Previously…
'I was wondering if you could help me…'
He looked at me with a look of extreme curiosity. 'With…?' he prompted.
'I want to find out who my father is.'
My grandfather heaved a sigh as he looked at me tiredly. I walked over to the kitchen bench and sat down on one of the stools.
'Lila…are you…' he began to say, but I cut him off.
'If you're going to use the whole, "Lila, you're better off not knowing" line on me, it's not going to work. I've been hearing the same line my whole life!'
Pop paused for a second, obviously trying to think of the right words to say. 'I'm not going to stop you, Lila,' he said, which surprised me. Pop took a seat on the stool next to me, and turned to look at me, looking straight in my eyes. 'I agree that you have a right to know. I think you're old enough. But, what I'm trying to say is that I truthfully don't know who your father is.'
I grimaced. 'My mom never told you?' I asked.
He shook his head slowly. 'No, she never told me. I thought that she would when the time was right for her, but, now it's almost sixteen years later, and she still hasn't said a word.'
I could feel myself getting close to tears, but I refused to cry. Why would I be crying over this anyway? I shouldn't be. Maybe, I was just sad over the fact that my own mother had not trusted her own father with this secret.
'But…you must have some idea, right?' I asked hopefully.
'I have my suspicions, but that's all they are, Lila. I must stress that.'
'So you honestly have no idea who he is?'
'I honestly have no idea,' he replied.
'But you will help me find out, right?'
He paused for a moment. 'Yes,' he barely whispered. 'I will help you. I think that you have the right to know…but, if your mother finds out about this, she will kill both of us,' he said seriously.
'I know. And truthfully, I couldn't care less. I just want to know him…' I leant my head against pop's shoulder, as he stroked my hair soothingly.
'I know you do, sweetie. Now get some rest. We can talk about this in the morning.' I nodded my head against his shoulder, before pulling away and standing up.
'Goodnight Pop. And thank you.'
He smiled warmly, 'Hey, who's your grand daddy?'
I laughed at how cheesy he was. 'Okay, that was lame. Please don't do that again.'
'Sure,' he kissed my head before closing his bedroom door behind him.
That night, I didn't get much sleep. To be honest, I was too excited to sleep, knowing that when my grandfather woke up, I might finally get some answers.
I headed out into the kitchen / lounge early and turned on the TV, too tired of waiting in my room for any longer.
When I heard the click of Pop's bedroom door opening later on, I immediately turned off the TV, and sat on one of the stools in the kitchen.
'What are you doing up this early, Lila? You aren't usually an "early bird,"' he smiled sleepily, as he turned on the kettle. I grabbed my pen and notepad that I had organized.
'So, who did my mom hang out with at school?' I asked seriously.
Pop sighed. 'Get any sleep last night, kiddo?'
'Not a lot, so can you please just answer the question?'
As the kettle started to make a high pitched whistling sound, he concentrated on making his coffee, 'Are we talking about pre-Lilly or post-Lilly?' he asked.
Ah yes, Lilly Kane. My mother's dead best friend. I vaguely recalled the day when I found out all about the murder of Lilly Kane, and my mother's involvement with the case.
I was at school one day, in legal studies, when the teacher instructed us to do a case study of a famous murder trial.
I had gone into the library at lunch to surf the Internet, looking for an appropriate case. I typed "famous murder" into google search, and about the first three pages were articles and websites dedicated to the murder trial of Lilly Kane.
So I was intrigued, until I saw two very familiar names within the content. Keith and Veronica Mars. I checked several various sites to make sure that I wasn't just hallucinating, but they all said the same thing.
That night, when I had gotten home from school, I marched straight up to my mother and demanded that she tell me about Lilly Kane.
Her reaction was one of shock. 'How do you know about Lilly?' she asked, as she nervously clutched her small, star shaped necklace that she wore all the time.
I had scoffed. 'It's one of the most famous and well publicized murders in recent times.' Not that Lilly's murder was recent. Well, not for me anyway. 'How did you think that I could not find out about this?'
Mom had told me everything; about her friendship with Lilly, the way that Lilly was found, the confessed killer, Abel Koontz, my family's fallen social status, and my mom and grandfather's continuing investigations into her murder.
She told me about how Lilly's own family had covered the murder up, fearing that Lilly's brother had killed her, when in eventuality, it was Lilly's boyfriend's father who had killed her. They had been having an affair, the famous actor, Aaron Echolls and my mom's best friend, Lilly Kane.
When my mother had started to cry at the end of her tale, I didn't press her any longer; I just gave her a hug and comforted her.
But I still couldn't understand how she had not told me about this, how I had to find it out for myself. As much as I loved my mom, (and I really did. She was my best friend at times,) I couldn't understand how she just didn't allow members of her own family into her circle of protectiveness. An example of this, was not telling me, or my grandpa who my real father was. But we were going to figure it out.
'Pre and post Lilly,' I said to my grandfather, in answer to his question.
He was stirring the sugar into his coffee, before he took a sip. 'Well, when Lilly was alive, those two were inseparable… those two along with Logan and Duncan…' he said, with a slight air of reminiscence about him.
