Sorry, I had some editing problems on the first chapter, it was meant to be the prologue. THIS is the real chapter one. And I'm posting it so soon because the prologue was just to introduce the story. So on with the show...
Chapter One
-The Italian Job-
Monday, October 6th
Neptune was a mess. As opposed to it's normal state of disarray.
After Veronica never came home to have dinner with her parents and Veronica's phone was off, Keith called Lilly, who told him that she'd said she was going straight to meet him. Keith asked her to look for Veronica's car at the car wash and that he'd follow her there. Lilly had gotten off the phone and turned to Logan and Duncan, who were all lounging at the Kane's house.
"What's going on, Lil?" Duncan asked. Lilly didn't answer, just got up and started walking towards the door, grabbing her keys along the way. She had a stoic expression on her face, and the boys exchanged a look before scrambling up and running after her.
"Lilly, what's wrong? Why was Mr. Mars asking about Veronica?" Duncan asked, persistent. Lilly still didn't answer.
"Lil, tell. us. what's. wrong," Logan said, shaking her shoulders. Lilly looked up with tears in her eyes.
"Veronica never went home."
"So?" Logan asked. "She's probably just out somewhere running an errand or whatever."
"Logan, her phone is off, that was four hours ago and you KNOW it's not like Veronica to go off and skip dinner with her parents!" Lilly jerked out of his grasp and flung the car door open, and the boys quickly got in.
The car was silent on the way to the car wash, all three of the teenagers contemplating everything, trying to answer their unvoiced questions. Lilly eventually pulled the car into the parking lot and was met with the sight of 4 police cars and an ambulance. Lilly gasped and didn't bother to park the car properly, she just shut it off and jumped out of the car, Duncan and Logan on her heels.
"Out of my way! Out of my goddamn way, you bastards!" Lilly screeched, shoving aside police officers to get to where Keith Mars was standing. Lilly screamed when she saw what he was looking at.
The passenger door to Veronica's LeBaron was open and on the middle of the passenger seat was a huge, red, blood stain.
Keith Mars was stadning rigid, clenching and unclenching his fists, silent tears rolling down his face. Lilly dropped to her knees and the tears started to flow freely. She saw Logan and Duncan finally push their way through the commotion and she would remember the reactions for a long time.
Duncan stood in shock, finally collapsing on the ground, shaking, while repeating incomprehensible words, and an EMT tried to help him up and onto an ambulance, but he went into an epileptic fit and started yelling and kicking and trying to hurt the EMT any way he could, and eventually another two had to come and force him off the EMT and sedate him to calm him down.
Logan had seen the blood and stood still, staring at it, for the longest time. When he snapped out of it, he turned to the van right beside him, and with an angry roar, he punched the wall of the van. A sickening noise was heard, and Lilly wasn't sure whether it was the van or Logan's hand. Turns out, Logan had left a sizeable dent in the sie of the van, and an EMT rushed over and tried to attend to his hand, all the while tears streaming down his face.
Lilly vaguely remembered a man in a blue coat telling Keith that the amount of blood was survivable, and that they didn't know if it was Veronica's yet.
'Stupid bastard.' Lilly thought. 'Of course it's Veronica's.'
The rest of the night passed in a blur, and Lilly didn't particularly want to relive it.
But that was three days ago.
When the news broke out that the sheriff's daughter had been kidnapped, the reactions varied greatly.
The 09ers were gossiping about it nonstop, and very few actually cared about Veronica's welfare. A few worried ones approached Duncan when he was at school, as he told her, like Meg, Luke, Dick surprisingly, and a junior named Adrian who was Veronica and Lilly's friend.
Duncan and Logan had gone to school today to clear out the rumors and make sure nobody badtalked Veronica. That, and Celeste forced Duncan to go (she tried to force Lilly, but she was too stubborn. An inherited gene.) and Logan wanted to be there for his best friend. He knew he wasn't over Veronica, and that he couldn't handle everyone at school talking about her by himself.
Lilly spent the day in bed, watching TV and surfing the internet... doing mundane things and wishing that her best friend would come back. She even tried slightly to pray to God, even though she felt ridiculous for talking to her ceiling. She was desperate.
Keith was faring no better. Lianne had picked the perfect time to pick up her heavy drinking again, and he was trying to keep a straight and focused perspective while dealing with Veronica's - his daughter's- case. He tried to keep it professional, but every day the clock went by he got more and more angrier and depressed. He just wanted his baby girl back.
The blood in the car was tested for DNA, which it proved to be Veronica's. The kidnappers left no fingerprints or blood or hair or anything that they could use, and the parking lot wasn't under surveilance. There was no eyewitness and there were too many variables to check all the roads.
All they had was some tire track marks on the asphalt. Lilly had said that the tracks weren't there earlier in the day.
