Fic: Summer (18/23) (Veronica/Logan) R
Oh holy heck, kids. I had a MAJOR mistake in my timeline in my last post. Please go back to chapter 17 and re-read the part about Keith finding Mr. Switzer. I had them whisking the man away in May, long before the mansion was ever set on fire. My apologies...it's been fixed now. How come no one else caught that? Where you all just trying to be nice?
Anyway, here's the next chapter...hope you like it...I like to think I've got the suspense thing goin on...let me know if you think I do too.
Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas does and very soon The CW will be claiming it all for itself.
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Chap 18 - Trouble
Veronica was working on trying to figure out what the FBI Forensics Specialist Darin Shoulder needed with $2 million dollars. Her father had originally found a payment from Pricilla Banks’ account to Shoulder’s brother-in-law’s account for $500,000 dollars. Upon further investigation Veronica had found that Shoulder’s sister’s daughter had received $500,000 dollars from an education fund in Gia Goodman’s name, that Shoulder’s mother, under her maiden name, had received $500,000 dollars from Aaron Echolls’ publicists and finally, Shoulder’s best friend had received an award for information from a faulty organization set up by one Brady O’Conner for the same amount. All total, everyone paid someone that Shoulder knew $2 million dollars. That was some serious cash. What could a FBI agent need that much money for?
Veronica was systematically taking the guys life apart, running down all his purchases, just trying to figure out all of his habits. It was a hard task; only with the help of Mac was she even able to get into his personal bank accounts and records. Mac had to hack a back way into a less secured area of the FBI just to garner the very small amount of info.
Logan and Keith had left earlier in the day for St. John’s, Veronica was hoping that they would have better luck than her. Knowing that they were still in the air, Veronica was surprised when her phone chirped near by. Grabbing the phone she saw that there was one voice message. Pulling the phone open she dialed the voice mail number and listened to the message.
“Keith, I know that you said you would be unreachable for the next couple of days, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible that the guy you had me watching, Darin Shoulder, was found dead about 45 minutes ago in a public bathroom in a coffee joint that he goes to daily. I didn’t see anyone unusual, but I was out front waiting for him to come out with his normal cup of joe. Sorry Keith, I didn’t even know anything was wrong until the cops started showing up. Let me know if I can be of any further help.”
Veronica was stunned. Her father’s friend Paul had been tailing Shoulder in Los Angles for the last couple of days and now somehow he ended up murdered? This wasn’t a good sign at all. What if all their prying had been detected, would the whole investigation be blown?
Veronica frantically went to the lj page and reviewed the people that had been to the site, nothing out of order there. Then checking her email, the way Mac had showed her, she found that someone had hacked into her email account about 16 hours earlier. While she had been good about deleting emails after getting them she knew that her trash didn’t always dump right away. The fact that she had deleted a message from Mac that contained wire taps on Aaron Echolls phone, Veronica was beginning to get nervous that somehow they had been found out.
Picking up her phone she entered a secure code to scramble the radio waves and called Mac.
“Mac, I think we’ve got a problem,” Veronica said after the girl picked up.
“Veronica, what are you doing calling me?” Mac questioned quietly.
“Someone hacked my email account in the last 16 hours. I deleted the email from the Echolls tap but it might not have been out of my trash box,” Veronica explained in a rush. “Now the FBI agent dad was keeping tabs of is dead.”
Mac’s end of the line was silent except for the quick intake of breath that could be heard, “Oh, God Veronica, this isn’t good at all,” she finally whispered.
“Yeah. Listen I need you to do me a favor and put the wire tap lines onto a site that gives them to me in real time. I’m going to start monitoring them and see if anyone figures out that we’ve got taps in place,” Veronica stated.
“Sure, I’ve actually got a site like that already; I’ll send the ip address to you on the lj site and then send the password by phone. We won’t be able to listen to it at the same time since the sites security is built to allow one person on it at a time, but at least you’ll be able to hear real time conversations,” Mac explained.
Veronica thanked the young computer genius and let her know that she would be in touch when she figured anything out. Veronica knew that her father must have forwarded his voice mail to her number, so she called his line and left another message, after Paul’s, letting her dad know what she was doing with the taps and that she would keep him informed. She also requested that the two guys check in by text messages if at all possible hourly so that she knew that they were safe.
