A/N – Here's the latest chapter, a little sooner than I had been doing this story since I left it in a bit of a cliff hanger last time. As always, thanks for all the support and for continuing to read along. Please let me know what you think with a review!
Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.
Chapter 22 Buried Secrets
"What's happened to Troy?" Logan asked as soon as Veronica ended the call with Molly.
"She doesn't know… he's just missing." Veronica started to head back inside. "I'll try to call him from the other phone."
Logan followed closely behind her as she practically ran back into the kitchen where she'd left her bag. Dick and Abby were still in the game room, but Mac was in the kitchen and gave them a questioning look as they stormed in.
"Straight to voicemail," Veronica said as she set the phone back down. "I'm guessing it's off... or destroyed."
"What's going on?" Mac asked with growing concern seeing their expressions.
"Troy's missing," Logan answered as Veronica was deep in thought.
"Mac, can you try to see if you can get any signal at all from his phone to locate it?" Veronica asked as she looked at her. Mac nodded, but her expression was grim. They both knew that if the phone was off or destroyed that angle wasn't going to pan out at all. "I need to get to his apartment and get into the safe with the tracking information." Veronica said next.
Logan nodded. "You're sure as hell not going alone Veronica." She gave him a grim smile and nodded in reply. He turned to Mac. "Can you watch Abby for a while longer?"
"Of course," she said without hesitation. "You two go, I'll call you if I have any luck on tracing his phone."
"I'll drive," Logan said as they headed for the front door.
"I'll call Leo and let him know," Veronica said as they started to climb into the car after she'd grabbed her laptop bag from her own car. So much for his dinner reservations with Emily.
As Logan drove as quickly as possible without the risk of getting a speeding ticket to Troy's apartment, Veronica called Leo. "Hey, it's me. I think something bad has happened to Troy. Molly called and said she can't reach him and he didn't show up for work."
"Molly called you?" Leo asked a bit surprised by that.
"Yeah. She said he'd told her if anything ever happened to him, she should let me know."
"Veronica… I know Molly's not Liam, but she's still a Fitzpatrick…" Leo responded with concern in his tone.
Veronica let out a deep breath. "I know… but as crazy as it is, I sort of trust her. I don't think she'd be setting me up, but that's why I'm calling you too. I also have Logan with me."
"Okay, where are you heading?"
"We're on the way to his apartment to get the tracking information that's in his safe for the chip that's on him."
"Chip?" Leo asked a bit puzzled.
"Yeah… did he not tell you about that?"
"No… but I'm glad he told you. Do you want me to meet you there?"
"No, why don't you get some deputies together and I'll get the location and call you back with the information."
Leo agreed and told them to be careful before they said goodbye and ended the call.
"Let's go in the back," Veronica said to Logan as they got near the apartment. She pointed toward the back parking lot. "His car's still here…" she gave Logan a hopeful look. "Maybe he's just really sick and didn't realize his phone was off?"
Logan gave her a skeptical look, but nodded anyway. They parked in an empty spot next to his car and went to the back door of his apartment. She knocked loudly for a few minutes, but no one came to answer it. The curtains had been pulled closed as well, so they couldn't look in and see whether anyone was there. She had tried the door knob and it was locked, so she grabbed a pick set from her purse and started to work on the lock. Logan gave her an amused look and she shrugged. "Let's just tell Leo he gave me a key, okay?" she said with a sly grin. He nodded as she finished picking the lock and reached into her bag to pull out a gun. Logan raised his eyebrows at her and she whispered in response. "Sorry, only have one." He shook his head slightly and she cautiously opened the door.
The apartment was a mess, clearly there had been a struggle with furniture overturned and things knocked to the ground.
"Please let the safe still be here," Veronica said as she ran toward the desk. She was glad that while things on the desk were trashed, all of the drawers were still closed. She opened the drawer that contained the safe and pulled it out.
"I'll check the other rooms," Logan said, not expecting there to actually be an attacker still there, but worried they might find Troy's body instead. Luckily the apartment was empty as he came back to Veronica looking at something in the safe. She pulled out her phone and started loading an app and then entered the security code from a slip of paper in the safe.