'Logan and Duncan?' I prompted, as I wrote both first names down on the paper, leaving lines in-between for more details.
'Logan Echolls, was Lilly's boyfriend at the time. Then, of course…'
'She was having an affair with his father?' I asked. I knew this story.
'You got it, kid,' he said.
'And what about Duncan? Who was he?' I asked.
'Duncan Kane. Does that name ring any bells?' he asked.
Of course it did, everyone knew the Kane family, because of Lilly's murder. Other than that, anyone in Neptune knew who the Kane's were because of Kane Software, the famous company that had made a lot of people a lot of money in this town.
'Lilly's brother?' I asked. Pop nodded. 'Logan's best friend, your mom's first "boyfriend."' He said, using air quotes.
My jaw dropped. 'Really?' I asked, as I scrawled down that information furiously onto the pad.
'Yeah, for a while,' Pop said.
'And what about after Lilly?' I asked.
Pop considered for a moment. 'Well…after Lilly, your mom didn't have friends for a bit…until Wallace came along,' he added brightly. He obviously was fond of Wallace.
I wrote down some notes on Wallace as pop continued his description.
'I think your mom just kept Wallace around to be her own personal sidekick most of the time,' he chuckled. 'Yeah, whenever there was a mystery to be solved, Veronica was on the case, using Wallace's help wherever she could.'
'Then, at high school, she was friends with Meg for a bit, Meg Manning. She died during senior year, though.'
I looked up at my grandpa. 'That's really sad. How did she die?' I asked.
'Neptune High bus crash in 2005,' Pop recalled sadly as he looked down into his cup at his remaining coffee.
'Oh,' I said.
I knew about the bus crash. I had found out about it a little while after I had found out about the whole Lilly Kane thing. Mom had said that Pop had written a book about Lilly's murder, if I ever wanted to read it.
So, out of curiosity, I went down to the local bookstore and found that Keith Mars had a small amount of shelf space dedicated to his writings. Using my pocket money, I brought the entire collection, reading all of his stories within the next few months. One of those books was the one on Lilly's murder, another was written entirely about the Neptune High bus crash situation, and how to my astonishment, my own mother had figured out how it had happened.
'Then there was Mac,' he said with a smile. 'Cindy Mackenzie. She was really good with computers…give her enough time, and she could hack into any account,' he said. I grinned at him. 'I think she went over to Japan to work for some technology company a few years ago.'
'Jackie Cook, I think she was a friend of your mothers… Eli Navarro, now there's one for you. He was the leader of the local motorcycle gang…' Pop said, trailing off in amusement. I cut him off.
'Let me guess, the PCHers?'
'Yeah, that's them. A bunch of troublemakers, I busted him a whole load of times when I was sheriff.'
I chuckled. It was ironic that Andreas' father had once been the leader of the same club that his son now ran.
'So mom was friends with him?' I asked.
Pop nodded. 'I'm pretty sure. Yeah, your mom even convinced me to hire him once…as a receptionist.'
I scoffed. 'Somehow, he doesn't seem like "receptionist" material.'
Pop did a double take. 'You know Eli?' he asked.
'Oh yeah, I met him…in passing, you know,' I said. I really didn't want Pop to know that we were at the courthouse last night and that two potential new friends got arrested.
'Anyway, and then in college, there was Parker Lee,' Pop said. 'She was a nice girl… a little peppy, but nice.'
'Is that it?' I asked, as I finished writing.
'Yeah, I think that's about it,' Pop said. 'So is interrogation over?' he asked playfully.
'Not quite yet,' I said, as I took a seat on the couch. 'What about mom's boyfriends? I want to know all of their names. I mean, there's gotta be more than just Duncan Kane, right?'
Pop nodded his head slowly. 'Okay, this might take a while,' he said jokingly. 'Troy Vandegraff, who was a bad egg, trust me. But she only dated him for a little while,' he paused, as I wrote this down. 'Leo D'Amato. He's still a deputy at the Sheriff's department,' Pop said fondly.
Excellent, someone still in Neptune.
'Stosh…Piznarski,' he said. I stopped writing immediately.
'Piz? Piz as in like, the radio DJ?' I asked. Pop nodded with a grin. Stosh "Piz" Piznarski was only like the coolest guy on radio. He DJ'd on my favourite radio station and seemed like the coolest, funniest guy. 'My mother dated Piz?' I asked astonished.
'The very same one, in college,' Pop said. 'Duncan Kane's already on your list right?' he asked. I nodded in reply.
He sat for a moment, trying to remember, before he suddenly sat up straight, 'and then there was your mother's own personal drama in Logan Echolls,' he said.
'Wait, Logan Echolls, like Lilly's boyfriend?'
'Yeah. Your mother and Logan were either off or on. Always, fighting about something…I would hear her moping around for days after they broke up…'
I wrote all of the new information down. 'Wait; there was someone else, who she hung out with a bit in college. Dick Casablancas. But I don't think that they ever dated. In fact, I'm sure of it. I'm not sure if it will help, but you should write his name down somewhere.'
