"Mommy?"

Veronica falls back into the office chair, her mouth open in surprise. "Keith?" she breathes, desperate.

"Where are you?" he asks casually, and he sounds…fine? Normal? There's a loud crunching nose reverberating through the phone, like he's chewing on something. It reminds Veronica of his daily calls to her while she was at the office, of when she could hear Logan ambling about in the background as Keith chatted idly while he ate lunch. "What are you doing?" he would always ask, and she would explain whatever project she was working on at the moment, in the simplest of terms, but he would still repeat the same question again the next minute.

Where are you?, she thinks, but asks instead if he's okay, if he's hurt.

The chewing sound stops suddenly, and Veronica sucks in a sharp breath. "I'm okay!" he answers after a second.

Veronica closes her eyes, a flood of relief washing over her. "Do you know where you are? Who you're with?" She tries her best to sound composed.

"Mm, no." There's that crunching nose again. "There's a really big pool though!" He's definitely talking with a full mouth, something she always had to chide him for, but now all she can do is grin, tears of happiness springing to her eyes. God, how she's missed the sound of his sweet voice, missed the way his words are always a bit muffled by his perpetually congested nose. "We had mac'roni and cheese today," he adds happily.

"Keith," she begins, affecting her best mom tone, "can you tell me about who you're with?"

She can hear him fumble with the receiver. "Someone's comin'! Daddy said not to let anyone see the phone."

"Keith!" she calls out again, terrified by the thought of being disconnected.

"Bye!" And then silence. Veronica pulls the cell away from her ear and stares at it for a second before hitting 'send' to dial the last number received. But the phone Keith was using must already be turned off as it goes straight to voicemail.

Daddy said not to let anyone see the phone. So it was something Logan gave him? Obviously whoever had Keith didn't know about it, and Veronica chastises herself for stupidly calling back. What if it rang? What if the kidnapper heard it? What would they do with her baby then?

It didn't though, she tells herself. It's okay. Keith's okay.

He's okay. Veronica smiles in pure delight, tapping her hands against the desk and her feet against the floor as she laughs in relief. He's fine and she's going to find him, she's sure of it. Any residual tiredness and fatigue has been replaced with a pure adrenaline rush and Veronica can feel her heart beating in excitement. She could probably run a marathon with this newfound energy.

She grabs her bag and Logan's cell and then she dashes to the door, eager to start her search after she makes one very important pit stop along the way.

There's a long, narrow crack on the cell's ceiling, gray paint chipped around it, peeling back to reveal the beige paint before it. Logan's been staring at the fissure for more than twenty minutes, willing himself to fall asleep before he drives himself crazy. But all he can think about is his son.

All Logan had ever wanted, for as long as he could remember, was to have a normal family. He wanted a mother who cared more about him than she did about her pills. He wanted a father who patted him on the back in congratulations instead of striking him with a belt in punishment. He wanted what it always felt like everyone else around him already had.

He'd given up on that pipedream a long, long time ago. But he had refused to give up on Veronica. She might have stared back at him in confusion while he ranted about lives ruined, bloodshed and epic love (something he remembered just a little too late), but he got it. Because how else could he justify anything if there wasn't some sort of grand plan in the end? What would have been the point? It had to be them or else everything was for nothing. It wasn't romanticizing, it was rationalizing. After all the crazy pain they both had to endure, he had to believe that their relationship was a hell of a lot more than some fleeting high school romance. They were in it together, a love story for the ages, and someday they would finally be allowed to be happy. Someday.

Someday was four years and two days ago, the night he first held his son in his arms and he finally got it. He finally had someone he could give his whole heart to. He finally had someone to love unconditionally, someone to protect, someone to be Logan with. He knew many who would laugh at the sheer absurdity of the thought, but maybe this was what he was meant for all along. Welcome to parenthood, Logan Echolls. Now you finally have a reason to be as crazy as you are.

And God, he loves Veronica. Make no mistake about that. She is absolutely it for him, the great love of his life. But in that moment Keith became his whole world, and he won't have it any other way.

