A/N: I forgot to put a note in at the end of the last chapter that the first name I picked for the baby, is actually the name of the actress that played Carmen and then of course the middle name was Weevil's grandma's name.
Thanks again to everyone who has been reading, and a special thanks to those of you who have left comments. I love reading what other people think about it.
Disclaimer: The VM characters still belong to Rob Thomas (wish they were mine though)
Chapter 8 – New Developments
Logan jerked awake in the middle of the night. His breathing was ragged and he could feel sweat on his face. He hoped he didn't actually scream out in his sleep, but it was always hard to tell what parts were just part of his nightmare and what parts he was saying when he was partially awake. Veronica had rolled away from him in her sleep, so she wasn't resting right beside him when it happened. He slowly turned onto his side and moved his arm carefully over her wanting to feel her near him, but hoping he didn't wake her. He hadn't had a nightmare about Gory in quite some time, but with the conversation before they went to bed he wasn't surprised that he had one now. A small shudder spread through his body recalling that rainy day in late November when Gory and a few of his friends had cornered Logan alone after he left a Pi Sig party. The broken arm wasn't the worst part given all the damage Aaron had done to him over the years. The worst part was the threat he made about Veronica and the pictures he had of her taken at her new apartment in Virginia. He told Logan that if he tried to retaliate, she'd be the one that paid next time and it wouldn't just be a broken arm. Of course in his nightmares it wasn't Gory breaking his arm, but Gory attacking and killing Veronica before he could save her.
Veronica stirred slightly as he scooted a little closer to her so he could feel her body pressed up against his.
"Mmmmmm…" she whispered groggily. "You okay?"
His breathing was still a bit irregular and he could feel his heartbeat was thumping in his chest. "Yeah, sorry. Go back to sleep," he whispered.
Since he didn't have to worry about trying not to wake her any longer, he pushed his other arm underneath her and then held her tighter, burying his face against her neck with her hair falling around his face. He placed a slow deep kiss on the back of her shoulder and tried to slow down his breathing. She moved her hands so they were crossed in front of her chest and ran them up his biceps.
"Which one was it?" she asked in a sleepy soft voice.
"Which what?" He asked back, wondering if she was asking about his dream or something else. He really didn't want to talk about the dream, not now at least.
"Which arm?" she clarified, running her hands all the way down to his elbows and back up his biceps toward his shoulders.
"Oh, the right one," Logan replied quietly. He took a deep breath, "Promise me you're going to let it go and not do anything about it Veronica?"
She didn't answer him right away and for a moment he wasn't sure if she'd just fallen back to sleep, or if she wasn't answering him. "V'ronica?" he asked softly to see if she was asleep.
"Yeah?" she replied softly.
"You have to promise me you'll let it go," his voice wasn't as soft any more and Veronica could easily sense that his entire body had stiffened and his breathing was getting more ragged again.
Someone's always supposed to pay, right? She couldn't help but think back to his words when she'd confronted him about Piz. Wasn't that how they had always thought. She also couldn't forget the escalating war that had waged between the PCH'ers and Logan and his buddies back in high school. "Did you really let it go, or did you do something to retaliate back then?"
Logan squeezed her a little tighter. "I let it go, just like I'm asking you to do now. There's no reason to go and dredge any of that back up after all this time."
I'm sure I could get Mac to do something that he'd never trace back to us. "Given your penchant in the past for payback back, I'm surprised you just let it go."
She felt him let out a deep sigh against her shoulder. "He had pictures of you in Virginia and threatened to go after you if I did anything else. So yeah, I just let it go."
"Oh," was all she said as first. They both laid there in silence for a while. She didn't think he'd fallen back to sleep as she hadn't felt his body really relax at all. She thought back to a call from her dad in the winter of her sophomore year warning her that he'd had some trouble with a case and to keep her guard up in case anyone tried to go after her. "You told my dad about it didn't you?" she finally asked quietly.
It took him a moment to reply, and when he did it came out very quietly and she could still sense that he was extremely tense, "Yes."
After a few more minutes of silence, Veronica finally spoke again. "I'm sorry."
"I already told you it wasn't your fault and you don't need to apologize for it."
"No," she replied quietly, "I'm sorry that I have such a hard time letting things go and that I didn't just drop it because you asked me to. I know I need to work on just trusting you and not questioning you when you ask me to do something."
"Thank you," he said as he placed another kiss on her shoulder and squeezed her a little tighter. Even though he was hugging her a little tighter, she could feel that he wasn't as tense as before.
