I know, I know...how could I do that to Dick? I'm evil. We haven't seen the last of him though, I promise.

PS - Bonus points to those who remembered Dick serenading Mac with 'Mack the Knife' while they were discussing their dads during the drive to Carmel in chapter 19.

PPS - Big love (as usual) to silverlining2k6 for being the best sounding board on FF!


CHAPTER 28

Veronica closed her eyes tightly to block out the sunrise as she turned herself toward it. After a solid block of driving on little sleep, it felt good to feel the warmth on her face. She forgot how absolutely perfect the weather was in Neptune. In DC and Virginia, she'd be wearing a coat and gloves right now.

Logan would probably have the car half-packed for the beach by now.

It had been nearly six hours since she'd left Logan and Dick at the hotel to watch Lilly, and nearly as long since she'd heard from either of them.

Everything's fine. They're just sleeping. It's not like he can text while he's passed out.

The thought of Logan curled up in their hotel bed alone, his hair rumpled adorably with skin tepid from being under covers, was enough to make Veronica want to turn around and drive all the way up there to climb in next to him. If she kept her eyes shut long enough, she could almost picture him, his long arms extended across the mattress, with one leg pulled out from the protection of the duvet, and a slight smile playing on his lips as he breathed softly into his pillow. She always loved him best in the morning, when he was at his most childlike and cuddlesome. It was the only time he ever looked innocent to her.

When they were in college, Logan used to drape his heavy limbs over Veronica's smaller frame to trap her beneath him. His feeble attempt to keep her with him longer when she had class to attend. She found it annoying at the time, but as the years passed and her experience with men increased, she finally was able to appreciate his devotion for what it was truly worth.

Finding somebody who would treat loving you like it was their one mission in life, was like panning for gold and fishing out a diamond. Logan might have needed a little more polish, but she knew now for certain that he was her diamond in the rough.

Mac approached Veronica from behind and threw an arm over her shoulder. "I can hear your brain whirring from other there. What's up, Bond?"

"You haven't heard from Dick at all have you?" Veronica asked.

Mac pulled out her phone, took a peek, and then tucked it back into the pocket of her hoodie. "Nope. Why? Do you think that means he's not really into me or something?" she wondered apprehensively.

Veronica laughed. "No, I'm pretty positive he's into you, Q. I mean, he was almost literally 'into you' in the parking lot."

Mac blushed and buried her head into her friend's shoulder. "I sicken myself."

"Come on. It's okay that you have feelings for him. I know I was kind of psychotic about it earlier, but I didn't mean to make you feel bad," Veronica said regretfully.

Oh my God, I am the worst friend ever.

Mac stood next to Veronica, then closed her eyes and faced the sunlight as well. "Eh, you didn't say anything I wasn't already thinking."

"Well, I'm sure you felt the same way when I started dating Logan in high school. I know Wallace did," she said.

"Yeah. I mean, Dick was a jerk, but he never bashed in my headlights," Mac said.

"True dat," Veronica agreed. "Though Logan did look kind of hot wielding that crowbar..."

"You have serious issues." Mac leaned over and shoulder checked her friend. "Hey, you look distracted. Is your spidey sense tingling or something?"

"Like a bad rash," Veronica grumbled. "Logan would've texted me by now, but you know, I'm sure I'm overreacting," she said with a wave of her hand.

"I could trace the burner phones, if it will make you feel better," Mac offered.

Some women have friends who bring over a carton of ice cream when the boy they like doesn't call them, mine offer to track the guy down using GPS.

Veronica deliberated for a moment and then shook her head. "Nah. Logan used to hate it when I did that in college. He's been so great, I don't want him to think I don't trust him." She wiped the morning dew off her phone screen and stared at it longingly. "However...it wouldn't really be me not trusting him if you traced Dick's phone though, right?"

Mac snorted. "Sure, get me in trouble."

"You know as well as I do that tracing Dick's phone would probably just turn him on," Veronica said with a smirk.

Though Mac was silent, Veronica could feel the soft puffs of air on the side of her neck as her friend shook with laughter beside her.

"I'll take care of it, if it'll get you to stop boring a hole through that phone," Mac said. "Staring at it isn't going to make it ring any faster."

