It's been months since I updated. I apologize. Here's what happened. I was asked to take on a crazy new role at work. (Just to be clear, not at all a promotion or raise in pay, but totally assigned to take on a different task as a middle school English teacher 2 months before the end of the school year). There were days I didn't know my own name, and for that reason, I couldn't write anything - at all - until the end of the school year. When school let out June 27, the very first thing I wanted to do was get back to my passion - writing this story - although I was fearful I wouldn't have any readers left and if I did, it would probably feel really disjointed. However, I sat down at my kitchen table and wrote a chapter. And it SUCKED! So, I chose not to publish it. I got nervous I wouldn't be able to finish because I didn't know where to go next with it because I got kind of into the whole mystery-writing piece of it (which was really not where I thought I would go, as I mostly wanted to write LoVe). Many nights before I fell asleep, I would drift to thinking about this story, hoping inspiration would strike. And it did 2 nights ago. So I deleted the crap chapter I wrote and started fresh, and I think I can merge this with the original plan I had pretty well. I apologize for the long preamble, but I wanted to you to know that I am planning to keep writing and good things are coming. (also, disclaimer for any typos - I was eager to put something out there that I didn't proof this multiple times.

Chapter 21

Veronica rushed up the steps to her father's house, a nervous pit in her stomach as she ran through the possibilities of who could be waiting behind the sturdy red door to speak with her.Matt, overlooking her transgressions and wanting to convince her to come back to the FBI? Nancy, angry and disappointed about the way she left? Her father back early from his trip? Someone with news of another disappearance? Either way, the only person she really felt like talking to was Logan, and judging by the way they had left things at the beach, it didn't seem likely that he wanted to see her again, let alone have another heartbreaking conversation about how she had hurt him yet again.

Veronica pushed the door open and immediately her eyes fell on Wallace, who was sitting, relaxed, on the couch. He gave her a sheepish half smile while Veronica's eyes continued to survey the room. There, in her dad's favorite plaid recliner chair sat Dick Casablancas, looking every bit the same oafish surfer 09er she'd had the unfortunate pleasure of knowing through high school and her first year of college. It was as though he had discovered the fountain of youth; he looked virtually unchanged since she'd last seen him, right down the black wrinkled t-shirt that read 'Don't Be a Dick'.

"I rushed home for Dick Casablancas?" Veronica exclaimed incredulously. "I thought you said there was someone here I need to speak with. I neither need to speak with Dick, nor do I want to," Veronica said crossly, still smarting from her last encounter with Logan and annoyed by Wallace's urgent insistence that she make a beeline home.

"She's awfully cranky," Dick said, looking at Wallace knowingly. He directed his attention back to Veronica. "Does this mean you and Logan had a lover's quarrel? Why don't you come sit on Uncle Dick's lap and tell him all about it?" He added patting his knee and motioning Veronica over, to which she responded to with her middle finger.

But as soon as the one-fingered salute went up in his general direction, another person came into view from the hallway, and instead of flipping off Dick, she was flipping off – Mac?

"Well, that's an odd way to greet someone you haven't seen in years, but I guess I'm not surprised, considering who it's coming from." Mac sniffed indifferently in Veronica's direction and then took a seat on Dick's lap.

Veronica was speechless, as she took in the scene that was playing out in her father's living room. Mac looked absolutely amazing. She had grown into the too-wise-for-her-age look that she'd had in high school. Her eyes were still intense and studying, but they were now framed by a sleek haircut, the color of black cherries. She looked like a stylish young entrepreneur, in her plain but well-fitted black suit, complete with black stiletto heels that had small silver spikes. Veronica smiled despite herself. Mac looked so professional and mature yet still so…Mac. And then like the flip of a switch, Veronica's face was crestfallen. This is the only girl I let myself become so close to it was like being sisters since Lilly. And I let my own personal issues and insecurities get in the way of our friendship. Yeah, she may walk and talk exactly like the Mac I knew in high school and college, but she's not my best friend anymore, because I pretty much wrecking-balled our friendship when I left town without so much as a goodbye. For goodness sake, she's sitting on Dick Casablancas' lap right now; I don't even know this girl anymore!

Sensing that Veronica was about to talk herself down a one-way path of self-destruction, Wallace broke into the silence. "I contacted Mac because she lives close to me in Palo Alto, and I knew that if I was going to take a little time away from home, I'd need someone to grab the mail and check on my place. When I told her why I was staying Neptune, I mentioned that I was going to help you with looking into the disappearances, and as it turns out, she had some information that she thought might be helpful."

Mac took over the explanation, filling in the blanks, matter of factly. "I have already disclosed this information to the authorities, but judging by the way this case has been handled, or rather mishandled, I figure it would be beneficial to share the information with you as well, if you're planning to go all Miss Marple on this case." Mac was eyeing her warily.

Yet another person who will deal with me because of my prowess with detective work but is not trusting of me as a person.