After receiving the address from Mac, Veronica logged on to the websites with the taps. She quickly went to Kendall’s taps to see if she could hear anything. The only thing she could determine that Kendall was doing currently was shopping at some very expensive stores. Deciding that the woman would continue to shop for a while, Veronica switched to Aaron Echolls’ tap. At first it seemed that he must be in the car since she could hear some muted music. Determined to keep an eye on everything, Veronica unplugged her headphones and continued to listen to the Echolls feed while she moved about pacing the bedroom.
After about two hours of constant muted music, raking through all of the pieces of the puzzle in her mind and deciding she would just have to tear her hair out in frustration she received a text message via phone from her father.
Made it safe. Got yur mess. Will ck in hrly. Don’t do anythg stpd!
Veronica chuckled at her father’s stern voice in her head. When had she ever done anything stupid?
Suddenly she heard a car door slam and was drawn back to her computer. She plugged the earphones back in and pushed the volume up so that she could hear as much as possible.
It sounded like he was walking on wood or something, Veronica thought.
“Mr. Echolls, so good of you to finally join us,” came Liam Fitzpatrick’s distinct drawl.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a request, now was it?” Aaron’s voice sounded closer.
“No, it wasn’t, we do have some business to discuss,” Liam stated, “but first I want to know if you’ve figured out where that brat of yours has been hiding.”
“Yeah, I finally got some information out of a mutual ‘friend’,” Aaron said, “it seems that the fruit of my loins has bought his own home. After a little more inquiry I found out that it has the state-of-the-art security system and no way to gain any access.”
“Well, that doesn’t bode well for you at all Daddy-dearest,” Liam said.
“What does that mean?” Aaron questioned.
“Simple, we needed to get the boy and that Mar’s girl because they’re getting too much information. It doesn’t bode well for you because we no longer need your help, we were going to use you to get to them, but since you can’t get close enough, I don’t think you are needed any longer,” Liam said as if he were speaking to a young child.
“What…what are you doing,” Aaron’s voice was laced with fear.
“Simple Aaron, I’m eliminating you from play. You’ve cause enough exposure to our organization. You think you would have learned to keep it in your pants after we started blackmailing you, but no, big-shot Hollywood star has to take up with his son’s girlfriend and video tape it. Its men like you that give men a bad reputation; I’m just taking advantage of it. Seriously, did you really think we would keep you around after all that we’ve had to do to keep you out of jail and talking to people in authority? You were dead the minute the ‘not-guilty’ verdict was read Echolls, you just didn’t know it,” Liam said with a calm intensity.
“You can’t kill me, what about all the money I bring you from the Hollywood scene. That’s millions a year, it would be a huge financial loss,” Aaron begged.
“Oh don’t worry about that Echolls, you’ve given us more than enough customers that are loyal to us, we can just flip them as dealers. Your expertise is really no longer needed or wanted,” Liam finished.
Veronica could hear a rustle of movement, just as she leaned closer to the computer, almost thinking that she should be able to see a picture, a sharp crack echoed through the earphones. Veronica jerked back from the computer, covering her mouth with her hand as a gasp escaped her mouth. Liam had obviously shot Aaron.
“That does it boys, take him out in the boat and dump the body. It will be a few days before anyone starts missing this Hollywood Heartthrob,” Liam’s voice flooded through the earphones.
“Hey Liam, I don’t think he’s dead yet,” came another voice.
“That’s okay; he won’t be able to swim four miles back to shore losing that amount of blood. Anyway, maybe the blood will attract sharks or something,” Liam responded to the voice.
Veronica had heard enough. Realizing that they were at the marina or docks, she pulled her bag off from the couch and set about finding the keys to the La Baron while making a couple copies of the tap. She wasn’t going to let Lilly’s killer drowned unpunished in the public’s eye. No, she was going go find his ass and haul him to a hospital. Maybe she would be able to broker a confession out of him at the same time.
**************
Once landing on Tortola, the guys chartered a quick boat to St. John’s. Since the island was mostly made up of National Parks, it was very hard to go un-noticed. There were several tourist locations, but most of the tourists stayed near Great Cruz Bay. Woody Goodman’s vacation villa was located in Fish Bay, southeast of Cruz Bay. Of course the guys were landing on the northeast side of the island so they would have to rent a jeep to take them over the entire island to Fish Bay. Once there, they hoped that they would take Marc Switzer by surprise.