Logan keeps thinking about the surfboard he got Keith for his birthday. It took weeks of researching for him to find the best shop to custom build his little boy's first board, and the end result is perfect. It's barely four feet high, almost half the size of the one Logan uses, and it even has a picture of Teddy Turtle, Keith's favorite cartoon, emblazoned across the center. Logan had made plans to start teaching him basic skills in the pool now so he'd be ready to start surfing lessons next summer…

Fuck, he hadn't even had a chance to see the ocean yet.

Logan wraps his arms around himself, the chilly air in the cell getting to him. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and so far Logan's been made stronger by a painful and lonely childhood, the deaths of both parents, the loss of his first girlfriend at the hands of his father, and countless other heartbreaks and betrayals.

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Logan's pretty sure this will kill him.

"Logan!" He hears Veronica's voice yelling his name, and he rolls over on the mattress to see her sprinting down the hallway and to his cell.

She's beaming, a beautiful grin splitting her face from ear to ear, and Logan's heart soars at the possibilities. "He called!" she squeals happily. "And he's okay. He's okay."

Logan scrambles from the bed to the bars, and he wraps his hands around the steel as he stares back at his wife. "He called you?"

She holds up his cell to show him the received call log and he recognizes the number immediately. "Did you give him a phone?" she asks.

Shit, he thinks. How the hell did he forget about that? "Yeah. I put one in his lunchbox in case something happened at school and he needed me. What'd he say? He's all right?"

"He's fine. He doesn't know who he's with or where he is, but he's okay." She smiles again as she covers his hand with her own. "He said he had macaroni and cheese for lunch," she laughs.

Logan finally relaxes enough to return her grin. "So he's really okay?"

Veronica nods happily. "Yeah, and that's all that matters now. I know I'll find him. I promise you I'll find him." He stares back at her hopefully and then leans forward to rest his forehead against the bars. "He's okay," he mutters as he tries to fully process the idea.

"Logan, did you turn on the tracking in the phone?" she asks as she gets back to business.

He pulls back to look at her, his smile falling from his face. "No. Dammit. I didn't even think about that!"

She shakes her head and grasps his hand tighter to reassure him. "It doesn't matter. I'll find him."

"I just bought it on Sunday," he admits. "When you sent me to the mall in the morning to pick up some last minute things for the party, I saw a Verizon kiosk and decided to pick one up."

Veronica presses up against the steel barricade to slip her arms through the bars and around Logan's neck. "And I'm so glad you did."

She stretches on her tippy-toes as he leans down, and then their lips meet, the bridge of Logan's nose bumping against the cold metal. Veronica breaks the kiss so she can look at him. "I've got a lead," she says, and explains about the PI in Irvine. "I'm going to his office now to find out who he's working for."

"You can't go alone," he says, a bit frantically. "What if he's dangerous? You could get hurt."

"I've got it all taken care of," she promises. "I'll be careful." She squeezes his hand again, and Logan finds that the need for her to find their son outweighs everything else.

"You better be. Because if anything happened to you-" She reaches up to kiss him again, halting his diatribe on safety. "I'll be careful," she repeats after she steps back. "And I'll let you know as soon as I know anything." She checks her watch then and realizes that she'll have to leave now to have any chance of meeting Weevil on time.

"I love you, Veronica," he says, reaching his hand out from between the bars. Her fingers graze his and she meets his eyes. "I love you, too."

She waves to Sacks on her way out, and her hand is on the door handle when she hears her father calling her. Veronica spins around to see him standing by the front desk, his face the picture of sadness and shame.

"I can't talk now," she tells him, turning back. "I'm in a hurry."

"Don't shut me out, Veronica," he pleads.

She pauses, her hand still at the door, and twists her neck so he can see her profile. "I'll call you later," she says, her tone firm but not cold, and then she leaves.

Weevil agreed to meet her outside of Maloney's office at quarter to three, and she barely arrives on time. She pulls the Jag up to the curb outside the PI's building and looks around for his car. As she stares out through her windshield, there's a sharp knocking on her passenger window. Veronica jumps in her seat before sighing in relief when she sees that it's just Weevil.