There was no other evidence.
Lilly stared up at her ceiling, replaying the days before Veronica's kidnap. She remembered the car wash that they'd had so much fun at. The memory hurt now. She remembered calling her in the morning. She also remembered Veronica flipping through her yearbook looking for someone...
Suddenly Lilly sat up in bed. That was it. She'd been suspicious of a guy that was hanging around Neptune High.
Lilly frantically grabbed her cell phone, scrolling down to the contact that Veronica had put in in case of emergencies, Mr. Mars.
"Sheriff Keith Mars," Veronica's dad answered.
"Mr. Mars!" Lilly practically screamed.
"Lilly? What's wrong?" He asked, very concerned.
"I remembered something Veronica said to me a couple days before... the.. kidnap about a suspicious guy hanging around Neptune High!" Lilly exclaimed. There was silence on the other end.
"Mr. Mars?"
"Come down to the station. Tell me everything you know." His voice was stony, and Lilly thought he sounded angry. But what father wouldn't be? He disconnected the line and Lilly grabbed a jacket and her keys and ran out her door, zooming past Duncan, leaving him with a confused look on his face.
She drove to the sheriff's department and ran up the front steps, not bothering to sit around and wait her turn, and ran into Keith's office.
He looked up at her when she entered, panting heavily, and motioned for her to sit down. He had a piece of a paper on his desk, and a pen. She assumed he was going to write down whatever she said.
"You said she said something about a suspicious guy around the high school? Why did she think he was suspicious?" Keith asked.
"She said that she'd seen him earlier that day at school, but that she didn't recognize him. She said he wasn't going into the school, that he looked like he was going towards the back of it somewhere. When she came over to my house that afternoon, she looked through all my yearbooks and found out that he wasn't a student or on the staff." Keith jotted down what she said.
"Did she seem concerned?"
"Yeah, a little bit. She was late coming to my house so I assume she followed him for a little while." Lilly sighed. She hoped this was helpful.
"Did she mention any details about the person that could be helpful?"
"She said he was about 6'2, had blackish-brown hair, brown eyes, muscular build, she thought he was spanish or italian or something, and that he wore a black leather coat. Oh, and that he drove a.. black, '65 Chevy impala that was kind of crapped-out. I think," Lilly finished. Keith looked up, and he gave a small, but genuine, smile.
"Lilly, this is great. Thank you." His smile died a bit and then he put on his sheriff-voice.
"If you remember anything else, just give us a call." Lilly nodded and exited the office.
Keith sighed at his desk and pressed the intercom.
"Sacks, bring me Veronica's purse from evidence."
--
Veronica didn't know where she was. All she knew was that it was a large room with no lights and on padlocked door. No windows. There was a chair in the middle of the room that they had tied her to earlier and hurt her in various ways, and they kept asking questions about what she'd seen. Refusing to cry, she told them she hadn't seen anything. They'd whipped her back and made tiny cuts on her face and arms. They'd kicked her quite a bit too. One had kicked over the chair and had kicked her head accidentally, knocking her out.
She didn't know what time it was, but she figured she was out for a while. And that meant that they'd be back soon.
One cut on her arm was starting to look infected, and she knew that her left wrist was broken. She also knew that she had an enormous gash on her head from when the man had hit her over the head when she was kidnapped, and she knew that it had to be treated immediately to fully heal, but wouldn't. She had to stay alive as long as possible, so that her dad could find her.
There were three men that usually came. The one that she'd seen around Neptune High that she followed, the one in the hood, and one that the other men, through their thick Italian accents, had called Giacomo. The one she'd seen at school was named Armando, and the one in the hood was called Lorenzo. Veronica assumed they worked for the Italian mob or something.
Suddenly the big door swung open and Veronica looked up to see Armando with an evil amile adorning his face. She knew this was going to be worse than last time.
--
Tuesday, October 7th. 1:00 AM
Back in Neptune, Keith was wearing latex gloves and sorting through the contents of Veronica's purse. The bag had blood on it, so nobody had touched the contents of it, since the bag was classified as evidence.
Now, he was hoping that his daughter had left a clue or just something to help him.
So far, all he'd found was her cell phone, sunglasses, spare change, her wallet with driver's license and spare cash, some gums wrappers, some napkins, a pen, her digital camera, and a receipt for a shirt she bought at the mall.
He laid out all the individual items and felt like screaming. There was nothing useful there, just normal things a teenage girl would keep in her purse. He'd looked through her photos to see if she'd snapped a picture of the guy she'd followed, but no luck.
He let out a frustrated scream and banged his hand on the table. It landed on the napkins, and that's when Keith noticed something. One of the napkins had ink on it. In a splitsecond he flipped it over and stared at the numbers and letters written down on the napkin.