Almost as if she had planned it, the phone rang on cue. Veronica raised a smug eyebrow at her friend and they both giggled. "Isn't it?"

"Oh, Bond, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you found a way to make it rain when you felt like it," she said.

"Are you missing me already, puppy?" Veronica cooed huskily into the receiver.

"If by already, you mean for the last week, then yes darling daughter, I am," Keith replied, unamused.

Whoops! Guess I should be glad I didn't use my other nickname for Logan. That would have proved awkward.

"Uh...hi daddy!" she said into the phone in the most girlish voice she can muster, hoping to wipe the memory of her sexy voice from her father's memory.

"I'm prepared to pretend that didn't just happen, if you are," he said.

"I have no idea what you could be referring to," Veronica said firmly. "Now, tell me what you found out when you went to see Jake last night."

"He's away on business. I got him on his phone though. We only spoke briefly, and of course, he denied any knowledge or involvement in Katya's kidnapping," Keith disclosed, in an unquestioning tone.

Veronica caught a glimpse of Duncan watching her closely while trying not to be obvious. She turned coat and walked far enough away from him to avoid being heard. "You say that like you believe him or something."

"That's probably because I do," Keith said.

She yanked the phone from her ear and glared at it as if it had just slapped her across the face, then replaced it. "You did not just say that to me."

"Didn't I?" he asked.

"Dad! He's not a boy scout. This is a man who is capable of covering up his own daughter's murder and tried to have you thrown in jail," she groaned.

Veronica could almost hear her father trying to collect his thoughts on the other side of the line. "Isn't that more of a reason to trust my instincts about him? Believe me, I would love for him to be guilty, but it's counterproductive to try to build a case around an innocent man."

Why does his voice sound so strange and strained? Is he hiding something from me? No, he wouldn't do that.

She brought her hand to her forehead and squeezed sharply. She could feel the pulse points in her head incessantly banging away, like a set of steel drums at a Jamaican resort. "Why on Earth do you think he's innocent?" she said.

"Does he even know that Duncan's back in the country? Does he know that Petrenko kidnapped him?" Keith asked, instantly rendering his daughter speechless. "He has an alibi, anyway. He's been out of town the last 24 hours."

"Right. As if Jake Kane himself would be standing in the shadows, wielding a stun gun," Veronica balked. "Okay, let's pretend Jake had nothing to do with this, then who hired Clarence Wiedman to take Katya? You're telling me it's a coincidence Kane's chief of security kidnapped Katya immediately after Duncan and Lilly escaped? If Wiedman knew Duncan was in town, then Kane knew. He works for Kane!"

"You're letting your personal feelings for him color the investigation, Veronica," Keith said angrily. "I'm telling you, something isn't kosher here. I honestly think Jake is in the dark about Duncan. You can't afford a misstep here, Veronica! It could get you – well, it's...just not safe to go barking up the wrong tree, okay?"

What the hell is going on? He sounds unusually skittish. Well, you're right about one thing dad, something definitely isn't kosher, because you are way too worried about me investigating Kane for this to be on the level. Why aren't you showing me all of your cards? What do you know that you're not telling me?

Veronica took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her dad was no fool, and if he believed Jake is innocent, he must have his reasons. "Why do you think he's innocent?" she asked, much softer this time around.

"Call it a hunch. I think I know the man well enough by now to tell when he's lying. I have 30 years of experience dealing with liars, and eight of them focused mainly on Jake," he explained.

And yet, you couldn't tell that your own wife was cheating with him behind your back. Maybe I'm not the only one who can't be objective when it comes to the Kane family?

"Do you trust my instincts, Veronica?" Keith asked, in an almost fragile way that made her heart ache.

You're the only one whose instincts I trust. Always have, always will.

"Yeah," Veronica answered without reservations. "Of course I do. You know I do," she assured him.

She could hear him sigh in relief. "Whatever the hell you have planned. don't tell me anything about it. I can't deny involvement if you do," he said. "But if you get yourself in trouble and you need help, you'll call," he insisted. "Just please be careful."

"When am I not careful?" Veronica asked, with a hint of sarcasm. "You're rolling your eyes right now, aren't you?"

