Page 52 of Pied Sniper

“And she’ll probably be sued for the bill. These kinds of cases aren’t cheap,” added Maddox.

“Abigail insists it was just a crazy idea that Tiffany would never act on,” I told them. “I regret bringing it up. Despite Tiffany’s stupid brainstorm, I think this kidnapping is real. I don’t think she would willingly hurt herself and neither does Abigail!”

“We still have to act like it’s real until we know otherwise,” said Farid. “The video looked real to me. We appreciated you sending us that.” Garrett and Maddox grunted in agreement, or at least I thought they did.

“Do you have anything from the tip line?” asked Maddox.

“A high volume of crank calls,” said Solomon. “We’ll keep you informed if anything turns up. If there’s nothing else you need from us, we’ll leave you to process the apartment.”

Garrett’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you going?” he asked.

Maddox folded his arms. “Good question.”

Farid grinned. “It’s always fun to see how this dynamic plays out.”

“We’re going to lunch,” said Solomon. “I’m hungry.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” said Farid.

“We’re on the clock,” said Maddox. “Plus, Lexi’s mom dropped lunch off at the office earlier.”

“She did what?” Garrett’s head spun around so quickly he might have snapped his neck.

“For both of us,” said Maddox, a small, smug smile slipping onto his lips. He was clearly taunting us to ask what my mom made for lunch. I wasn’t falling for that.

“It smells delicious,” said Farid, who apparently had a death wish as Garrett continued to glare at him.

“Meatball subs?” I said to Solomon.

“Let’s go,” he replied.

I waved over my shoulder as we left. “That got tense quickly,” said Solomon.

“My mom causes more controversy than Tiffany Rose. I wonder if it’s deliberate?”

“I think she’s nice.”

“It’s sweet you said that, given she didn’t bring you any lunch.”

“I never know where I’ll be for lunch. It’s pointless having a sack lunch delivered. Plus, your mom gets bored and making lunches keeps her out of trouble.”

“So true.”

“For now,” added Solomon, “I’m surprised she didn’t take lunch to them just to snoop.”

I looked at him and he looked at me. I didn’t need to say it: Mom was definitely snooping on the case. His location comments could be said of the FBI agents we just left behind, but I didn’t want to throw fuel on the lunch fire, especially now that we nailed my mother’s motivation. Instead, we hurried down the stairs and vacated the building via the main doors. We squeezed through the gap in the gate and walked towards Solomon’s SUV. As we reached it, Solomon’s phone buzzed. “Delgado found Jonathan Brett,” he said, reading the message. “Let’s head downtown. Lunch will have to wait.”

“That was fast! Kudos to Delgado,” I said. “And as for Tiffany’s laptop, I know turning it over is the right thing to do but I’d like to look at it some more.”

“Message Lucas. Tell him to clone it, then get it couriered to MPD.”

“We can do that?”

Solomon smiled. “We can do anything.”

“Oooh,” I said. “I love it when you surprise me.” I fired off the message and Lucas returned the text with a thumbs up.

Solomon buckled his seatbelt as he turned the ignition. “Delgado didn’t have to search too far,” he explained. “He’s keeping an eye on Brett until we get there.”

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