Page 23 of Pied Sniper

“They released you without any charges?” I interrupted, not wanting to know where Lily’s train of thought was taking her.

“Correct. I’m a free woman although they did say I might be a material witness in the case. I said it was a pretty poor case they put together since I really didn’t see anything and then I suggested they look for someone who actually saw something. I don’t think they liked my advice because one of them got really pissy after that.”

“To be fair, they did find us at the crime scene.”

“And arrested us. Duh! Talk about a home goal. Plus, they kept my clothes! I had to wear this hideous jumpsuit until Jord found me something from the lost and found basket. I’m wearing a Christmas sweater!”

“Is she okay?” asked Solomon.

“Solomon wants to know if you’re okay.”

“I am. We’re on our way to pick up Poppy and then I plan to have a hot bath. But tomorrow, we need to find out who kidnapped Tiffany Rose. Jord—” Lily’s voice retreated, became muffled, and she and Jord bandied fast words at each other. When she came back on the line, she said, “Jord disagrees with me and says this is in the hands of the FBI now. He wants us to stay out of it.”

“Maddox said he was curious about it. Has he taken over?”

“I have no idea because no one will tell me anything, but if he has, I’m so pleased. We can work with him. No, Jord, I—” There were more cross words, then, “Jord says we have to leave Maddox to investigate it and not interfere. Oh, we’re at your parents’ house. I’ll call you tomorrow and we canabsolutely not talk about it,”she added slowly and pointedly.

“Good plan,” I agreed, “oh, and Mom knows. She’s willing to raise Poppy if necessary. Bye!” I hung up before Lily and Jord freaked out that my parents knew they weren’t collecting their baby girl after a simple, kid-free night.

“Did you really just hang up?” asked Solomon.

I pointed to my blank screen. “I absolutely did.”

“Good thinking. Eat.” He nodded at the tray he set in front of us. There was a dish of warm cookie dough with a scoop of ice cream melting on top. I didn’t normally drink wine and eat dessert after infiltrating a crime scene, so today was already looking up. “And either find something distracting to watch or turn off the TV so we can talk instead. You seem okay but it’s hard to know.”

“I am. Nothing bad happened to me. I’m fine. Lily’s fine. Tiffany Rose? She’s a whole other matter.”

“You want the case, don’t you?”

I thought about it for one long second. “Yes.”

“I’ll make the call.”

~

I didn’t sleep well. Solomon spoke to Abigail and then insisted there was little I could do during the night, and I needed to sleep. I was too tired to argue, yet I struggled to fall asleep. When I finally got up after restless hours of working hard to succumb to a deep sleep, thoughts of Tiffany Rose whirled in my head. Perhaps the police and Feds were lucky and found her already? I headed downstairs for coffee, pausing to switch on the TV. The local news station was broadcasting Tiffany as their headline story. She hadn’t been found yet, and the news anchor didn’t have any new information. Even the reporter standing outside her apartment building, the hood of his rain slicker turned up against the weather, regurgitated what I already knew. He did, however, add that the two women arrested at the scene were released from custody after it appeared they weren’t involved. That should appease my mom and her acquaintances. I wasn’t too sure about the police or the FBI’s official position and in no hurry to find out. Instead, I hoped the reporter’s sources were correct. The fact no uniformed officers were banging on my door gave me more reason for optimism. We were off the hook.

As I made coffee and toast, Abigail’s sheaf of information in front of me, I called Lily.

“Good morning!” she trilled into the phone.

“You sound chirpy. I’m glad I didn’t wake you.”

“Pfft,” snorted Lily. “I got up an hour ago and made French toast and now I’m on my second coffee.” That explained it: caffeinated Lily was a force to be reckoned with. “Your mom made a delicious cake for me and she reamed out Jord for not springing us sooner.”

“I don’t think he could.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Wait!” I interrupted. “Mom made youcake?” A note of envy crept into my voice.

“Coffee and walnut.”

“She didn’t bake me a cake.”

“She blames you for getting us into this mess.”

“And you didn’t correct her?” I squeaked, my voice rising.

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