Page 68 of Pied Sniper

“Tiffany was served a subpoena before she left New York. Thought you might want to look into that.”

“Any ideas why?”

“None. Grace saw Tiffany being served but she doesn’t know why.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“What’s your lead?” I asked.

“Probably a dead end so I’ll tell you later. Hey, Lexi?”

“Yes?”

“It’s good to be working together.”

I smiled as I hung up. Solomon brought his laptop out into the office and sat down at Fletcher’s empty desk. He typed in smooth, fast strokes and I knew he was concentrating hard. It wasn’t often that we worked so closely together on a case and there was something warm and fuzzy about it. No breakthroughs, despite his many years of experience, much more than me. That wasn’t comforting. I knew something strange was going on, but what? Could Tiffany really have staged the whole thing? The more I thought about it, the more troubled I was by her owing so much money and probably feeling desperate to pay it off. But would she really do it this way? The notes on her laptop proved she at least considered it.

This time when I opened her laptop, I researched her emails. I needed to know everything about her business dealings, her personal ones, and the ones right before the kidnappers called Abigail with ransom instructions. She certainly had no problem presenting a very fake life to her audience. If Tiffany sponged from her friends so frequently, I was sure she had no problem hiding things from them too.

A lot of her emails were shopping-related. New collections, discounts offered, enticing personal shopping appointments. So far, it looked a lot like my own email account. There were daily emails from Abigail, detailing business deals on offer, and other transactions they were wrapping up. I noticed those had steadily declined over the last few months. I reached for the file Abigail gave me, running my finger down the column. Yes, Tiffany’s income took a hard knock. I couldn’t find anything about the business deal Flavia mentioned but I already suspected Tiffany made it up. There were a few emails from Jonathan; nothing longer than “we need to talk,” and business emails from Grace. There were a couple from people asking for Tiffany to return things, or repay them. There didn’t seem to be any personal emails from friends. No chats, or funny memes, or anything friendly. Her party and event invitations were all from PR agencies. After scrolling back a couple of months, I opened an email from her former high school, a fancy institution in Connecticut. It was a pro-forma email asking for donations to fund scholarships for girls just like her who had previously benefited.

“Tiffany came from a rich family, right?” I said out loud.

Solomon glanced at me. “So I’ve heard but you’d know more about that.”

“I always got the impression she did. I’m going to call Lily. She’ll know.” I already had my phone in my hand, hitting Lily’s name.

“Did you find her?” she asked upon answering. “Ruby and I are glued to the TV but there’s no news.”

“Not yet. I wondered if you remembered anything Tiffany said about going to school?”

“High school? She went to some fancy private school. The type of place where students ride well-trained horses and take field trips to Europe for enrichment. It’s super expensive.”

“How do you know that? Was it in one of her videos?”

“She mentioned it a couple of times but I don’t remember any specific video. I recall the name of the school because my mom got a brochure from there once.”

“Your parents wanted to send you to boarding school?”

“I guess so, but I hid the brochures and eventually, they forgot.”

“How can they for… oh, never mind,” I said, trailing off. Lily’s parents were notoriously absent from her life. I wasn’t sure how much that affected her beyond her fierce independence and unwillingness to follow the life path her parents expected for her. My family seamlessly stepped in to fill the gaps, ensuring Lily was always welcome for dinners and holidays, and that deserved some credit for why Lily became an awesome adult. “Do you ever recall her mentioning how it was paid for?”

“Her family left her a big trust fund when they died, I think,” she replied. “I remember her saying something about investing in her education was something she promised them she would do, and being all alone at that time was partly responsible for the person she is today.”

“So she never mentioned any scholarships?”

“No. Why would she? She had enough money.”

“Hmm. Just something odd. I think I’ll call the school and talk to them.”

“Sounds juicy. Do you think she lied about the school too?”

“She’s getting alumni emails from them so I doubt it, but I’ll find that out too. I’ll call you soon.”

“Make sure you have more gossip!” trilled Lily before hanging up.

“John?” I glanced at Solomon. Even though he was concentrating, I was sure he listened to every word I said.

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