--x--

"Psst, Leo!" Veronica stage-whispered. Leo's head whipped up and he glanced back and forth. Not seeing anyone, he shrugged it off and returned to his paperwork. "Leo!" she whispered again, slightly louder. This time when he looked up, Leo saw her, smiled, and made to walk towards her. Waving frantically, she motioned him to stop. He complied and watched in confusion as she pointed emphatically to the "out of order" bathroom across the hall from her and held up five fingers, telling him to meet her in there in five minutes. Smiling amusedly, Leo nodded his head in agreement and returned to his paperwork as casually as possible, knocking over a can of pencils as he went. "Smooth, Leo, real smooth," Veronica muttered under her breath, smiling despite herself, before ducking into the bathroom that she had hung an out of order sign on minutes before.

After what seemed like a year, but was in all likelihood only a few minutes, Leo darted through the swinging door, quickly pushing it shut behind himself. "Hey, Veronica," he greeted her in his slow, deliberate voice. "What's with the cloak and dagger?"

"Lamb's an ass," Veronica said simply.

"Yeah, and…?"

"He won't help look for my dad. Being the rat that he is, he's calling it abandonment."

Leo only looked mildly shocked. "Were you expecting anything better from him? He had to destroy your father's reputation just to win office. He won by default. Your dad has always been his biggest enemy. Now that he's gone, if Lamb declares it abandonment, he's killing whatever's left of your dad's reputation. The lower class citizens are especially hostile towards abandoners, and that's where most of your dad's supporters are."

Veronica shook her head slowly. "You're right, but still. I guess I'll never be able to completely kill that whole 'people are good and the sheriff is on your side' notion. What can I say, I'm secretly a softie. But can you help me out with this, Leo? Keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything about my dad?"

"Of course."

"Great, thanks, Leo. You're amazing. Let me know the second you know anything," she added.

"Will do," he promised with a salute before quickly exiting the bathroom, leaving Veronica to her thoughts. She zoned out for a minute, wondering where her father was and why he had gone missing. There were so many possibilities and she disliked like each one more than the last. After a minute as a space cadet, she pulled her self out of her little coma and hurried through to her car. Shortly after, she pulled up in front of a familiar stain glassed building. Veronica let herself in as she had done hundreds of times before and allowed the nostalgia to wash over her. It hurt being here, knowing her father wouldn't be breezing through the door with a quip or a joke or a bad imitation of someone. An extensive search of his desk revealed an old calendar page with three numbers circled. The dates were nothing special, as far as Veronica knew, so she tried various combinations of them on the safe. On the third try, she heard a tell tale click and eagerly swing the door open. She rifled through his files carefully, searching for anything that could give her even the smallest lead. Finally, she hit upon something that made her eyes widen. Veronica pulled out her cell phone and rapidly punched in a number she knew as well as her own.

"Hey, Wallace. Whatcha doin'?" she sing-songed.

"Watching a South Park repeat."

"Oh, how exciting your life is!" she teased as she made her way through the Sheriff's Department parking lot. "Listen, I need your help with something."

"What else is new?" he asked in mock exasperation.

"Not Lamb's attitude," she assured him. "He's still the same old pathetic loser with a heart of steel. The bastard says my dad left on his own." She could practically see Wallace shaking his head in disgust and she continued. "We're gonna have to do this on our own, old school. And no, there will most likely not be any sexy widows involved."

Wallace feigned disappointment before asking, "So whatcha need?"

"Um, a lock pick, the black mini dress in my closet, and an escort for a visit to The Seventh Veil."

"What, no microphones?"

"Nope, I've got one in my car," she assured him. "Just get the stuff and meet me at my dad's office in an hour."

"All right," Wallace agreed. "But one of these days you're gonna have to ask me for a normal favor, like borrowing twenty bucks."

"Ha, yeah right. Oh that reminds me, you still owe me five bucks from that bet on when your mom and my dad would get married," she reminded him. "Better pay up soon, brother."

Wallace muttered something that sounded like, "In your dreams," before hanging up."

With a smile, Veronica put her phone away and continued to thumb through the file in her hand. It's always best to go into something like this prepared. Going undercover was one of Veronica's favorite parts of being a PI.

An hour and ten minutes later, Wallace screeched to a stop outside Mars Investigations and Veronica, who had been waiting impatiently, stuck her head through the open passenger window and said, "I swear, you take longer to get ready than Madison Sinclair."

