out here to look for her, Mrs. Quinlan?’
    â€˜I’m not in good health. Doctor says I’ve got emphysema and I’ve got my oxygen that I’m hooked up to. There wasn’t much I could do comin’ out there.’
    Pierce reconstructed his vision of her. The cigarette was gone and the oxygen tube replaced it. The big hair remained. He thought about what else he could ask or what information he might be able to get from the woman.
    â€˜Lilly told me she was sending you money.’
    It was a guess. It seemed to go with the whole mother-daughter relationship.
    â€˜Yes, and if you find her, tell her I’m getting real short about now. I’m real low. I had to give a lot of what I had to Mr. Glass.’
    â€˜Who is Mr. Glass?’
    â€˜He’s the private detective I hired. But I don’t hear from him anymore. Now that I can’t pay him anymore.’
    â€˜Can you give me his full name and a number for him?’
    â€˜I have to look it up.’
    She put down the phone and it was two minutes before she came back and gave him the number and address for the private investigator. His full name was Philip Glass. His office was in Culver City.
    â€˜Mrs. Quinlan, are there any other contacts you have for Lilly out here? Any friends or anything like that?’
    â€˜No, she never gave me any numbers or told me about any friends. Except she once mentioned this girl Robin who she worked with sometimes. Robin was from New Orleans and they had stuff in common, she told me.’
    â€˜Did she say what?’
    â€˜I think they both had the same kind of trouble with men in their family when they were young. That’s what I expect she meant.’
    â€˜I understand.’
    Pierce was trying to think like a detective. Vivian Quinlan seemed like an important piece of the puzzle, yet he could not think of anything else to ask her. She was three thousand miles away and was obviously kept literally and figuratively distant from her daughter’s world. He looked down at the phone book on the desk in front of him and finally came up with something to ask.
    â€˜Does the name Wainwright mean anything to you, Mrs. Quinlan? Did Lilly or Mr. Glass ever mention that name?’
    â€˜Um, no. Mr. Glass didn’t mention any names. Who is it?’
    â€˜I don’t know. It’s just someone she knew, I guess.’
    That was it. He had nothing else.
    â€˜Okay, Mrs. Quinlan, I’m going to keep trying to find her and I’ll tell her to call you when I do.’
    â€˜I’d appreciate that and make sure you tell her about the money, that I’m getting real low.’
    â€˜Right. I will.’
    He hung up and thought for a few moments about what he knew. Probably too much about Lilly. It made him feel depressed and sad. He hoped one of her clients did take her away with a promise of riches and luxury. Maybe she was in Hawaii somewhere or in a rich man’s penthouse in Paris.
    But he doubted it.
    â€˜Guys in tuxedos,’ he said out loud.
    â€˜What?’
    He looked up. Charlie Condon was standing in the door. Pierce had left it open.
    â€˜Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself. What are you doing here?’
    He realized that Lilly Quinlan’s phone book and the mail were spread in front of him. He nonchalantly picked up the daily planner he kept on the desk, looked at it like he was checking a date and then put it down on top of the envelopes with her name on them.
    â€˜I called your new number and got Monica. She said you were supposed to be here while she waited for furniture to be delivered. But nobody answered in the lab or in your office, so I came