"Sorry," she says as she emerges from her car. "I got here as soon as I could."

Weevil casts a glance toward Maloney's office door and then looks back at Veronica doubtfully. "You really think this guy is involved somehow?"

"He has to be," she replies as she makes her way down the sidewalk, Weevil following along beside her. "I don't really believe in coincidences."

Weevil stops suddenly and so Veronica turns to face him. "What's wrong?"

He seems hesitant to voice whatever concerns he has, but at Veronica's pressing look, he relents. "Are you really sure Logan's not behind this?"

Veronica's eyes narrow as she stares him down, her jaw clenched tightly in anger. "You did not just ask me that."

"Look at his history, V. Don't specialists and shit say it's all a cycle?"

"Are you really going to hold his father against him?" she asks in disbelief. "Because if I remember correctly, your old man went to prison for murder, too."

"I meant Lilly," he says, rolling his eyes. "So he never laid a finger on you?"

"No! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Lilly. Sometimes…sometimes she'd have bruises all over her."

"And she told you Logan did it?" she asks unbelievingly.

"No, but she didn't deny it either. And who else would've done it?"

Veronica will always hold a special place in her heart for Lilly Kane, but she gave up any romantic notions about her once best friend a long time ago. It's saddens her to realize that Weevil still pictures her so innocently when Lilly was anything but. Maybe he'll never be able to let her go, even with Eva and a new baby at home.

"Logan never hit Lilly," Veronica says tersely as she marches to Maloney's office. "And he sure as hell didn't have anything to do with Keith's kidnapping. So just go home and I'll handle this myself."

Weevil sighs but goes to follow her, his lips pursed together thoughtfully. "No way in hell are you going in there by yourself."

She knocks on the door and waits, hoping they can save some time by not having to trek across town to Maloney's home address. Impatient, she knocks again. A few seconds later the door opens to reveal a very short and stocky man with a bad comb-over.

"Are you Travis Maloney?"

"Yeah. Can I help you?"

Weevil comes to stand behind Veronica, his eyebrow raised as he regards the small man with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. "You wanna answer some questions for us?"

Maloney shrinks back, clearly intimidated. "What's this about?"

Veronica and Weevil both push past the door and into his office. "Who hired you to find out information about Keith Echolls?" Veronica asks, once inside.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he stammers, moving away from them. "And I was just on my way out, so if you'll please excuse me."

He waits for them to move and when they don't, he tries to awkwardly make his way past them and to the door. Weevil shoves him on the shoulder to push him back. "Not so fast."

"Look," Maloney says, a bit panicked, "I don't know anything about him going missing. Honest."

"Who hired you?" Veronica presses.

Maloney looks back and forth between the two strangers in front of him, but he doesn't respond. "Answer the lady," Weevil growls.

"Nobody. Nobody hired me about him. I don't know what you're talking about."

Weevil looks over at Veronica and she nods once, and that's all the encouragement he needs. He rushes forward, grabbing Maloney by the lapels of his suit jacket and slamming him up against a nearby wall. "I'm only going to ask you one more time before things start to get really painful. Who the hell are you working for?"

The man wilts like a flower, his voice trembling as he answers. "Reynolds. Lianne Reynolds."

--------

Wallace had taken an hour long break to check in with Natalie and grab some lunch, but now he is back on Veronica's street to see if he can convince any of her rich neighbors to give him a few minutes of their time. So far he isn't having much luck.

He walks up a steep hill to a large Victorian house, which is positioned directly behind Veronica's home. Wallace has a pretty good view of the Echolls's backyard from this person's driveway, so he hopes that maybe these neighbors can help him out somehow.

Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, including Veronica's home, this house doesn't have a fancy security gate or alarm; just a circular drive and a cobblestone walk that leads to a large mahogany door. Wallace rings the bell and waits.

He's about to give up and move on when he hears the door being unlocked from the other side. Soon it opens as far as the chain lock will permit, and then there's an elderly woman peering up at Wallace, half of her face obscured by the door frame.