He choked out a smile. His daughter had inherited some of his investigative skills after all.
Not hesitating another second, he pulled up the police database on the computer and typed in the license plate number. He smiled in relief again when a name popped up on the system. The car was a black '65 Chevy Impala, registered to one Antionio Costa. An Italian man. Gotcha.
--
When Keith called and told her that Veronica had left a license plate number and that they had figured out the identity of the man, Lilly wanted to jump for joy. She was so glad that she had remembered what Veronica had said. Maybe she should start praying to God more often. She ran into Duncan's room, dancing happily.
"What, what is it?" Duncan asked, hoping they'd found Veronica. Logan, who was sitting in Duncan's room too, also perked up and voiced the question that Duncan had thought.
"Did they find her?" Lilly immediately stopped dancing.
"No, sadly. The did the next best thing. They found out who has her." Lilly smiled and the boys grinned. Granted, there was still an edge to their happiness because they hadn't found Veronica, only who had her. But it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.
--
Wednesday, October 15th
It was about 2 AM when the two men dressed in black pulled up on their motorcycles to the 24 hour convenience store. Taking their helmets off, they went inside the small, dingy, gas station . The first man immediately went to the back and grabbed two 40's out of the freezer and dragged the other man to the front to pay. The clerk, who looked incredibly bored and tired, monotonously asked for their ID's. The ID showed Frank Ramirez, aged 29. The clerk thought she recognized the photo, and looked up at the man who'd given her the ID.
The guy on the fliers. Armando something. That's where she'd seen him.
"It'll be 7.84," She said, trying to show no sign of nervousness or recognition. The man turned to the other man and said something in a language the clerk didn't understand, she assumed Italian. While they were both not looking, she pressed the silent alarm under the desk. Then, the man handed her 8 and she gave them their change, and they headed off, the sound of motorcycles roaring down the highway echoing in her ears as they drove away.
Police sirens broke the moment of silence after the roar of the motorcycles died.
--
Veronica sat in darkness, waiting for the men to come back. She didn't dare glance down at her body, because all she would see was the evidence of what they'd done to her. She could still feel his hands all over her, touching her. She had thrown up after Armando had left. There were new cuts and lacerations on her body, because she the man who she assumed was the leader of the group, Antonio, was fond of using his rather large belt on her back.
For the most part, she just took it. She refused to let them see her cry, and she tried to hold back her screams when they hurt her. They hurt her more if she fought back, and she was no match for two or three grown men. She had to think of a way to escape... but until then, she was on reconnaissance. She had to know exactly how these men worked, and then think of a way to outsmart them, and not run away out of sheer instinct.
And until the right moment came, she would sit in the shadows and reminisce over her life, which was the only thing that kept her from going insane.
--
Monday, October 20
It had been two weeks since Lilly's revelation, and each day that passed, all the people in Veronica's life grew more and more weary and depressed.
The car had followed every traffic law, and the cameras never caught it because of it. No fingerprints were found upon further investigation of Veronica's car, and they found the residence of Antonio Costa, only to discover a Hispanic family had moved in the week earlier, saying that Antonio, who they didn't know at the time, had sold them the house for a very cheap price.
According to border officials, the car hadn't passed through at any point within the last three weeks. Just in case, they gave them fliers of Antonio Costa and known cohorts. The FBI, who had been brought in after they discovered the identity of the man, sent out an email to all the stores in Southern California and sent a flier to all the gas stations in the area of Antonio Costa and the rest of the known Italian mob.
The FBI had been brought in, and so far every lead they'd gotten had led them to a dead end. A credit card hit up in San Diego, which turned out to be an ex-wife of Antonio's. A cell phone turned on in Arizona, which was found lying on a park bench with no fingerprints and no eyewitnesses to say that Antonio was there.
One agent who'd been put in charge of the case, Agent Saunders, was getting quite frustrated with this case. They'd been tracking the Italian gang for over four years, starting with a series of murders in Chicago of lesser employees that did something wrong. He didn't know why they'd resorted to kidnapping a teenage girl, and he found it even more suspicious that there was no ransom note or any sign that they wanted something in return for her.
He came to the conclusion that she had seen something she wasn't supposed to see or that they only thought she did.
Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair and willed the pieces and scraps of evidence in front of him to make sense.
There was the license plate number, the Kane girl's details of the man, and some tire tracks that didn't help them at all. This guy was seriously good at covering his tracks, and frankly it was pissing him off.
A police officer from the Balboa County Police Department, Zacks or Sacks or something, Saunders couldn't remember, came in waving a piece of paper.
"Sir, their's something I think you should see."
Agent Saunders leapt up from his seat and followed the officer to the front desk, where he had something on the computer pulled up.