Wallace got out and slammed his door shut. "How long you been waiting to say that?"

"About five minutes. Did you like it?"

"Oh, yeah, remind me to not laugh some more later," Wallace answered dryly, but Veronica saw a smile creeping across his baby-cute face as he handed her the supplies.

"Oh, goody, my disguise is here!" she exclaimed in a cheerful voice. "Wait'll you get a load of this one!"

Shaking his head, Wallace followed her back up the stairs, eager to see what she had put together for her disguise.

Twenty minutes later, Veronica paraded through the bathroom door, clad in the black mini dress. Her lips shone a deep red and her eye lids glinted in the light. "How do I look?" she asked Wallace as she spun around slowly.

"Like a hooker," Wallace replied.

"Perfect."

A phone rang a second later. Wallace reached into Veronica bag and tossed her cell phone across the room to her. "Hello?" she asked in a throaty voice that Wallace couldn't help laughing at.

"Veronica?"

"Oh, hey, honey," she greeted her boyfriend in her normal voice. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to see how things are going with your dad. Do I wanna know what's up with the voice?"

"Probably not. But did you like it?"

"Oh, yeah," he said with a laugh. "How's it coming with your dad?"

Veronica sighed. "Not so good up til now, but I finally found a small lead so I'm running with it. That's where I headed now, to follow up on it."

"Where are you going?"

"The Seventh Veil," Veronica answered simply, smiling as she imagined the confused look on his face. "I'll explain later. I've gotta get going."

"All right. Bye. And be careful."

"I will," she promised. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye."

"Aww," Wallace cooed. "How cute."

"Shut up," Veronica snapped, pretending to be mad, but secretly she liked it. The thought of Duncan always brought a smile to her face.

-x-

Wallace let out a low whistle as he took in The Seventh Veil. "Damn, girl, you don't do anything halfway, do you?"

"Hey, I didn't pick this place," Veronica defended herself. "Just following a lead. So make yourself comfortable while I find a Mr. Jason Bonavita. Just stay close and make sure I can find you when I need to."

"Ay, ay, chief!" Wallace saluted and wandered off into the crowd, leaving Veronica to scan the room for Jason Bonavita.

A quick check on the PryingEyez website had told Veronica his criminal record. At age 17 he had been sentenced to three years in a state prison for drug dealing, gotten out at 19 for good behavior. Nothing since then. Of course, her father's files said that, but Veronica liked to double check. Keith's files had been much more informative. Turns out Bonavita hadn't stayed clean, as his record would suggest. He'd just gotten smarter about hiding it. Since his release, he had worked his way up to the top, right below the head honcho. Curiously, only a select few had seen his face and of those few, half were dead. And absolutely no one knew his real name, referring to him simply as Big T. Creative, huh?

Suddenly Veronica's eyes fell upon Bonavita's face and she whispered, "Bingo." Slowly but surely, she made her way across the room towards Bonavita, careful not to look directly at him, so as not to alert him that she was headed his way. When she was inches from him, she made eye contact with a girl dancing nearby and nodded slightly. The girl winked back and sashayed over to Bonavita and whispered something in his ear. His face lit up and he followed the girl towards one of the back rooms. Veronica waited ten minutes and then followed them down the hallway. Just as she reached the first door, she saw the girl – Carla – ducking out of a room. "He's all yours, V," Carla whispered with a small smile.

"Thanks, Carla."

"Anything for Keith," Carla replied before reentering the crowd of people on the dance floor. It paid that her father had been sheriff, and a nice one at that. A lot of people had been helped out of tight places by him. Carla was one of them. When Veronica told Carla he was missing, she had been more than happy to help.

Veronica ducked through the door of the room Carla had just left and was glad to see that Carla had done her part and handcuffed Bonavita to the bed to keep him from escaping. "Hello, Jay-boy."

"Who the hell are you?"

"What? Don't you recognize me?" Veronica asked in a steady as she slowly approached the bed. "Oh, well. I'll just have to refresh your memory. I'm Veronica Mars, the girl who's gonna bring you down. I'm told you know my dad, Keith Mars…Yeah, I see the name more than rings a bell. So where is he?"

Jason's face hardened as the shock of the petite blonde confronting him about her father. "I don't know nothin'," he spat out.

