AN/ Post movie and post TDTL
Chapter One
Only five more days, Veronica smiled to herself, tracing the small red circle on the calendar with the tip of a finger. It'd been a hundred and seventy five days exactly since, Logan, her boyfriend had left for deployment, and in a hundred and twenty hours they would be reunited. Not that she was counting.
Veronica shrugged into her jacket, grabbing her bag from where she had dropped it the night before. While sitting and pining away was inviting, it wasn't something she could allow. Before she could look at the wall hanging once more, she exited her room. Five more days, what's five days to us?
She moved with purpose through the kitchen of the small bungalow, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter; immediately digging her teeth into it. Ever since Keith had been approved to go back to working cases, he'd been beating her to the office every morning, going in early and leaving late, like he had something to prove to her, to himself.
His car accident, which had happened weeks before Logan's departure, was still fresh in her mind. The images of her father crumpled and broken, bleeding out on the sidewalk, left a sour taste in her mouth. Jerry Sachs, the reason he'd been in the car in the first place, was pronounced DOA and there was the ever present reminder that, that could've been Keith. That could've been her father. She had insisted he take it easy, or in the least let her take on some of the more risky cases. Veronica knew what she was asking him to do was impossible, something she herself had been incapable of. But deep down, she wished he could let it go, retire and move on to greener pastures. Take up golfing or boating, anything to keep him safe.
And leave good ole Neptune behind? Come on Veronica, you yourself couldn't do it, what makes you think he could?
It was their higher purpose in life, a calling they'd never been able to ignore. She'd tried, for years she'd tried, moved across the country in search of a normal happy life. Putting herself in situations and relationships that were by the book, safe. But normal didn't suit her, so why would it work for the man who had taught her everything she knew, helped shape the very essence of who she was.
The drive to Mars Investigations was a short one, cutting through the grimey downtown streets and into the commercial districts. She parked Logan's BMW alongside the curb, clicking the button locking it. This was not the MI she had worked at as a teen in high school, but she had grown to love the brick building that now housed what could be defined as her second home.
Mac, one of her best friends and their unofficial tech analyst, didn't look up immediately when she came in, hidden behind one of the many monitors covering her desk, fingers flying over keys. There had been an influx of cases following Hayley Dewalt's murder and the Aurora Scott scandal, but in the last few weeks their cases had slowed to a trickle. A few cheating spouses, some bail jumpers, nothing particularly exciting or dangerous, more monotonous and mundane than anything.
"Howdy ho." Veronica said, noticing the door to the small office she and Keith shared was closed. She flopped onto the couch across from the front desk, motioning towards the door with her thumb.
"He in with a client?" Mac nodded, looking up for the first time.
"Sort of," she tittered. Sort of?
Veronica had opened her mouth to respond when the door opened, a tall girl with long brown hair and striking green eyes exiting the room, Keith following suit. He smiled at his daughter, but it was brief and his gaze quickly flickered away.
What are you hiding?
"Thanks Miss Cole, we'll have Mac here call you soon, when we've made our decision." He moved stiffly to the desk, handing Mac a manila folder, speaking quietly to her. Veronica moved forward hoping to catch the tail end of the conversation.
The girl, Miss Cole, turned smiling brightly, it seemed to touch every part of her. Was this girl a client? She seemed awfully happy for someone who was receiving threats or suspected their significant other of cheating.
"You're Veronica Mars."
Veronica looked to the side at Keith and Mac, who were both conveniently busy with other things.
"That's what they tell me."
"I'm Jessie Cole." She thrust a heavily ringed hand forward, Veronica complied quickly shaking it, before letting her own hand fall back down to her side.
"I've heard and read so much about you in the Newspapers and people still talk about you at Hearst."
Great.
So she was a college student, it still didn't explain why she was here. Jessie continued gushing, seemingly not noticing that Veronica's thoughts were far away. Dissecting her on a deeper plane.
"and when I found out that I might be able to work with you. Oh my gosh, I freaked."
Hold the phones, what? That snapped her back to attention very quickly.
"What are you talking about?"
"Hey honey,"
Lucy you have some 'splaining to do.
Keith moved past Jessie to stand beside Veronica, placing a hand on her shoulder, he smiled at both girls, obviously trying to defuse the ticking time bomb he knew was coming.
"I see you've met Miss Cole here."
"You see correctly." There was venom to her tone hidden under a carefully placed playful facade, and everyone in the room knew it was there. Everyone, except for maybe Jessie, but by her expression, Veronica could see that she was catching on. Her smile faltered and her once cheery disposition darkened, just a bit. She played awkwardly with the hem of her shirt, but she never broke eye contact.
"Miss Cole," Keith continued ignoring Veronica's vehemence and Jessie's sudden shyness, "was just interviewing for an internship here at Mars Investigations, exciting, huh?"
She redirected the burn of her stare right at her father.
"Intern? I wasn't aware we were interviewing interns."