"Hi," he says, unsure. "My name's Wallace, and I'm with a group trying to find out some information about Keith Echolls. Do you have a minute?"

She looks him up and down derisively. "Sure you're not trying to sell something?" Her voice is surprisingly husky, and it startles Wallace for a second.

"Uh, no. Here," he says, fumbling for the flyer in his back pocket. He holds the piece of paper out to her and she slips her small and wrinkled hand past the door to take it from him.

"Oh, that poor little boy," she says as she looks it over. "I heard about this."

"The family lives right down there," Wallace informs her, pointing to the Echolls house.

"Oh, I know. I used to see them out in the backyard all the time. The little boy was always outside with his father. You know," she adds wistfully, "after seeing them together, you'd never think he'd be able to do something like that."

"Actually, a lot of us don't think he did. That's why I'm here."

She hands the flyer back to him. "Now that you mention it, I did notice someone in their yard yesterday morning. I never saw them before, either."

"Really?" Wallace asks, perking up at that piece of info.

"Yes," she affirms with a head nod. "It was a large black man."

Of course it was, Wallace thinks. "A large black man?" he repeats dubiously.

"Oh, certainly. And the only black families around here are the Craigs and the Westons, and he wasn't one of them. I'm sure of that."

"So what was he doing?"

"Oh, I don't know!" she says defensively. "I'm not nosy!"

It takes a lot of effort on his part to not scoff, but he manages. "Okay then. Well, thanks for your time." He smiles politely before walking away, and he waits until he's at the bottom of the hill before he pulls out his cell and dials the number Veronica gave him before taking off with Mac. There's no answer, so he leaves a message telling her about what he just heard, even if he has his doubts about the veracity of the statement.

But I hope it helps, he thinks as he makes his way to the next home. I really do.

--------

After Weevil bent one of Maloney's pinkies at a most unnatural angle, the PI was a little more forthcoming with information, including Lianne's current address, which was, thankfully, only about fifteen minutes away. Veronica thought she was going to have to break one of Weevil's fingers before he let her go on her own, but she was steadfast in her insistence and so he finally left her to head back to LA. Now Veronica is standing at her mother's front door, trying to ready herself for absolutely anything.

She hasn't even seen Lianne Mars, nee Reynolds, since the night Veronica was attacked by Aaron and her father was hospitalized. And that was one of the worst nights of her life.

Veronica knocks and takes a deep breath. Could her son really be with Lianne? But then how would Lianne have orchestrated such an elaborate scheme to frame Logan? And why would she do that? It doesn't make sense.

She freezes as the door swings open, and then there's her mother. Lianne's hair is cut very short but styled carefully, and she's dressed in a crisp cotton dress shirt and gray slacks. She doesn't look anything like the woman Veronica once thought she knew. This must be the Lianne that could have been, the version that would have existed if she had married Jake Kane out of high school and led the life she was always sure she deserved. God, Veronica thinks, she's even wearing a pearl necklace. What a fucking picture.

Lianne's face brightens at the sight before her, a flicker of life sparking behind her sad eyes. "Veronica?" she smiles, stepping forward and reaching for her. "Baby."

Veronica instinctively steps back, her hands up defensively. "Where's Keith?"

The smile falters, the brightness fading and confusion taking its place. "What?" Lianne asks.

"Where's. Keith?"

"Honey, come inside," she says, once again reaching for her. Veronica jerks away from her touch and glares at her mother in warning. "Answer me."

"I don't know," Lianne answers pitifully. "How would I know?"

Sighing, Veronica barges past her mother and into the townhouse. "Wow. Look at this!" she says blithely, turning around to take in her surroundings. "Who knew that $50,000 could go so far?"

Lianne bristles at that comment but she recovers quickly. "I'm sorry, Veronica. You have no idea how sorry I am. I was very, very messed up back then."

Veronica moves into the large living room, eyeing the expensive furniture and artwork adorning the area. "So are you back with Jake?"

