CHAPTER NINE
There was an email from Dottie waiting for her with listings for houses. She was better than a real estate agent. The houses were a compromise between an 09er, son of a movie star and a have to work for a living, regular girl. Of course they were still way beyond anything she could ever afford on her own. That is unless she passed the bar and went to work for a white-shoe law firm. Even then, million dollar homes near the beach would be a long way into her future.
Logan didn't care. She told him last night that Dottie was going to help her find a house for them and he thought it was a great idea. When she offered to email him pictures and addresses so he could have some input, he cut her off, "Veronica I would live in a box if you and the baby were there." Then he promised to get in touch with his lawyer to arrange for a Power of Attorney, which would allow her access to his money to "buy whatever you want." Lucky for him what she wanted was a reasonable house in both size and price.
Most of the listings were near Neptune, some closer to it and some closer to the base, but there were only two listings in Neptune itself. Veronica was hesitant to even click on those links. It was possible to grow up here and be a good human being, but was it possible to grow up here and remain unscathed? Was Neptune really the place she wanted to raise her child? She deleted the two links and concentrated on the areas around Neptune.
Once she'd whittled down the list to a manageable ten, she emailed her choices back to Dottie with profuse thanks for her help. She'd already volunteered to not only arrange viewings with the real estate agents, but also to go see the houses with Veronica. She didn't want to impose on Dottie's generosity, but Veronica was looking forward to having the company. It would be nice to have an experienced someone with her. Someone she could talk to about which room would make a good nursery and if the school district was okay.
Not for the first time since finding out she was pregnant, Veronica thought of her own mother. She kept telling herself it was a natural reaction to think about your mother when you were about to become one. It was probably unfair to compare Lianne to Dottie, but she couldn't see Lianne committing to this kind of time.
Actually Veronica was surprised at herself. The baby was revealing a soft side to her she wasn't expecting. The lets doodle baby names and ooh over tiny clothes and research safe car seats side. Okay the last one was a little bit like her. She shut her laptop and went in search of Mac.
"If you were me and you wanted the case file and autopsy reports on Piz, what would you do?"
"You could dupe Lamb into think you're Martina Vasquez?"
She shook her head, "even Lamb couldn't be dumb enough to fall for that again."
Mac's look said Veronica was underestimating the idiocy that was Dan Lamb. "Or you could cozy up to our former classmate Norris."
It took her a minute to place the name, "Norris Clayton? He works for the Sheriff's Department?"
"According to the Neptune Navigator's, 'Where Are They Now' feature." Veronica just stared at her. "What? Sometimes Wallace leaves the paper on his coffee table."
She let the explanation slide. "Norris as a deputy, I can see it, but is he a good witch or a bad witch?"
"He hasn't dropped a house on anybody yet."
"Not that you know of." She directed a meaningful stare at the computer, "and if you wanted the case file and autopsy reports?"
Mac followed her gaze to the computer and smiled. "If I wanted them? That's easy, I would ask you."
Veronica sighed, "All right then. Wish me luck."
One time bully and antique weapons collector, Norris Clayton, was now a Balboa County Deputy. When she investigated him in high school she found him to be a pretty decent person despite the incidents recorded in his permanent file. A person who also happened to have a crush on her, which came in handy back then, but in all likelihood wouldn't help her now. With the level of corruption at the Sheriff's Department was Norris still a good guy or was he a Lamb-in-training?
There was nobody still working here from back when her father held the office. Not that she missed many of the old faces, but at least with the old force there were one or two deputies you could count on to care about their job. This new department was in it for themselves. The lofty ideals of giving back to the community and wanting to make a difference were lost in the principles of power and cash. A uniformed officer was at the desk.
"I'm here to see Deputy Clayton?"
He leaned over the desk and leered at her, his eyes roaming up her legs, over her body and stopping at her chest. "Anything he can do to you, I can do better."
If Logan was here, he'd punch him. Veronica considered doing the same. "Deputy Clayton?"
He shrugged, "Norris! Some chick is here to see you." At the word "chick" Veronica was sorry she'd resisted the impulse to deck him.
"Veronica Mars." His appearance hadn't undergone many changes since high school. He was a little leaner, which made the high cheekbones and square jaw better defined. His head was shaved and he brandished a thin mustache over his lips. Lips, which were parted in a wide smile. Apparently he was happy to see her, one point in her favor.
"I was hoping to take you to lunch."
He looked behind him like she could be talking to somebody else, then pointed to his chest, "me? Veronica Mars wants to take me to lunch? Should I be worried?"
"Probably."
"That's what I thought. Just let me clock out." Veronica wandered away from the desk and the lecherous perv who was still ogling her. She studied the rogue's gallery of wanted posters, which read like a game of who shall we frame this week? Granted her opinion was slightly colored by the treatment of Weevil over the Celeste Kane shooting, but still, she couldn't help wondering how many of these "wanted felons" were really guilty and how many of them were just in the way. "Ready to go?"
