Note: While the "Hot Dogs" case is still going on, I believe in this part I go past the show's timeline. Veronica solved her case, I think, in three days; right now in the mainstream universe Veronica, Wallace, Deputy Leo and Mandy are storming the pound.
Disclaimer: Don't own VM. Wish I did.
X X X X X
Jojo Kenney's number was easy to look up, but he didn't answer his phone. I left him a message like the one I'd left Harvey Greenblatt.
Again, assuming Trina had called everyone at more or less the same time, Jojo Kenney – also an LA-based agent – probably wouldn't have had time to call in any hit men, but I needed to cover myself.
I called Mac; she was just getting in from a "big MacKenzie family dinner" out.
"At a steakhouse," she grumbled. "It's like taking a kosher Jew to a place that serves nothing but crabcakes and ham sandwiches."
"So what did you eat?"
"Salad and a baked potato. I could barely keep it down – I can't stand the smell in those places, Veronica. I really can't. Do you mind if I change the subject? Even thinking about it makes me kind of nauseated."
"Change away."
"This game Cybermage Echolls found is tremendously cool from what I've seen of it online. No cheat codes or walkthroughs, I promise," and I knew just enough about the world of computer games to get what those were, "Just getting the details. Hard to believe it came out when we were still in third or fourth grade. I'd tell you all the details but I think you'd probably be bored senseless."
"Not senseless," I said. "Anyway, did you have time to check those discussion boards?"
"I had five minutes," Mac said. "The threads were there. No time to go into too much detail, though. I'll let you know tomorrow, okay?"
"Do you remember when the original postings were?"
"Hold on a second, I bookmarked them . . . around 5 o'clock on Monday afternoon."
Which would have given any sufficiently deranged local plenty of time to whistle up a rifle and start taking shots. And the night of the shooting, the public had pretty much open access to the Echolls estate. There were a few hundred people there – reporters, locals, other interested parties, plus Trina, who was in the house sulking. Osama bin Laden could have been in the crowd and no one would have noticed.
"Thanks, Mac. Have a good night."
"You too."
Not to my particularly great surprise, Jojo Kenney did not in fact call back that night. But I did get a bit of good news: Dad came home in something of a good mood. The businesswoman hadn't in fact thrown her lover down on the hood of his car, but this time they kind of forgot to close the windows all the way. Dad got several shots, definitely enough to give the woman's husband what he needed.
So we ordered a late pizza – I insisted on Cho's, again (he'd gone back into the Kane Scholarship lead by mere percentage points) – and watched Die Hard until it was time to go to bed.
X X X X X
The next morning, Mac picked me up. (My friends were more or less taking turns with my Dad; Mac and Logan, with Duncan on standby.)
"Any luck?'
"Plenty. I can show you once we get to school, but there were some unhappy people. It looks like there were some death threats but they were deleted by the board admins."
"Damn."
"Remember who you're talking to, Veronica; I could have cracked those things in my sleep. There are a couple of options with deleted posts; simply removing them from public view or removing them completely from the server. No one ever seems to use the latter option, which makes my job surprisingly easy." She pointed to her book bag. "Got a printout for you – the most threatening messages and the people's real names."
"Were there any locals?" I wasn't going to worry about anyone too far outside Neptune, for obvious reasons.
"Marked them off first," she said. "I gave myself a perimeter of a hundred miles and only checked posts made before 6:15 PM. Besides Trina Echolls, there are two people. There were other Neptunians –" Neptunians? Is that what we are? Makes me feel like I should be tentacled, gray, eight feet tall and destroying Los Angeles with my laser pistol – "but some of them bought the story and some of them just seemed to think it was stupid. I got their names for you too if you think you need them."
As she handed me the printouts, I said, "Thanks, Mac. How much do I owe you?"
"Your firstborn."
"Would you settle for my secondborn?"
"How do I know you'll have two kids?"
"How do you know I'll have one?"
"Good point. The usual, then?"
"$5 and an order of fries it is."
"$50," she said. "But I will take that order of fries."
"$49 if you want the fries."
"Done."
I love Mac, I really do.
X X X X X
Before school, Meg, Duncan and I sat at one of the outside tables. Duncan was there because he was part of whatever fiendish plot Meg had lined up next to find the dognappers.
"Someone called Mrs. DeRyan last night about her dachshund Fellini," Meg said. "Mrs. DeRyan offered a $4,000 reward. I'm going to deliver it this afternoon. Duncan's going to be my muscle."
Duncan, standing behind Meg, flexed like a bodybuilder while I laughed. "Arnold Schwarzenegger's got nothin' on you," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "He's got a political office; so do I, only I'm not running my constituency into the ground. He's got a good-looking woman in the media; I have a better-looking one." Meg blushed at that.
"All very true," I said. "So, Meg. What's the plan?"
"The plan is to give the man the money and then ask him some questions."
