"Where are you going?" Keith Mars asked as he turned from the dishes in the sink to see Veronica standing with her back on the arm of the striped arm chair, checking her belongings. He looked curiously at his 18 year old daughter who had packed her small bag and grabbed her car keys. "Veronica?" he pressed again.

"Cassidy is in the Sheriff's station, I am meeting Duncan down there" she explained quickly. It was close enough to the truth that she hoped he wouldn't hear the panic in her voice. Her father was a brilliant detective and an expert in reading human body language, hopefully he would just think the nerves building inside her were because of the murderers on the news and not because of the fear beginning to grow inside her as her prime suspect had just been wiped from the board.

"Okay… but why are you going?" he frowned, confused. She had told her father not 20 minutes prior that she and Duncan had just broken up.

"Cassidy had me working on a case before all…" she said pointing at the television screen whose headlines were still screaming about the triple homicide in the 09er estate in Renly Park. "That… it was about his Step Mom…" she explained evasively.

"Honey… it's going to be a media circus out there, you shouldn't be involving yourself with all of this" he advised. "If you think this case is connected, you should really wait to consult with Cliff on this" he warned.

"I have to take Dick to see his brother" Veronica elaborated. "He's been drinking and he can't drive himself, I am just helping out a friend" she promised.

"You seem very upset, perhaps I should drive you instead? Where is he perhaps I can…?" he offered as he reached for his coat.

"No!" she said quickly. "I am fine… there is no need.. thanks for dinner, don't wait up for me okay? I'll call you when I know more later." she continued as she reached for the door and quickly bolted from the kitchen towards her car.

"Are you sure honey?" Keith Mars called after her as she made her way along the balcony. He didn't like to admit it to himself, but she was keeping something from him. She had been this way with him once before, during their game of spy vs spy and the Lilly Kane murder investigation. She hadn't answered the phone when he had called the other night from San Diego unexpectedly, he had let it go thinking she must have just been asleep, but her bed hadn't been slept in, she had allegedly slept at a friend's last night then this evening she had come home wearing clothes which she didn't own. She was lying to him and he really needed to understand why.

He picked up the phone and dialled the McKenzie household, after a few rings Mac's mother answered.

"Hi.. Crystal?" he said pleasantly.

"Oh hello Keith" she smiled down the phone.

"Sorry to bother you so late… I was just looking for Mac.. I mean Cindy, Veronica said she left her computer over with her yesterday while she was staying over at your house…? Would it be possible for me to call over later and pick it up?" he asked politely.

"Oh Keith.. I am so sorry… Veronica wasn't here last night.. CINDY?" Crystal MacKenzie told him.

"Yes Mom?" Mac called back.

"Have you seen Veronica?" she asked.

"At school today.. yes…" Mac replied carefully.

"I am sorry Keith, we don't have her computer here… but Mac says she was at school today… do you want me to call the PTA Red Team and ask around if anyone has seen her?" she asked. The PTA Red Team was an 09er Phone Tree initiative set up by the PTA at the Neptune High School after the murder of Lilly Kane to try and help parents to keep better tabs on their kids.

"No… that's okay, thank you though. I must have been mistaken, she will be home from work soon anyways, I spoke to her not that long ago.. she must have meant her friend Max" he answered cheerfully. "Sorry to have disturbed you"

"No problem. Good Night Keith" Crystal replied and he hung up the phone.

Veronica had lied to him, he knew it was an invasion of her privacy, but given the nature of their work and everything that had happened to them in recent months, he couldn't stop himself. He went to his own computer and pulled up the cell phone records of the family plan and traced the last few numbers she had been dialling and receiving for the last 48 hours. He began to type the numbers into the database registry, the usual numbers, work, his own, a few calls made to the hospital ward where Meg Manning was staying, a few to and from Duncan Kane. Wallace and Veronica had made several calls that day to one another… then he saw it.

Several calls made to her voicemail box late last evening. He knew he shouldn't but he picked up the house phone and dialled the voicemail access code, they had it set up so that she could record audio to her voicemail of confessions during her stakeouts that he could access from her voicemail later.

He didn't usually do it to invade her privacy, there were some parts of a daughter's life where ignorance was bliss, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was important. There was murder involved and he was a parent, it was his job to protect her that is how he rationalized his behaviour anyway.

"Hey Jodies Pizza? My name is Roy Caffelette, I got a golden ticket through my door… can someone call me back on 555-589-554 to arrange where I can collect my prize money?" the first voicemail said. It was from an old case last week, a guy had been ripping off local businesses by pretending to be a courier and taking the high end packages and selling them up on the Mile Marker 15.

"Hey Its Wallace, did you mean the red or the blue wires?" he asked.

"Sup V? Listen I need to talk to you about that whole Curly situation" Eli Navarro's voice said.

Who was Curly.. and why was his daughter messed up with the leader of a motorcycle gang?

"Hi.. Its me" Logan Echolls voice announced and Keith Mars felt his teeth grinding so hard they would break. "I don't know where you are… I need to talk to you about something… can you please call me back?" Keith was just about to restart the message to replay the time and date again. "I love you" He threw the phone back against the counter.

Logan Echolls.

Son of Movie Star Aaron Echolls, the Murderer of Lilly Kane.

He had been less than thrilled when he had found out from Sheriff Lamb when he had been arrested under the suspicion of his girlfriend a few months ago, Logan had been in trouble for causing a series of Bum Fights, and he had bullied and harassed Veronica for months prior to his arrest for the fatal stabbing of Felix Toomes.

He may not have been guilty of that, but he had been guilty of leading a vigilante team of 09ers to vandalise their property when they had first moved into the Sunset Apartment Complex. Veronica had dated him most of the summer and Keith hadn't really said much, he wanted to give the kid the benefit of the doubt, his mother Lynn Lester had been a friend of Keith's while they had been at school together. He had tried to be supportive of her choices, the media circus around the Felix Toomes trial had been a fiasco. Reporters had been hounding them at the Mars Investigations Office because of the Aaron Echolls arrest.. but every time Keith looked at the boy, he just saw the same similarities to his father. The same violent streak. That same anger. There were just some qualities that money and fame couldn't pave over.

Keith had lost it when Logan had begun to yell at his daughter the night she had tried to break it off with Logan and he had responded by snapping at her and broke a lamp in their living room. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so rough with a 17 year old boy who was in the middle of having his heart broken, but he had made Veronica swear that she would have no more contact with him. He had shoved him against the wall and almost broke his arm that night. Keith Mars may have not been much compared to Logan's 6ft, but he was a seasoned crime fighting professional, trained with years of wrangling bail jumpers and meth head lunatics into the back of police cars.

He scrolled down to her last call.

Logan Echolls. As smart and talented as his daughter was… he forgot sometimes that she was still just a teenage girl.

Furiously he grabbed his car keys and jacket and headed to drive to the Echolls Estate.