"Where do you want to eat?"
Norris shrugged, "how do you feel about a food truck at the beach?"
"Relieved. I thought you might pick Addison since it was my treat." Addison was Southern California's only five star, five diamond restaurant in the Grand Del Mar hotel. It was the site of Lilly Kane's Sweet Sixteen. Veronica frowned, where did that come from?
The food truck he led her to was the California Love Truck. He ordered steak tacos and something called the Cali Love burrito. She opted for the carnita fries; fries loaded with pork, guacamole, chipotle slaw and sour cream. They took their food to a nearby bench. The silence was not the good, companionable silence of two friends enjoying a meal together. It was the awkward and uncomfortable what are we supposed to talk about kind of silence. It reeked of a bad blind date.
"Okay so why did you really want to take me out to lunch? It obviously wasn't to catch up and reminisce about old times."
"I'm sure you know my ex-boyfriend, Stosh Piznarski, was murdered."
"I might've heard a rumor or two to that effect."
"I think I'm being set up for it." Veronica waited for his reaction to her words. He wasn't aghast at the idea of her being framed for the crime, either because he knew exactly what the Sheriff was capable of or because he was in on it.
"How do I know you didn't do it?"
"You know me, we used to be…" She almost said friends, but that wasn't true. They were never friends, they weren't even acquaintances. Their relationship boiled down to him stopping a bully from picking on her once and her suspecting him of being a mad bomber. "I didn't do it."
"Then maybe you should hire yourself a good attorney. I'm sure Logan can afford one for you."
Was the answer to her where are they now feature, dating Logan Echolls? "I want to see the case file and autopsy report."
"And I want to keep my job."
"Is that your final answer?"
He gave her a strange look and stood up, "thanks for lunch."
She watched him walk away. Her "cozying up" skills were clearly in need of work. The investigation felt stalled. What she needed was a new lead. If Piz was working on a story of corruption and his starting point was Sacks' murder then she needed to start there too. Her father wouldn't talk to her, but maybe her father wasn't the only one Sacks confided in. She finished her lunch while contemplating what she knew about Sacks, which mounted to exactly…nothing. She threw away her lunch wrappings and walked back to the car.
A manila clasp envelope with her name scribbled across the front was propped in the driver's seat. Veronica scanned the parking lot and the street beyond. There was a couple across the street in the middle of an animated conversation. A redhead in gym attire was talking on a cell and walking her dog. An elderly man sitting on a sidewalk bench was reading his newspaper. No one was paying any attention to her. She glanced up at the windows to the Sheriff's station, which were empty.
Veronica pushed the thick envelope over and got in the car. If her guess was correct, she wanted to tear the envelope open and start reading immediately, but doing it in prime view of the police was probably a sure way to get Norris fired, or worse. Maybe her cozying up skills weren't that rusty after all.
She achieved a land speed record on her drive back to the office. "From your excitement and lack of coffee for me, I take it your meeting was a success?"
Veronica waved the envelope in the air. "If this is what I think it is, we have achieved success." She gave Mac a brief rundown on her lunch beach date. "I really didn't think he was going to deliver the goods."
"You haven't opened it yet."
"Okay Debbie Downer." Pausing outside her office, she turned back to Mac, "before I forget, could you get me as much information about Jerry Sacks as you can find? And while you're at it, let's take a closer look at everyone working at the Sheriff's Department, especially their financials. I'll pull the file on Lamb."
There was already a complete package on Dan, Daniel Lamb, in her office. While she was trying to help clear Weevil, she had Mac dig up everything she could find on their illustrious sheriff, from banking and property records to tax returns. It was all very clean, almost too clean, and none of it helped Weevil, which didn't mean it wouldn't help her now. Veronica dug the file out of the cabinet and tossed it on her desk. If she turned up something while investigating Sacks it was possible she would see a connection in Lamb's records that she missed previously.
She turned her attention to the mystery envelope. The thick sheaf of papers was hasty photocopies of the case file. Each page was slightly crooked and they didn't appear to be in any logical order. Veronica doubted this was everything. Granted they were only in their second week of investigation, but a murder generates a lot of paper.
The first sheet was the case report, which indicated it was a homicide. The box "Victims of Crime" was checked and the special circumstances stated multiple GSWs head and back. Name: Piznarski, Stosh, a/k/a Piz. His vital statistics included all the usual: height, weight, hair and eye color. In the box labeled condition, were the two words, "facial trauma." Veronica put down the file. It was all very cold and sterile. Piz's death relegated to a case and crypt number. This was difficult reading and she was only on page one. She wanted to convince herself that there was no need to read the report, but while she may occasionally lie to someone else, there was a strict no lying to herself policy in place.