Veronica had dozed off again fairly quickly after that and it seemed like only a short amount of time had passed when she woke up again to the smell of bacon. She still had her eyes closed, but felt the bed shift and smiled to herself before finally opening her eyes to see Logan smiling back at her and holding a breakfast tray with pancakes, bacon and coffee.
"Breakfast mi'lady," he said in a horrible British accent. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips, and then hopped over her on to the other side of the bed.
"Aren't you eating too?" Veronica asked with a puzzled expression on her face.
He shrugged in reply, "I've been up for a while, so I already ate something earlier, but didn't want to bother you too early."
She gave him a slightly concerned look. "Did you not sleep very well the rest of the night then?" He shook his head and gave her a small smile. He scooted closer so he could wrap his arms around her waist and rest his head on her thigh just out of the way of the breakfast tray. She gently stroked her hand through his hair while she ate her breakfast. She knew he didn't have any meetings before lunch, so when she felt him fall asleep, she decided to let him sleep a while instead of waking him up. She had already been resting against the headboard, so she was comfortable enough at least for a little while. Unfortunately whatever had started haunting his dreams the night before must have happened again because after only about 30 minutes he jerked awake with a bit of an outburst.
"Hey, it's okay," she said as she ran her hand down his back.
It took him a moment to realize where he was and what had just happened. He rolled over on his back and covered his face with one of his arm. His heart was pounding fast, but his breathing was much calmer than when he woke up during the night. Veronica scooted down so she could rest her head on his chest. He moved his arms down so he could wrap them both around her and kissed her on the forehead.
"Ready for a shower?" He asked a moment later.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about your nightmares?" she asked with a concerned tone.
"Lots of people have nightmares, Veronica. It's not a big deal." She was still resting on his chest, so he prompted her again. "So shower?"
She asked him about his nightmares a few more times as they got ready to go to work, but he didn't feel like talking about them. She finally decided she would just let it go and hope that he didn't have another one tonight. Her mind eventually moved on to thinking about her conversation with Mac the night before about whether it would be possible for someone to crack into the safes. Mac had said that she would have to do a little research, but she was pretty sure that given they were digital there would be a way to hack in and override the codes. She had said she'd call her when she found anything helpful for her.
When she got to the station, Norris was at the counter again, just finishing up a phone call. She heard him say, "I believe we can send someone over to talk with you in person…" as she walked by him to her office.
A few minutes later, Norris and Leo were standing in her doorway. "Hey Veronica, do you want to go with Deputy Clayton to take a statement on a missing person case?"
Veronica's eyes lit up at working on something other than the jewelry case for a little while. On the way to the car, Veronica asked Norris what he'd learned about the case over the phone.
"The caller was the missing woman's roommate. They are both grad students at Hearst and the missing woman hasn't been seen since Saturday night."
"Saturday?" Veronica asked with shock in her voice. "It's Friday, how is it she's just now reporting her missing?"
"The roommate who called has been out of town this week, and just got home late last night and didn't realize she was missing until this morning." Norris shook his head sadly. "She seemed extremely upset when she called after realizing something may have happened, which is why I volunteered to drive over to talk with her instead of forcing her to come down to the station."
A short while later they were knocking on an apartment door at a complex near Hearst. A teary eyed young woman opened the door a crack and then once she saw Norris's uniform she opened it wider for them. "Miss Emma Johnson?" Norris asked before walking into the apartment after she nodded in confirmation.
"I feel just terrible," Emma said after directing them to sit at a small table inside the apartment. "I just thought she was out late last night when I got home, and I was so exhausted from flying all day that I didn't wake up until late morning and realized she wasn't here. I called a friend of ours that she usually goes out with and she said she hadn't talked with her since Saturday night. It's not unusual for Corina to get busy with her research project and blow off calls, but then I started noticing that it didn't look like she's actually been back here since Saturday."
Norris took all the official identification information from Emma, including Corina's full name and a rough estimation of her height and weight. Corina's parents had been killed in a car accident when she was young and she had lived with an Aunt before heading off to college and hadn't stayed particularly close to the Aunt who lived back in Chicago.
"Do you have any recent pictures of her?" Veronica asked in a soothing tone. Emma nodded and stood up from the table. She disappeared down a short hall and returned a minute later with a framed picture in her hands. She handed it to Veronica with a devastated look on her face. Veronica about gasped as she looked at the picture and saw Emma and a girl who could have practically been a twin of Debbie staring back at her. She was older than Debbie had been when Veronica had first met her at the Moon Calf Collective, but several years younger than what Debbie would be now. But the resemblance was unbelievable.