She nods, not meeting her daughter's eyes, and Veronica shakes her head in disgust. "Well isn't that-" Veronica's words fall away as she stares at a framed picture of her son, one that she remembers taking at the park many months ago, and she marches over to the end table to pick it up. "What are you doing with this?" she asks, her voice cracking.

"He's my grandson," Lianne answers. "I have the right to know him."

Veronica sniffles a little as she looks down at the picture, and she loses herself for a moment, tenderly tracing the outline of Keith's face through the glass. "No," she says finally, holding the frame to her chest. "No, you don't have any right to know him at all. You made your choice a long time ago and you have to live with that."

"I've been working really hard to get my life back on track. Veronica," she says, a bit of pride seeping into her voice, "I've been sober now for over six years."

"Congratulations," Veronica replies sarcastically as she moves around the couch and toward the front door. "I hope you and Jake have a wonderful, alcohol free life together. But you can leave my son out of it."

"Honey," Lianne calls after her, rushing to stop her from leaving. "We don't have to do this. It doesn't have to be like this anymore! I thought…" She pauses, swallowing thickly. "I thought that you came here because you needed me. With everything that's happening with Keith, I thought you might need me now."

"Yeah?" Veronica asks, still clutching at the photo as tears brim in her eyes. "Because I came here because I thought you might have had something to do with him going missing. So I guess we're really not on the same page."

Lianne's face crumples, but Veronica refuses to feel sorry for her. "You can hire a PI to find out stuff about Keith, and you can get pictures of him and you can hear stories about him, but you're never, ever going to know him," she says. "You weren't there for any of it, okay? You weren't there the day he was born. You weren't there when I got married. You weren't there when I graduated from the academy, or from college, or from high school. You weren't THERE!"

"I was sick!" Lianne cries. "I couldn't be there!"

"Really? Didn't you just say that you've been sober for six years? So where have you been, huh? Because all I know is where you haven't been." She takes another step back, swiping at her face with her hand to brush away her tears. "You haven't been there for me."

"I wanted to be," she whispers sadly. "I really did. But I know I don't deserve it. Not after everything that's happened. And you wouldn't have me anyway. You know that," Lianne states firmly. "If I would have come to you, you would have turned me away. Don't say you wouldn't have!"

There's so much anger there, and it scares Veronica to feel like this. She thought this part of her life, all of that rage and resentment that she once used to keep her going, was in the past now, but it's all bubbling to the surface again.

Her mother leaving was the moment that defined her. The day she woke up to find a music box and a note was the day that Veronica chopped off her hair and vowed to never let another person make her feel like she wasn't worthy. That was the day Veronica was reborn.

Maybe she could have handled losing Lilly if her mother had stayed. Maybe she could have handled it all if her mother had just stayed. But Lianne left and everything changed and Veronica can't look back now.

She hates her, she realizes. She hates what her mother did to her. I bet on you and I lost. I've been doing that my whole life and I'm through. She remembers how it felt to put her faith in someone and have it utterly destroyed, and that was the reason she had refused for so long to gamble again. And where would she be now if she hadn't found the courage to finally go all in?

Lianne had single-handedly shaped and defined almost every aspect of Veronica's life for years. She left her broken and bitter, terrified that eventually everyone would walk out and that all she'd be left with was a music box and a letter. Her relationship with her mother even haunted her relationship with her father, leaving her ultimately untrusting of her bond with a man who had walked through fire for her. She thinks of the many lies she told her dad, of the secrets she kept from him because she was scared of alienating him somehow. He was all she had and she thought she couldn't confide in him because he was all she had.

"I can't do this now," Veronica whispers, her throat constricting painfully as she tries to reign in her tears. "I have to find Keith. I…I have to go."

"I do want to be a part of your life, Veronica." Lianne moves in front of her to once again stop her daughter from leaving. "I want to know you again. You'll always be my little girl." She reaches out to caress her daughter's cheek, and Veronica freezes against her touch, her eyes shut tightly and her hand clenched at her side. "I'm an alcoholic, honey, and you can't know how hard it is."

