“Just briefly. They talked to her supervisor, mostly, and then several of the other admins in her section. I don’t know if we were able to help much.” She put her tea down and looked at Leigh. “So, Vanessa hired you?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

Leigh chose her words carefully. She had to walk a fine line between asking questions and answering them. “I can’t get into specifics.”

“No, I get that. But was it something like my case?” She shuddered. “I sure as hell hope not. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure exactly what she was dealing with,” Leigh said. “We only had a brief meeting in the summer. Her legal issue sounded pretty straightforward, but now I’m wondering if there’s more to the story.”

She watched Tiffany’s reaction carefully. She picked the onions from her turkey wrap but didn’t respond.

“Do you know if she was having any problems with harassment? Or anything online?” Leigh asked.

“She never said anything like that,” Tiffany replied. “But she did ask me a lot of questions about all that shit with Julian. I told her about my settlement and everything, so maybe that’s why she called you. I really don’t know.”

So, it sounded like Vanessa had gotten Leigh’s name from Tiffany. That was one mystery solved, but not the most important one.

“But she never talked about problems with an ex or anyone?” Leigh asked.

Tiffany shook her head.

Leigh tried to mask her disappointment. Talking to Tiffany had been a long shot, but she’d hoped that if she and Vanessa were friends, Vanessa would have confided in her if she was having problems with a guy.

But many of Leigh’s clients were very tight-lipped, due to a potent combination of fear and embarrassment. Some never talked to anyone about the pain they were dealing with until they came to Leigh’s office and sat down on her couch. That was usually when the floodgates opened, and their misery spilled forth in a powerful torrent.

Tiffany had been one such client, not even telling her current boyfriend what was happening until she had formally filed a lawsuit.

Leigh looked her client over now and felt a renewed wave of sympathy. Tiffany’s life had been forever changed by a vindictive ex who’d uploaded a sex video to half a dozen porn sites. The video was viewed thousands of times before someone recognized Tiffany and sent a screenshot to her brother, of all people. By the time Tiffany figured out what had happened and came to Leigh, the video had been passed around so much, it was practically impossible to get it removed, even with a court order.