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as she wrote down an address on the notepad. He was ecstatic but didn’t show it. When she hung up she handed him the pad and the phone.
    Pierce checked the address — it was in Venice — then tore the page off the pad, folded it and put it in his pocket.
    â€˜Curt seemed like a nice guy,’ Monica said. ‘I feel bad about lying to him.’
    â€˜You could always go visit him and ask him out for a date. I’ve seen him. Believe me, one date with you would make him happy the rest of his life.’
    â€˜You’ve seen him? Were you the one he was talking about? He said a guy was in there and wanted my mailbox. I mean, Lilly Quinlan’s mailbox.’
    â€˜Yeah, that was me. That’s how I — ’
    The phone rang and he answered it. But the caller hung up. Pierce looked at the caller ID directory. The call had come from the Ritz-Carlton in the Marina.
    â€˜Look,’ he said, ‘you need to leave the phone plugged in so when the furniture comes, security can call up here for approval to let them up. But meantime, you’re probably going to get a lot of calls for Lilly. Since you’re a woman, they’re going to think you’re her. So you might want to say something right off like “This isn’t Lilly, you’ve got the wrong number.” Something like that. Otherwise — ’
    â€˜Well, maybe I should pretend I’m her so I can get more information for you.’
    â€˜No, you don’t want to do that.’
    He opened his backpack and pulled out the printout of the photo from Lilly’s web page.
    â€˜That’s Lilly. I don’t think you want to pretend you’re her with these callers.’
    â€˜Oh my God!’ Monica exclaimed as she looked at the photo. ‘Is she like a prostitute or something?’
    â€˜I think so.’
    â€˜Then what are you doing trying to find this prostitute when you should be — ’
    She stopped abruptly. Pierce looked at her and waited for her to finish. She didn’t.
    â€˜What?’ he said. ‘I should be what?’
    â€˜Nothing. It’s not my business.’
    â€˜Did you talk with Nicki about her and me?’
    â€˜No. Look, it’s nothing. I don’t know what I was going to say. I just think it’s strange that you’re running around trying to find out if this prostitute is all right. It’s weird.’
    Pierce sat back down on the couch. He knew she was lying about Nicole. They had gotten close and used to go to lunch together all the times Pierce couldn’t get out of the lab — which was almost every day. Why would it end now that Nicki was gone? They were probably still talking every day, exchanging stories about him.
    He also knew that she was right about what he was doing. But he was too far down the road and around the bend. His life and career had been built on following his curiosity. In his last year at Stanford he sat in on a lecture about the next generation of microchips. The professor spoke of nanochips so small that the supercomputers of the day could and would be built to the size of a dime. Pierce became hooked and had been pursuing his curiosity — chasing the dime — ever since.
    â€˜I’m just going to go over to Venice,’ he told Monica. ‘I’m just going to check things out and leave it at that.’
    â€˜You promise?’
    â€˜Yes. You can call me at the lab after the furniture gets here and you’re leaving.’
    He stood up and slung his backpack over his shoulder.
    â€˜If you talk to Nicki, don’t mention anything about this, okay?’
    â€˜Sure, Henry. I won’t.’
    He knew he couldn’t count on that but it would have to do for the moment. He headed to the apartment door and left. As he went down the hall to the elevator he thought about what Monica had said and considered the difference between private investigation and private obsession. Somewhere there