"If he doesn't speak English . . .?"
"I speak Spanish, Veronica. Not like a native, but pretty well. The language barrier won't be a problem."
Now it was time for the warning. "Meg, this could be dangerous," I said. "Even if you're meeting in an open area that's no guarantee."
"I know. That's why I'm bringing Duncan along."
All comparisons to Ah-nuld aside, that Duncan was going to be there made it only marginally safer. "Try to round up someone else if you can. No offense, Duncan, but the more the better. If you can't, take off at the first sign that things are getting weird, okay?" You could just cut the hypocrisy with a butter knife. Here I was trying to figure out who shot me and here I was telling Meg to keep an eye out for dognappers. And if I'd done the same thing, I might have taken Backup, but not backup.
I suppose I could make the argument that I had more experience, but I was 17 and had been helping my father for about a year. I wasn't exactly Hercule Poirot.
Meg said, "I will. I promise. And I've got the Sheriff on speed-dial."
I started to protest and Duncan interrupted with, "He listens to us. If Meg or I tell him something, he's not going to say an automatic 'no.'" Unlike with you, was the obvious corollary, but I couldn't be insulted by the truth.
"Still, whether they're on speed-dial or not, they're not Superman; if there's trouble they're more likely to show up after it's over. Try to avoid that." They both nodded. "And if you actually talk to Lamb, leave my name out of it." If Lamb didn't like me now, he was going to loathe me tomorrow, or whenever Larry Holtz managed to provide the name of their new surprise witness.
He should count his blessings; I could be making him to look like an ass for all the world to see, like I did with Beaver Casablancas and like Dad did in getting Abel Koontz freed. This way he gets to make up his own excuse for why he blew it.
Lunch was just me and Wallace; we hadn't had a whole lot of BFF-time recently and he and I were both glad of it. His mother had pulled out of the funk she was in; she was no longer cursing men in general as "useless lying scumbags," her words not Wallace's. Otherwise, we just hung out. It was nice.
X X X X X
As I walked out of school, I got a call from Jojo Kenney.
"Hello," he said. "Miss Mars? You called me?"
"Yes, Thanks for getting back to me. Last Tuesday, did Trina Echolls call you before her stepmother's press conference?"
"Yes, she did. Sometime before dinner . . . around 5:30, maybe. Why?" Well, the time issue pretty much clinched it, but I might as well at least go through the motions.
"What was your reaction?"
"Honestly? I was thrilled."
"Thrilled?"
"Of course. I don't think it's exactly a secret that Trina pretty much trades on her last name. Her biggest roles so far are bit parts in SVU and CSI and a couple of bigger roles in grade-Z movies that the Sci-Fi Channel wouldn't show at 2 AM. Look, I love the girl, but she's not exactly brimming over with talent. Honestly, this could only be good for her."
"Her father being a murderer would be good for her?"
"Sure! The name would be out there and no one would blame her for it . . . it could only boost her career. Honestly, these public appearances she's been getting have gotten her more exposure and more money than she's gotten in the last four years."
"So you wouldn't have wanted to shut Lynn Echolls up or anything?"
"Of course not! I tried to convince Trina of this, too, but honestly, she wasn't listening to me. She's not too proud not to take the money, though."
Hmmm. So Jojo Kenney was pretty much off the hook, unless he was a world-class liar, and I didn't think he was. "Thanks, Mr. Kenney."
"No problem, Miss Mars. Have a good day."
Dad was waiting outside and had clearly been waiting for a while. "Hurry up, sweetie," he said. "What took you so long?"
"The ritual sacrifice wasn't done yet and it was my turn to wield the dagger."
"Well, I hope the death was quick and merciful."
"Kind of defeats the point of a ritual sacrifice."
Once again we trundled off to Cliff's. Larry Holtz was waiting when we got there.
"I think everything in the contract is exactly as you wanted it," he said. Dad and I looked over at Cliff.
"Exactly what you asked for, Veronica," Cliff confirmed. I looked down; Dick Casablancas' signature was already on it, as was Mr. Holtz's as his legal representative. I signed it, and then so did Cliff. He kept one copy, handed another back to Mr. Holtz, and ran off a couple of photocopies for Dad and me. Dad took them and we got up to go.
"Tell me," Mr. Holtz asked as I stood, "Are you thinking of going into the legal profession as a career?"
"I hadn't really thought of it one way or the other."
"If you do," he said, "Let me know so I can retire. I wouldn't want to face you at the bargaining table."
I thanked him, then Cliff, and we left. Dad dropped me off at home and went back to the office.
It wasn't until then that I realized I hadn't had a chance to look at the printouts Mac had handed me this morning detailing the two Neptune residents who'd threatened Lynn's life.
The first person was a woman I'd never heard of named Jessamyn von Esterhaus. The second --
The second was Vanessa Mencken.