After receiving Veronica and Paul’s voice messages, Keith was hoping that they wouldn’t be walking into a murder scene.
After the half-day trek across the island, on very bumpy roads, Logan Echolls was ready to find the suspect and get out of paradise. He missed his Mighty Mite and his own paradise that was waiting for him at home.
Grabbing the roll bar again, so he didn’t eject out of the seat like a jack-in-the-box, Logan let out a long sigh when he saw 5929 Fish Bay Road on the mailbox coming into view on the left side of the road. He pried his hand off of the seat it was clutching and pointed to Keith over the roar of the engine.
While the loud noises the jeep was making was sure to inform anyone of their presence they both had agreed earlier that they would drive past the house and park about a ¼ of a mile from the entrance and double back. Following this plan, Keith soared by the turn off and kept steady to the road. After what he felt was enough time he pulled the jeep to the side of the road and popped the hood.
The plan was that they would have the hood popped with the spark plugs disconnected; it would look to anyone passing by that someone had had car trouble and had left the car in search of help.
“Remember, Logan, I want you stay within my eyesight at all times,” Keith cautioned, drawing his gun.
Logan gulped at the sight of the gun, remembering what he had done with Veronica the evening before, glad that Keith didn’t know where his thoughts had strayed. Nodding his head in acknowledgement, Logan fell into step behind Keith as they began making their way through the forest back to the turn off. They were cutting through the forest to try and make up distance and heading on a hopeful course to intersect with the turnoff.
Finally they hit the road and continued down it towards the large white house that was practically built into the side of the hill, the light blue roof virtually blending in with the view of the bay that was seen beyond.
“Not a bad place to spend some time,” Keith mumbled.
Seeing some movement from a window in the upstairs, Keith motioned Logan to squat down next to him so they could observe and see if there was anyone else within the vicinity. Quickly texting a message that they were okay and approaching the house that the perp was in, Keith looked at Logan to assess his demeanor. Seeing the boy primed to go, but not with any crazy look in his eye, Keith determined that they could approach.
“Remember our story Logan, we had car trouble and needed to use the phone. We want to make sure that there is no one else in the house before we give up who we are,” Keith said in low tones, “and remember to keep that hat on your head, it won’t make you easily recognizable.”
Logan nodded his head once to acknowledge Keith’s words, his eyes focused down the driveway trying to see through the window into the home.
Standing up, Keith slipped his gun into the small of his back and began striding towards the side door. Logan quickly followed.
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Speeding down the PCH, Veronica was going through the three different marinas’ that were located within driving distance of Neptune. Although Aaron had drove for quite a while, it seemed that Liam’s comment about finally arriving indicated that Aaron may have simply been taking his time, annoyed with being summoned by the Fitzpatrick’s.
Deciding on trying the marina closest to the docks, since she knew that the Fitzpatrick’s did jobs out of there, she turned the car off on exit 85. While winding down the exit ramp, she felt her phone vibrate, noticing that Wallace was calling, Veronica decided to let the call go to voicemail. She didn’t want to inform her best friend right now what kind of mischief she was getting into, knowing that he would insist on meeting her. While Veronica was sure that she could go undiscovered, she didn’t want to risk anyone else important to her.
Just as she was starting towards the marina she noticed a dark blue sedan that was three cars behind her make the same turn. She had been watching the car the last 10 miles, it seems to always stay three cars behind her and turn when she did. Deciding she wanted to find out if anyone was following her, she sped up a bit and pulled into an alleyway. Stopping quickly, she expected to see the car go right on by; instead it pulled in behind her.
Veronica looked in the rear view mirror and let a small smile creep up her face. Boy was she glad to see who was behind the wheel.
*************
Keith stopped at the door, checking quickly behind them up the driveway and once to the left and right, he decided that no one was hiding in the foliage waiting to take shots at him or Logan.
Raising his hand he knocked twice on the screen door. From inside he could hear the low tunes of a slow reggae beat coming from within. He glanced at Logan from the corner of his eyes and saw the young man pull the hat low on his forehead. Not hearing anyone call out or any movement within the villa, Keith called out, “Hello, anyone home?”
