Select Into Local Variable Within A IF NOT EXIST Test?

Hi all,

I'm trying to be slick, but so far am just all wet *snicker*

I've got a table with rows that may or may not exist, and am trying to retrieve a column if an associate row DOES exist.

For argument's sake, my PIndex table looks like:
PID int
CreateDate smalldatetime
CloseID float

Here is my select logic that I thought would save an extra select to load my local variable if the row is actually in the table...

DECLARE @CloseID float

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT @CloseID = CloseID
FROM PIndex
WHERE ((PID = '14') and
(CreateDate = '2004-02-06')))
SET @CloseID = 100

The SET afterwards is just to initialize the variable if it can't be had from an existing row in the table.

The trouble is, that it fails to compile with the following error:
>>>>> Line 3: Incorrect syntax near '='.

Any insights? My goal is to use a single select to load the value into my local variable if the associated row exists, or to set my local variable to 100 if it doesn't.

Thanks!
Paul