The past tense of "lie" is not "lied" but it is "lay."  
So this sentence should be: "Part of the tragedy of the Lana Clarkson murder lay in its second-hand tackiness " or since the situation is still tragic, it could be, "Part of the tragedy of the Lana Clarkson murder lies in its second-hand tackiness. "

I thought it was totally obvious that CEO was bribing Amy after Krista tipped the company off about the article, so that is why he would all of a sudden meet the lowly serf and then offer an unrealistic job and of course $100,000 is cheap for a mega corporation to avoid bad press so no problem with the finance dept.