Veronica rhythmically drummed the tip of her wooden chopstick on the table, waiting for Leo to arrive. She was about to tap it on her water glass to see what pitch it would make, when she stopped herself; remembering that she always gave the kids heck for doing the exact same thing when they all went out for dinner.

Sunday with the kids had been challenging, and she had to admit that she was glad they had the distraction of school today. Unable to deal with their complicated emotions about what happened to Pony, the kids began acting out - picking on each other, complaining about everything, and generally creating chaos – as they negotiated their scheduled activities for the day. Veronica and Logan had very little sleep that night and found themselves on edge, snarking at each other and feeling exasperated with the kids' behaviour. When Jack threw a tantrum of epic proportions after his swim class, Veronica finally pulled the plug on all further activities and the family went home to snuggle on the couch together, watch movies, and wallow in their sadness for the rest of the day. When they all woke up together in the big bed on Monday morning, everyone seemed to be more emotionally stable, including Veronica and Logan.

The wood and paper doors to the private dining area slid open, jarring Veronica from her thoughts of the kids, and Leo entered, smiling down at Veronica.

"Already started without me?" he asked, nodding towards Veronica's empty plate.

"Just some veggie tempura. Baby was hungry," she replied, patting her stomach.

Leo nodded and knelt to slide into his spot across from her at the table built into the floor. The sushi restaurant down the way from Leo's office provided just enough privacy for the two of them, whenever they were in need of a confidential discussion.

"I put in your order already," she said. "Thanks for texting it to me."

"Unfortunately, I would love to stay longer, but something came up," Leo said. He reached into his blazer and pulled out a black cell phone. Placing it face down on the table, he slid it across to Veronica.

Veronica placed her palm over it and slid it towards her, pressing the button to turn it on as she moved.

"Don't know how much battery is left on it," Leo said. "We went through it to see if there were any relevant texts, when it was first entered into evidence. Since we didn't find anything, it's just been sitting in lock-up."

Veronica nodded, her eyes fixed on the screen. A photo of a sunrise over the ocean greeted her on the lock screen and she swiped to open it.

"It's strange that he didn't have a password," Leo commented.

Veronica shrugged. "Logan said he kept forgetting his passwords – too much smoking-pot and not enough short-term-memory. Plus, I'm pretty sure Dick didn't have a lot to hide."

"Well, he was pretty good about deleting his texts and emails," Leo said. "Seems like he only kept stuff for a week before clearing everything."

Veronica found the contacts and began scrolling through. She smiled as Logan's name came up in the "E's", but it quickly disappeared when she came to the "F's".

"Fitzy," she murmured. "Must have been how Dick referred to Liam."

Reaching for her phone on the table, she quickly opened it and sent a text quick text to Mac with Liam Fitzpatricks' number. Almost immediately, Mac replied that she had received it and Veronica turned off her phone again.

"Dick never struck me as all that complicated," Leo began. "Just another rich beach-bum living the easy life."

Veronica frowned at the screen, a little shot of nerve running through her. It was one thing for her to dislike Dick, but hearing Leo's outsider assessment of him touched off something in her.

"Dick had a pretty crappy childhood. Not that it's an excuse – Lord knows there's been a lot of crap that went down between us - but he was loyal to Logan when everyone else had abandoned him," Veronica said, her eyes still fixed on Dick's list of recent text messages. "So now, he has our loyalty in return."

The door opened and the waitress appeared with two platters of sushi – vegetarian for Veronica and assorted cones for Leo. Veronica smiled up at the waitress and nodded her thanks before returning to look at the texts.

Nothing out of the ordinary came up as Veronica scrolled through Dick's texts. A conversation with Sean about the opening, with no mention of Chantel or Emily. Some random women texting with no reply from Dick. A couple of dude-bros texting him about surfing. The last saved text was from Logan, dated almost two months ago. Veronica's curiosity got the better of her and she opened it.

Logan: Got news.

Dick: What?

Logan: Stick turned blue today. V's pregnant.

Dick: Need me to show u how a condom works?

Logan: Fuck off.

Dick: Kidding. Congrats. You guys make cute kids.

Logan: Thanks. Been thinking it's time to get the twins on surf boards.

Dick: Cool. Need help?

Logan: Yeah. Think we could teach them?

Dick: Fuck sure. I'd be fun. When you want to do it?

Logan: This summer? If V agrees.

Dick: Fuck it. Tell her you're taking them to the library and we'll do it without her knowing.

Logan: You want my kids to be fatherless?

Dick: Bahahahaha! V wouldn't kill you – she needs your cock too badly.

Logan: Really dude?

Dick: You're the one with four kids, man. Don't go dragging my balls for giving you truth.

Emotion caught in Veronica's throat and she swallowed hard. Dick must have been the first person Logan told they were pregnant again. It was obvious Dick had deleted other texts from that time period, but this one stayed.

"You should probably eat," Leo said. "I need to get back soon."

Veronica nodded and turned off the phone, placing it on the table and sliding it back to Leo, who quickly hid it in his pocket again.