Hearing a chair scrap on the top deck, Keith turned his head toward the noise and saw a man in his thirties hang around the corner, checking them both out. Taking the initiative, Keith held up his hand in a friendly wave, “Hi there, sorry to bother you but we were hoping to use your phone. We’ve had a problem with the jeep we rented up on the main road,” Keith said in his friendliest awe-shucks tone.
The blonde man smiled tightly before holding up his hand, “Just one minute,” he called back.
Keith and Logan watched the man disappear from view and listened as a sliding door was opened from within the villa. A few moments later the man was unhooking the screen door the duo was standing in front of and sticking his hand out to shake to Keith.
“Wow, I can’t tell you how lucky we are that you were home,” Keith said in his tone from earlier, “My son and I are exploring the National Park and my wife will be so worried if we don’t make it back to the hotel in time for dinner like we promised.”
The man glanced briefly at Logan but didn’t appear to really consider him a threat since he was labeled the ‘son’. “Sure, glad to help someone out,” the man said.
“Oh, I’m Mike McGrath and this is my son, Jeff,” Keith said taking the man’s hand in a firm shake.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Marc Schwitzer,” the man said. Obviously he kept a similar name with a small change; this was going to be easier than Keith thought.
Marc led the duo into the villa and pointed Keith towards the phone by the kitchen counter. Keith headed towards the phone, taking note that down the hallway all the doors where open and no movement seemed to be coming from within the rooms.
Marc looked at the teen in front of him, he seemed a little sullen. Logan, noticing the man looking closer at him, turned towards the view off the balcony and said, “Awesome view man, you can’t get any better than that.”
Looking away from Logan towards the magnificent view, Marc couldn’t help but agree, “Yeah, it is great, very quite too, and at night it seems like you can see forever with the night sky on display for endless miles.”
Logan moved towards the open door, “Do you mind if I check it out while my Dad makes the call? We just got here last night and I haven’t even been able to hit the beach yet. Dad was determined to get up into the park today for a hike,” Logan said, trying to interject just enough teen angst. He really was his father’s son.
“Sure,” Marc replied, gesturing for Logan to head out to the deck.
Logan stepped out onto the deck and took in the seriously beautiful view. He really wasn’t lying when he said it was great. Looking down the side of the hill towards the bay he noticed that the house had another deck on the bottom floor and that housed a hot tub.
“Wow, you’ve got a hot tub too. Bet your wife loves that, my mom would,” Logan said over his shoulder to the man as he stepped to join Logan on the deck.
“I wish, kid, I’m here by myself. Maybe someday I’ll have someone to enjoy it with me,” Marc said.
Keith hearing Marc’s statement trusted that he really was alone in the house, decided to come clean with who they were and why they were here.
*****************
Veronica stepped out of her car and gave a casual wave to the person in the car behind her.
“How did you find me?” she questioned him.
“I’ve had some men posted outside Echolls’ place for a couple of days. When they saw your car leave they had instructions to follow and inform me. Once I caught up with them I told them to pull off,” Clarence Weidman informed the small blonde girl.
“How did you know to follow me now?” Veronica questioned.
“I have been keeping tabs on you, Ms. Mars, and your father. I know he flew out of Neptune early this morning with one Logan Echolls. I thought that since they were out of town you would have enough sense to stay put, but I can see that I was wrong,” he said.
“Oh, well…yeah I was suppose to stay at the house, but then I heard something on one of my taps that required my immediate attention,” she said slowly while thinking about what she was gearing up to ask him. “In fact, you might be of some help, if you’re willing,” she added hastily when he raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner.
“You know I’ve instructions to help you with whatever you might need Ms. Mars; so why don’t we cut to the chase,” Weidman replied, ever the one get to the point.
“Yeah…okay. I heard Aaron Echolls get shot earlier today by Liam Fitzpatrick. They were probably at the docks or at the marina,” Veronica said in a rushed manner.
“Are you sure,” he questioned, not showing any surprise at her statement.