"Is it working?" Logan asked as he came to stand behind her.
"I think so," Veronica said as the app gave her coordinates. "I need my laptop from the car so I can put in the coordinates to get a location." She grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and found a pen so she could write the coordinates down and then the two of them made their way back to Logan's car. She pulled her laptop out of her briefcase after they climbed in the car, and she started pulling up a mapping site while she called Leo. She was typing in the coordinates into her PC as she read them to Leo over the phone.
She switched her view from street view to satellite and gasped realizing where it was.
"St. Mary's Church," Logan said as he also realized what they were looking at.
"The cemetery behind it," Veronica said as she shook her head. "Is Liam's brother still a priest there?" she asked as she turned to look at him with growing concern.
Logan nodded. "Leo," she said into the phone that she'd almost forgotten she was holding. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah," he replied sounding as stricken as they were. "We're on our way."
"Do we need a warrant?" Veronica asked, worried about Liam getting away with something because they didn't follow procedure, but also concerned about what may have happened to Troy.
"I think the tracking device will be enough for probable cause," Leo said quickly. "I'm not wasting anytime trying to get to him Veronica."
She agreed quickly and said they'd meet him there.
Veronica and Logan arrived only a minute before the deputies did. Leo led the way around the church and back to the cemetery. Given it was dark now, it was impeding their search a bit. There were a few storage buildings and the deputies quickly opened them and found nothing. A young priest who was on duty in the church came out to see what they were doing.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked with an angry tone as Leo went over to address him.
"We received a tip that a missing person is being held here," Leo explained. Not entirely a lie at least. "Do you have any information that could help us?"
The young man shook his head. Veronica was looking around and let out a gasp that drew everyone's attention to her. "That's a fresh grave isn't it?" she asked pointing to a spot that had clearly just been covered with fresh dirt.
The young priest nodded. "Yes, we just had a service for Mrs. Trumble earlier today."
Leo looked around quickly. "Is there an excavator here?" he asked the priest.
The priest nodded and pointed in the direction of one of the storage buildings. "But you can't just dig up her grave," he protested a moment after pointing and realizing what they intended to do.
Leo yelled for one of the deputies to see if there were keys in the storage building for the excavator. The priest protested again, and Leo warned him that he could stand by and let them do their job or he'd have him arrested for obstruction of justice. The priest evidently wasn't overly committed to trying to stop them if it meant jail time and quietly stepped to the side and didn't say another word. Leo asked a deputy to escort the priest back into the church and to keep an eye on him.
Logan wrapped his arm around Veronica's shoulder and could feel her trembling slightly. "Hey," he whispered gently in her ear. "You did everything you could."
She nodded slowly and then turned to bury her face against his chest. She just wished it hadn't come to this. That it didn't take Troy dying to hopefully stop Liam. But she was also upset because finding him here, like this still didn't make it a direct link to Liam. Of course with his brother being a head priest at the church, it was a strong case, but she knew a good lawyer could poke enough holes in it to get him cleared. Their only hope now was that there would be some physical evidence when they found his body to tie it back to Liam.
"Got them," a deputy called out, and a moment later, they heard the excavator start. While one deputy worked the excavator, others were standing by with flashlights and shovels to monitor what was in the ground to try to prevent the destruction of any evidence. It didn't take long after that for them to remove enough dirt from the grave to discover there was a large wooden box higher than they would have expected to find the regular casket. They turned off the excavator and used their shovels to clear enough dirt to open the box.
Logan had tried to pull Veronica away once they realized there was a box buried in the gravesite, but she'd stood her ground and wouldn't budge. As they opened the box and she saw Troy's body a small sob escaped her and she turned her head toward Logan's chest. He wrapped his arms around her and gently rubbed her back. It was obvious from his face that he'd put up quite a fight, given the blood and bruising that could be seen.