He didn't even miss a beat.
"Yep, and Miss Cole here, has an incredibly exceptional resume."
And just like that she snapped to attention, the bright confidence from before slinking back into her demeanor. Jessie beamed at Keith, obviously flattered by his approval.
"Incredibly exceptional, isn't that a bit of an oxymoron?" Veronica tilted her head in a display of false innocence, something she had done since she was child.
Behind her computers, Mac looked green her eyes flitting around the scene and towards the exits, like she was debating which would be the best escape route. Keith clapped his hands together,
"ANYWAYS," his tone was full of false cheer, and meant to ease the pot that was clearly on the verge of overflowing. "Miss Cole, it was a pleasure and we can't wait to see you again," He stepped away from Veronica, placing a gentle hand on the girl's elbow, shuffling her towards the door with a kind insistence.
Jessie nodded a few times waving to the room and quietly thanking Keith for his time and they all stood in silence watching her open and walk through the office door, closing it behind her as she departed. Veronica wasted no time, before spinning around and confronting the room.
"An intern? Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Some of the color had crept back into Mac's cheeks and she looked up smiling guiltily,
"Don't look at me," she countered pointing at the older man, "this was all him, I just pointed them to the office."
"Thank you, Cindy."
Keith sunk down onto the overly squishy couch, his forefingers pinching the bridge of his nose, he let out a long over exasperated sigh.
"Veronica, lots of detective agencies have interns, they file paperwork, get coffee, take phone calls. Maybe you're familiar with the job description?"
Oh, so that's what interns did.
"And here I remember my time at Mars Investigations so differently." Keith's expression grew cold.
"This isn't up to you Veronica, we could always use a little extra help around here, free up our hands for cases," as if to better illustrate this he held up both hands wiggling his fingers animatedly, "and Jessie, or any of the other girls I interviewed today, would be great candidates for that job."
She groaned loudly.
"It's not like we're swimming in cases here, Dad. She's going to get bored."
"Don't sell yourself short honey, life with you is never boring." He paused looking up at her with an expression she knew all too well, there was no arguing this, the decision had been made and she was just going to have to live with it. That didn't mean she had to enjoy it, though.
"Mac give me the Jones's file, I think I need a little fresh air."
"Which Jones? We have three right now."
This wasn't Mac's fault, she had been an accessory after the fact, so she tried her best to not take her anger at her father out on her.
"I'll get it" she mumbled, moving to the large stack of overflowing filing cabinets. She rifled through the mess for a bit before a long, frustrated cry erupted from the base of her throat. Veronica tried her best to ignore her father who was practically beaming from the couch.
"I wonder what would make this so much easier…" He mused, she halted her work briefly, sending mental daggers his way.
"Here it is!" Mac held up the folder from behind her desk, "Marta Jones, right?"
"That's the one." Veronica sighed taking the slim folder, "Thank you, Mac." She nodded warmly towards her friend, "Dad."
And with no further conversation, she grabbed her bag from the couch, heading out the door. She didn't look back, but as the glass door fell closed, she could hear Keith's low chuckle from the hall.
It wasn't so much the prospect of the potential intern that frustrated her, she didn't like it, but her dad had a good point. It was more that he had moved forward without talking to her first. Months ago, they had agreed to be partners, that they would run Mars Investigations together, and part of that included making decisions such as who picked up the take out for lunch, or whether or not they needed an intern to make sense of their nightmare of a filing system. Up until that point, Keith had been doing most of the filing and phone answering, doctor's orders, but since the recent approval of him returning to cases, well, things had become a mess.
What is it you hate more, Veronica, the fact that he's hired someone to clean up this train wreck or that he's in the danger zone again.
For the second time that day, she replayed the scene of her father's accident in her mind. Shivering as she recalled the broken glass that littered the street and the blood, her father's blood, covering both her and Logan's hands as they waited for the ambulance to get there. It hadn't taken them more than five minutes, but it felt like a lifetime for Veronica.
She lifted the camera to her face, glad for the distraction that a case provided. As a teenager, young and volatile, she would throw herself into her work; it providing the necessary distractions for her to forget, at least for a little while, how broken things were around her. Life had looked up considerably in the last few years, but she still found comfort in losing herself in an investigation.
There wasn't much to this one though, just the typical adultery case. Wife had come in swearing her husband was cheating, the standard late nights and unfamiliar perfume, and given a list of addresses where they could find him. Veronica had been tailing him all day, but had come up with nothing. She was parked outside of what his wife had said was his final stop, camera at the ready just in case. Mr. Jones, a big wig accountant, had gone into the Neptune Grand, Neptune's biggest and nicest hotel, for a supposed dinner appointment but that had been four hours ago. She leaned back in her seat, shifting a bit to get more comfortable. From her bag she took out her phone, going straight to her email. It pinged a few times. The most recent one was from her father.