"Wrong answer," Veronica said, pulling out her knife. In a flash, it was against his throat. "Wanna try again?"

"I don't know where he is," Bonavita confessed after a minute. "Only Big T knows for sure. A bunch of lackeys took him somewhere, but then a few more picked him up from there and moved him someplace else. No one knows when the chain stopped, so no one's sure if he's still where they left him."

Veronica surveyed Bonavita through narrowed eyes. "You better not be lying to be, Jason. Cause I'll be back if you are. Oh, and tell your buddy Big T, real creative nickname by the way, that I'll be seeing him soon, and that he'll be the one in handcuffs then." She turned to walk away but stopped after only a few steps. "I so didn't mean it like that! I meant he'll be arrested. God, some people are so immature."

-x-

The next morning, Veronica awoke reluctantly and dragged herself out of bed. She had just dressed in black pants and long, white button up shirt when a loud rumbling filled the air, rapidly approaching the Mars-Fennel household and disturbing every neighbor on the block. Veronica hadn't heard the familiar purring of the motorcycle in years and it brought a nostalgic smile to her smile. What she was nostalgic for, Veronica couldn't quite figure out, but she smiled all the same. She raced down the hallway, her white oxford work shirt flapping behind as she slipped and slid in her socks on the wooden floor, feeling very much like Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Of course, that reminded her of Logan at that dance and brought another smile to her face. This one, however, faded quickly as dozens of other Logan-related memories flooded in after it. Damn memories. Why could the bad ones just disappear?

Alicia looked startled as she peeked out the kitchen window at the newly arrived PCH biker gang. "Veronica, what the…?"

Veronica smiled slightly, remembering that despite being married to her dad for four years, Alicia undoubtedly still wasn't used to the various odd disruptions that happened at the Mars house, especially where Veronica was concerned. "He's a friend of mine, Alicia."

Alicia's eyes widened in shock, but she chose not to say anything, a wise move in Veronica eyes. She knew Alicia was still as uncomfortable around her stepdaughter as Veronica was around her. Instead, Alicia set about drying the dishes. For her part, Veronica scurried out the door and down the front steps. "Hey, Weevil. Whatcha got for me?"

Weevil rubbed his bare head anxiously and avoided Veronica's gaze for a minute. "I heard some things, nothin' definite. Nothin' good, either."

Trying not to let the disappointment and sorrow show, Veronica swallowed hard and said, "It's all right. This is just the beginning. I didn't expect to find him so soon, anyway. After all, Neptune has had a lot of practice at hiding its dirty little secrets, but I'm guessing they've grown a little lax lately, since I haven't been around to reveal those secrets on a weekly basis. Someone's gonna slip up and then we'll get our first lead. It's all gravy from there. I just hope it's soon," she added softly, lowering her gaze to the ground in an attempt to hide the tears welling in the corner of her eyes. Damn tears. She must have gotten soft these past few years away from Neptune. Better work on that, she told herself.

After a moment's hesitation, Weevil's reached out and rested his strong hand on Veronica's slender arm. "Listen, V, my boys and me, we'll find him. No matter what it takes, we'll get you somethin' you can use. Somethin' other than the garbage we heard already."

Her interest piqued, Veronica's head whipped up. "Spill, Mr. Clean."

Weevil shot her a brief, annoyed look. "Call me that again…" he said warningly.

"That's an empty threat and you know it. What're you gonna do? Tape me to a flagpole? How high school of you. Besides, I'm too cute to hurt." She tilted her head, smiled, and when she was sure she had his attention, flipped her hair. "I so own you now."

Smiling despite himself, Weevil told her, "Some of my boys heard some rumors about your dad. Nothin' credible, but it's the best we got. No one trusts me; they know I'm probably in league with you. But they aren't so careful around these guys. Luis heard some guy, said he was a friend of Big T's from way back when. Only back then, he went by a different name."

"And that name was…?" Veronica prompted impatiently.

"You ever heard of a guy named Troy Vandegraff?"

"Troy Vandegraff?" Veronica asked in a mock-thoughtful voice. "Hmm. The name does ring a bell. About 6 feet tall, blue eyes, brown hair, used to be my boyfriend until he tried to use me to smuggle drugs out of the country and meet up with his druggie girlfriend? Yeah, I think I've heard of the guy."