"I want you to stop… whatever it is you are doing… you have to stop now Eli" Daisy declared as she got out of the van outside her house. Her cover shift had ended about twenty minutes ago and so far Mac had been able to confirm that the hard drive Keith Mars had recovered from his break in at Kendall Casablancas' house under her real name contained several records of public law officials and prominent 09ers who had frequented the club and made the unfortunate decision to ask for some of the more luxury items on the options menu and been recorded indulging.
It could take hours to find the relevant files for Dr Tom Griffiths, but her dad assured her that they were on the right track. Financial records from his credit card statements proved that over the last several months since his separation from his wife, that he had made several purchases totalling several thousand dollars in The Rusty Knot, and several hundred regular smaller deposits to Cupids Bow… the Beauty parlour owned by the Fitzpatrick's.
"I know you are worried but I have to keep doing this… for Felix" he told her firmly.
"Mierda, me preocupo por ti. Estoy asustado. Eres un niño obstinado" she swore.
"I won't end up like Gustavio… don't you think you taught me better than that?" he reasoned, referring to his predecessor The Reaper who had been killed. They never found his body.
"I have no idea what is going on" Wallace whispered to Veronica as he watched the exchange between them, as they stood outside the small student accommodation that Daisy shared with her roommates.
"She's scared him helping us go up against the Fitzpatrick's is going to get him hurt" Veronica translated, seeing how upset that Daisy had become at the thought of her young friend getting caught up further in this investigation made her feel guilty. Glancing at the clamps on the green Cadillac Eldorado 1978 parked in the driveway Veronica reached into her bag to find her keys.
"I thought I did… but I also thought I'd taught Felix and look what happened to him" she sobbed. Daisy had dated Gustavio for almost three years when they were in high school, she had stayed close to the Toomes family even after his disappearance and losing his younger brother had hit her very hard. Weevil pulled her into a fierce hug and promised her that he wouldn't do anything stupid, but that it was important because the real killer was someone in the PCH biker club, and he needed proof before he could set things right.
"Fine… but you won't be going to get that recorder from St Marys… I will. From now on you all have to be smarter" she said, casting a pointed glance in Veronica's direction. "I warned you to stay away from Pricilla Banks, that bitch was bad news" Daisy sniffed before she turned and walked towards her front porch.
"I could take that off if you want?" Veronica offered, pointing at the clamp, a smile tugged at one side of Daisy's mouth.
"Maybe after Weevil gets me that alternator and control arm he told me he'd get" she smiled, as she shot him a look.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is find the right parts for this heap of junk?" Weevil laughed.
"It's a classic!" Daisy said defensively.
"No one has bought one of those since 1999" he countered.
"Okay, well as fascinating as all this automobile education is, my feet are killing me and I really just want to curl up and sleep" Daisy replied wearily. "This better not be the last time I see you hombre joven"
"Como si pudiera permanecer lejos" he smiled back as she went into the house. "Now what?" he said, turning his big brown eyes back to his petite blond companion.
"I told my Mom's I was staying with your dad tonight… I didn't tell her anything else, I'm not exactly sure how she would handle all this Sherlock shit we have had going down tonight" Wallace sighed.
"Well Mac's gone home, she's going to work through the footage tonight and call us tomorrow" Veronica said, she was exhausted; they'd been dodging the Sheriff's department most of the night.
Where does one hide in Neptune when you were hiding out from the law?
"They are probably watching your house" Weevil warned.
"Yeah, I considered that… I just don't know where to go" she sighed. She considered calling Duncan, but he had enough on his plate right now, Dick and Beaver were staying with him because their house was a crime scene right now. That gave her an idea.
"When your grandma stopped working for the Echolls last year, she got a job working with Sunshine Cleaning Services right?" she questioned.
"Yeah" Weevil confirmed, folding his arms.
"So… your cousin Julieta is about my size right? She works there too?" Veronica asked and he nodded slowly. She had met her briefly during the barbeque she had been invited to after she'd gotten Diego Vazquez off those bribing charges.
"What are you plotting now?" Wallace sighed, pressing his head against the steering wheel. She'd been involved with Logan for less than a week and he'd been accused of 2 murders, there were four bodies in the last two days and she was on the run from the Sheriff's department. What was it going to take to shake some sense into this girl?
"They do crime scene clean up too" she told him as she climbed into the back of the van, and Weevil climbed into the front. Sunshine Cleaning Services was the go to company for Neptune's elite for all things requiring discretion. Dick and Cassidy's mother would most likely be calling them as soon as she lands tomorrow.
"And you plan on going undercover?" Weevil said raising an eyebrow.
"Unless you really want to go to school tomorrow" Veronica replied, she could fake an invoice using the one that they had given her earlier today when they had cleaned the Echolls estate. Kendall had lived in that house… that alone required further exploration, her inner detective practically demanded it.