To: veronicamars
From: keithmars
Subject: interns
Here are the resumes for the three girls I interviewed this morning, maybe give them a look over and get back to me.
-Dad
Now he was involving her. At the bottom were three attached word documents, each with a name, Jessie's was the last one and by the looks of it the biggest file size. She scrolled back to the main email page moving through the other unread messages, if he asked her about it later, she would claim she'd been busy with the case and hadn't had the time.
She sifted through junk mail and then finally with a sigh of relief at the bottom there was a single unread email from Logan.
To: veronicamars
From:
Subject: what are you wearing?
She laughed, almost painfully.
The ever present ache of missing him enveloped her like a wave as she read his email; it was a late response to one she'd sent earlier in the week.
Sorry I'm just getting back to you, just returned from a mission. I have to take you flying someday, it's unlike anything you could ever imagine. Be patient, people get screwed over all the time, I'm sure Mars Investigations case load will pick up soon. Who knows, I'm due to be framed again for murder, right? Speaking of.. five days. -Logan
She set her phone down on the seat beside her, leaving Logan's email open. When she turned her eyes to the Neptune Grand's front entrance, a man with a curly blonde in a tight red dress was just exiting, stumbling and laughing.
"Got ya."
When she finally made it home, the sky was a thick, inky black with the late hour. She'd taken her time transferring the snapshots of Mr. Jones, to her computer. Sifting through and finding the best ones to present to Mrs. Jones in the morning. If this was the end game of all marriages, why even get married? It seemed to her all it was, was a constant race of who could come out on top, who could get more at the end, who could hurt the other the most. She tried to suppress these bitter feelings as she staggered into the house. Her father was asleep on the couch, the tv still on in the background. He had a habit of doing this lately - waiting up for her - there was a soft pang in her chest, all the previous anger dissipating.
She flopped down beside him, with the intention of waking him up so they could both head to their own beds, but she never made it that far. The couch was soft and her eyes were heavy and before she knew it she was fast asleep.
Veronica woke up disoriented and stiff just as the morning sun began creeping through the large living room windows. She groaned, struggling to remember how exactly she'd ended up on the couch, fully dressed and not in her bed. Dad. She looked to her side, expecting to see him, still fast asleep beside her. But the rustling in the kitchen suggested otherwise. She pushed herself away from the cushions, stretching her arms lazily, contemplating if she had enough time to sneak back to her room for a few more hours of sleep before her meeting, when something caught her eye.
In the corner of the room her father's television was turned on the news playing silently, a woman with overly hair sprayed hair and big rosy cheeks talked animatedly to the camera. At the bottom of the screen in bold white letters, the words NANNY FOUND DEAD IN EMPLOYERS HOME - 7 YEAR OLD BOY MISSING circulated the bottom of the screen. Before she could think twice, Veronica was on her feet, scrambling for the remote and cranking the volume up.
She caught the tail end of the woman speaking. The pictures on the screen faded to a helicopter view of a tiny house in one of Neptune's middle class neighborhood's. Police could be seen below, moving around like ants.
At six am this morning, the local sheriff's department arrived on scene after a call to 911 was made, by Annie Baxter, homeowner and employer. The deceased has been identified as Casey Cole, 19 year old college student.
"What are you watching?" Keith asked pleasantly, stepping into the room a mug in his hands.
"Shhhhh!" Veronica held up a hand eyes focused on the screen. He chuckled, but then quickly fell silent as the newscaster continued. He shuffled over to the couch, reclaiming his spot next to his daughter. They listened in quiet horror, as the report vaguely detailed how Annie Baxter an NICU nurse at Neptune General returned home not only to find her nanny with a bullet in the head among other injuries, but her 7 year old son missing.
"The police have not yet ruled out suicide, but word from the Sherriff's department is there will be a press conference later this afternoon addressing Casey Cole's murder and the disappearance of Adrian Baxter."
Of course there would be. Veronica snorted in indignation. Lamb exploiting tragedy for fifteen minutes in the spotlight? Sounded right.
"And on that note, at this time the families ask for their privacy and if anyone has any information as to the whereabouts of Adrian Baxter to please come forward. Casey Cole is survived by her Mother, whom we will be speaking to later this evening, and her sister Jessie Cole."
Veronica almost fell of the couch, and when she looked over at her father she was sure his shocked expression was a mirror to her own. It couldn't be the same Jessie Cole could it, how many Jessie Cole's were in Neptune? But, as the news broadcast continued and pictures of the late Casey Cole crowded the screen, there was no doubt in her mind the girls were related. They were both tall and lean, with the same dark hair, except Casey's was maybe a little lighter and cropped short, in her photos. If Veronica hadn't felt uneasy before, she definitely did now.
"Well, shit."
AN/ Thanks for reading, this is my first fic ever and so be kind, please., but I would love to hear what you think. I'm working on Chapters 2 and 3 as we speak, super stoked to post more. Thanks again for reading.