That's not true, she thinks. Veronica may have been frustrated with her mother's condition, but she understood it, even when she didn't want to, and she had tried to do everything she could to help her through it. But it wasn't Lianne's love of the bottle that destroyed their relationship. It was Lianne. It's no coincidence that Lianne has been sober for over six years and Jake Kane has been divorced from Celeste for almost seven. Somewhere along the way, Lianne decided that she didn't want her family enough to even try for them. But she tried for Jake. It seemed to always come back to him.

Veronica can't imagine ever choosing anyone else over her son, and it still hurts that her own mother could.

"I wouldn't have turned you away," Veronica tells her as she cries. "I was so angry with you, about so many things, but I still needed you. And if you would have come to me, I have to believe that I would have let you back in my life. But you didn't. And it is what it is."

"Veronica…"

She wipes at her eyes and looks at her mother. "So, where's dear Jake now?"

Lianne shakes her head sadly, her eyes downcast. "Duncan and his daughter…honey, they were killed in a car accident in New Zealand a couple of months ago."

Veronica takes a deep breath, the news of an old friend and his little girl's death hitting her hard. "I'm-I'm very sorry to hear that," she says.

"Jake's taking some time now. It's been very difficult for him."

She nods in understanding; her life has been a living hell since Monday afternoon, and she wouldn't wish the loss of a child on absolutely anyone. The idea of outliving your children…it's unnatural, and her heart really does break for anyone who has to deal with that.

"I should go now," Veronica says. She looks down at the framed picture of Keith that she's still holding, and, decided, she hands it back to her mother. This is it, she thinks. I need to move on from her. Lianne can have the photo because that's all she's going to get. "I do hope you can be happy, but I can't do this again," she says. "I'm sorry."

Lianne doesn't say anything else as she watches her daughter leave.

Veronica has calmed down substantially during the hour-long drive back to Neptune. She keeps replaying her phone conversation with Keith over and over again in her mind, and it's the only thing that's keeping her going. All of the trails have run cold and now she's scared that she might not get him back.

It's almost 5:30 p.m. by the time she pulls into the station parking lot. She needs to see Logan, she has to tell Edwards about the phone conversation, and she wants to talk to her father. She won't shut him out, even if she's angry with him right now. Veronica won't lose anyone else.

She enters through the main doors and she hears the shouting back and forth before she sees the melee around the front desk. Edwards is standing off to the side, his expression dark and serious, as her father and county commissioner Jenkins yell.

"I should have fired your ass the second this started!" Jenkins hollers, his face bright red.

"What's going on?" Veronica asks Leo, who is watching the altercation with a resigned expression.

"Edwards came to pick up the evidence to be retested, but it's gone," he tells her.

"What?" she asks, her face paling. "The jacket?"

"I don't know how anyone could have gotten in there, Veronica. We just put in a new alarm system a few months ago, and your dad is the only one with the code."

"I would never, ever do anything to compromise this case," Keith says to Jenkins as he looks around the room pleadingly. Sacks and Leo look on sadly as Edwards fumes. "I want to know how the hell something like this happens," he asks Keith.

"Simple," Jenkins interrupts. "This isn't the first time we've had to deal with this, but I can guarantee it'll be the last." He looks over at Keith then. "You're done. You can hand over your badge and your gun and you'll be lucky if you don't end up in prison for this."

"You can't do that!" Leo growls, stepping forward. He points to Veronica. "We need to worry about finding her son, not settling old grudges."

Jenkins sneers at him. "If I take the advice of anyone here, it certainly won't be yours." He turns to Edwards then. "Deputy D'Amato was fired years ago for negligence with evidence. Sheriff Mars is the one responsible for hiring him back."

Edwards sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "Can somebody just explain to me how evidence disappears from here?"

"There's been a deputy guarding the front desk at all hours," Keith explains. "Somebody would have seen something."

Edwards looks over at Leo suspiciously. "Did you see anything?"

"No," he answers tersely.

"What about you?" he asks, directing his question to Sacks.

Sacks shakes his head, his lips pursed. "And I've been at the desk since early this morning."

