Page 47 of Pied Sniper

“I think she gave us enough information to conduct a search downtown,” decided Solomon. “Why don’t you take a break, José? Get a coffee.”

José nodded, heading out of the boardroom.

“We anticipated a lot of crackpot callers,” said Delgado. “I’ve seen it ten times worse when a big reward is offered. Money always brings out the lucky-strikers, wannabe-detectives, and the trying-to-be-helpful-but-hopelessly-deluded types.”

“Maybe we should offer a reward? The last caller José mentioned really didn’t tell us anything. We already guessed Tiffany’s boyfriend was still in town,” I added.

“But now we are a little more sure of that,” said Solomon. “Delgado, start hunting through the downtown bars and see if you can find him.”

“Why don’t we just call all the local hotels? He has to be staying at one of them,” I suggested.

“We did that already,” said Solomon. “If he is at a hotel, he’s using a pseudonym, which isn’t uncommon for people with high profiles. Plus, there’s a bunch of private apartment rental agencies. What we need is a confirmed sighting.” He gave a pointed look to Delgado.

“On it,” said Delgado, rising. “I’ll find a headshot of him and go bar-hopping. I’ll call you when I find him.”

“If,” I countered.

“When,” said Delgado, a confident tone in his voice. “If he started drinking already, he must be holed up somewhere. I’ll find him.”

While we were talking, my thoughts popped back to the ransom video. “You know,” I started, as I formulated my point, “the kidnappers never mentioned the tip line.”

“Perhaps they don’t know about it. The major news outlets haven’t mentioned it either. They only offer their own tip lines.”

“If they did know about it, wouldn’t they be pissed? They don’t want Abigail to notify the police but how about all the civilians calling in with potential information about them? Could they be under an electronic blackout? Maybe they’re lying low somewhere and don’t even know that Tiffany was livestreaming!” I paused, confused by my fast stream of thoughts. “But Tiffanyknewshe was broadcasting. If this were a publicity stunt, surely she would want as many people involved as possible to raise the significance of the ordeal? She would love to think a tip line went crazy!”

“If she’s faking it, maybe she’s pretending that it’s real. Any kidnapper would demand no police involvement. It would be weird if they didn’t. But, despite all the concerns raised in this meeting, I don’t like the look of her injuries. We need to keep treating this like it’s real until we find evidence that says otherwise,” said Solomon. “Lucas, locating Tiffany is still our highest priority. Cross reference your search with any buildings that might not have WiFi access or anything similar.”

“On it,” said Lucas, standing up. “I’ll call as soon as I have something.”

“Speaking of finding things,” I said, after Lucas left, “when we searched the apartment earlier, I noticed a telescope in a window opposite Tiffany’s building. It might be nothing but it’s been bothering me ever since I saw it. Maybe it belongs to an amateur astronomer but I think we should check it out anyway.”

“Let’s go.” Solomon pushed back his chair. “We have a little time to kill until Delgado locates Jonathan Brett.”

“I need to find the building first. It’s within a couple blocks of Tiffany’s address and I know which direction.”

“Let’s narrow it down.” Solomon reached for his phone and pulled up a map.

“That’s Tiffany’s building,” I said, tapping a fingernail on the screen and briefly admiring my pale pink manicure. “Her apartment is over on this side, so the telescope owner resides somewhere around here.” I circled several buildings.

“Did you happen to count which floor it was on?”

“Tenth. And it was the closest building to hers. I think it might be this one,” I said, sliding my finger to the right.

Solomon tapped the screen and read out the address. “Something about that sounds familiar,” he said, frowning. He swiped the map away and called up the browser, inputting the address. “Ahh,” he said, tapping the screen. “I thought so. This building is uninhabitable due to the constant code violations. It’s currently unoccupied and up for sale for development.”

“That’s what I thought. So definitely no one is living there.”

“Unless it’s a squatter.”

“With an expensive telescope?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Point taken. When did you notice it?”

“When Abigail took me around earlier today. I just happened to look out the window.”

“We should make haste. If it has something to do with Tiffany’s kidnapping, we need to get there before they clean house. It’s amateur-level stupid to leave something like that behind, assuming it belongs to the kidnappers.” Solomon tucked his phone into his pocket as he rose. “I’ll grab my gun from the safe. Be ready to go in five.”

“I’m ready now,” I told him. “I still have Lily’s car.”

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