I didn't understand a lot of the financial jargon, or all of the proof, but I understood enough to realize there was a lot of circumstantial evidence against her. I was pretty sure it would all tally with whatever else Donahue had procured down at MPD. I wondered if the snitch had access to any of it. Then, I wondered if that person and the stalker were one and the same. Whoever it was seemed to have no problem accessing any part of Juliet's life.

Spotting some information I hadn't seen before, I paused to read a complaint filed against Juliet. It was from her assistant for unjustifiable termination. There was a rebuttal from Juliet, staunchly refuting the allegation and insisting that she had no idea what was going on.

"Did you interview the assistant?" I asked.

"Whose?"

"Juliet's. There's a report saying Juliet fired her by email, which was to take immediate effect."

"I tried to; but she slammed the door in my face when I said I was from Lancaster Friedland."

I flipped the page. "There was an internal review and Juliet stated she never fired her assistant."

"The full report should be on the next page."

I skimmed the report before looking up. "Don't you think that's weird?"

"I think someone was just covering their ass."

"Who? Juliet?" I asked, wondering why she hadn't mentioned it when I asked about any women who could have had a beef with her. Firing someone seemed like just the thing to me.

Solomon shrugged lightly. "We live in a litigious society. It's hard to say."

I let the pages slide by. There were several performance appraisal reports that all said positive things about Juliet. She was promoted and given several pay raises. Her bosses all seemed to like her, and their glowing reports predicted good progress. "How could someone go from being such a good employee to firing her assistant and resorting to inside information for her trades?"

"Greed. Stupidity. A desire to please that went horribly wrong."

"All her performance appraisals are good. She made the firm a lot of money, consistently exceeding her targets. She made very few bad trades until now, and certainly not to the extent of these losses."

"Perhaps one bad trade triggered a series of others that she couldn't avoid, so she tried to cover them up. The loss trades aren't the ones my client is concerned about, however; they're worried about how she made so much money. She had tipoffs and plenty of non-public information."

"I thought we were trying to stay neutral about her guilt."

"We are. I'm thinking of reasons she could have slipped from employee-of-the-month to crook."

"I'm thinking of ways she was set up."

"The evidence is strong."

"But not irrefutable," I countered. "I'd like to see what Juliet makes of all these trades when I give her time to look them over. She might have another answer, or some way of explaining what happened."

"What Juliet needs is evidence in her defense."

"That's what she's employing me for."

"Do you have any evidence?"

I pouted. "No."

"Tell me more about the stalker theory. What happened at the break-in?"

"Very little, actually. Nothing was stolen, just moved around. It's like they're trying to mess with Juliet rather than hurt her, or possibly letting her know they could hurt her anytime. I think someone made a copy of her keys and knows the access code for her house alarm so they could get in and out easily. They might have also known about the surveillance at the front of her house."

"So we have a mystery person no one saw, who might have been in the house; but no one can confirm it because the alarm didn't go off, and they moved things, but didn't take anything."

"Yes."

"Are you sure Juliet didn't just make it all up? To convince you there really is a stalker?"

I opened my mouth to refute Solomon’s remark, but I couldn't. It was actually quite possible Juliet had done just that. There was nothing to suggest anyone was ever there, other than her own frightened state, and insistence of another person. It could easily be argued that Juliet got up in the night and moved a few things around, then complained there was a break-in to point to an intruder. Solomon didn't have to say it; but without further evidence, there was no reason to believe Juliet's story... except that I did. Instead of giving him a straight yes or no, I said, "That's what the stalker wants us to believe. They want us to think Juliet's going crazy with the strain. Hell, I think they want Juliet to go crazy so she is completely unbelievable. Where are your surveillance notes?"

"At the end. What are you looking for?"

"A list of people that went into the house."

"There're some photos, but we're still working on a list," Solomon told me as I stuck a thumb in the pages at the point where the photos were filed. There were a number of shots in black and white and I recognized a few people: Juliet and Rob, their stepson, Penelope, a few other women, me, the lawyer. Someone drew a beard on my photo. Delightful.

"I can tell you who these people are," I said, pointing to the ones I did know. Solomon handed me a pen and I wrote the names as I remembered them on the back of the photos.

"Your notes are rather brief," he observed, closing the file.

"I only just started," I replied, glancing at his. "Yours are very detailed."

"I had a headstart."

"What's your feeling now?"

"If your gut feeling tells you there is a stalker, then we need to prove or disprove that theory. Juliet's background checks came up clean. Her employers said she was always the perfect employee until suddenly, all this happens. You're right, it doesn't make sense. There should have been a bigger lead-in to this; and she would have been smarter to spread out her trades. There was no urgency for her to rush, thereby risking discovery."

"I thought you were convinced that Juliet suddenly turned bad."

"I'm trusting my gut too; and it tells me something weird is going on. What's your next move, Graves?"

"I asked Delgado to install a new security system at Juliet's house. We're only telling Juliet and Rob about it; and I'll make sure they know not to trust a single other person. I think it's our best chance of catching the perp."

"Good idea. If it helps catch the stalker, I'll bill it to my case expenses. That should clear Juliet and that's what my client wants."

"Your client wants her in prison," I reminded him.

"They want someone in prison, and I'm pretty sure they want the right person. Their evidence just points to Juliet, although even they admit they aren't one hundred percent sure." Solomon looked through the handful of photos I passed across to him. When he looked up, he said, "Given the perp had access to Juliet's computer, and since her trades came from within the firm, it seems most plausible that someone is setting her up from inside the firm. We should look for a potential stalker there too. Is there anyone from Juliet's personal world who crosses into her business world?"

"Yes," I said, reaching for a photo. "Penelope. She works part-time at the firm, and is a regular visitor to their house. Penelope was with her when one of the stranger potential stalking incidents occurred."

"Then let's go talk to Penelope."

En route to seeing Penelope, we stopped at Juliet's house to meet with Delgado, plus, I wanted to give my mom a well-deserved break. It took some persuading to make my mother leave, but gradually, we convinced her that the surveillance was best conducted by Solomon's team of professionals. After a final reminder to me not to forget about hosting our family dinner, she took off.