"Solomon said the police have a copy of the ticket and also surveillance footage from the airport that clearly shows Juliet paying for the ticket in cash."

"Seriously?" I winced. No wonder Detective Donahue was so convinced of Juliet's guilt.

"Yep. I told you I could make Solomon sing like a canary."

"I'm impressed."

"It's all in the way I word stuff. Last night, I told Jord I wanted to be covered in whipped cream and he just..."

I stuck my fingers in my ears and shut my eyes. "I don't want to know!" I told the darkness.

Lily pulled a finger from my ear. "You always wanted to know this stuff BJ..."

"BJ?"

"Before Jord!"

"Ohmygosh! Do not abbreviate like that!"

"Whatevs!"

"Jord is my brother and there are some things I cannot unsee or unhear."

"Apparently, you need to see the surveillance footage," she said, switching topics. "Solomon said he would email photos to you and to remind you to call him."

Thankful for the change in topic, I grabbed my phone and brought up my email program. Sure enough, there was a waiting email from Solomon with "airport surveillance" in the subject header. I opened it. There were three photos embedded in the airmail. The first was an airline ticket in Juliet's name. The second showed the rear view of a woman standing at the counter. The image was grainy, but I could make out Juliet's haircut and she wore the same jacket I'd seen her in when she came to my office. The third was a side profile view as she bent down to get something from her purse. It looked like Juliet; and could have been Juliet. But the quality was too grainy to be absolutely sure. I could see why the police jumped in to arrest her. Buying a ticket to another country was clearly a nasty sign.

I tapped reply and typed Front view? Passport? Knowing that my questions would almost certainly produce further evidence of Juliet's guilt, I sent it anyway. Solomon didn't keep me waiting long, as a new email appeared.

No clear front view, he typed, and the ticket was booked using Juliet's passport.

"Doesn't it seem kind of stupid to book an escape ticket in your own name?" I asked Lily.

"Seems kind of stupid to do something so illegal you could go to prison for your kid's entire childhood."

"Yeah, but... Juliet seems so smart. If she were guilty, I can't see her doing something so stupid that could get her caught so quickly." I took another look at the photos, and my heart sunk. "It does look like her though. It's her jacket and her hair and her passport."

"But is it her face?"

I looked at the photo again, squinting. It was too fuzzy for me to be entirely sure it was she. Annoyingly, it was also too fuzzy to say it wasn't. "I don't know."

"Want to go ask?" Lily pointed towards the house before dropping her hand to her bump again. "Hey, it kicked!"

I put my hand back on her belly, feeling the light ripples. "No, I think they've been through enough today. I don't want to level any more accusations at them before I’ve had a chance to check it out." I hit speed-dial, watching Solomon's name and face flash onto the screen. He answered with a simple, "Hey."

"Hey, yourself."

"Social call? Picked a movie for later?"

"Business."

"Fire away."

"Don't you think it's one hundred percent stupid of someone to book an escape ticket using her own passport?" I asked, hoping for a better response than Lily’s.

"Totally, but who else’s would she use?"

"I don't know. If she made tons of money, couldn't she have bought a passport on the black market?"

"Does Juliet look like someone who knows her way around the black market?"

I glanced towards the quaint house on its neat lot. "No, but that doesn't mean she can't."

"If you're trying to convince me of her guilt..."

"I'm not," I cut in hurriedly, "I'm trying to say I smell a rat. It's too convenient. Too easy. Juliet is too smart to make a stupid mistake like that."

Solomon was quiet a moment and I imagined him pondering my reply thoughtfully. Personally, I used the free time to add a swipe of raspberry lip gloss and check my mascara. "There's a valid argument there," he said. I wasn't sure if that was an endorsement or not, but my spirits lifted. "But I've had the photos analyzed, and they can’t exclude her either. If anything, it's just more ammunition a prosecutor would use to say she was planning her escape."

I sighed and asked the only thing I could. "When can I see your file?"

"Thought you'd never ask. Stay over tonight and you can read everything in the morning."

"Are you blackmailing me? A good time in return for access to your stuff?"

"Is it working?"

"Yes. I'm definitely in."

"Then call it whatever you like. And Lexi, you can access my stuff anytime." Solomon hung up.

"Rude," said Lily as she giggled. "So how long are we going to sit here and stare at the house?"

"I don't know. I can't do it twenty-four hours a day. Even with you and Ruby helping, that's eight hours each, and the neighbors already called the police on me. Plus, we all have other jobs."

"Who responded to the police report?"

"Your husband."

Lily laughed and wrinkled her nose. "My bladder says no to eight hours." When she turned to me a few minutes later, there was a spark in her eye, which worried me. "You know who we could call to help."

"You know someone?"

"Yes. Someone from my spy class at the Adult Ed Center."

My stomach dropped; and I instantly had a bad feeling. Just to verify my hunch that Lily was suggesting what I most feared, I asked, "Who?"

"Your mom!"

Chapter Seven

Despite having consent to review Solomon's stuff, I still lacked access to his surfeit of databases and programs. Sure, there were a few things on my laptop I could use, but nothing made up for actual law enforcement gateways to the really juicy stuff, no matter how dubiously they were procured. The juicy stuff was what I hoped to access as I walked into the FBI's Montgomery field office and waved to Agent Maddox.

Maddox and I previously had a long, complicated history, involving several dead bodies, numerous crimes, and a lot of nakedness. Being my ex was one thing, and now that he’d become my friend, it was another. We met on my first case when he was working undercover as my boss in a bid to break a big insurance scam. I unwittingly stumbled across the big boss's fresh corpse. Not only did I manage to get us out of the building before his killers returned for us, but I also proved instrumental in solving the case. A case which equated to millions of dollars in fraud and multiple murders. Our relationship was great, until we eventually split up over an awful misunderstanding. I stayed mad at him for a long time. Thankfully, the days of being angry were over now, and a genuine friendship sprang up between us. When it came to advice on any financial crimes cases, he seemed like the best person to ask.

"Long time, no see," he said, walking into the lobby. I rose from my chair to greet him, not surprised when he embraced me with a warm hug, which I eagerly returned.

"Yeah, not since last week."