Veronica found herself suddenly fully present as she drank in every piece of information about Becca Walker, the girl currently sitting opposite her. From her dyed blue hair, dark eye make-up that made her olive skin look paler, to the nose ring, all the way to her chipped green nail polish and how her grey hoodie drowned her small frame, she noted the nervous play of her fingers. Daisy had been killed because of those files she'd requested from the Neptune Births and Deaths Registry… she was sure of it. The timing of the Clerks body being found and the missing paperwork was too coincidental.
In Neptune nothing happens by accident….
"I didn't want to bring this up with your dad when he was at the house because Nadz and Cadence were listening" she explained, referring to her girlfriend and roommate as she began to flick through pictures on the tablet and pulled up one showing several men in their late-twenties to early thirties, white… probably eastern European from the hard jut of their jaws, crowded around several shipping containers down by the Poseidon's Bay, Neptune Shipping yard. "This is what she was working on before… you know…" she sniffled as Veronica took in her tear-ravaged face.
Veronica took the small tablet and Weevil studied her face as she zeroed in on it and began skimming through the photos of three unmarked black vans and several guys standing around a shipping container, some of them had guns, she could tell from the way they held themselves, standing around looking nervous.
Or ready to throw down or to be shooting down helicopters from a moving vehicle….
"What's in the containers?" she asked absentmindedly but her fingers kept scrolling past the various close ups of each of the men, different body parts, it took her a moment to realize that they were cataloguing identifying marks. Tattoos, height etc.
"Keep going, you'll see" Weevil told her grimly and she felt uneasy… something bad enough to get him rattled couldn't be good.
It was then the dots began to connect, she gaze moved to Becca who nodded helplessly, and sure enough, the next few pictures started to come through, several filthy looking young girls of various heights and ages being dragged from inside the container along with what looked like some frightened older Asian individuals and herded into the vans. These guys made the PCHers look like kids playing dress up.
How had Daisy even found out about this? Some of these girls are barely older than I am…
She felt like she was going to be sick, her eyes shot back up to meet Becca's and understanding finally dawned onto her.
"The Clinic…" Veronica said numbly and tears began to pour down Becca's face again as she nodded.
"I was working late just before Thanksgiving… I'm not in touch with my parents since they kicked me out when they found out about me and Cadence" Becca continued as she wiped away the tears and lowered her voice, casting a quick glance around the Laundromat where Cory was distracting Frankie who went out the back to collect his laundry. "Everyone was supposed to be gone already and the clinic would have been empty, except for like I said, I was still around… I'd just finished up some paperwork because it'd been really busy and I was in the supply closet restocking so the staff coming back after the holidays would have less to do… and then these guys showed up" she sniffed, pointing at two of the guys in the picture. "But they weren't alone… they had Dr Colton and Annie West, one of the treatment nurses… at first I didn't know what was going on… but something felt really wrong and when I went to check… they had guns… and they brought these girls in… they couldn't have been any more than about 15 years old… and I don't think they could even understand English but I don't know what it was… Ukrainian or Russian maybe?" she frowned but shook her head and Felix rubbed her shoulder.
"I couldn't risk taking this to your dad… I don't know whose watching me, I probably shouldn't even be involving you at all…. Except there's no other way… they have people down in the Sheriff's department" she spluttered and stared at her hands like she expected to find blood on them buried under her fingernails.
"My dad's looking into Daisy's death… I'll make sure he gets this, but you have to tell me everything… " Veronica encouraged, reaching her hand out to take Becca's.
"You can't get him involved directly… this goes too high up, I know that now… I was so dumb before. I shouldn't have let Daisy… but she was Daisy, you know?" Becca sobbed. "She could blend in most places, and she promised she would be careful. Then that Libby Borello case kicked off with Cliff, and she was on the news, I think someone must have recognised her… figured out what she was doing… I should have stopped her… but I was weak and gutless… now she's dead…"
"I did some digging on my own with some of my Uncles old Cartel buddy's… they've been using the Clinic after hours as their own private family planning centre… it's been interfering with the Cartel's expansion." Weevil interrupted.