"We still have to prove that Thumper killed Havier or getting rid of the fake statement for the Felix case won't matter" Wallace reminded them as he started up the van.
"I'll beat the confession out of him if I have to" Weevil growled.
"There's still a real witness… if I could get access to the 911 call.. I could… there has to be a way to find them" Veronica told them.
"Pull in at the Camelott and wait for me" Weevil told instructed as he climbed out of the car.
"What are we doing now?" Wallace asked, looking over his shoulder at Veronica.
"I don't know.. I can't go home.. and they probably have someone at your house too" she replied.
"Fugitives… and to think my mom thought you'd be a bad influence" he breathed, shaking his head.
"Can't corrupt the willing Sodapop" she smiled weakly.
"You're my best friend Veronica. I just want you to be safe" he said as he grabbed her hand.
"I'm really worried I'm over my head this time" she admitted, her eyes were starting to wet with unshed tears. She knew the nightmares were close tonight, the one's she had about being in that box, the smell of gasoline and the fire. Aaron's voice, it's almost like she could feel him laughing at her attempts to connect the dots.
"With you and Daddy Mars on the case?" he soothed, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "They don't stand a chance… besides, you got help…" Wallace told her as he nodded in Weevil's direction as he walked across the parking lot. "You got all the help I can stand."
"I know he's not your favourite person…" she acknowledged. Not that she could blame him, being tied up naked to a flag pole by a biker gang wasn't an easy thing to forget.
"No.. he's prince charming" Wallace said dryly.
"You girls picking out Prom dresses?" Weevil said as he opened the door and handed two small discs to Veronica. "Your alibi"
"Well, part of it. I still have to get those Romstrad security tapes from Cliff" Veronica added.
"There's an ecology research station has cameras positioned up around the outside on the cliff side of the Echolls estate" Weevil told her.
"How do you know that exactly?" Wallace asked.
"My uncle's brother-in-law is a tree trimmer… they have some kind of Condor's nesting up there. The feed goes up to some research lab up near Neptune Veterinary College" he said, his brown eyes barely meeting Veronica's gaze. He'd known that because he'd been planning to avoid those camera's or disable them for future use. He'd been planning to hurt Logan and the guilt he was feeling was obvious.
"I'll pass it that on" she nodded. "If the cameras in the right place then it could fill in the hours between midnight and 2 am. There'd be no way they could accuse either of us of being out of that house during the time that Havier was killed"
"It looks directly onto the cliff side, and there's a view into the Echolls backyard, around the pool" Weevil told her.
"So you can see into the kitchen?" she asked.
Great… footage of me and Logan having sex right there on the counter…
"Are we getting a room here.. or what are we doing? I am about ready to curl up in the back of this car" Wallace yawned.
"I know a place" Weevil told him. "It's where my boys lie low sometimes when we need to stay off the grid." Holding up a bag of take-out and handing a small coffee to Veronica.
Sharks rule! Pitching looking good for next season.
Veronica used the disposable cell she kept in her bag to send her dad a coded message to let him know she was okay and that they were chasing down some new leads, to get Cliff to call her in the morning.
"Whatever we do, we gotta do it fast… Logan's got one more day before he's transferred up to county" she said quietly as Wallace gunned the engine into life. They settled into the small garage in the nearby boat house on the docks, Weevil and Wallace had taken the fold out couch in the office while she sat away on the small cot, unable to sleep. She listened to her headphones while she IM'd with Mac before she went to sleep Au/Pa – Panic room was playing quietly in the background. She reviewed the information on Thumpers social media accounts, she started compiling a list of businesses near the spot where the shooting took place.
Definitely worthy of a more detailed investigation… he wouldn't get away with this…
Feeling more in control than she had all day, she tried her best to switch off the doubts, to capture a predator she couldn't remain the prey. She'd get her way into the Casablancas house right under Lambs nose… get hold of anything Kendall had on the Fitzpatrick's. Con woman like that with a safe house, wouldn't get involved without having one foot out the door and a hand on a go bag. Self-serving harpy had to have something on them to protect herself.
Protect herself… What did Thumper have to protect himself? He was just a slimy and duplicitous as Kendall… no way he would kill Havier unless he was sure he was close to taking over the PCHers.. did he have something on Weevil?
The earring… Weevil had told her that he had beaten Curly Moran for a confession on blowing up the bus the night that he died outside he Road Hog.
There were so many threads to this web, and she couldn't be everywhere at once, and none of the information they had found explained why the computer systems had went down, or how someone had faked the ankle monitor data. Desperate, Veronica picked up her phone and dialled someone she never thought she'd speak to again.
"Clarence Weidman's Office" Sandy answered.