“Positive, even have it on recording,” Veronica replied. “I was just on my way to the marina to see if I could spot Aaron’s car. They were going to dump him out in the ocean, but I heard one of the goons say he wasn’t dead. I was hoping to get to him before he did die. I don’t plan on Lily’s killer getting away by simply getting killed, I want him to sit in jail and rot while he thinks of what he did. This is just too easy of a way out for him. He needs to suffer,” Veronica said with such vengeance of being a best friend once.
Clarence looked into the stormy blue-green eyes, seeing an array of emotions swimming in their depths. He couldn’t help but wonder how someone so young could already have to deal with the sadness that usually came later in life.
“Well it just so happens that I can help make your search a little easier,” Clarence said to Veronica.
“How’s that?”
“I’ve had a tracker on Echolls’ car since he was released from jail. Let me make a couple of phone calls and we’ll find out where his car is and get a boat so we can try and find him,” Clarence answered.
Veronica was indeed glad that she had run into the Head of Security for Kane Software.
******************
Keith stepped out onto the deck where Logan and Marc were, turning he slid the glass door shut behind him.
Marc, seeing ‘Mike’ behind turned from ‘Jeff’ and nodded his head towards the kitchen, “Any luck in them getting out here soon for you?” he questioned.
“Naw, but that’s okay,” Keith replied, “there isn’t anything really wrong with the car. Sometimes you just want to put the moves on the insurance guys that are your coverage, know what I mean?” Keith questioned.
Marc glanced at the two men, starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the tight space that they were all occupying, “yeah, I guess,” he said a little unsteadily. He went to move around Keith, since he was still blocking the door, but Keith held his hands up to stop him.
“Listen, Mr. Switzer, we know who you are and probably a little why you are here. We aren’t here to hurt you; we only want you to tell the truth,” Keith said calmly, looking Marc directly in the eyes.
“What to you mean?” Marc was very agitated by the time he spoke.
“My name isn’t really Mike and this isn’t my son Jeff. In fact,” here Keith nodded to Logan for him to remove his baseball cap, “this is Logan Echolls.” Keith let the sentence hang in the air as Marc Switzer’s eyes grew comically large like dollar sign symbols. Marc’s breath caught in his throat as he started at Logan, there was no question that he recognized the young man standing before him.
“I didn’t do anything,” Marc said quickly, glancing around for an escape route, “all I did was accept the invitation to disappear after the first of the year.”
“But you’ve been following the case, haven’t you,” Logan asked passionately, “you know that you could have been a key witness that could have proven that my father’s Oscar had been in our house a long time after Lily’s murder, right?”
“Look kid, I’m would have thought you of all people would have been happy to see your dad get off,” Marc said.
“Ha!” Logan faked laughed at the statement, “Be happy about a man that beats me, sleeps with my girlfriend and then kills her, getting out of trouble scott free? No, I don’t think so, man,” Logan spat the last words out.
Marc looked at the young man in shock. He had been sure that the people that had asked him to disappear for a while were working for Aaron Echolls, that he had been helping the last parental figure in a family stay with his kids. How wrong he was; the kid he thought he was helping was standing in front of him calling him on his deceitfulness. How could this get any worse?
“Listen, kid, I’m sorry,” Marc started, “I only thought I was helping…” Really what more explanation could he give the kid; he had known from the moment he had been approached that nothing good would come out of this, why had he ever gotten involved. “What can I do to help,” Marc finally asked.
Just then Keith saw some movement out of the corner of his eye; someone was coming down the driveway. He turned and saw that it wasn’t just someone, but a group of guys that were not dressed as tourists. They all had heavy leather jackets on that would only be worn to conceal weapons.
Turning quickly to the two men in front of them, he said, “Come with us Marc, otherwise I can’t guarantee your safety. There was another person that could have put Echolls back in jail and he ended up dead this morning in Los Angles, now you’ve got a group of men coming down your driveway with a bunch of leather jackets on; I don’t think they’re here for any type of help.”
Marc looked through the window and saw that Keith was right, “What are we gonna do?” he asked in a panic.
“Well, were not gonna panic,” Logan said firmly. He turned his head towards Keith, “how do you wanna handle this?”
Keith quickly looked around his surroundings, seeing a trail that lead down to the beach from the lower deck he quickly asked Marc where it lead. After Marc told him the beach, Keith asked about a boat that Marc might have down there for fishing.
“Sure, but it’s just a small boat with a motor,” Marc replied.