Norris noticed her hesitation when she looked at the picture and gave her a questioning glance. Veronica quickly shook her head and he let it go.
"Can you tell us who you think may have last seen her and where that was?" Veronica asked as she passed the picture to Norris.
"She went out with our friend Amber Carr on Saturday night. That's who I called to check whether she knew where she was. Amber said that they had gone to The Clover and that Debbie had started talking with some guy and when Amber and the other girls they were with had wanted to go down to Growlers instead, Corina had insisted on staying behind with the guy and said she'd get a cab home later."
Debbie's doppelganger disappears from The Clover. I don't think this story is going to have a happy ending and has Liam Fitzpatrick written all over it. "Can you give us Amber's contact information so we can talk with her too?"
Emma nodded and pulled out her phone to get the information. She also provided them with a list of the faculty Corina frequently worked with on campus and information about the research project she was working on, including the lab she generally worked in.
Amber hadn't left for campus yet when they called, so they went to her apartment to talk with her after they left Emma and Corina's apartment. She told the same story that Emma had told. Veronica asked if Corina was in an impaired state when she left her at The Clover, and Amber said she'd had a couple of drinks, but wasn't overly intoxicated. She described the guy as being in his late 20's with very dark hair and a slender build and easily six foot tall. She didn't get his name though since only Corina had been talking with him. Veronica knew Liam wouldn't pass for a guy in his 20's, but that didn't mean that he didn't have other cousins who worked with him that would fit that description. She was glad that the description seemed to leave Tommy off the list, as he had more sandy brown hair than dark brown. It would also leave Troy off the list as well, but she couldn't help but wonder if he'd seen the girl and knew anything about it.
After talking with Amber, they headed back to the Sheriff's office to pull up any other information in the system on Corina that might be able to help. Veronica made a copy of the photo that Emma had let them take. Norris wanted to go to The Clover to see if anyone there could provide any information, perhaps security tapes, however they didn't think anyone would be there until later in the day since it was a night club and not usually open before mid-afternoon. Veronica said she needed to run an errand and grab some lunch and that she'd be back a bit later to go to The Clover with him. She really wanted to talk to Troy about the case, and not have him hear about it for the first time in front of anyone else who might be at The Clover if he happened to be there later when they arrived.
A short while later Veronica was pulling up near Troy's apartment. It was easier to park on the street than in the side parking lot for the complex so she found a spot and walked back up the sidewalk to the apartment building. She knocked on his door and waited. She had seen his car in the parking lot, so expected him to be home, so after two minutes of no answer, she knocked a bit louder.
"Fuck, you're early man…" Troy started to say as he swung the door open in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. His eyes popped open when he saw Veronica. He quickly looked over her shoulder, before grabbing her wrist and yanking her into the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
"What the hell?" She asked at the unexpected manhandling.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He blurted out without any apology for grabbing her and yanking her through the door. "You shouldn't be here!" He shoved her toward the hall, away from the front window and looked nervously out the window before spinning to face her again.
There was no mistake by the look on Veronica's face that she was completely pissed and expected an immediate explanation. "Again, what the hell Troy?" She repeated in a much angrier tone.
Troy let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against the wall. "A couple of the Fitzpatrick cousins are on their way over here and if they find you here, well I don't think that will turn out very well for either of us." He replied in a very frustrated tone. "You can't just drop by here. Ever!"
Veronica hadn't really stopped to think about the possibility of something like that happening. "I'm sorry," she said in a more understanding tone, "I just really needed to talk to you about a missing person's case that got reported today. I think it might be related to Liam and Debbie."
Troy nodded then went back to look out the window again. "Can you meet me in two hours at Dog Beach? That should give me enough time to deal with the cousins."
He checked the window again and still didn't see anyone, but didn't want to risk them seeing her leave his place either. He told her that if she went out the back and turned away from the parking lot that there was a path down to the beach and then she could take stairs up into the next complex and head back to her car that way. She followed his instructions and was about to open her car door when she heard a voice call her name. She turned to see Tommy and another young guy with very dark hair just getting out of the car that had pulled in behind hers.
"What are you doing in this neighborhood?" Tommy asked as he walked over toward her. The other guy stayed back near their car and didn't follow Tommy over to her.