"Sir, we got an email today from an officer in Calexico, a town in the county next to ours. He said they got a report at about 2 AM Sunday morning at a gas station convenience store that two of Costa's gang members, Armando Paradisi and Tullio De Luca, using fake ID's at the store to buy alcohol. The clerk recognized the men from the fliers we sent out to all the gas stations north of the border, and she pressed the silent alarm. They paid up front in cash, no credit cards unfortunately, and they were wearing motorcycle gloves so we don't have a print. She said that the men took off on two motorcycles, both completely black 'Matrix-looking'... she guessed an italian make. The police didn't arrive in time, but they got the tape of the encounter, and they're mailing it over here as soon as possible."
Agent Saunders read over the email from the officer and then all of a sudden turned on his heel and started shouting out orders to the lesser agents and officers milling about.
"Thank you, Zacks, really, this is great." The agent smiled, and the deputy frowned.
"Actually it's... Sacks," He said to a retreating back.
11:56 PM
Lilly, Logan, and Duncan were sitting on the rooftop of a small apartment building in Neptune. Three bottles of whiskey were sitting between them, on top of a blanket. The three teenagers lay there, watching the dark night sky and looking at the stars, hoping to find an answer in the infinite space. They knew they wouldn't find it, but they felt like they could see everything from on top of the building.
"I miss her." Lilly commented.
"You know we all do, Lilly." Duncan replied.
"Yeah, but I miss her." Lilly said, and this silenced the other two. She wasn't aware that she was crying until she felt something wet hit the corner of her mouth, and when she did she looked at the other two, who weren't really in any better shape.
"It's not supposed to be like this. She's out there somewhere, and she could be right under our noses, but we can't do a goddamned thing." Logan said after a while. Lilly lay back down.
"Anyone could have her right now, and no doubt they've hurt her in some way." Duncan said grimly, taking a long swig of a bottle. Silence settled over the group, and the only thing they heard was the beating of their hearts and the swishes of the liquid inside the bottles. After a long silence that seemed to suffocate the three of them with unvoiced regrets and sad memories, Lilly raised her bottle to the sky.
"Here's to you, Veronica Mars."
The boys didn't bother to question it, just raised their bottles to the sky, for reasons they couldn't really explain.
October 21, 2:00 AM
Agent Saunders was barking out orders to the rest of his team, he was in a rush to catch these bastards. The sheriff had been called in a little while ago and he was just as bad, if not worse, than Saunders, frantically moving about and doing as much as he could, and Saunders admired the guy for it.
The security tape showed that it was indeed Armando Paradisi and Tullio De Luca, and he had watched and rewatched it over again to see if he could find anything that might help the search.
He knew that they had to be somewhere near Calexico, so he'd sent out a team to the small town to ask around, see if anybody had seen the motorcycles pass through. After all, it had been around 2AM, it wasn't a normal occurence for two motorcycles to come roaring through at that time.
The tape showed that the men had left at around 2:24 AM, and if he was lucky a witness might be able to point which direction they went in. He was banking on it, considering that there wasn't much else he could hope for. They were certainly near Calexico and not south of the border, but that could put them even 40 miles out from the town, if they were just that eager to cover their tracks. They couldn't just barge in to every building within 40 miles and do a complete search.
He raked a hand through his hair and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. The Mars girl's case was keeping him up, and he'd only slept about an hour in the past two days. She needed to be found, and fast.
--
In the town of Calexico, a lesser agent from the FBI knocked on the door to one of the apartments in the dilapidated, old apartment building that was about 10 miles away from the gas station where Costa's men had been spotted. A middle-aged, tired looking, Hispanic woman answered, cradling a toddler on her arm.
"What is it?" She asked, rudely. But then again, he was knocking on the door at a very late hour, he couldn't expect much friendliness.
"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, ma'am." A boy looking to be about seven or eight came and rested against the woman's legs. "But I was wondering if you'd seen or heard of two black, Italian motorcycles that passed through here at about 2 AM on Sunday night?" He asked cautiously. The woman began to shake her head no, but then the boy holding on to her leg spoke up.
"You mean the dark men who made loud noises and woke me up?"
--
Agent Saunders and Keith Mars were sitting in Keith's office, waiting for some news on Costa when Sacks came bursting through the door, waving a paper around.
"We got a witness that puts the motorcycles about 10 miles outside the gas station at around 2:32 AM Sunday night," he breathed out.
"Oh thank God," Keith said. Saunders gave a small smile.
"There's also another thing... the FBI was able to hack into one of the men's phones.. De Luca has his phone on right now, and we can track the signal."
Both men jumped in the air and ran out the door, but Keith stopped to hug Sacks as he left.
They were going to find his baby girl.
--
I know, I know, I'm mean. But hey! At least you know that the next chappy there gonna find Veronica! yay! and i promise that after that, there's gonna be some major LoVe. don't you worry, kids. :