"Thanks for that," Veronica said softly, picking up her chopsticks to start on her lunch. "I'll let you know what turns up."

"You said on the phone this may have something to do with the Fitzpatricks? Did you find out something I don't know?" Leo asked pointedly.

Veronica looked him in the eye. "Just playing a hunch," she said, thinking it best to keep Sean's information out of the equation for now. "Dick did a lot of drugs and Liam was his dealer. Thought it was an avenue worth pursuing."

Leo nodded and dropped his gaze back to his food. "The shrink thinks Dick may have suffered some psychotic break and killed the girls without realizing it."

Veronica shook her head. "I don't believe that. The more I'm looking at this case, the more I think he was set up and the real killer is out there still."

"Oh yeah?" Leo said with a small laugh. "And who do you think did it? Liam Fitzpatrick?"

Veronica shrugged. "Why not? Completely plausible. He had the means. He knew the girls. All I need is motive and evidence."

"Good luck with that," Leo replied with a smile.

Glancing at her sushi, Veronica frowned. Suddenly, proving to Leo that Dick was not the killer he was thought to be became very important.

-

Veronica stepped out of her car just as Logan pulled into the parking lot across from Mars Investigations. She smiled and waved and he returned her smile through the window. It took him a second to gather his camera equipment before climbing out and striding towards Veronica. He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"Hi!" she said, grinning up at him.

"Hi," he replied. "Got the shot you needed. Mr. Patrick is definitely cheating on his wife."

"Thanks. Is Dad okay with picking up the twins from school?"

Logan let out a low chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yep. All good."

Veronica jerked her head towards the office building and started walking, Logan following close behind. "Did you get a chance to swing by the vet's?"

"Yep. And they let me give her the blanket and her toy fox," he replied, reaching past her as they reached the door to open it for her. "I also took a picture of her to show the kids that she's comfortable and relatively happy."

"The kids will like that," Veronica replied as she climbed the steps to the office. "Did they say when she'll get to come home?"

"The doctor wasn't available to talk to me," Logan said from behind her. "But the nurses said she's doing better. They want to continue checking on her kidney and liver functions so they want to keep her a few more days."

Veronica paused at the door to the office, turning to face Logan once more. "Maybe it's for the best. I would hate for her to take a turn for the worse while we were at work and she was alone at home."

Veronica glanced at the floor and frowned, momentarily lost in thoughts of Pony. The day they adopted Pony – bringing her to the office and watching her run around, all gangly legs and giant paws. Pony sniffing the twins in their car seats, the day they came home from the hospital. Veronica nursing Jack at 2 a.m., with Pony sitting near her feet, keeping watch on them.

Logan gently swept a lock of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. She smiled and looked up at him again.

"We'll find out who did this to her," he said quietly, his brow furrowed.

Veronica nodded. Logan talked to the neighbors briefly on Sunday and no one had seen anything suspicious, but they all thanked him profusely for letting them know what happened to Pony, each promising to do a thorough inspection of their own yards for anything that could harm their pets.

"Well, right now, I think if we can prove the Fitzpatricks had something to do with the girl's deaths, we may also catch the person who did this to Pony," she said.

With a solemn nod, Logan reached past her and opened the office door. Veronica let out a deep sigh as she entered.

"Mac need to see you both. A-SAP," Kayte said as soon as they closed the door.

"Is that them?" Mac yelled from her office.

"So much for 'inside voices'." Logan teased.

Veronica dropped her bag on the couch and quickly walked down the hallway towards Mac's office. "Did you find something on Liam's phone already?"

When she got to Mac's door, Mac waved her in from behind her computer screens. Both Veronica and Logan entered, closing the door behind them.

"Yeah. I think we have another player in the game," Mac replied excitedly.

Logan came around behind Mac's desk and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and frowning at the screens.

"What have you got?"

"Well, it seems that this is probably Liam's 'order' phone. There are no personal texts – just large quantity orders of product, probably from well-paying customers. I found the texts from Sean about orders for the party, but it made no mention of the girls," Mac said. "But a couple of days after Sean's party, Liam must have slipped and used this phone for a personal text to someone. It was about the girls."

Veronica came around the desk to look at the screen. Mac pointed to a highlighted line of text.

Liam: What the fuck did you do to those girls?

Anonymous: You knew what you were grooming them for.

Liam: Fuck that. This wasn't part of our deal.

Anonymous: Stop using this number. I'll be in touch.

"There's someone else," Veronica said quietly.

"Yeah. And they have money. Money and means enough to lock down their phone so tight that even I can't hack it," Mac replied.

"It also looks like Liam graduated from drug lord to human trafficker," Logan said quietly, letting the impact of his statement linger for a moment. "And it sounds like whoever he did this for, knew exactly what would happen."

"Death," Veronica whispered. "They were being groomed to die."

A low ache rose from Veronica's stomach as her mother's instinct kicked in: run - take the kids and run. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly as her brain whispered: stay and catch them, before they do this to someone else's children.

"What do we do now?" asked Logan.

Veronica opened her eyes, still staring at the words on the screen.

"I don't know."