"Me? No. Never..." he responded dryly.

"You'd make a terrible poker player, dad," she said.

Keith laughed emptily for a moment, then became eerily silent as if he'd just remembered something horrible.

"What?" Veronica asked nervously. "Why did you stop talking?"

I've always been better at cards than he is. Maybe, I can steal a peek at his 'river' after all?

He exhaled raggedly and she could hear him switch the phone in his hand and bring it to his other ear. "I'm debating whether or not to tell you something, but I don't want you to freak out."

"If you didn't want me to freak out, you might've been a little more selective with your word choice while telling me this." Veronica could feel her stomach bottom out. "Does it have to do with...with Logan?" she asked quietly. She could feel all of the moisture in her throat evaporate rapidly and every muscle in her body constrict with worry.

God. Please please please don't let this be about Logan!

As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, she knew her father wouldn't keep something important from her unless he thought it would be for her own good. Like, for example, if he didn't want to upset her just before she was about to go out into the field to perform an important rescue operation.

Keith cleared his throat a few times.

Oh god!

With her jaw clenched shut as tightly as her eyes, Veronica leaned into her phone and waited for her world to end. "Just say it," she coldly prompted.

"There was an accident..." he started, but was interrupted immediately by the sound of his daughter stifling a sob. "Logan's okay...at least...we assume he's okay."

What?

Veronica's eyes opened. Her toes and fingers began to relax first, though not entirely. "What does that mean?"

"They found Dick's car. It was totaled, the front end completely demolished by the metal barrier bisecting the highway," he told her slowly.

"Which hospital?" she asked and reached for the car keys in her pocket.

"Nobody knows where they are," he said, dropping the bomb that he had been loathe to dispatch.

She shook her head, completely confused. "What? What are you saying?"

"The car was bullet ridden and totaled but there was nobody inside. From the looks of it, there was only one passenger in it when the accident happened, and the paramedics on-sight assumed that they were gravely injured," Keith continued.

"How would they know that?" she asked warily.

"There was a lot of blood, honey. Who ever was driving was likely shot, and they could also have internal injuries from the crash impact to deal with as well," he explained.

Veronica sobbed once more, but didn't attempt to stifle it this time. "How – how do you know it wasn't Logan inside?"

Keith sighed his resign. "They found Dick's wallet on the floor of the car."

Her hand pressed hard against her lips as she fought her panic. "What do you think happened to him? Could he have crawled away? Maybe he's out there looking for help or maybe he's passed out on the side of the road somewhere?"

"There was no trail of blood to follow, and frankly, it would be amazing if a person who lost that much blood was conscious, much less wandering around by the road," he said.

Veronica didn't dare to look in Mac's direction. She couldn't.

I'm not Dick Casablancas' biggest fan, but I don't want him dead. This is going to kill Logan. And Mac is just going to...oh God...she can't lose two boyfriends to death.

She ran a hand roughly through her hair, knocking the brown wig to the ground.

"My best guess is that who ever did this to him decided to clean up their mess before anybody else found it," Keith told her bluntly. "Take from that what you will."

"And Logan? And Lilly? Where are they?" she asked, her brain working overtime to focus on the things she might have control over. She knew how to find people, she could do that.

Keith rustled some papers until he found what he was looking for. "We've been in touch with the local precinct and they have their people doing an area-wide search. Since it doesn't seem as though they were inside the car, they're probably either hiding out somewhere, or..."

"...or they were taken, too," Veronica morosely predicted. "It's okay, you can say it. We have to know what we're dealing with," she said, shifting easily into professional mode.

"Veronica..." Keith said softly, his concern over her emotional state palpable.

She ran a hand under her nose and sniffed loudly. "I'm fine. Let me take care of what I have going on here and I'll contact you when it's over. You can give me an update then."

"Veronica, it's okay to be frightened. Normal people would allow themselves to be frightened over something like this," he said.

"I'm not normal people, dad," she said tensely, then dropped the phone from her ear and lifted her finger to end the call.

"Wait!" Keith shouted loud enough to halt her.

Veronica brought the phone back up to her ear.