"Nobody else has been in charge of the evidence?"

"Well, Carl, when I was on my lunch break. But that was right before Sheriff Mars suspended him."

Veronica looks over at Edwards and their eyes lock. He nods once in her direction and then he moves to Inga's desk. "All right, I want someone to bring this Carl in right now."

"One second," Veronica says, moving past Leo and Sacks to stand before her father. "You're still the only one with the code, right? So how would Carl have been able to get past the alarm?"

Her father stares back at her with tired, bloodshot eyes. "I don't know."

"What kind of security system is it?" Edwards asks as he makes his way to the evidence room. Keith, Sacks and Leo follow him as Veronica falls behind, thinking.

Alarm system. Security system. Security cameras. It's one common thread.

"Who installed it?" she shouts, hustling over to the group of men. "What's the name of the company?"

"Um, National something," Sacks says as he tries to remember.

"It was the private security company I used to work for after I was fired from here," Leo adds. His eyes widen in realization. "Carl used to work for them, too."

"Nation One Security," Sacks says, reading the name off of the inside of the alarm, which is now disabled.

"Yeah, that's the name now. It used to be Security One, before they were bought out a couple of years after I left. Then they became even bigger, and I'm pretty sure they do all of the systems in Neptune now."

If that's the case, then they would be the ones behind the delayed security cameras at Ritchfield and the gate alarm at her house, too, Veronica thinks.

"Do you know who bought them out?" she asks, turning to Leo.

"It wasn't another company," he says, thinking. "It was some guy. He used to be head of Kane Security."

Veronica can feel her stomach turning. "Clarence Weidman?" she offers, and Leo nods as he stares at her, confused.

"Weidman?" her father repeats as he pushes past Sacks so he can get to his daughter. "You think Weidman has Keith?"

"No," she says simply, looking up to meet his eyes. "Jake does."

He stares at her for a few seconds before the cop in him takes over. "Okay, we need to find Jake Kane," he says, addressing everyone else. "Sacks, find out all of his known addresses. He has a few. Leo, call in every deputy we've got."

"This isn't in your jurisdiction, Keith," Jenkins says as everyone in the station rushes around. "You don't have a jurisdiction anymore."

"Go to hell, Jenkins," Keith barks as he boots up the computer, his fingers drumming impatiently against the desk.

"Are you sure about this, Veronica?" Edwards asks, watching her carefully. Neptune, he had decided earlier, is a different world altogether, and not even a seasoned veteran such as himself can begin to understand all of its twisted secrets. But he trusts the young woman before him now, and if she knows things he doesn't, then Edwards doesn't want to waste anymore time.

She looks up at him and into his dark eyes. "Yes."

He nods, pulling out his cell, and turns away from her so he can call in for more feds.

Veronica stands in a daze as she watches the now bustling station, and she feels like she's moving through slow motion as everything speeds up all around her. If Jake wanted to make himself and Keith disappear, it'd be very easy for him. He could be anywhere now. He could be anywhere.

"Jake's taking some time now. It's been very difficult for him."

But where would he go to 'take some time?' And to take her son.

"There's a really big pool though!", she remembers Keith saying, the only clue he gave her to his whereabouts.

Veronica leans back against the wall, taking deep breaths as everyone else runs about frantically, and suddenly she's transported to a moment many years before, to the last time she had even thought about it. She can feel the warm sun beating down against her skin as she looks up to the clouds, regarding them thoughtfully.

Logan grins from his seat beside her and she tugs on his hand. "You remember how Lilly and Duncan always spent most of August at the Kane beach house in LA?"

Veronica shakes herself from that memory and she knows. She's sure of it.

She watches as Sacks jots down addresses he's reading off the computer, as her father yells at someone over the phone, as Leo rushes past her and out the main entrance, as Edwards stands huddled in the corner, his cell to his ear.

Veronica feels for her car keys in the front pocket of her jeans, and she slinks away surreptitiously as she makes her way out of the station. She'll call them on her way there, after she gets a head start, she reasons. But she'll need Jake Kane to herself for awhile, first.