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“It’s mostly emails from people. All from the grant.” I put them on the table. “Ready to figure out who runs it?”
“Yes!” Wren said. “I need to know who paid for the library.”
“And Cain’s lawyer fees,” Mollie added.
“How did that happen, by the way?” Piper asked.
“No idea. Eric, our oldest, is actually his nephew, and his shitty biological dad tried to take custody. Cain drained his savings to pay for it, then a check showed up in the mail.”
“Wow,” Piper said.
“The same thing happened to me,” Grace added. I nodded. “We didn’t ask for anything.”
“We can’t forget the random money that helped Theo pay for his expansion,” Piper mused. “He didn’t ask for that either.”
“Most of us didn’t.” I took a breath. “Does anyone know where to start?”
Then silence settled over us all.
One thing was for sure: Whoever ran this didn’t want to be found out.
“So, does anyone know what STM even stands for?” I asked.
The room lapsed back into silence.
“So, we don’t.” I sighed. “I have my guesses.”
“What are those?”
“Uh . . . Nothing useful.” I sighed. “My best one is Start Training Masses as if it were a conspiracy or something.”
“That sounds like something Hugh would say.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s not my best work.”
“What about Start the Making?” Grace asked. “Like they want us to be productive?”
“Strain the debt?” Wren added. “Wait, no, that doesn’t have the M.”
“I love you guys, but no. Anything else?”
Silence again.
“So, we have no clue what STM stands for. What do we know?”
“They knew about the custody battle,” Mollie said. “Which was only hinted at in the Facebook group.”
“And the drama with my sister,” Grace added. “That’s why they sent money.”
“Right. So that brings us to our first point.” I taped a piece of paper onto the wall. “They’re maybe in the Facebook group.”
“Plus, they have familiar handwriting,” Grace added.
“Hang on, what?” I nearly tripped over a chair turning to her. “You’ve seen their handwriting?”
“There was a note when they sent it to me. It was personalized.”
“Holy shit. Why didn’t you say anything?”