"I was just dropping off some papers for a client of my Dad's that lives up the way at the Beachside Bluff Apartments." Veronica said, remaining as calm as possible and hoping Tommy wouldn't get suspicious about her story. She was pretty sure most of the Fitzpatrick's likely knew who her dad was and that he ran Mars Investigations. She wasn't sure if Tommy knew she was working for the Sheriff's department and didn't want to mention that if he didn't.
"Well you should be careful around here," He said with a friendly smile. "Sometimes there are some unsavory characters around, and I wouldn't want something bad to happen to the Mayor's girl." He gave her a quick head nod, and then walked back toward his car and then toward Troy's apartment with the other guy. Six foot tall, very dark hair and slender build. Hello suspect number one. She climbed into her car and sat there for a moment after locking the door until her heart rate slowed down and her hands weren't shaking.
Veronica had some time to kill before meeting Troy, and as she was heading back toward the Sheriff's Office she drove by an office building and saw the sign for Grant Whitman's insurance company. She'd had a thought about the jewelry case on her way to the office, before the missing person call, and decided to stop by and see if he might be available to talk for a few minutes. A friendly receptionist greeted her when she walked in and asked if she could speak to Grant for a few minutes. The receptionist checked with Grant and then escorted Veronica into his office. Grant's phone rang right as she walked in and he asked if she could give him a few minutes. She nodded and started looking around his office while he took the call. She noticed pictures of his family on his book shelves. She immediately recognized his wife from meeting her at Hearst and saw that they had 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy. And you must be Stephanie. His oldest daughter was blond like his wife and had striking green eyes. She spotted a picture of Stephanie and a few other kids, likely right before a homecoming or prom. It was a group of three boys and three girls striking exaggerated poses. For a moment she flashed back to the last homecoming that she'd gone to with Duncan, Lilly and Logan. She looked closer at the picture and realized one of the two other girls in the picture was actually Heather. There was also another picture of Stephanie with the same other girl in another picture, but this one in different dresses and without Heather and the boys. In the second picture Stephanie had on a gorgeous purple dress, while the other girl had on a dark blue gown. They had their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders and smiled broadly at the camera.
Grant had finished his call and noticed she was looking at the pictures. "That's my daughter Stephanie and her best friend Stacey," He said as he saw which picture she was looking at.
"You have very lovely children." Veronica replied with a smile. "I actually know Heather and didn't realize she was friends with your daughter as well," she added pointing to the other picture.
Grant looked at the other picture, "I think Steph and Stacey mostly knew Heather through their boyfriends, Jake and Malcom. The boys were actually a year older than the girls and were all on the Rugby team with Bradley, who was Heather's date that year for Homecoming. She did come over a few times when the kids were all hanging out at our house. She seemed like a really nice young lady."
Veronica agreed and explained how Logan had been close to her for many years and that she'd met her recently when she came back to Neptune. "I actually stopped by to find out if you know if your company has had any other strings of jewelry thefts in other parts of the country, or if it was all happening only here in Neptune. I was curious if there were similar patterns either now or previously that could have a connection to the robberies here."
"I haven't heard of any, but can do some checking and let you know." He answered with a nod.
"I also was wondering if the necklaces that were stolen were the most expensive ones that the families owned and wondered if you would know, or could tell from their policies."
Grant nodded as he replied, "I'm not sure, but I can pull up their policies and look for you." He apparently had a list of the names already on his desk, likely given the fact that they had to process all of the claims so recently. He shook his head after pulling up a few of the accounts. "No, in a couple cases it may have been the most expensive or the only on that was insured, but in most of them, they had other more valuable pieces that were not stolen."
Veronica thanked him for his help and then left to grab some lunch before she had to meet Troy. She couldn't help but wonder if the robberies were focused on specific pieces that someone wanted acquired or if the thief just didn't know what pieces were the most valuable. The fact that only one piece had been taken, was pointing her more and more to the necklaces being selected to meet a request of someone who wanted those specific ones. It still didn't help her narrow down on a suspect, but at least she was getting a better idea of what might be going on.
About an hour later she was pulling into the parking lot at Dog Beach and saw Troy was already there. She parked a couple spaces over and scanned the lot a bit more carefully this time before walking over and climbing into his car. When she closed the door she pulled out the picture of Corina.
"Oh my god," Troy said as he took it out of her hand, "she looks just like Debbie, just a little younger." Veronica nodded in agreement. "And you said it's a missing person case?"
