"You don't think Abel Koontz killed Lilly Kane" Veronica declared as she walked into the small kitchen as Keith Mars stood pouring himself a coffee. It was a statement of fact, not a question.

"It doesn't matter what I think" he sighed.

"How can it not matter? The guy is on death row" she asked incredulously.

"I had really wished that we wouldn't have to get around to discussing this… especially not now when you might finally have a chance…" he said softly.

"A chance to what?" she questioned, folding her arms over her chest.

"A chance to become a normal teenage girl again… I thought it was like the only good thing to come out of all this mess…" Keith confessed sadly.

"Normal?" she spluttered. "We were still investigating Lilly's murder… how can I go back to normal when I know something like that?"

"I used to think that solving the case was the key to our happiness, solve the case and your mother comes home, solve the case and my reputation is restored, solve the case and you could have your life back" he told her as he sat down on the seat at the table.

"And now?" she asked.

"Now I think we just have to make the best of our here and now" Keith told her quietly. "Abel Koontz has already fired his public defender, he's ready to die… this town doesn't care what I think"

"I do" Veronica replied.

Dear Diary,

One way or another… the old me wanted to solve this case.

I just have to remember how.

Spent most of Sunday going through the old newspaper clippings from the time around Lilly Kane's murder. Seems that most of Neptune thought dad was obsessed with trying to pin this on Jake Kane but that press conference video seemed like a father who had genuinely just lost his daughter…one good thing about all this not having any preconceptions of people is that I seem to have a pretty good knack for telling when someone is lying to me. I guess that's what happens when you have to keep judging it something is real or pretend.

Jake Kane was telling the truth when he said he didn't kill his daughter but there was something he was covering up, otherwise a professional like dad wouldn't have smelled blood in the water. He wouldn't have risked destroying his home life, losing his house and ruining his marriage over nothing… He'd found something to convince him the Kane's were involved but he wouldn't tell me. Isn't it bad enough I can't remember now he's keeping things from me?

I finally made myself watch that crime scene video. Wallace tells me I was there in person the night her body was discovered, I can almost feel the metallic taste on my tongue.

Someone erased Lilly Kane from existence, the split the left side of her skull right open.

Logan Echolls might think that both of the girls in that homecoming picture are dead, but one of them is still here… and she's going to find out the truth.

"Morning Supafly! What can I do for you?" Wallace asked as she strolled into the administration office early on Monday.

"I was wondering… could you get me a copy of Lilly Kane's permanent file for me?" she asked quietly and he regarded her strangely. His entire face lit up like she'd just told him she'd told him his favourite basketball team had just won the championship.

"Yeah" he replied, grinning.

"What?" she asked as he stared at her.

"Nothing… just thought I'd lost you there for a minute" he smiled.

She didn't sit with Duncan and the other 09ers that lunch period; she went to the library where she could read through the files that Wallace had given her in peace. She started compiling a list of all the people who were involved in Lilly's life, she began by checking through the yearbooks of people Lilly had known associations with, right up from kindergarten to the clubs and activities she was in until the day she was murdered.

Veronica was confused to find out she used to be Pep Squad, she had trouble imaging herself running around with all that School Spirit. She would have to start finding out more about who was still involved in Lilly's life… who would have had motive to want to hurt her, but she couldn't just stop here. According to the NYPD blue and Law and Order shows she had seen, murder that violent was 95% usually done by someone with close ties to the victim.

That gash on her head? That was a crime of passion… so who could have gotten that close to become passionate about Lilly Kane?

There were resources of course that she could use that would easily give her all this information… compiled by professionals at the helpful Balboa County Sheriffs Department, and Veronica knew her dad.

There is no way a guy got that involved in a murder investigation to the point his wife left him because of the obsession without him keeping copies of the police reports and the medical files someplace close by. There had to be stuff he had stashed somewhere… stuff she needed to find.

"Hello Mars Investigations, how can we help?" a woman's voice asked politely.

"Daisy! Hi.. it's Veronica… is my dad there?" she asked. Her father's intern wasn't that much older than she was, a second year criminology student at Hearst, between her undergrad placement with Cliff McCormack and helping out Keith Mars while Veronica 'recovered' she hadn't been in the office for too long but that could work to her advantage.

"Ummm no… he's heading out of town to get that Runner from Arizona" Daisy replied. "Didn't he call you?"

"Not yet… but since I got you on the phone… How do you feel about grabbing some dinner tonight?" Veronica asked.

"I was going to get some take out and do the rest of the filing… but you are welcome to come down and hang if you want?" Daisy offered.

"I'll bring desert" she smiled.

If there was one thing Daisy would know that she had forgotten… it would be the combination to that ancient safe in her dad's office.