"One of their girls gets knocked up… they take care of the problem right there after hours" Felix added.
"One of the girls begging for someone to contact Justice Bancroft… and he… shot her right there" Becca told her, pointing at a taller man in a grey tailored suit… he looked like a monster who can just as easily kill as kiss you.
"Who are they?" Veronica asked, her voice was barely a whisper as the scene played out in her head.
"Russian Bratva, Traffickers, the girls are stolen, owned like chattel, kept controlled and sold into slavery" Weevil answered, looking at the petite blond in front of him, he never ceased to be amazed at her ability to stare ugly truths of the world in the face head on and not flinch. She was more than a pretty face - she was strong, resilient and intelligent.
Too good for a fool like Echolls… The world is full of monsters, and I'm not the most dangerous one out there.
"Russian Mob?" Veronica gasped in a quiet voice. She knew from various stories her dad used to tell her that most of those girls would have grown up in near poverty, they would have been promised work.. like a modelling contract or a waitressing job and would have run away from home.
"I don't want to be getting you involved in this much either V, but we need you to reach out to your dad, maybe he's got some Fed buddy's or something?" Weevil replied and she glanced at him, in his own right Weevil was powerful, intelligent and cunning. He wasn't a monster but he could be ruthless just the same. He was just that good of a player to mask it all.
Her heart was racing as she looked at the photographs of those girls… How long ago had these pictures been taken? Where were they now? What had happened to the girl they'd shot in the clinic?
None of those answers were worth getting unless it came along with a tumbler of fine Scotch… Investigating Lilly's murder was one thing… There's no way Logan would be okay with her getting mixed up in this…
"When you play with these guys... Only Death stops the game." Felix said solemnly and her keen eyes noted all the nuances of his face. He looked like he hadn't slept properly in days.
"And you think this is what got Daisy killed?" she asked, but her mind was silently thanking Logan for staying in the car.
"It has to be… about a week before she was… she came across some group connected to Bancroft… some Illuminati types from his college days at Hearst… they call themselves The Castle… but there's no official list anywhere of their memberships… she was supposed to be meeting with this guy Alex in the Neptune Galaxy Resort Casino… that's the last anyone heard from her" Becca exhaled as she tossed over a small set of keys with a shell keyring. "She kept a storage locker in her mother's maiden name… down by the Marina… I think she kept all her stuff there" she explained as Cory returned with the bag and stood over his step sisters shoulders. His large muscular frame dwarfed her.
"I told you two just to stay out of it… but then she wasn't the type to listen… remember when Daisy found out that Nadia had her ex-boyfriend steal her money and skips town, leaving her with his gambling debt and a loan shark determined to collect? Those protective instincts kicked in and the guy ended up in the hospital?" Cory mused grimly. "This shit isn't any small time loan shark… and I am begging you manita, let this go…"
Could she handle this? Should she even be getting her father involved? Even the thought of these people somehow tracing the investigation back home was giving Veronica some major heart palpitations. Her nerves were all over the place not knowing what was going to happen and how it was all going to go down. She drank down the last of her bitter coffee and promised herself a Latte for the way home to wash out the taste when something occurred to her.
"How did they get close enough?" Veronica asked quietly.
"What are you muttering about Blondie?" Felix questioned.
"She was stabbed… they'd have to get close to her… close enough to catch her off guard" she reasoned, after the Fitzpatrick's had killed her boyfriend Gustavio Toomes, Daisy had spiralled… several arrests for fighting, she'd quit cheerleading and was almost heading down the wrong path before she had joined the Half Moon Dojo and dedicated herself to Martial Arts and trying to get justice for Gustavio the right way but she never lost that prickly edge, her sharp analytical scientific mind wouldn't allow her to just charge head first into something this big without a plan… she wouldn't have done this alone. She'd have reached out to someone… someone with experience… someone like her dad… but her father knew nothing about it or he would have told her.
Would she have gotten Lamb involved with this?