Place of death was listed as Wallace's address and place of injury simply said, kitchen. The basic synopsis was, "decedent found by responding officer lying on kitchen floor with multiple gunshot wounds to head and back." There was the word "back" again. It was the answer she sought when she decided she needed the file in the first place. She skipped ahead to the Investigator's Report, specifically to the Body Exam section. A stellate contact gunshot wound to the back of the skull…sooting...stippling circumferential to sooting pattern. The word perforating stood out at her. A perforating head injury as opposed to a penetrating head injury is one where the bullets passed through the skull and exited the body; hence the bullet holes in the refrigerator.
If the killer forced their way into the apartment with the gun intending to shoot Piz, there was no reason for them to be in the kitchen. There was actually no reason, other than maybe concealment, to enter the apartment at all. Piz opens the door, killer shoots him, and flees. Instead they enter the apartment and Piz goes into the kitchen, which doesn't make sense if you are being threatened by a stranger with a gun. There is no way you turn your back on someone pointing a gun at you. Now if someone you know and trusted stopped by to see you, maybe you offer them something to drink? Piz went to open the refrigerator; the killer comes up behind him, and shoots. Veronica played the scenario through a few different ways, but she still came back to Piz knowing his shooter.
The next few sheets were the initial incident report, investigator's notes and witness statements. Eleanor Richter was the neighbor who reported the shots. Her address placed her in the apartment directly above Wallace. She stated that she was still home because her alarm hadn't gone off and she was running late otherwise she'd be at work already. When she heard the shots, three shots to be exact, she knew right away what they were and immediately called the police. No she didn't look out the window and no, she didn't see anything or anyone. She stayed in her apartment until the sheriff arrived.
A door to door canvas of the building revealed that no one else was home during the incident. That's convenient, without the one faulty alarm clock; there would have been no one around to call the police for hours.
The next page was witness statements from the neighborhood canvas and right at the top of the page- Mr. Misanthrope. The name Charles "Charlie" Gallagher was circled in blue ink so she knew it was added after the photocopies were made along with a note in the side margin, which read: "look into him, gambling and drug problems - deep debt."
Gambling and drug problems coupled with deep debt. In her time in Neptune gambling and drugs would lead her right to the Fitzpatricks. Did anything ever change here? Logan said he'd live anywhere, I wonder how he'd feel about Timbuktu?
Change. Her eyes rested on the Dan Lamb file. Weevil tried to change and look where that got him. Thanks to Lamb and the Balboa County District Attorney, he was facing charges ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to illegal possession of a firearm. They even charged him with resisting arrest. Were they afraid he might bleed on them?
She picked up her cell and scrolled through the contacts for Weevil's number. Jade stood by him after his arrest, but once he started riding with the PCHers, she'd had a change of heart. She'd taken Valentina and gone to live with her mother. She claimed she understood his reasons, trying to get information to clear his name, but it didn't mean she wanted that influence around her daughter. It broke Weevil's heart and it made Veronica angry. Now though she wondered if she would do the same. Would she want to expose her three-year-old daughter to a biker gang?
"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten all about poor Weevil."
"How could I? You're the only reason I have street cred."
"Never say those words again."
"You mean I don't?"
"Only if by street you meant Rodeo Drive." A door closed and the background noise disappeared, "what do you need Veronica?"
"Tell me about the Fitzpatricks, are they still in business?"
"Yeah, they're still around, but after Liam went down for killing his brother, it's mostly small stuff. What trouble are you looking to get into?"
"If I had a gambling problem and owed a lot of money who would I owe it to?"
"Playin' the ponies again?"
"You know me, always looking for easy money."
"Can't you just stay home and bake cookies or knit something?" Veronica waited him out. "Nico Benedetti."
"And where would I find this fine upstanding citizen?"
"Remember where The Seventh Veil was? That's his place now, Nicos."
"Very original."
"Might not be clever, but he's mean. Don't go there alone. I'm serious V."
"Aww, are you worried about me?"
"That's no on the knitting? I could use a scarf."
"Christmas is coming." Veronica glanced down at the papers on her desk. She'd written, Nico Benedetti, Seventh Veil, and the word mean. She'd underlined it twice. "Feel like going with me?"
There was a long pause, "he's always there on Fridays. I'll get you after work."
"Thanks Eli."
"The things I do for you."
His parting shot made her smile, but her good mood evaporated the second she returned to the case file. The last few pages Norris gave her were the forensic reports and evidence log. Fingerprints from the scene were what you would expect to find at Wallace's apartment. His prints, hers, Piz, Mac, her dad, his brother Darrell, Scott Brown, identified in the report as, "teacher- Neptune High," and Alicia. God, Wallace don't you ever dust? The DNA mostly belonged to Wallace, but they also found DNA from Piz and as Lamb said, her DNA was found on a glass in the kitchen. A notation at the bottom of the report said, "still waiting on results from the sweater found at the SDCC."
Veronica read the sentence twice. The SDCC was the San Diego Convention Center and the only connection she could make between this case and the convention center was her. Shit.