"He's got a faint pulse," one of the deputies called out from down in the hole. Leo was on his radio immediately calling for paramedics while the other deputy started CPR on Troy. Troy was still alive, though unconscious when the paramedics arrived a short while later. Leo let the paramedics know he'd be down to the ER as soon as he could and to radio him if there was any change in Troy's condition.
"I want this entire cemetery locked down as a crime scene," Leo shouted to the other deputies. Leo pulled out his phone and called Roger to give him an update on the situation. He wanted warrants to dig up some of the more recently dug graves to see if there were any other bodies hidden there. He also wanted Roger to issue a warrant for Liam's arrest. Veronica could hear the two of them arguing from where she was standing. She didn't have a doubt in her mind that Liam was probably involved, but also knew at this point without Troy's testimony that they didn't have anything to specifically tie him to it yet. Hopefully Troy would regain consciousness, but she also knew there was a risk that he might not. There was also the chance of course that once they started exhuming the graves that they would find other DNA evidence to match it to Liam. Veronica could tell as Leo ended the call that Roger didn't think they had enough for a warrant on Liam yet. Leo called the hospital next and asked the ER doctor to notify him the minute that Troy regained consciousness and could talk to them.
"Maybe you should go back and get Abby," Veronica suggested to Logan. He gave her a questioning look. "I want to wait for them to start checking the other graves to see if the missing girl is here."
He nodded in understanding. "I'm not leaving you here alone, Veronica." He said softly as he looked intently into her eyes. He could feel how upset she was when they discovered Troy, and figured it was going to be almost as hard if they found the girl as well. "I'll call Mac and give her an update. I'm sure it will be fine to leave Abby with her for a while longer, or even all night if necessary." He knew it could take a little while to get the warrant to start exhuming the other graves, but he knew a few judges that Roger worked with could be really fast too so hoped it wouldn't take too long. "I'll be right back," he said and then walked over toward his car where it was quieter to make the call.
Leo had asked one of the deputies to go into the church to get a list of all the recent burials so that once the warrant came through they could start with the most recent and work their way back. While they were waiting for the warrant, he also called a company that provided ground penetrating radar to see if they might be able to detect which graves could contain more than one set of bodies. He of course didn't want to dig up the entire cemetery, but didn't want to miss any evidence either. Given it was evening, he wasn't sure how quickly they could get someone out to help them. Luckily the Sheriff's Department had a good relationship with the company, and with the offer to cover their overtime pay, they said they could send a technician out soon to start checking the graves while they waited on the warrant.
Logan returned a short while later and let Veronica know that everything was fine and Mac said they could keep Abby all night if needed. She nodded and gave him a grim look. He spotted a bench under a tree in the corner of the cemetery near the church and took her hand and led her over to it. They took a seat to wait for the warrant to be delivered and things to get underway. Logan gently stroked her back with his hand as they sat there waiting.
"How are you holding up?" he asked softly. He didn't think she was doing very well, but knew he wouldn't be able to talk her into leaving. She turned and looked at him with a pained expression on her face.
"He buried him alive, Logan," she said in almost a whisper. "And left him there to die." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "Is that what he did to Corina too? Did they know what had happened, or just woke up in a box and then ran out of oxygen and died?" She was starting to make small sobbing sounds and he pulled her against his chest and held her tightly. He could only imagine that images of being trapped in the refrigerator by Aaron were flooding her mind.
"I don't know Veronica," he said softly as he held on to her. "At least you got to Troy fast enough to save him."
He could feel her nod slightly against him. She finally regained enough composure to pull away from his chest and sit watching what was going on in the cemetery. Leo was going over some papers that one of the deputies had brought out from the church and they were starting to walk around the cemetery locating and marking graves. He'd also called a company to provide high powered lights and they were being delivered to aid in the search so they could keep going and not wait until morning to continue. The warrant arrived about an hour after he'd called Roger and as soon as the radar technician arrived they started working their way through the cemetery. They finally located a second site to excavate and a short while later they were pulling another wooden box out of the ground.