“It’ll do,” Keith said. He looked over the side of the railing and determined that it wasn’t too far of a drop, looking to Logan and Marc he directed them, “jump down to the lower deck and start making your way down to the boat, I’ll be right behind you. No, no arguments Logan… just go,” Keith said after seeing Logan open his mouth to argue that Keith should come with them directly.
Logan vaulted over the deck to the lower one and felt Marc land next to him. They quickly got into the trees surrounding the trail down to the beach, following it. After a few moments, they heard Keith start into the brush as well, it seemed to Logan that it was only half a second later that they felt the blast from the house they had just departed exploding in a ball of fire.
Logan didn’t even want to turn and look at what Keith must have done.
***************
After Clarence made a few phone calls, Veronica conceded to ride in his car; her’s would have been too noticeable anyway. Veronica guess of the marina had been a little off, according to Clarence’s information Aaron’s car was at a small private beach that one needed to have a pass code to get into. Luckily, Clarence had the pass code since the Kane’s had once used it for a private party. The information that Veronica thought the most interesting was that the beach was owned by Woody Goodman. She couldn’t help but think that he had become involved in another question that needed answering.
Knowing that the Fitzpatricks might still be at the beach, Clarence decided to go to the marina and pick up one of the speedboats that the Kane’s kept, they would begin their search at sea, rather than on land. He never liked the odds when there were more men then him and one kid, cum detective, that he knew wouldn’t be able to hold her own with that gang.
Once out to sea, Clarence charted a 10 mile radius that was from the Goodman beach, they would begin their search in those miles. He wasn’t sure that they would even find the Echolls bastard, but he was instructed to help Ms. Mars in any way possible and he knew that if he didn’t help, she’d just find another way of doing the search. At least this way he had her under his watchful eye.
What he wasn’t expecting was that they wouldn’t find Echolls, but another kind of trouble all on their own.
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Again, feedback is great. Also, I've included a like to my blog with the picture of the Goodman Villa in St. John's. Enjoy...
http://leiseman04.blogspot.com/
Anyway, here's the next chapter...hope you like it...I like to think I've got the suspense thing goin on...let me know if you think I do too.
Disclaimer: I don't own Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas does and very soon The CW will be claiming it all for itself.
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Chap 18 - Trouble
Veronica was working on trying to figure out what the FBI Forensics Specialist Darin Shoulder needed with $2 million dollars. Her father had originally found a payment from Pricilla Banks’ account to Shoulder’s brother-in-law’s account for $500,000 dollars. Upon further investigation Veronica had found that Shoulder’s sister’s daughter had received $500,000 dollars from an education fund in Gia Goodman’s name, that Shoulder’s mother, under her maiden name, had received $500,000 dollars from Aaron Echolls’ publicists and finally, Shoulder’s best friend had received an award for information from a faulty organization set up by one Brady O’Conner for the same amount. All total, everyone paid someone that Shoulder knew $2 million dollars. That was some serious cash. What could a FBI agent need that much money for?
Veronica was systematically taking the guys life apart, running down all his purchases, just trying to figure out all of his habits. It was a hard task; only with the help of Mac was she even able to get into his personal bank accounts and records. Mac had to hack a back way into a less secured area of the FBI just to garner the very small amount of info.
Logan and Keith had left earlier in the day for St. John’s, Veronica was hoping that they would have better luck than her. Knowing that they were still in the air, Veronica was surprised when her phone chirped near by. Grabbing the phone she saw that there was one voice message. Pulling the phone open she dialed the voice mail number and listened to the message.
“Keith, I know that you said you would be unreachable for the next couple of days, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible that the guy you had me watching, Darin Shoulder, was found dead about 45 minutes ago in a public bathroom in a coffee joint that he goes to daily. I didn’t see anyone unusual, but I was out front waiting for him to come out with his normal cup of joe. Sorry Keith, I didn’t even know anything was wrong until the cops started showing up. Let me know if I can be of any further help.”
Veronica was stunned. Her father’s friend Paul had been tailing Shoulder in Los Angles for the last couple of days and now somehow he ended up murdered? This wasn’t a good sign at all. What if all their prying had been detected, would the whole investigation be blown?
