Page 86 of Pied Sniper

“Whatever it is, he doesn’t want to talk to us about it.”

“I figured that when he ran,” said Lily. “And you two don’t even look scary. Hmmm, maybe you do,” she said, wagging a finger at Solomon, then pointing at me. “But I know her, so…” She grimaced.

“Are you still here?” asked Solomon.

Lily pulled an appalled face. “Itismy place of business. And you’re scaring away my customers. Can you move over to the bar or something? Maybe order a drink and a light snack?”

“No time for that,” said Solomon. “Let’s go. We need to track down this idiot.”

“See you later,” I said, hugging Lily quickly.

“I wouldn’t miss family dinner tonight for the world.”

“Wait… that’s tonight?”

“Yep. I can’t wait to see what happens at this one.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t feign ignorance. We all know something horrific will happen. That’s why we all go,” said Lily.

“I go strictly for the food!”

“I’m equally looking forward to it and afraid to go,” said Solomon. “But right now we have a job to do.” Solomon hustled me out the door towards his SUV. As we walked, he placed a call. “Get me an address and everything else you can find about Davy Morris as a priority.”

“I wonder why he ran,” I mused, “That’s twice now. He has to be up to something. Either that or he just loathes cute brunettes, in which case, I should probably be offended.”

“Catherine is a brunette.”

“Must be me then,” I said with a sigh. “Could he know we’re working the case? If so, he knows we want to help her. So why run?”

“We’ll find out very soon,” replied Solomon as he beeped open the SUV while staring at his phone. “Lucas has an address. It’s in West Montgomery.”

“I wonder if my mom knows him.” She probably did too. My mom knew everybody.

“Let’s not find out.”

“You know we’ll find out.”

Solomon let out a noise that could have been a snort or a sigh. As we drove towards Davy Morris’s address, I held onto Solomon’s phone, reading out the information Lucas was sending. “So, he’s a manager of a retail store and it looks like he switches stores every few years but never rises in the ranks.”

“Probably content with his lot,” suggested Solomon.

“I guess so. He makes a steady income, rents his apartment and drives an eight-year-old Toyota. His parents live nearby, no siblings, and his main passions seem to be hiking, camping, and fishing. He sounds the polar opposite of Tiffany.”

“Opposites attract, but it could also explain why Tiffany left him behind.”

“I don’t think he’d fit in too well with her high society New Yorker friends.”

“Neither does she when you factor in how much she lies and what she does to finance her life.”

“Good point,” I agreed. “Hmmm. Lucas says Davy has close to eighty thousand dollars in his savings account. That’s a lot of money!”

“And whom do we know who has less than none?”

“I’ll take the Tiffany answer. Do you think he’s in on the kidnapping? Her sister said he would doanythingfor her.”

“When did they split? Recently?”

---