"Yeah, and she was last seen at The Clover," Veronica answered.
Troy blew out a deep breath. "How long has she been missing?"
"She was last seen on Saturday, and I'm thinking the guy with Tommy may have been the guy she was last seen with. At least he fit the description we were given."
A worried expression crossed Troy's face, "Tommy and Gavin saw you?"
Veronica sighed. "Yes, Tommy spotted me getting into my car. But I said I was delivering documents to one of my dad's clients in the apartment down from yours and he didn't seem suspicious about it. Another Deputy and I are suppose to visit The Clover later since that was the last place her friends saw her. I really wanted to give you a heads up and talk to you before we went. Do you remember seeing her there?"
Troy shook his head "There are so many girls that come through, and I've been trying to get information on some of the back room deals they've been making, so I haven't been on the floor as much as I use to be."
"Are you any closer to getting something on Liam?"
"Not on the murder case, but I'm getting some evidence related to drug infractions, but that's not enough to ensure Debbie would be safe if she came back. And now with this, I'm even more worried about her coming back. Even if we can connect this girl's disappearance to Gavin, that won't have any direct bearing on Liam, unless we can get Gavin to turn on him. Have you talked with Leo about it?"
Veronica shook her head. "He was heading down to San Diego this morning for some big meeting with the SDPD and wasn't going to be back to the office until much later today. I didn't want to risk talking with him over the phone about it."
Troy nodded in agreement. "I'll see what I can find out and talk with Leo on Monday."
Veronica's tone became a bit irritated. "I want to stay involved with this too Troy."
Troy let out a huff of air. "Let me talk to Leo and we'll let him make the call about who stays involved alright?"
"Fine," Veronica said abruptly. "Are you headed over to The Clover now?"
"Yeah, I think I'd like to be there when you and the Deputy come to question the staff."
Veronica nodded in understanding. "Then I guess I'll be seeing you a little later. Don't forget to bring your surprised poker face." She gave him a slightly annoyed look, "Although I know you were always good at putting on an act."
"That was a long time ago Veronica." Troy replied a bit disgruntled. "I apologized for that when we ran into each other at Hearst. Give me a break. You did let Logan practically break my nose a few weeks ago, that should make you feel a little better."
She gave him a devious smile, "Loads." He shook his head and watched her climb out of the car. She was about to open the door on the BMW when she heard a voice call her name. What is it with me being spotted today when I least want to be seen. She spun to see Dick looking at her with a confused expression on his face as he glanced from her to the car she'd just exited. His expression changed to be even more disapproving as Troy backed out and turned so Dick had a clear view of his face.
"What are you doing here, Ronnie?" Dick asked with a heavy undertone of suspicion in his voice.
"What are you doing here, Dick?" Veronica repeated back to him.
He waved his hands up and down his body, "Running obviously," he looked at her like she was a complete idiot. "I always go for a run along the beach path when I'm working at the store during the day. How else am I going to keep this physique in perfect shape for my lady."
Veronica tried to suppress a shudder when he mentioned his physique but was sure the expression on her face gave her away.
"The real question is, why are you hanging out at the beach with Vandegraff?" His expression had become suspicious again.
"It's for work, Dick." She hoped that would suffice and that she could leave without any more questions from him. "I've got to be going now. Tell Mac I said hi." She gave him a quick wave and climbed into the BMW and left. She saw his eyes narrow at her as she pulled away from the curb.
As she drove back to the station her mind immediate flipped to Logan. Maybe I should have told Dick not to mention it to Logan, so I could tell him first that I talked to Troy today, but knowing Dick that would be the type of warning that would ensure he'd tell Logan immediately. Hopefully he'll be too busy when he's back at the shop to give it another thought. Let's hope he doesn't hear from both Tommy and Dick before I get a chance to talk to him tonight. I'm sure he's going to be less than happy that I'm looking into this case when he hears who it might be connected too.
When she arrived at the station, Norris was ready to drive over to The Clover with her to see what they could find out there. On the way over he updated her with what he'd found out about Corina in their system. She'd had a few parking tickets, but nothing more extreme than that. She had filed a restraining order against a man two years before, but from what Norris could determine, the man no longer lived in California. He did verify that her parents had been killed when she was 17 years old and that she moved from California to Chicago to live with her aunt until she graduated from high school, then came back to Hearst. She was also an only child.
