"Excuse me?" Veronica was obviously bewildered, which greatly entertained the woman.
"You are two months pregnant."
"What?"
It took about half a second to grow agitated. "Admit it! You are two months pregnant."
Veronica stared at her silently in shocked amazement.
The woman just grinned. "Do you have any idea how dead you are?"
Veronica didn't answer. "Listen, I'm gonna help you. You see, my husband works at Hearst. If it wasn't for me, he'd probably be killing you any minute now."
"So why isn't he?"
"You were nice to my little sister the other day. I want to leave him. He disgusts me. But I can't leave."
"Why not?"
"I found out what he was doing a couple weeks ago. I tried to leave. He warned me not to. The next day, my little sister has all her hair shaved off and says she was raped."
Veronica perked up in her usual crime mystery intrigue. "You think your husband's the rapist?"
"I know he is. I accidentally…walked in on him."
"So why did you kidnap me?"
"Because he was waiting for you to leave that hospital so he could laser point and shoot you. How else was I supposed to keep you alive long enough for you to help me?"
"What's his name?"
"Jeffery Henderson. My name is Kelly. You have to call your dad and tell him who it is. Tell him it's him that kidnapped you…I can't get arrested"
"He won't get you arrested. Just let me tell him the truth, it's the best way for him to get down to the bottom of this situation accurately."
Kelly began shaking her head and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "No, no no! That's not the plan. I already have this figured out. You have to dad Mr. Mars and tell him he's kidnapped you."
"But if I tell him that he'll be looking for him in the wrong places. Besides, if I tell him that a serial head shaving rapist has me kidnapped, do you really think his focus will be on helping you get away from here with a new identity?" Veronica kept her voice calm and tried to make her reasoning clear.
The woman pointed the gun at her again. "Just do it!" She shoved a cell phone into Veronica's hands. Veronica dialed her dad's number. Keith Mars was, at the time, still outside the hospital talking with Sheriff Lamb who, as usually, insisted to being absolutely no help in addition to a complete jackass. When he heard his phone ring from an unfamiliar number he picked up immediately.
"Daddy?" Relief poured into his body.
"Veronica? Honey are you ok? Where are you?" Keith immediately pressed the button on his phone to record the conversation.
"The Hearst campus rapist's name is Jeffery Henderson. Umm, he's the one you can attribute to my little fieldtrip."
"Is he right there? Honey is your kidnapper listening to you."
"No and yes." She laughed nervously. Kelly gave her a warning look.
"You have to help his wife, Kelly Jefferson. She needs a new identity. She's afraid of him."
"Ok, give the phone to him."
Veronica tried to hand the phone to Kelly, but she refused to take it and her face began to grow mad. "Sorry Jefferson doesn't want to talk to you."
Kelly motioned for veronica to hold her hand over the phone and make her father hold. She complied slowly, but held it as loosely as she dared, hoping her dad could hear whatever she was about to say and that it would give him some kind of clue. "Tell him to go- alone- to this house at ten tonight with my new passport, driver's license, and birth certificate and you'll walk out of here Scott free and unharmed."
Veronica repeated what Kelly told her to her father over the phone, trying carefully to elongate the conversation as a way to ensure that he could trace the call. Kelly didn't seem to pick up on it. Veronica asked if Kelly wanted her to tell him anything else. Kelly shook her head and told her to hang up the phone.
"Veronica, you are ok, aren't you, honey?"
"Yeah, I'm ok, dad, bye." She hung up the phone.
Kelly took it and left the basement. Veronica paced around the room, hoping her dad got the hints she threw at him, for the next five hours. She really had to go to the bathroom. The next time the door opened and someone walked down the stairs she was expecting Kelly but instead got met with a large intimidating looking man…who looked exactly like the man who had been taking pictures of her and Logan a few nights ago. He grinned at her smugly and, grabbing her by the hair half pushed half drug her up the stairs and into a small corridor. After walking through several doors her jerked her into a small bedroom with no windows and slammed the door shut.
Veronica didn't know whether to be terrified or relieved that he didn't follow her in. She searched the room over for a way to get out but this time there was nothing. The bedroom did have a connected bathroom at least though. And there was one other door which she guessed to be a closet. She opened and had to hold back a scream when she saw Kelly fall out of it unto the floor with duck tape over her mouth and her eyes still wide open in panic even though she was dead. Veronica began to back up only to fall onto the foot of the bed.
But that was when she noticed what was hung up all along the walls of the closet. Photos of girls…including her…asleep. Most of them looked like they had either been taken from a window or doorway. Two of them she recognized as rape victims. But there were many others of people she had never seen before. She was completely stunned.
The door suddenly burst open. The man came in. It seemed like his presence filled the entire room to the point that their wasn't any air left. She wanted to scream but didn't allow herself, she knew that the panicked approach would probably be a bad move. She remained where she stood. When he began to talk…or yell, his voice boomed and took up even more space in the room than his body. "You are the girl that's having me investigated!"
This isn't good. He stomped over to her and grabbed her, throwing her like a twig onto the middle of the bed. "I'll teach you to mess with me!" He began to climb unto the bed himself and Veronica's entire body filled with complete fear and dread. He pinned her down roughly. Silent tears began rolling from her eyes down her cheeks.
Admit it! You're two months pregnant! She wasn't sure if she had meant it to help her, but she didn't know anything else to do. "Please don't, I'm pregnant. I'm two months pregnant!"
The man's black eyes burned through her, but slowly his grip loosened. "Get the hell out of here! NOW!" Veronica didn't wait for him to change his mind. She ran out of the room faster than she even knew she had the ability to.
She made it to the kitchen when she was grabbed from someone on the other side of the refrigerator. The person tried to cover her mouth with their hand, but only to have Veronica bit into it hard. Their grip loosened. She wiggled out of the person's grasp and turned around to find Logan staring down at her. He grabbed onto her hand and led her out of a different door than the one she almost ran out of. She must have tried the garage door, but he led her out the back. There were police outside. Logan hugged her tightly. The tears wouldn't stop running for some reason, however. She heard the police moving in…and ten not long after saw them carry out at body bag. She felt bad for Kelly. Even if she had kidnapped her, Veronica was convinced that she really did only want to get away from her husband. Obviously she didn't succeed.
That night as she sat on the couch in her apartment with Logan…practically on his lap, she finally decided to get out what she needed to tell him. "Logan, um, can I talk to you about something"
He kissed her forehead affectionately. "Sure, what is it?"
She tried to find the right words. "I-" Her dad walked in the room, immediately shutting her up.
He sat down comfortable on the chair near them. "Well, at least we would have to worry about him ever doing that again"
Veronica rolled her eyes, knowing the legal system too well to be at all comforted. "Yeah, until he gets parole or out in a few years"
This obviously had her dad confused. "Out of what? Honey, they shot him. He's dead. Are you ok"
"Yeah…wait, they didn't arrest him after we left"
Logan chucked oddly. "Oh come on Veronica, didn't you see the body bag"
"Yeah, of the dead woman, Kelly. His wife"
"Uh…what woman? Honey, there was no woman there."