Neptune had always been the tragedy ridden cesspool where young lives were taken too soon, but so far it only seemed to matter if you resided in the prestigious 90909 zip code or your net-worth was more than $2 million. According to the press anyways, Daisy Blossom thought angrily as she walked into the changing room of the local dojo.
There had been no such public outcry or tears when her boyfriend Gustavio "The Reaper" Toomes had gone missing four years ago during their senior year at Neptune High. Maybe it didn't matter as much because most of the local Sheriff's Department aside from Sheriff Mars had been glad to see the back of the local Pacific Highway Club biker gang leader. There also hadn't been the same kind of attention given to the three murdered 10 year old girls who had gone missing from her neighbourhood over the last sixteen months, but so far Sheriff Lamb refused to call it a pattern.
No, that might actually have meant that the tourist trade in Neptune might be under threat. That guy was the worst thing to ever happen to Neptune, he was corrupt and most of the local businesses that didn't pay protection money, adorably known as donations to the local Sheriff's soccer team, could pretty much have to depend on themselves. Burglaries and shake-downs were common around here, its why she was grateful that she still had some friends in the local PCH club, she gave the kids discounts if they used her chair in the Dark Arts tattoo parlour she worked at with her Uncle Jimmy if they kept trouble away from their door and didn't bother the other businesses on her street. Life wasn't easy for an 03er in Neptune like Daisy, but she only had one more year at Hearst then she was heading to San Diego and out of this God forsaken place.
Daisy had just finished her warm up routine as she heard Mage, the aging former ballerina and local dance instructor talking to Angelo about the news reports from this afternoon.
The tragedy that had befallen the most beloved family in Neptune had been headline news today, but honestly, everyone knew that the trouble for the Kane's had started last year with the murder of their only daughter, Lilly Kane. Lilly… the only other girl in Neptune that she knew of with a flower for a name. She had been a few years beneath Daisy and she could remember her fondly, a bubbly wild child with long blond hair and big blue eyes, cartwheeling her way through cheerleader try outs.
No sooner had the revelations come out that someone had paid off Abel Koontz, a former dying Kane's Software employee to provide a false confession and that the family had possibly tried to cover up their son's involvement in the death of his sister. Duncan Kane had been rushed to hospital and been left in a vegetative state after an epileptic fit at the news that his sister's best friend, daughter of former Sheriff Keith Mars, Veronica who had been slain by her ex-boyfriend Logan Echolls, son of Aaron Echolls A list Movie Star had been revealed.
The authorities had speculated that Logan Echolls had killed Veronica Mars in an act of revenge after she had taken information of his possible involvement in the murder of Lilly Kane to the Sheriff's Department earlier that day, so now the Sheriff Lamb had concluded that Logan Echolls was quite possibly responsible for the murder of both of his former girlfriends.
Mateo, her god son had been annoyingly enthusiastic in showing her the footage of the guy from those illegal underground bum fights he had organised a few months ago. He certainly seemed from that footage like the kind of person who would be capable of something that horrible; according to reports, he had thrown her into an old freezer and set it on fire. The identification had only been possible because her car had been found so close by and the dental records matched, but least her body had been found.
Keith and Lianne Mars had arrived to find their daughter's car abandoned by the roadside and had been drawn by the smell of smoke, Drew Haberton, the owner of the property had been found passed out and suffering from severe smoke inhalation, the only word he had managed to say had been Echolls before he succumbed to his injuries. A history of CPOD, sleep apnoea and old age had weakened his lungs.
Marissa Toomes still had no remains of her son Gustavio to bury.. and now thanks to Logan Echolls, she had just had to bury another son. Daisy tried to hold back the tears as she thought of the phone call she had received from Marissa begging her to come and babysit his little sisters Clarita and Maya so she could go to the hospital. Felix Toomes had been pronounced dead on arrival. Stabbed to death by some lunatic drunk and raving on the bridge.
Even that kid Wallace from the Sac-N-Pac had been deeply affected by the recent deaths. She channelled all that rage into the punching bag in front of her.
Logan Echolls had been found a few hours later driving around Neptune, bloodied and suffering from memory loss.
Convenient for a guy who had just murdered two people… Daisy thought angrily. Conspiracy Theorists were arguing that the timelines didn't fit, how could he have been in the same place as the fire and on the bridge, but how much time did you really need to burn someone alive?
"Hey Daize" Norris Clayton said as he entered the gym. "You are really going at it" he commented as he watched her kick a tear into the bag.
