Page 107 of Pied Sniper

“The hell she is!” said Garrett.

“She admitted to nothing. As soon as you brought her in, she lawyered up and hasn’t said a word out of step since then. She even managed to work the tiger into her story,” I pointed out. All of this was second-hand information that was relayed to me in great detail after I woke up in a hospital bed. Apparently, the tranquilizer knocked me out for almost twenty hours. Maddox, who received much less of a dose than I, awoke after a few hours. The tiger, however, was awake in its cage within three hours. It was now on its way to a special wildlife sanctuary out of state. Most importantly, it didn’t snack on anyone.

The tiger was tracked down to the park around the same time I arrived on the other side of the park. That was why I missed all the road blocks they set up on the perimeter. It was already past closing time when they arrived, and the rangers insisted no one would be traipsing around the forest at that hour. Zoo officials with thermal-imaging equipment spotted the tiger entering the park and were trying to lure it out with bait. Danny was the on-call vet. Unfortunately, I unknowingly served as bait too.

For some reason, it didn’t attack anyone, which was something that puzzled the zoo officials and exotic animal vets. Danny Lorenzo very sweetly dropped off a stuffed tiger at the hospital for me. But after I thought about it, perhaps it was a passive-aggressive poke at my near-appetizer status. If that was the best he could do to exact revenge after my dad terrified him all those years ago, I was okay with it. Plus, the stuffed tiger was kinda cute. Danny also informed me that the tiger had escaped from a private collector of exotic and unlicensed animals. Apparently, the tiger was following me for quite some time. That explained the noises I heard and blamed on my thumping head. Danny said the tiger was in good condition and had apparently recently eaten, so he suggested maybe it simply liked stalking me. Perhaps one day I will be grateful that one of us was having a good time.

“We’ve got enough evidence to excite the district attorney,” said Maddox. “Fraud, theft, I’m sure we’ll get her on something. Also, Cal and Huey McNeill are in custody for kidnapping and assault without any chance of being released for a long time. With our watertight connection between the three, I expect they’ll turn on each other pretty quickly.”

“They’re not the sharpest pair of shears in the shed,” agreed Garrett. “How Tiffany managed to keep them from spilling all the details this long is beyond me.”

“Did you tell them Tiffany was just released?” I asked. All three men looked at me. “Wouldn’t that be a good place to start? She’s out, they’re in! And prison isn’t very appealing to the vast majority of people. If she runs off with the funds for their high life while they rot in jail, I’m sure she’ll piss them off.”

“Be right back,” said Garrett, grabbing his jacket. “I’ve got to get two men to turn on each other before they nail Tiffany.”

“Hope it works!” I replied. “What are you doing now?” I asked Maddox. “Don’t you want to get a jump on those interviews?”

Maddox shrugged. “The agency insists I take a mandatory forty-eight hours off to make sure all the traces of drugs in my system are absent. Thanks for that.”

“Sharing is caring,” I said, holding back a smile. I didn’t add:serves you right.I never imagined getting such sweet revenge for the time when Maddox drugged me. Although I realized his intentions weren’t malicious, he should never have sedated me without my consent. My aim was purely accidental when I jabbed him with the dart, but I felt fairly smug about it. Lily regaled me with the story when I awoke and high-fived me, and since no one else seemed upset about the incident, why should I? Everyone seemed ready to forget about Danny’s errant dart shot as fast as possible, if only to prevent me from suing anyone.

“Are you up to any paperwork?” asked Solomon. “Plus, you’re expected to give a statement too.”

Before I could reply, a knock came at the door and Lily stuck her head around. “How’re you feeling?” she asked.

“Peachy!”

“Only you could say that after being felled by a tranquilizer dosage meant for a full-grown tiger. It must be all those tequila slammers we used to drink.”

“I never realized they would be part of my stamina training in the future,” I agreed, nodding sagely. “Thank you, Lily.”

“You’re welcome. Now that you’re looking more alive, I’m dying to know what’s going on. I saw Tiffany on TV just now. Why’d you let her go?” she asked, looking around us.

“Her lawyer argued all the evidence was circumstantial,” said Solomon, “and so far, we have nothing to disprove that.”

“We’re still gathering all the facts before we arrest her,” said Maddox. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Lily turned to me. “Why didn’t you capture her?”

“I tried! But the tiger interrupted me and I passed out.”

Lily simply shook her head. “Why were all you guys in the park anyway?” she asked. “Did you collectively forget what case you were working on?”

Solomon laughed. “No. I was at the office, shutting down the tip line after Flavia’s inflated reward brought in a lot of time wasters, but one tip paid off. Someone who worked with Caleb McNeill had a crush on Tiffany and recalled him bragging that Tiffany was his cousin. Caleb was always bad news apparently, and got fired from his job as a park ranger for getting drunk at work. But the important clue was this: he was known for camping out at the cabin on a regular basis. So we decided to check it out.”

“Solomon called me with the tip just as I got an alert on Tiffany’s car. I entered it into the system as a precaution, never expecting it to ping since I was sure it wouldn’t be moved from the parking lot,” explained Maddox. “When it pinged not far from the county park, we figured we should team up and take a look.”

“But when you headed that way, you encountered the road blocks,” I said, nodding.

“Yes, we had no choice but to abandon searching for the car and instead use a different route. Then we planned to talk to the ranger and ask if anyone saw Caleb hanging around lately. Of course, we didn’t get a chance to do that because all at once, everything started to kick off,” said Maddox.

“Do you need a break?” Solomon asked me. “I saw you take two more painkillers.”

“I’m okay,” I said. “My head hurts much less now.” I wore a small bandage over the gash I received from the face punch and a Band-Aid on my cut hand. There was nothing I could do about the bump on my head except not prod it. Since my discharge, I took a long, hot shower at home. I couldn’t wait to wash all the dirt and leaves out of my hair. Now, wearing a clean dress and a cute pair of pumps, I felt a whole lot better.

“I’m going to get coffee,” said Maddox, standing. “We can clear up a few details when I return, then I should report back to headquarters.”

“I’m coming too,” said Lily. “I’ll help you carry. You can tell me all about the doors you kicked down.”

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