Logan kept his arm wrapped tightly around Veronica. "They can tell you, you don't need to go and see," he said softly. She let out a deep breath and nodded. They could both tell by the expression on Leo's face and the other deputies, who was in the box. Leo immediately looked at Veronica and gave her a grim look. They couldn't hear what he was saying to the other deputies, but after a few minutes he walked over to where Logan and Veronica were sitting.
"Corina?" she asked in a trembling voice. Leo nodded.
"I'm so sorry Veronica." Leo replied. "We'll do an autopsy of course, but it looks like she may have been strangled and then just buried to dispose of the body. We didn't see any marks inside of the box."
Veronica let out a shaky breath. She wasn't sure that was much better than being buried alive, but at least it may have been a faster way to go. She still couldn't shake the feeling of what it would have been like to wake up in the box, just like she'd woken up in the refrigerator when Aaron had knocked her out.
"Why don't you two go home," Leo said in a concerned tone. "We'll be here for a while and there's not much for you to do."
"Any word from the hospital yet on Troy?" Veronica asked after thinking about his suggestion for a few seconds.
Leo shook his head. "Not yet. They did say he was stable, but still unconscious. I can let you know when I hear that he's awake though."
Logan tightened his arm around Veronica's shoulder. "It's up to you," he said softly. "I'll stay as long as you want to be here."
"What about Liam?" Veronica asked next. "Do you have enough yet to bring him in?"
Leo shook his head but before he could speak, a voice interrupted him. "What is going on here?" An angry priest said as he walked into the cemetery from the Church.
Leo pulled out the search warrant from his coat and thrust it at the man. "We have a warrant to exhume as many graves as necessary."
The man looked over the paper and handed it back to Leo with an angry expression on his face. He glanced toward the box that they had just found Corina in and a troubled look replaced the angry expression.
"Can you tell us who would have access to the graves to be able to put other bodies on top of the caskets of the people who were supposed to be buried there, Father Patrick?" Leo asked with an accusatory tone.
Liam's brother shook his head. "Only the grounds keeper," he answered as he took a closer look around to see what exactly was going on.
"We'll need his name and information," Leo said giving Father Patrick a cold stare.
"I have his information in my office," Father Patrick replied a little less confidently than he originally was.
"I'll send a deputy in with you to get it," Leo said as he gestured for a deputy near him to escort the priest back inside. He grabbed the deputy's arm and whispered something to him before he followed the priest inside.
Veronica shot Leo a worried look. "If he tips Liam off about what we're doing he might try to disappear."
Leo nodded in reply. "I told Deputy Harris to keep an eye on him for a while to by us some time. Hopefully we'll find something, or Troy will wake up and tell us what happened so we can have a case against Liam. I actually think Liam's so confident in getting away with things that he'd probably think he was in the clear. Of course neither priest knows that Troy was still alive so that's our ace in the hole." Veronica nodded in reply. "I really think you and Logan should go. There's nothing really for you to do here." Leo took a deep breath. "It's likely to get even worse if we find more bodies."
Logan tightened his hold a little tighter on her. He felt her take a deep breath. "You'll call as soon as there's any word on Troy?" Veronica asked. Leo nodded in reply. "Okay, we'll go then."
Leo put a hand on her shoulder. "You did great today, Veronica," he said softly with a grim smile.
"Thanks," Veronica replied somberly. "I wish this had a better ending though."
Leo nodded. "Yeah, we all do. But you did save Troy."
Veronica nodded in reply and reached down to take Logan's hand. They said a brief goodbye to Leo and headed back to Logan's car.
"It's almost 9 now. Home or back to Dick and Mac's?" Logan asked as they closed their doors in his car.
Veronica let out a loud sigh. "I never got a chance to talk to Mac about the jewelry case before we left to find Troy."
"Why don't you give her a call and I'll head in that direction," Logan said with an understanding smile.
Mac said that it would be fine for them to come by. Dick had just gone up with Abby to get her to go to sleep and he was still up in the guest room with her.