"Hey Norris" she smiled, panting and tucking a strand of her black hair behind her ear. He was in Felix's year at school and the news of the death of Veronica Mars had really affected him. She had been his little crush since the beginning of last year, he liked his women feisty and blond and she had gotten him released when that ATF agent had tried to frame him for a bomb-plot.
"Tough day?" he asked as he gripped the back of the bag.
"Toughest" she admitted. Logan Echoll's lawyers were trying to rule the stabbing of Felix as self-defence, and if half the crap they were sprouting about trying to pin the murder of Lilly Kane on Duncan Kane, were heard by a jury.. then he could possibly walk. They only had eye witness reports from Lianne Mars that Drew Haberton had mentioned Echolls at all were inadmissible because she had been drinking heavily at the time.
The news stations had shown a broken hearted Keith Mars closing down his business packing up his belongings and finally moving out of Neptune. The Kane's had been very heart felt in extending their deepest sympathies to the former Sheriff who had almost destroyed their family as they stated they understood the dreadful loss of a child and were now almost going to lose another if Duncan Kane didn't wake up soon.
Movie Star Aaron Echolls press conference today passionately denied his sons involvement vehemently and telephone records produced by Vinnie Van Lowe showed an attempted phone call from the Kane's estate from Veronica to Logan Echolls during or slightly before the time of the stabbing on the bridge that he argued proved his son was innocent of roasting his girlfriend alive in a metal box, he was pointing the finger at Duncan Kane, her other ex-boyfriend instead.
"You doing okay?" Norris enquired softly. Daisy had taken him under her wing after he had been expelled during junior high for putting Pete Kimmliski in hospital, she had been a senior who knew his mother from church, a martial arts protégé herself, she had helped him to channel that aggression into something constructive and gotten him into her Dojo and competitions, it had been the discipline he had needed to settle him down, she was the closest thing he had ever had to a big sister.
"Just these 09ers… they think they can get away with everything" she said angrily.
Where had been the camera's when her boyfriend went missing? Where were the conspiracy theorists and coffee table conversations about where his body might have been hidden? Where was the private investigators digging up dirt on the Fitzpatrick's who had killed him?
Keith Mars had done his best, five of the Fitzpatrick's brothers had ended up in Chino on related charges but they were still terrorising the west side of Neptune and spreading their poison to the kids in the arcade from the Neptune Plaza Pier.
"Yeah I know what you mean" Norris replied sadly. "I still can't believe he did it"
"Well you might as well give me your theory… it seems like everyone else has" she laughed bitterly and started to pull off her gloves.
Pretty blond girl dies in Neptune and the world weeps…
PCH gang banger gets stabbed on the Coronado bridge and Sheriff Lamb throws a kegger on the beach.
"I don't have one… I am trying not to think about. It still doesn't seem real, you know?" he sighed.
"Yeah.. yeah I know what you mean" she agreed. Daisy still wasn't the same after Gustavio went missing, those weeks of not knowing what had happened, then the arrest of Cormac Fitzpatrick and the thinly veiled confession that his body would never be found. She had almost fallen apart after that, physical altercations and arguments with Maria Boyd, the cousin of Liam Fitzpatrick and Annette Donovan his girlfriend had landed her in Mr Clemmons office to the point she was almost going to be expelled, Mr Wu her biology teacher had given her a flyer to a martial arts class run by his sister in law. That's how she had ended up here in Neptune's Half Moon Dojo, and it had become her way of life ever since. When she couldn't lose herself in drawing something, she could release it through punching the crap out of a something else.
She forgot sometimes that Norris was still just in high school. "Did your dad say anything else about you coming out with me to University of Tsukuba?" she asked trying to change the subject. She had been working on an exchange programme with her Sociology Professor as part of her final year's project into the studies of Western vs Eastern for rehabilitation through structured discipline in its various forms. She had chosen religion and martial arts, her roommate Becca had chosen Military Training and the rehabilitation programmes out of San Quinten.
"If I keep my grades up" he smiled weakly.
"Good, because it won't be the same without you" Daisy smiled sadly.
"Veronica would have been able to solve the case you know" Norris commented as he powdered up his own hands.
"Yeah?" Daisy asked quietly.
"Yeah… she worked in her Dad's P.I. Office… that's how she got me released. She was always looking into something, always helping out" he said admiringly.
"Sounds like you have a little bit of hero worship" Daisy observed sadly. He really had taken this hard.