She continued, "I run a social networking site called Lost and Found for adopted individuals who are seeking out their birth families and vice versa. You may have heard of it?" Mac smiled modestly yet glowing with pride, as Mac herself had discovered many years ago, as a result of Veronica's sleuthing, that she had not been raised by her birth parents due to a hospital mix-up, sending her home with Madison Sinclair's birth parents and Madison home with Mac's.

Veronica nodded with a shy smile. She was so proud of the person that Mac had become. Her work was so meaningful and cleansing to her soul. She had allowed her heartache with being switched at birth to fuel something so positive.

Dick interjected at this point with "Lost and Found is a Fortune 500 company. We're not some fly by night operation here. We hobnob with Mark."

Veronica stared at him, her mouth forming a tight thin line, mostly because she knew she was kissing away potentially vital information to the case if she misspoke and undermined Mac's "associate", as he clearly considered himself.

"Zuckerberg!" Dick added leaning forward, as though he was letting her in on the cure to cancer.

Veronica let her jaw fall open theatrically, to satisfy Dick's clear attempt at a pissing contest.

Mac smiled despite herself, and Veronica wasn't sure if it was in response to Dick's enthusiastic name-dropping or Veronica being facetious. "Anyway, we had someone logging into 'Lost and Found' as 'Nieliz95'. She was sending really cryptic messages in shouty all caps," Mac broke off, looking both tired and distressed, and something about the ways she was rubbing her temples made Veronica think that it was more than 'shouty caps' that were plaguing her.

Dick kneaded Mac's hunkered shoulders, quietly urging her to go on. Veronica was a little touched by his tenderness. As far as Veronica had ever been concerned, Dick's name pretty much summed him up – how he acted, what she thought of him, what part of his body he thought with…But seeing him so sweet and gentle with Mac warmed her soul in a way she never thought possible.

"Nieliz is the name of one of the girls who went missing from Pan High earlier this year," Veronica mused quietly.

"Way to connect the dots, Ronnie," Dick scoffed.

"But if she has access to a computer, it isn't likely she's being held against her will. It seems more likely that she was a disgruntled teen who was looking to escape a restrictive household. Maybe she wants to be lost for now but doesn't want to torture her poor parents," Veronica surmised, shooting a pointed look at Dick for injecting before she had a chance to finish her stream of consciousness.

"Well, that's the thing. The messages did sound as if the young woman was in danger, which is why it was on my radar," Mac pressed on, with a mix of emotions wearing on her face.

"What did the postings say?"

Mac pulled a stack of rumpled papers from a messenger bag on the floor near her feet. "Take a look for yourself."

Veronica tentatively reached out to grab the papers from Mac and scanned through the first few postings from Nieliz95. Messages dated back to early December.

12/2

I WANT TO GO HOME! MOM, PLEASE DON'T GIVE UP HOPE. YOU KNOW I WOULD NEVER MISS YOUR PUMPKIN PIE EMPANADAS ON THANKSGIVING.

12/18

I CAN'T IMAGINE SPENDING CHRISTMAS IN THIS BLACK HOLE. I CAN FEEL YOUR TEARS AND THE SOBS THAT RACK YOUR CHEST, AND ALTHOUGH IT CAUSES YOU PAIN, I HOPE IT MAKES YOU FIGHT. I FEAR ONE DAY YOU WILL BELIEVE I HAVE LEFT THIS EARTH WHILE MY HEART STILL BEATS.

1/26

I DON'T KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS OR IF CHRISTMAS HAS PASSED, BUT I AM BECOMING AN EMPTY SHELL, ALL USED UP. I PRAYED YOU WOULD NOT LOSE FAITH BUT I AM LOSING IT MYSELF. ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO FIND ME? I CAN STILL SMELL YOUR PERFUME SO I CANNOT BE THAT FAR.

Veronica looked up from the transcripts, where at least twenty more postings, some in Spanish, were highlighted. "I just don't understand. How could she be posting all of this and not have considered a more sensible way to communicate, if she is in fact Nieliz Robles and she was taken somewhere against her will?"

"Well, that's just it. She's not Nieliz Robles. I followed protocol and reported the postings to the authorities. They traced the computer's IP address. The postings were coming from Blisspoint, twenty-five miles outside of Neptune, from a Jeannette Hollaway's home, the residence of a forty-one year old divorced mother. When the FBI questioned her, she denied knowing who had made the posts and blamed the whole thing on her daughter, a freshman in high school, which satisfied the FBI."

"But not you?" Veronica asked, knowingly.

"No. Because I became more intrigued with the connection. I had read about the disappearances in the news, and from reading the posts, it seems highly unlikely that a mother or daughter could play such a cruel joke on a grieving, panic-stricken mother. These posts reference family members of Nieliz Robles by name."

"Holy shit!" Veronica and Wallace gasped simultaneously.

Dick snapped his fingers and grinned, "I'm pretty sure one of you owes the other one a Coke."

Wallace and Veronica shot disgusted looks at Dick. Well at least Dick's lack of tact is intact, Veronica thought to herself.

"What? It's like, Jinx. Everybody knows that game."

"Dick, this is no time for games. I think it's time to pay Jeanette Hollaway a visit."