'Okay,' I said. When I had finished I looked up at him expectantly.
'Sorry, but my information stock has been temporarily drained. That's everyone that I know of,' he said, putting his hands up in surrender.
'Come on, pa. You must know something else?' He shook his head.
'You said that you had suspicions about who my father was…so spill,' I said.
Pop leaned forward a little bit on the couch. 'Lila, I really don't know…' he started.
'Okay, so tell me, out of all those guys that you just told me about, who you think would be the number one suspect of my paternity?'
He shook his head, 'Lila, I really don't know…It might not even be any of those men. It could be someone who I didn't know, or know about.'
'Please, Pop,' I pleaded, looking at him with a pout and using my deep blue eyes to give him a puppy dog stare. 'Out of the men that you mentioned, who would be the most obvious suspect?'
He ran a hand through what little hair he had left. 'If I had to say, and I could be way off with this, Lila-'
'So you keep saying,' I said boredly.
'If I had to say one person, it would probably be Logan Echolls,' he said truthfully.
I nodded slowly. 'Is there any reason…?'
'No. I have no reason behind my suspicion, other than the fact that your mother was so in love with him, even though she would never admit it, I knew. But that's it. That's my whole reasoning, which isn't much at all,' he looked at me sadly, and rubbed my shoulder. 'Either him or Duncan Kane.'
'Duncan…?' I asked.
'Yeah, your mother dated him for a while during senior year, before he ran away. Nobody knows where he is, except for your mom; she has always known where he was. She helped him escape.'
'What. Escape?'
Pop sighed, 'It's a long story… see, Duncan was dating Meg Manning while he and Veronica were broken up, but he and Meg ended things before the bus crashed. Meg was the only survivor from the crash. But she was in a coma. She was also pregnant with Duncan's child.'
I audibly gasped, 'what?'
'When Meg died, the baby survived. He stole the baby from the hospital one night and went on the run. Your mother helped him escape,' he paused for a minute, 'but this information stays between you and me. The feds are probably still looking for Duncan, and trying to tie your mom to the kidnapping.'
'My mom's a criminal?' I asked, half impressed. Pop shook his head at me and I changed the subject. 'So Logan Echolls and Duncan Kane, are you sure that one of those men is my dad?'
Pop shook his head again, 'I have no idea. From all the guys that your mom dated, those two seemed like the most obvious choices, though.'
'So, it take it Duncan doesn't live in Neptune anymore?'
'No. No one knows where he is.'
'What about Logan?'
Pop gave me a small smile and a nod, 'Yeah. I see him around some mornings, surfing down on the beach. But I don't think that you should confront Logan yet. If I were you, I'd wait until your mom comes back, and try asking her again.'
'Why?'
'Well, if Logan isn't your father, it could get awkward. Let's look further into it, before we point the finger,' said Pop.
'I think I'll go back to sleep now.' Lie; there was no way that I could sleep now, not with all the information that I had just gathered.
'That's probably a good idea,' said Pop, as I went into my room and closed the door behind me.
I started to pace in my room. It was just what I did when I had some thinking to do. My eyes found an old laptop on the desk.
I wondered if it still worked, as I started to boot it up. To my surprise, it did.
The only icon on the desktop was a file that read "Lilly Kane Murder Investigation," intrigued; I clicked into it.
Why did mom still have this file? Why hadn't she deleted it?
I clicked onto the thumbnail that read, "suspects," there was no file for the actual killer, Aaron Echolls (my possible grandfather,) but there were files on both men that Pop had mentioned, Logan Echolls and Duncan Kane. I clicked onto Duncan's file, bypassing the actual information. I didn't need to know it. I just looked at the photo that was attached.
Yeah, I figured this guy could be my dad, I guessed. I mean, I did have brown hair and blue eyes, just like him, but I couldn't see any other resemblances besides that.
I clicked into Logan Echolls file and studied his picture. Like Duncan, he had brown hair too. But a lot of people had brown hair, I told myself. Logan had brown eyes though; mine were deep blue. Still, that didn't mean that Logan wasn't my father, but even my mother didn't have as blue eyes as I did. Maybe I had inherited them from one of my grandparents.
I had too many questions that needed answers, and I couldn't wait until my mother came back to town (if she even would return.)
I made a decision. I made a plan; track Logan Echolls down and demand answers.
A/N So, I know, it's a short and rushed one, but it's kind of vital.
Drop me a line regarding your thoughts. It gives me the biggest buzz to see that I've got new reviews! I know I say this all the time, but the only reason writers write these stories, is for the feedback! So, do you think Keith is right about Logan and Duncan? I want to know your opinion on the story, or my writing style. Tell me if there's things I need to improve on. REVIEW!
Oh, and I don't usually update this quick. This chapter was a fluke. I know it didn't contain much, but the next chapter does!! Review if you'd like to see it! (It contains Logan. Hint, hint.)
Thanks for reading!
Happy Easter!
Peace.