"I guess she just reminded me of you a little? I was in a jam and she stuck her neck out and helped me out when she didn't have to" he told her. "I think you would have really liked her"
"Coming from you, that's high praise" she sighed.
"I just really wish I could do something… pay her back somehow… it's just not fair" he sobbed.
"Look… maybe we should just skip this for tonight? Go for a drive" Daisy suggested. There were too many people watching them now and the stale air of the gym wasn't helping. They needed some place open, some place away from it all if they were really going to talk.
"You wanna get something from Amys?" he suggested.
"Only if you are buying, and then I want to see that sketch you made me of that dagger I showed you for that back piece" she negotiated as she picked up her towel.
Daisy listened to Norris as he told her about the spy camera Veronica had planted in the teacher's lounge at their school and when she had saved the girl in his chemistry class, Mandy's dog and uncovered an entire Dog-Knapping ring in the process.
"Sounds like the kind of girl I wish had been in my year when Gustavio went missing" she smiled.
"Yeah.. Veronica was… well she was something" he sighed as they sat parked up on the ridge of the 08/09 divide, just at the point where it dropped off into the 04 postcode. It also had the best view of Neptune, lit up beneath them like a Christmas tree, it looked so peaceful from here. Not the seedy corrupt murder town that they both knew it to be.
Norris may have lived in one of the first houses to own wi-fi in Neptune but his father had never really moved out of his 05 neighbourhood, a rarity for someone who lived in Neptune and had the option of upgrading to something better.
"Here's to something" Daisy said as she toasted with her Pepsi. "I know Gustavio was heading down a bad path.. getting into bed with the Fitzpatrick's like that.. dealing trouble… boosting cars.. but he wasn't always like that… and I know.. that if given the right push, he could have turned his life around. He was looking into signing up with his cousin Javier in the Marines, he just… never got the chance to grow up" Daisy sighed.
"Neither will Veronica" Norris told her miserably. "You know.. I don't think that house is too far from here" he said.
"You aren't going to be morbid and suggest we go are you?" she complained.
"I don't know.. maybe just lay some flowers or something… I wouldn't be the only one, there's like half the kids in Neptune High have gone by" he shrugged.
"Alright Romeo… let's go say goodbye to your girl" she relented and they drove passed the Nereids Inn Café, a local grocery store/24hr Coffee shop/motel and picked up some flowers. Norris had been right, the Haberton house was just a few blocks over on their way back to the 02 side of Neptune. This must have been Veronica Mars' way home.
Daisy felt a little sick when they parked not too far from the busted lamp post where she had supposedly crashed her car. The air was cold and an unsettled feeling sank into the pit of her stomach. Maybe she should be glad that she didn't know where Gustavio had actually met his end, then she didn't have to worry it would feel so… haunted. The police tape had been broken away days ago it seemed and there were several bouquets of flowers and teddy bears sitting laying on the floor, some of the little candles were still fading as their flames died out. The smell of the fire and charred wood was still heavy and the soot from the ashes almost made her lose her balance, then they saw it, the over turned metal box, it looked like it had been almost fused with the surrounding wooden boards.
"Don't get too close" she warned Norris. The house was mostly abandoned, Drew Haberton had been a 62 retired geography teacher, he spent his nights out on the terrace and looking into a telescope. Never married but he had one daughter in Chicago according to the news reports. Funny all the things people seemed to learn about you when you were dead, like suddenly everything about your life mattered more than it did when you were around.
"There's so many…" he commented as he looked at all the little candles.
Personally? Daisy thought it was a bit twisted that people had been leaving candles at a place where the girl had burned to death.. but hey. Who was she to judge?
"Sleep well sweet angel, Love Inga" a note said wrapped around a small plush of a dog.
She lingered on some of the messages while Norris cried a little and lit a candle of his own. The scars we don't know we will leave behind… she thought as she watched him trapped in his own private grief.
She looked at some of the other pieces of random junk around the garden, no doubt some of the local junker's would be coming by to loot the place soon. PCHers probably too, but Weevil and the rest of them were still too upset over the death of Felix they had given the trouble making a rest for a while until they helped out Marissa Toomes with the rest of his things. It was then she noticed a little cassette tape sticking out of the wood pile. October 1st, and another in the bin beside her. Curiosity got the better of her and she picked it up.
"You ready to go?" Norris sniffed.
"Sure" she said, tossing it back into the bottom of the bin. If it had been anything good, it wouldn't have been in the trash anyways.