"What happened?" Veronica asked Cliff as she got up from the couch, her blue eyes were starting to fill with tears.
Not Daisy… please not Daisy…
"Honey… I'm going to have to go to the office.." Keith said quietly as he went to retrieve his coat. He would have to go to the Sheriff's Office, give them a run down on any leads that might help with their investigation.
"I can call my Mom… tell her I'm going to stay a little longer" Wallace offered and Keith nodded gratefully.
"Cliff… what happened?" Veronica pleaded.
This had to be a mistake….
"They said it was a mugging gone wrong… but all Nadia at the County Medical office would tell me is that it looked like a stabbing" he told her as he sipped the glass of water that Keith had given him. He looked exhausted, his brown suit was wrinkled and he had the appearance of someone who had aged 10 years in the last few hours.
"But I just saw her…" Veronica sobbed and her father wrapped his arms around her.
She was just here… they'd had coffee not more than 7 hours earlier…
"I've just come from Lamb's office; he's requesting a timeline of her movements for the last few days…" Cliff told him and her dad nodded.
"This isn't right…" Veronica cried as she looked at the bowl of gumbo still sitting on the bench waiting for a friend who was never going to show…. Backup nudged her leg in concern, licking her hand as her arms sat limp by her sides.
"It never is Sweetheart" Keith said solemnly, kissing her forehead as he picked up his briefcase and followed Cliff to the car.
No doubt her father blamed himself for this… he thought that this was something to do with his Private Investigation work… he was wrong. Veronica knew instinctively… She couldn't quite explain it, something deep down told her that this was her fault.
Daisy had died because of something found in those files.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay Supafly?" Wallace asked as he gave her a hug about thirty minutes later.
"No… I'm just going to climb into bed" Veronica sniffled, she felt sick, Backup was licking the rocky road out of the abandoned bowls on the floor. They said their goodbyes, and he borrowed her car to get home.
This is going to take longer than I thought… are you going to be okay? Love Dad
Her dads text came about fifteen minutes after Wallace had left and Veronica had rescued the bowls and spoons to leave them steeping in the sink.
Yeah… I love you. V
"Hello?" Logan asked as he picked up the phone sleepily, at the soothing sound of his voice the flood gates opened. She couldn't even form the words tell him, she just cried. "Veronica?" he asked.
"Hmmm hmmm…" she sobbed.
"Where are you?" he asked more urgently this time as he sat up in his bed.
"At Home…. Can you come over?" she sobbed.
Had something happened to her dad? Was she having memory problems again?
"On my way.." he said as he pulled his favourite coral coloured hoodie and slipped his feet into his trainers.
He tried his best to quell the rising panic. Something was very very wrong…
"Where are you going?" Trina asked as she sat curled on the sofa with her latest boyfriend watching a horror movie.
"Out" Logan said as he grabbed his car keys from the counter and headed out the door.
He drove faster than he probably should have on the way to the Sunset Crescent Apartment's and raced up the stairs to the small two bedroom apartment that Veronica shared with her father. Knocking on the door he paced nervously until Veronica opened it, her eyes were red and puffy, she stood in her housecoat and when she saw him she crumpled into his arms, her body shaking with grief.
"It's all my fault…." She cried, he didn't ask questions, he just wrapped his arms around her, picking her up and carried her to the couch. He kissed her forehead and soothed her blonde hair and let her cry it out of her system while he held her, he hadn't seen Veronica this upset since Lilly's funeral.
It was a little while later she shared the information that her father's new assistant had been killed earlier that evening and he couldn't have felt more helpless as the sobs shook her entire petite body as she sat cradled in his lap.
She's in shock.
"You can't be sure it was anything to do with the case…" Logan reasoned, doing his best to comfort her. "Your dad's work… the court cases…"
Not to mention the girls own personal crusade against the fighting Fitzpatrick's to uncover the resting place of Gustavio Toomes, her high school boyfriend who had gone missing during her Senior year.
Daisy Blossom had become quite well known in the media over the last few months for her handling of a few high profile embezzlement cases with Cliff McCormack involving a few of the more affluent 09ers involved in a Ponzi scheme involving Pensions.
Keith Mars's Private Investigatory work of wrangling bail jumpers and cheating spouses was hardly the safest line of work either, and Daisy had participated in her fair amount of take downs in the last few months that she had worked for Mars Investigations.
"You didn't hear this guy on the phone… there was something off about it… I should never have asked her to get those files…" Veronica sobbed.
What could she have found that would have been worth killing her for?
"My dad will be home soon…" Veronica sighed as she listened to the voicemail message.
"You want me to go?" Logan asked softly, but even if she had said yes... he wasn't going anywhere, not when she was like this.
"No, I don't wanna be alone right now, but maybe we should go into my room?" she suggested, it would be easier to cuddle up to him if they were on her bed.
"Okay" he said gently.
They went into her room and Logan excused himself to use the bathroom while Veronica pulled up her laptop to check her emails.
To: Vmars
From:DaBlAwesome
Subject: None
How's my favourite Sunshine mixed with a little Hurricane?
As hungover as I am, trouble never looked so damn fine if I do say so myself ;)
Finally got those files, Gerald the Git? Pfft! He was no match for me. Didn't I tell you I was savage?
On the bitch scale of 1 -10 I gave him a 12!
Turns out Abel Koontz has a kid, Private Eye Force is strong with you like your Pops.
Anyways, you were right, daughter, Amelia something, but I'll show you the stuff when I come over. Do NOT eat all the chocolate sauce!
I deserve Ice-cream for being this awesome…
Love D,
PS know your worth and then add tax!
"Mr Weidman?" Lucille the receptionist to the security office asked.
"Yes?" he replied.
"Mr Kane is on line 3 for you" she yawned. She didn't really understand why they insisted on keeping the support staff here for such long hours, most of the computer programmers did like to spend the quieter evenings pulling all-nighters, but this place was hardly Google or Facebook.
"Put him through" he instructed as he picked up the phone.
"Clarence… is it done?" Jake asked impatiently.
"The threat has been neutralised" he replied as he heard the tech billionaire sigh in relief. Gerald Mathews would be found the following morning having suffered a fatal overdose.