As they pulled up outside of The Clover, Veronica noticed that Troy's car was parked out front. She wondered briefly if Norris would recognize Troy, but given they were members of completely different groups at Neptune High and he was only there for a few months, she was hoping he wouldn't. As they entered the building, it looked much different than when she'd been there before since all of the lights were on and the place was pretty much deserted. There were a few staff members setting all of the tables and chairs back in the proper places and finishing cleaning up from the night before. Molly was sitting at the bar looking through some papers. Troy was sitting next to her chatting with a guy behind the bar that was also doing some cleaning and organizing.
"Ah, Neptune's finest," Molly said sarcastically as she looked up and saw Norris and Veronica. "I'd heard you were doing some work for the Sheriff's Department Veronica, but I wasn't sure if that was just rumors floating around."
Veronica scanned the room again, actually glad that Tommy wasn't there as well to make her earlier story seem a bit suspicious.
"We're here due to a missing person's case Miss Fitzpatrick," Norris said in an official polite voice.
"Come on Deputy," Molly teased back, "We went to school together, you can just call me Molly."
"Alright Molly," Norris continued with a little nod, "Could you please take a look at a picture and see if you recognize the woman. Her friends last saw her here at your club on Saturday night before she went missing."
"Do you have any security footage we could look at as well?" Veronica chimed in as Molly reached out to take the picture. They'd cropped out Emma, so only Corina was in the picture they were using now.
"Don't you need a warrant for that?" Molly asked with her eyebrows raised suspiciously.
"We were hoping you'd be willing to cooperate so we could locate the missing woman," Veronica replied a bit agitated. "But if you have something to hide and don't want to cooperate, then we can go to the DA to request a warrant."
Molly laughed, "Relax Veronica, I was only joking." She glanced at the photo again then back up at Norris. "You said she disappeared on Saturday right?" Norris nodded. "Unfortunately we only keep videos for 48 hours before we delete them. We don't really have a need to go back through more than one or two days if we find something amiss and can't really afford the overhead of having more storage space."
Molly handed the photo over to Troy who took it and casually glanced at it before shrugging and handing it back to Norris.
"I was actually at home sick on Saturday night, so I certainly didn't see her." Molly replied. "There are so many people that come through the club that she may have been in here other times, but nothing about her really stands out as memorable to me. Do you recognize her TJ?" She turned and gave Troy a curious expression.
Troy shook his head, "I was here Saturday night, but mostly up stairs monitoring the floor from the private booth and it's hard to make out faces from up there. We mostly watch to make sure there aren't any fights breaking out or people passing out and getting trampled."
Norris handed the photo back to Molly. "Would you mind passing it around your staff to see if any of them recognize her? My name and number is listed on the back of the photo. If any of them remember anything, please have them give me a call."
"Sure Deputy," Molly said with a sweet accommodating smile on her face. "I'd be happy too."
"Thanks Molly," Norris said with another nod of his head as they turned to head back to their car.
"How much do you want to bet the picture has already ended up in the trash?" Norris said skeptically as they walked toward the car.
Veronica let out a little sigh and shrugged. It may not matter if I already know who the culprit was, but how can I pursue that without jeopardizing Troy. If Gavin is the guy and he's a regular, maybe I could come back with Amber and see if she recognizes him. Randomly showing up with a picture of him would be a bit too suspicious.
Norris and Veronica spent the rest of the afternoon over at Hearst talking to students and staff members that knew Corina, but didn't turn up any other leads from them. As the day wore on, Veronica was leaning more toward contacting Amber to see if she'd be free to go back to The Clover to see if she could recognize the guy that she last saw Corina with. There was also the option of having her describe the guy to a sketch artist, but they didn't have one employed at their office, so they'd have to schedule someone to come up from SDPD. They could have that done on Monday, but every day that went by of course meant less and less chance they were going to find Corina alive. Although she was sure Norris knew as well as she did that given she'd been missing for six days, the likelihood that she was alive was very slim. Norris had contacted the Aunt when they first returned to the station and let her know that they were searching for her niece, and to contact them if she heard from her. There was always the chance that she just took off and vanished without letting anyone know, but realistically neither Veronica nor Norris thought that was the case.
Veronica wanted to talk with Logan before she contacted Amber to go to The Clover and he was tied up in meetings all afternoon. She really wanted to have the conversation in person and knew he'd be home by 5:30, which would give her enough time to talk to him and then see if Amber was available to go to the club later with her. Veronica left the station about 5:00 so she would be home when Logan arrived.