Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly Read Free Book Online Page A

the bottle cap. In the murky light the boy could see the needle scarring on her neck.
    â€˜Just somebody,’ he said.
    She looked away from her work and up to his face, surprised by his voice. She saw the young face in the camouflage of oversized and dirty clothes.
    â€˜You’re a young one,’ she said. ‘You better get out of here before the houseman comes back.’
    The boy knew what she meant. All the squats in Hollywood had somebody in charge. The houseman. He exacted a fee in money or drugs or flesh.
    â€˜He finds you, he’ll bust your cherry ass and put you out on — ’
    She suddenly stopped and blew out the candle, leaving him in the dark. He turned back to the door and the stairs, and all his fears seized up in him like a frst closing on a flower. A silhouette of a man stood at the top of the steps. A big man. Wild hair. The houseman. The boy involuntarily took a step back and tripped over someone’s leg. He fell, the flashlight clattering on the floor next to him and going out.
    The man in the doorway moved and started coming at him.
    â€˜Hanky boy!’ the man yelled. ‘Come here, Hank!’

6
    Pierce awoke at dawn, the sun rescuing him from the dream of running from a man whose face he could not see. He had no curtains in the apartment yet and the light streamed through the windows and burned through his eyelids. He crawled out of the sleeping bag, looked at the photo of Lilly he had left on the floor and went into the shower. When he was finished he had to dry off with two T-shirts he’d dug out of one of the clothing boxes. He’d forgotten to buy towels.
    He walked over to Main Street to get coffee, a citrus smoothie and the newspaper. He read and drank slowly, almost feeling guilty about it. Most Saturdays he was in the lab by dawn.
    When he was finished with the paper it was almost nine. He walked back to the Sands and got into his car, but he didn’t go to the lab as usual.
    Fifteen minutes before ten o’clock Pierce got to the Hollywood address he had written down for L.A. Darlings. The location was a multi-level office complex that looked as legitimate as a McDonald’s. L.A. Darlings was located in Suite 3I0. On the glazed glass door the largest lettering read ENTREPRENEURIAL CONCEPTS UNLIMITED. Beneath this was a listing in smaller letters of ten different websites, including L.A. Darlings, that apparently fell under the Entrepreneurial Concepts umbrella. Pierce could tell by the titling of the site addresses that they were all sexually oriented and part of the Internet’s dark universe of adult entertainment.
    The door was locked but Pierce was a few minutes early. He decided to use the time by taking a walk and thinking about what he was going to say and how he was going to play this.
    â€˜Here, I’ll open it.’
    He turned as a woman approached the door with a key. She was about twenty-five and had crazy blonde hair that seemed to point in all directions. She wore cutoff jeans and sandals and a short shirt that exposed her pierced navel. She had looped over her shoulder a purse that looked big enough to hold a pack of cigarettes but not the matches. And she looked as though ten o’clock was definitely too early for her.
    â€˜You’re early,’ she said.
    â€˜I know,’ Pierce said. ‘I came from the Westside and I thought there’d be more traffic.’
    He followed her in. There was a waiting area with a raised reception counter in front of a partition that guarded an entrance to a rear hallway. To the right and unguarded was a closed door with the word PRIVATE on it. Pierce watched as the woman walked behind the counter and threw her purse into a drawer.
    â€˜You’ll have to wait a couple minutes until I get set up. I’m the only one here today.’
    â€˜Slow on Saturdays?’
    â€˜Most of the time.’
    â€˜Well, who is watching the machines if you’re the only one