"Last time I was at that house, I remember there being a groundskeepers' cottage somewhere in the back of that property. I wasn't able to get in to check it out last night without a warrant, but you might want to swing by," he suggested casually. "You can probably check it out on an aerial shot using Google Earth."

The last time you were at the Kane house? Could you be referring to the time I committed grand larceny, thus setting in motion one of the darkest periods of your career?

"Just do me a favor and try not to walk off with anything too valuable this time. I'm pretty sure the Balboa sheriff's office has a three strikes and you're out policy," Keith said.

Sometimes I wonder if I was created through 'budding', because we are so cut from the same cloth. How could anyone have doubted our genetic link?

Veronica smirked. "I will be sure to keep my sticky fingers to myself."

Keith laughed. "That's my girl!"


Logan and Lilly are huddled together in a locked electrical closet on the basement of the hotel.

He shifted one of his buttocks off of the cold, hard cement to gain better access to his front pocket. Trying not to disrupt the little girl who was cradled between his bent knees, he retrieved the burner phone from his pocket and lifted it high into the air, waving it around, in yet another vain attempt to get reception.

Veronica has to be going crazy with worry right now.

As Lilly leaned back against Logan's chest, she began to whisper a song. "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

This is worse than enduring organized torture at Git'mo. I think we'd be able to wipe out international terrorism altogether, if we could just round up all the fanatics and force them to spend six straight hours locked in a freezing basement with a bored seven year old.

She turned around and looked expectantly at Logan, who sighed and then relented. "Spongebob Squarepants," he murmured with a marked lack of enthusiasm.

"Absorbent and yellow and porous is he," Lilly continued.

He let his head roll back hit the back wall. "Spongebob Squarepants."

What was that?

Before the first grader could complete another verse, Logan hastily clamped his hand down over her mouth. "Someone's coming," he whispered into the girl's ear and pulled her closer.

The sound of footsteps on poured concrete reverberated off of the walls of the corridor as they slowly approached.

I have never felt so helpless in my life. We are literally backed into a corner, and there's nothing I can do to protect her against professional goons. Well, maybe there's one thing...

Logan removed his hand from Lilly's waist and reached behind his back into the waistband of his trousers, grasping blindly until he felt cold steel press firmly into the palm his hand.

Sweat was beading fast across his forehead and but he was able to covertly bring the gun around to his side without Lilly noticing. The last thing he needed was for her to get nervous or, God forbid, try to grab for it without warning.

What the hell was Dick thinking? Who carries a gun that doesn't have a safety?

The footsteps sped up for a moment, getting louder as the distance between them closed. Suddenly, the footsteps halted.

Logan held his breath and braced for the worst.

Please let this be the janitor...

The handle of the door jiggled slightly with the weight of a hand on the other side, and began to turn slowly...


"Any news about Lilly?" Duncan asked as he sidled up to his ex.

Veronica shook her head and gave him a shrug. "They're probably still asleep. You know how Logan is in the morning."

Will I ever wake up next to him and feel him pressed up against me with his nose buried deep into the back of my hair again?

He frowned slightly and scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess, but Lilly usually wakes up at the crack of dawn. Most kids do."

Veronica busied herself with re-securing her wig in order to avoid making eye contact with Duncan.

There's no way I can look this man in the face and lie to him about his child. I feel like a sleazebag just keeping this info from him. Besides, Duncan knows me. He'll see the guilt all over my face if I give him eye contact. I need to change the topic fast.

"Are you nervous to see your parents?" she asked.

Duncan anxiously rocked back and forth on his feet. "Of course I am. It's been...a while, obviously."

"My dad called. He said your father isn't in town right now," Veronica told him.

"That's okay. He's not really the reason I came back," he said, and looked at his feet.

Please tell me the reason in your mom. Please.

"Lilly deserves to meet her grandparents...the ones on my side anyway," Duncan said, his lip curling with amusement at his own morbid humor.

Gory, Duncan and Weevil lounged impatiently near the imposing perimeter gate of the Kane compound.

Veronica cleared her throat and straightened her posture. "So troops, does everybody know what they're supposed to do?"

"No. Maybe you could go over it a few hundred more times?" Weevil asked with an eye roll.