Veronica frantically went to the lj page and reviewed the people that had been to the site, nothing out of order there. Then checking her email, the way Mac had showed her, she found that someone had hacked into her email account about 16 hours earlier. While she had been good about deleting emails after getting them she knew that her trash didn’t always dump right away. The fact that she had deleted a message from Mac that contained wire taps on Aaron Echolls phone, Veronica was beginning to get nervous that somehow they had been found out.
Picking up her phone she entered a secure code to scramble the radio waves and called Mac.
“Mac, I think we’ve got a problem,” Veronica said after the girl picked up.
“Veronica, what are you doing calling me?” Mac questioned quietly.
“Someone hacked my email account in the last 16 hours. I deleted the email from the Echolls tap but it might not have been out of my trash box,” Veronica explained in a rush. “Now the FBI agent dad was keeping tabs of is dead.”
Mac’s end of the line was silent except for the quick intake of breath that could be heard, “Oh, God Veronica, this isn’t good at all,” she finally whispered.
“Yeah. Listen I need you to do me a favor and put the wire tap lines onto a site that gives them to me in real time. I’m going to start monitoring them and see if anyone figures out that we’ve got taps in place,” Veronica stated.
“Sure, I’ve actually got a site like that already; I’ll send the ip address to you on the lj site and then send the password by phone. We won’t be able to listen to it at the same time since the sites security is built to allow one person on it at a time, but at least you’ll be able to hear real time conversations,” Mac explained.
Veronica thanked the young computer genius and let her know that she would be in touch when she figured anything out. Veronica knew that her father must have forwarded his voice mail to her number, so she called his line and left another message, after Paul’s, letting her dad know what she was doing with the taps and that she would keep him informed. She also requested that the two guys check in by text messages if at all possible hourly so that she knew that they were safe.
After receiving the address from Mac, Veronica logged on to the websites with the taps. She quickly went to Kendall’s taps to see if she could hear anything. The only thing she could determine that Kendall was doing currently was shopping at some very expensive stores. Deciding that the woman would continue to shop for a while, Veronica switched to Aaron Echolls’ tap. At first it seemed that he must be in the car since she could hear some muted music. Determined to keep an eye on everything, Veronica unplugged her headphones and continued to listen to the Echolls feed while she moved about pacing the bedroom.
After about two hours of constant muted music, raking through all of the pieces of the puzzle in her mind and deciding she would just have to tear her hair out in frustration she received a text message via phone from her father.
Made it safe. Got yur mess. Will ck in hrly. Don’t do anythg stpd!
Veronica chuckled at her father’s stern voice in her head. When had she ever done anything stupid?
Suddenly she heard a car door slam and was drawn back to her computer. She plugged the earphones back in and pushed the volume up so that she could hear as much as possible.
It sounded like he was walking on wood or something, Veronica thought.
“Mr. Echolls, so good of you to finally join us,” came Liam Fitzpatrick’s distinct drawl.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a request, now was it?” Aaron’s voice sounded closer.
“No, it wasn’t, we do have some business to discuss,” Liam stated, “but first I want to know if you’ve figured out where that brat of yours has been hiding.”
“Yeah, I finally got some information out of a mutual ‘friend’,” Aaron said, “it seems that the fruit of my loins has bought his own home. After a little more inquiry I found out that it has the state-of-the-art security system and no way to gain any access.”
“Well, that doesn’t bode well for you at all Daddy-dearest,” Liam said.
“What does that mean?” Aaron questioned.
“Simple, we needed to get the boy and that Mar’s girl because they’re getting too much information. It doesn’t bode well for you because we no longer need your help, we were going to use you to get to them, but since you can’t get close enough, I don’t think you are needed any longer,” Liam said as if he were speaking to a young child.
“What…what are you doing,” Aaron’s voice was laced with fear.
“Simple Aaron, I’m eliminating you from play. You’ve cause enough exposure to our organization. You think you would have learned to keep it in your pants after we started blackmailing you, but no, big-shot Hollywood star has to take up with his son’s girlfriend and video tape it. Its men like you that give men a bad reputation; I’m just taking advantage of it. Seriously, did you really think we would keep you around after all that we’ve had to do to keep you out of jail and talking to people in authority? You were dead the minute the ‘not-guilty’ verdict was read Echolls, you just didn’t know it,” Liam said with a calm intensity.