When they walked into Dick and Mac's, she gave Veronica a warm smile and pulled her in for a hug. Mac could tell by the expression on her face that things had not gone very well. They hadn't talked with her again after Logan's first call about what was going on at the cemetery, so she hadn't heard the news about Corina yet, but given Veronica's demeaner, it was easy to guess. "I warmed up some of the food again for you both. Why don't we go sit in the kitchen and you can have some dinner." Mac said as she wrapped her arm around Veronica and led her into the kitchen. Logan followed silently behind them.
Veronica poked at the plate of food in front of her as they sat at the kitchen counter. Mac had poured her a glass of wine too, hoping that might help relax her a bit. Logan noticed she wasn't eating much and leaned in and kissed her forehead. "You should try to eat a little Veronica." He brushed some hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "Did you have lunch earlier?"
She gave him an appreciative smile. "Yeah, I had a sandwich for lunch."
"Okay," he said a little reluctantly. "I still wish you'd eat a little now though. It's really good." Mac gave him a small smile and nodded.
Veronica decided she'd try to make him happy and took a bite of the ravioli that Mac had made. Logan smiled and gave her another kiss on the forehead.
"So any luck on the jewelry case?" Veronica asked, wanting to focus on something other than the cemetery for the moment.
Mac smiled a bit more and nodded. "Yeah, sort of. At least I was able to tell that she hasn't called him yet. I was able to set it up so I'll be able to record them when they do talk. I also monitored her phone and messaging apps and saw that she sent a quick message to him that she was grounded and couldn't make their Skype date. Her parent's must have allowed her to just send him a quick note so he knew that at least. She didn't go into any details about why she was grounded though and he wrote back asking what happened and she hasn't responded yet."
"Well that's good news that we didn't miss it yet," Veronica said in agreement. Mac nodded in reply.
"Is there anything else I can help with tonight?" Mac asked a little hesitantly.
Veronica looked down at her plate and shook her head. "Thanks Mac, but… I don't think so." Logan reached over and squeezed her shoulder again.
"Should we head home then, if Abby's already asleep?" He asked in a gentle tone. Veronica gave him a small smile and nodded. He glanced toward the stairs. "I bet Dick fell asleep with her too."
Mac smiled slightly and nodded. "Yeah, he's notorious for doing that with Elijah too." Mac's expression changed and she took a deep breath, not wanting to cause Veronica any more distress, but also wondering what had happened at the cemetery. "Any more news on Troy? Logan had said they were taking him to the hospital when we spoke."
Veronica shrugged. "They said he was stable but still unconscious when we left the cemetery."
"I'm so glad you could get to him before it was too late," Mac said somberly. Veronica nodded in response, but didn't say anymore. She really didn't feel like talking about Corina.
They thanked Mac for dinner and headed out front. Both of their cars were still there since they'd arrived separately. "Why don't you just ride home with me and I'll bring you back in the morning since I'll need to come back for Abby." Logan said as he wrapped his arm around her. She let out a deep sigh and nodded. Veronica didn't say much more on the way home, and kept looking at her phone. She was hoping they'd hear something from Leo about Troy regaining consciousness.
Logan parked in the garage and then gave her a gentle kiss after she climbed out of the car. "Can I get you anything before we go to bed?" Logan asked her as they walked into the house. Veronica shook her head. "I could make you some Mac and Cheese. I made some for Abby for lunch today." He offered in a lighthearted voice. Veronica quirked an eyebrow at him and gave him a small smile.
"Did you eat it too?" she asked with a tone of disbelief.
He laughed and shook his head. "No, I had left over Thai. But if you'd like some, I'll make it for you."
She leaned up and gave him a small kiss. "I appreciate the offer, but I really don't think I could eat anything."
The small smile that was on his face quickly turned into a frown and he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry Veronica," he said softly before kissing her on the top of her head. She nodded and wrapped her arms around him.
They slowly made their way up to their bedroom and got ready to go to sleep. They changed clothes and climbed into bed. "Do you want to talk?" Logan asked as she cuddled up next to him.
She let out a deep sigh and shrugged. "I don't really know what to say," she said softly.
"I am sorry that the missing girl was dead, Veronica." Logan said quietly as he ran his hand up and down her arm.