"See, when you say stuff like that, ese, it only makes me want to go over it more. We'll only get one chance, so we can't blow this." She approached the keypad to unlock the gate and looked at Duncan.

Duncan leaned over Veronica's shoulder to look at the keypad. "Try 10032003."

Veronica's eye caught Weevil's and he looked away immediately. "You actually think they'd want to remind themselves of that every time they entered their house?"

"Dad would. He never liked to let a day pass without thinking of her at least once," he said quietly.

She nodded. "Well, we get three tries before the cavalry is called, so we may as well start here." Slender fingers typed in the number sequence and hit the pound button.

Three long seconds passed before the gate clicked open and they all released the breaths they were holding in.

"Shazaam!" Veronica screamed. "After you, Veronica," she said to Mac and waved her in with a flourish. "And remember kids, you're all on candid camera," she said, as she slid on a pair of oversized sunglasses and pointed to the camera with within the perimeter of the compound.


In the master bedroom of the Kane mansion, Celeste Kane was spread out on top of 1000 thread count, baroque-style, Italian sheets. Her face was drawn, yet still flawless, but her closely-cropped red tresses had long been shorn, and in their place was an ivory, silk scarf fashioned into a turban. For a woman who had a reputation of being both cold and ferocious at once, she looked remarkably fragile, like a glass figurine of a tiger placed high upon an unsteady shelf.

Clarence Wiedman entered the room without knocking and approached the edge of her bed.

"Is he here?" Celeste asked with a hopeful heart.

As a man accustomed to dealing with death, he knew intellectually that this shouldn't be as hard as it is, but after years of looking after a person's safety and well-being, it wasn't easy to see them suffer. It felt almost like years of his life had been wasted, like all of the things he had done, both good and reprehensible, to ensure her happiness, had been for naught.

She looks so small.

"He just crossed the outer security gate," he said with a smile.

Celeste beamed, and it was the first time he'd seen a genuine smile cross her lips in a long time. It felt good to give that to her, and he swore to himself that if this truly was the end for her, he'd make it a happy one.

All of the trouble was worth it, just to see that.

She sighed nervously and ran a shaky hand down either side of her face then turned in anticipation toward her chief of security. "Do I look okay?"

Clarence walked around the perimeter of the bed and perched himself next to her. "You look beautiful," he said earnestly, then cupped her doll-like face with both hands and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

So beautiful. Those big, blue eyes make me as weak in the knees today as they ever have.

She reached up and covered his hands with her own. "You're just saying that."

He shook his head. "It's true. No matter how sick you get Celeste, you'll always be the most beautiful woman in the world to me."

"What did I do to deserve you, Clarence?" Celeste wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. "I can't believe you brought him home to me. This means so much. The idea that I might have died without ever seeing my child again..."

Clarence pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "You're not going to die, baby."

She laughed bitterly. "Tell that to my doctors."

"I did," he said, point blank. "You have Stage 4 cancer. Some people make it through."

Please make it through.

"Yeah, I know. '5%'," she said, quoting her doctors. "You and I both know that's a death sentence."

"Yes, for 95% of the population. You, my dear, are the crème de la crème. You always have been and this is no different," he said, wishing he had the power to ease her worry. "I love you, Celeste, more than I've loved anything, and you're the strongest person I know."

Please be strong.

Celeste smiled as tears pricked her eyes and she leaned in to kiss Clarence once again. "You're the only bright spot I've had in my life since Lilly died. You know that, don't you?"

"The feeling, my dear, is mutual," he said.

"Why is it that when I'm finally happy, God wants to take it all away from me?" she asked earnestly. "It's all so bleak."

If I could trade places with you, I would.

Clarence pulled a tissue from the night table and wiped her eyes with it. "Taking care of bleak problems is my specialty, and this is job #1."

Celeste nodded. "I know. I know. It's just so hard."

"Well, at least one thing will be better today." He stood up and pressed his lips to hers one more time. "I'm going to go see where he is right now."

She dabbed the corners of her eyes with the tissue and took a deep breath. "You're right. My baby is here, and I can't have him see me looking like something the dog found in the back yard," she said as she reached for her compact mirror.

