Page 29 of Pied Sniper

“What if she extracts the information from me? I’m the weak link.”

“Take it to your grave.”

“Better than taking it to the rest of the Graves,” said Lily. “Although, can you imagine all the daughter-in-law points I’ll get for producing that juicy nugget?”

“Your headstone will read ‘juicy nugget’ if you dare reveal it. I do not want my mom checking my ovulation status every day.”

“Consider me suitably threatened.” Lily pulled up a stool and leaned in. “So... how’s it going? How’s your ovulation status?”

“It’s going delightfully well, in my opinion. I have no idea about my ovulation cycle.”

“You’re not tracking it?”

I frowned. “Must I?”

“I don’t know. Poppy just came along. Any sign yet?” Lily pointed to my stomach.

“None whatsoever but it’s only been a couple of months so I didn’t expect anything to happen so soon.”

“I’m so excited.”

“Me too. But—” I pointed to my phone, “we need to concentrate on the task at hand. Tiffany Rose. Let me get my laptop.”

“We could divide the tasks to make it go quicker,” Lily called after me.

I stuck my head back around the door. “That’s a good idea, but first, I’d like both of us to take another look at last night’s video. Perhaps we’ll notice something new we didn’t see last night.”

“Jord says the detectives on the case scoured it already and worked right through the night.”

“I agree, but are they Tiffany’s followers?”

“It would be weird if they were.”

“Exactly.Weare her audience. We know her far better than they do. We might notice something they dismissed as insignificant.”

“Okay. Let’s watch. Get your laptop.”

“I’ve been trying.” I left my laptop in my bag in the hallway and it didn’t take long to retrieve it, plug it in and turn it on. When I found Tiffany’s shocking last video, the views were astronomical and it was still trending as the number one viewed video on the site.

“This video is reaching far more than Tiffany’s regular fans,” I said. “What happened must have spread by word of mouth, and through the other media outlets.”

“A lot of people are fascinated by a woman being hurt,” observed Lily.

“No surprises there.” I got a sinking feeling as I wondered how many people took pleasure in watching horrible things. Of course, some were merely curious about what happened and didn’t want to be left out of the loop, especially if it were a hot topic on their friends’ lips and fingertips. Another contingent were amused by seeing a calamity befall a successful, wealthy, attractive woman.

“No,” sighed Lily.

“Iamsurprised the site didn’t take the video down but perhaps the content still falls within their guidelines.” I hitplayand an ad immediately appeared for a fashion brand. “That’s why,” I said, pointing at the screen. “They’re making money every time someone clicks on it. Why would the site cut off that income stream?”

“Common decency?”

“Versus money? Unfortunately, that’s not how the world works.”

“Huh,” huffed Lily, her shoulders slumping. “I wonder if the same amount of views would occur for a man under these circumstances?”

“If he were similarly famous, my guess is yes, although there wouldn’t be these kind of comments,” I added, scrolling through the list. Some were concerned by what Tiffany was wearing at the time, others said how stupid she was to post videos of her home, while still others inquired what did she expect by leading such a public life? Some went so far as to say she was “asking for it” by “flaunting” her life on social media. It almost seemed like some of the online commenters were pissed that she existed at all. “We should read them all to look for any leads. I’ll make a note to ask her manager about any possible threats too.”

“I really thought the world would have sorted out its attitude toward women by the time Poppy was born,” said Lily with a deep sigh. She pointed to a particularly vile comment and shook her head. “What kind of warped world have I brought her into?”

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