She nodded slowly. "I sort of expected that given how long she'd been missing and the worry that Liam was involved."
Logan let out a deep breath. He knew it was the buried alive part that was probably bothering her the most then. At his father's trial they covered what had happened the night that Aaron attacked Veronica and locked her in the refrigerator but they'd never actually discussed it themselves. She'd made some quip when she'd gone to get her new car after graduation about definitely not wanting something with a trunk. That was the closest they'd ever gotten to even alluding to it.
"Please let me know if I can do anything," Logan said as he gently rubbed her back. "We never talked about what happened to you before… not really… I'm sure that had to have been terrifying and tonight had to have brought all that back up again." He felt her nod slowly against him again. "I'm so sorry he did that to you."
She took a deep shaky breath. "He did terrible things to you too," Veronica said quietly.
"Well just know I'm here for you Veronica," Logan said and kissed her tenderly on the top of the head. "Anything at all I can do, just tell me."
"Just hold me," Veronica said softly against his chest. He nodded and held her a little tighter.
They'd been laying in bed for at least thirty minutes, and Logan didn't think she'd fallen asleep yet. He was still rubbing small soothing circles on her back and every few minutes he'd feel her shift slightly and run her fingers lightly over his chest. They both jerked when a cell phone went off, breaking through the silence in the room. Logan realized after a few seconds that it was his phone instead of hers. They'd been expecting to hear from Leo if Troy woke up, so he initially expected it to be hers. Veronica slid off of Logan so he could scoot over and reach his phone that was on a side table by the bed.
"It's the hospital," Logan said in a slightly concerned tone after looking at the caller ID before answering it. "Hello?"
"Logan?" It was easy for both them to tell it was Alexis's voice on the phone.
"Yeah, is everything okay?" Logan asked as he gave Veronica a concerned look.
"Yeah... No... I don't know..." She let out a weary sigh. "I couldn't sleep and I felt so horrible about earlier... I know you'd never hurt me... Not like that..."
Logan let out a frustrated sigh. 'Not like that'... I wasn't the one that cheated and destroyed our relationship. Has she still not remembered that yet?
"I'm really sorry Logan..." she said in a broken voice.
Logan took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. He cautiously looked at Veronica who was watching him carefully.
"It's okay. I'm sure waking up like that was very confusing. Just try to get some sleep so you can keep getting better."
He could hear her take a shaky breath that sounded a bit like a sob. "The horrible thing about slowly getting your memories back is remembering all the terrible decisions I've made all over again." She let out a loud sob. "I'm so sorry Logan... I wish I could go back and change things..."
Logan was sure Veronica could hear what Alexis was saying given she was sitting right next to him. He glanced over at her again and she gave him a conflicted look. She shook her head slightly and then started to move as if she was going to get out of bed. He wasn't sure where she was trying to go or exactly why she was getting up, but didn't think it was likely good. He reached over and firmly grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She stopped and looked down at their hands.
Logan took another deep breath and looked at Veronica, who was still just staring at their hands. "That was years ago, Lexi. We worked through all of that and moved on. We're friends now though, but that's all we'll ever be. You may not remember but I'm in a relationship now with someone who I love very much and plan to spend the rest of my life with her."
Veronica finally tipped her face up to give him a tender smile. There were a few tears that had rolled down her cheek and he reached up and brushed them away.
He heard Alexis sob again. "Nessa tried to tell me... I just..." She took a deep breath before she continued. "I just hoped she was wrong... I'm sorry for calling so late..." He heard her take another shaky breath and then the line clicked off.
Logan set his phone on the bed and reached over to pull Veronica closer to him. He tangled his fingers into her hair and gently rubbed her head. "I only love you," he said as he nuzzled his face against the side of her head.
She let out a deep breath. "I love you too..." She swallowed a lump in her throat before she continued. "And I want that too..."
He leaned back so he could look in her eyes. He knew what she meant, even if she still wasn't completely ready to say it. "And we will," he replied softly as if she'd actually completed the sentence. She gave him a loving smile and nodded in agreement.