"Hey Veronica" Weevil said as he saw the familiar blond teen detective standing in the cafeteria in front of the coffee menu.
"Hey Weevil.." she replied quietly.
"Everything okay? You seem a little distracted.. now your usual ball-busting self" he joked.
"Sheriff Lamb was killed last night" she said solemnly, it had been the evidence that they had found of the fingerprints on the computer keyboard belonging to Steve Botando the night Hearst's Basketball coach had been killed that had led to the empty house where he had been hiding.
"What? How?" Weevil asked as he took the time to absorb the news. Sheriff Lamb had been running the department for the last three years and during high school as leader of the PCH biker club, Weevil had known him very well. He had been responsible for his arrest at his high school graduation in the connection of the disappearance of Eduardo Orisoco, aka Thumper.
"Baseball bat to the head" Veronica explained sadly. "Should have gone to see the Wizard for a stronger skull" she said quietly.
Josh hadn't killed his father, and Steve Botando had only been doing the dying coach a favour to help him avoid a painful and slow death that would have drained his family of all of their financial resources to afford his treatment. If she and her father hadn't pursued the investigation so aggressively, maybe Sheriff Lamb would have just tried to keep looking for Josh who had already planned to skip the country after finding the suicide video his father had left for him. He wouldn't have gone looking for Steve Botando… and he wouldn't have been pronounced dead at 10.54pm last night.
She hadn't called Logan yet, her father had been too upset and now he was on his way to the Balboa County Sheriff's Department for his first day back as Sheriff. The election last year had been close, but she was sure her father would rather have had his return to Office be under better circumstances.
"That's rough" Weevil agreed.
"Looks like you get to call my dad Sheriff for real this time" she said as she picked up the small cappuccino from the vending machine and walked with him into the corridor.
"Hey… If I get in any trouble with parole violations.. at least I know I got a good man looking out for me" Weevil smiled sadly. Lamb may have been the proverbial incompetent pain in their collective asses, but in a seedy corrupt town like Neptune, when it counted he was still better than most.
"Veronica… Hey" Piz smiled as he came walking towards the canteen.
"Hey. How are you?" Veronica asked politely.
"Tired, but I am up first this morning because Daniel Drive Time Disco has broken down.. so now I have to DJ and over-caffeinate" he joked as he turned and headed towards the coffee machine.
"Okay well.. good luck!" she smiled. How could one person possibly be so full of energy first thing in the morning? She mused to herself as she cradled the hot liquid necessity in her cold hands.
"Morning Mars" Wallace said quietly.
"Hey Wallace" she replied as he gave her a small hug.
"How you holding up?" he asked.
"About as well as could be expected, conflicted" she told him honestly.
"Yeah, I was talking to your dad this morning.. giving him my best.." Wallace explained.
"It just feels so surreal… I mean.. the guy has been a pain in my ass since sophomore year" Veronica told him. Even our adversary's aren't invincible to the chaos that is Neptune. This town would chew you up and spite you out if you let your guard down for long enough.
"You heard from Mac this morning?" he asked.
"No maybe she's with Parker" she replied.
"I just spoke to Parker… she wasn't in the room this morning" Wallace explained.
"She probably just needs a little time to think, we could check the computer lab after first classes are over this morning?" she suggested. Veronica knew that Mac liked to take advantage of the empty computer labs sometimes at night to run her programming simulations when she wouldn't be disturbing the postgrad students.
"Okay cool.." Wallace agreed as he shifted the gym bag he was carrying to his other shoulder. "Listen, I gotta run, the new coach has us running early drills this morning.. but if I don't get there text me and I'll meet you for lunch" Wallace told her.
"Fine… but then I want to talk about Amira…" she teased.
"What is this Gossip Girls?" Wallace protested. "You know a gentleman don't kiss and tell Supafly!" he winked.
"You know you will reveal all Sodapop!" she promised as he laughed and headed off to class.
In a life that was changing increasingly fast… she was glad that some things stayed the same.