Clarence gave her a lopsided smile and forced himself from her room, his insides perennially heavy with the tight knot of concern he'd been lugging around over the last two years.


Duncan and Gory approached the oversized front door and rang the bell, which played a New York Philharmonic Orchestra recording of the Puccini aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" as it's chime.

Gory glanced at Duncan, who just shrugged. "My mother loves opera."


Inside the house, Clarence observed on a monitor as the maid let them enter through the front door.

"Sorokin," he said, annoyed by the unexpected appearance of Duncan's tag-along guest. Receiving a visit from the boyfriend of the woman you kidnapped the day before, wasn't exactly a fantastic omen.

Nobody invited you, you fucking moron. Does he really think acting the hero in this scenario is a smart move? I appreciate the bravery, but he must know he's not exactly going to outplay me. I've only been outsmarted by one person in my life, and she's been out of practice in this arena since she botched her last big job.

A flash of movement on one of the other screens caught Clarence's attention and he leaned in to investigate.

"Veronica Mars, you little pest," he said with a hint of admiration.

He watched closely as she ran through the backyard and crawled through the doggy door.

You're persistent, I'll give you that, but the doggy door again? You sorely need a new bag of tricks. Well, at least I'll catch you in the act this time.

Wiedman strolled out of the security room with a smile on his face.


Mac pulled herself through the doggy door of the Kane's mansion, careful not to catch her wig on the door flap as it passed over her head.

At this point yesterday, I did not think I would be committing a felony B&E. The things I do for you, Bond.

She rose to her feet and walked swiftly down the corridor toward what she believed to be Jake Kane's study.

Veronica said to walk quickly, but what if I'm walking too fast?

Mac reached the heavy, carved oak door of the study and placed her hand tentatively on the knob.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" a deep baritone called from down the hallway, freezing Mac in her tracks.


Veronica and Weevil zipped through the dense brush in the back of the Kane lot. The trees were lush and exotic, and had overgrown since the last photo was posted by Google. It was a part of the property that was not obviously theirs, due to it's dearth of landscaping, which contrasted sharply with the meticulously manicured lawns immediately surrounding the house.

This would be a good place to hide a kidnapping victim...or a body...or a buried treasure! Lilly and I would have had so much fun here when we were little. Sad she'll never get to see it.

"I feel like Robinson Motherfucking Carusoe," Weevil said, wiping the maze of blood zigzagging down his scratched up arms onto his jeans.

"Oh, Eli." Veronica bit her lip with empathy. "You didn't tell me you were an indoor cat. I always took you for a stray."

He tsked angrily. "Shut the fuck up, Mars."

You are too easy.

Veronica held her unscathed arms above her as a mea culpa. "No, it's cute. You're kind of like The Town Mouse from Aesop's Fables," she said.

Weevil lifted his head to glare at her. "I guess that makes you The Cunt..." Before he could finish the insult, his face lit up and he jerked his head, indicating for Veronica to look behind her.

Half-disappearing into the landscape was a giant stone cottage, covered entirely in green moss, which camouflaged it against the greenery in the background, hiding it almost completely.

Veronica turned her head and gasped loudly.

Woah! Was that just there a second ago?

"This is some storybook shit. What do you think that thing is?" asked Weevil with hesitation.

Veronica stared at the structure for a moment, amazed with it's ability to look both frightening and charming at the same time, much like Rapunzel's tower or the gingerbread house where the witch lived in Hansel and Gretel.

"Brigadoon," she said with authority. "This has to be Brigadoon."

Logan would be so pissed off he's missing this!

"Just when I think you can't get any crazier..." Weevil shook his head with mirth and made his way over to his partner. "I'll take the South side," he said, and pulled a gun from the waistband of his jeans.


A/N – I know you're all asking yourselves - "Where is Dick?" and "Celeste and Clarence are together? WTF?" (were you shocked?) All of those questions will be answered soon, I promise :)

I can't believe how many more favs and alerts showed up over the weekend! I'm really happy there are so many of you out there who are enjoying this and taking the time to leave comments. I love them all - especially the detailed reviews, which are so helpful, so thank you so much!