“You can’t kill me, what about all the money I bring you from the Hollywood scene. That’s millions a year, it would be a huge financial loss,” Aaron begged.
“Oh don’t worry about that Echolls, you’ve given us more than enough customers that are loyal to us, we can just flip them as dealers. Your expertise is really no longer needed or wanted,” Liam finished.
Veronica could hear a rustle of movement, just as she leaned closer to the computer, almost thinking that she should be able to see a picture, a sharp crack echoed through the earphones. Veronica jerked back from the computer, covering her mouth with her hand as a gasp escaped her mouth. Liam had obviously shot Aaron.
“That does it boys, take him out in the boat and dump the body. It will be a few days before anyone starts missing this Hollywood Heartthrob,” Liam’s voice flooded through the earphones.
“Hey Liam, I don’t think he’s dead yet,” came another voice.
“That’s okay; he won’t be able to swim four miles back to shore losing that amount of blood. Anyway, maybe the blood will attract sharks or something,” Liam responded to the voice.
Veronica had heard enough. Realizing that they were at the marina or docks, she pulled her bag off from the couch and set about finding the keys to the La Baron while making a couple copies of the tap. She wasn’t going to let Lilly’s killer drowned unpunished in the public’s eye. No, she was going go find his ass and haul him to a hospital. Maybe she would be able to broker a confession out of him at the same time.
**************
Once landing on Tortola, the guys chartered a quick boat to St. John’s. Since the island was mostly made up of National Parks, it was very hard to go un-noticed. There were several tourist locations, but most of the tourists stayed near Great Cruz Bay. Woody Goodman’s vacation villa was located in Fish Bay, southeast of Cruz Bay. Of course the guys were landing on the northeast side of the island so they would have to rent a jeep to take them over the entire island to Fish Bay. Once there, they hoped that they would take Marc Switzer by surprise.
After receiving Veronica and Paul’s voice messages, Keith was hoping that they wouldn’t be walking into a murder scene.
After the half-day trek across the island, on very bumpy roads, Logan Echolls was ready to find the suspect and get out of paradise. He missed his Mighty Mite and his own paradise that was waiting for him at home.
Grabbing the roll bar again, so he didn’t eject out of the seat like a jack-in-the-box, Logan let out a long sigh when he saw 5929 Fish Bay Road on the mailbox coming into view on the left side of the road. He pried his hand off of the seat it was clutching and pointed to Keith over the roar of the engine.
While the loud noises the jeep was making was sure to inform anyone of their presence they both had agreed earlier that they would drive past the house and park about a ¼ of a mile from the entrance and double back. Following this plan, Keith soared by the turn off and kept steady to the road. After what he felt was enough time he pulled the jeep to the side of the road and popped the hood.
The plan was that they would have the hood popped with the spark plugs disconnected; it would look to anyone passing by that someone had had car trouble and had left the car in search of help.
“Remember, Logan, I want you stay within my eyesight at all times,” Keith cautioned, drawing his gun.
Logan gulped at the sight of the gun, remembering what he had done with Veronica the evening before, glad that Keith didn’t know where his thoughts had strayed. Nodding his head in acknowledgement, Logan fell into step behind Keith as they began making their way through the forest back to the turn off. They were cutting through the forest to try and make up distance and heading on a hopeful course to intersect with the turnoff.
Finally they hit the road and continued down it towards the large white house that was practically built into the side of the hill, the light blue roof virtually blending in with the view of the bay that was seen beyond.
“Not a bad place to spend some time,” Keith mumbled.
Seeing some movement from a window in the upstairs, Keith motioned Logan to squat down next to him so they could observe and see if there was anyone else within the vicinity. Quickly texting a message that they were okay and approaching the house that the perp was in, Keith looked at Logan to assess his demeanor. Seeing the boy primed to go, but not with any crazy look in his eye, Keith determined that they could approach.
“Remember our story Logan, we had car trouble and needed to use the phone. We want to make sure that there is no one else in the house before we give up who we are,” Keith said in low tones, “and remember to keep that hat on your head, it won’t make you easily recognizable.”
Logan nodded his head once to acknowledge Keith’s words, his eyes focused down the driveway trying to see through the window into the home.
Standing up, Keith slipped his gun into the small of his back and began striding towards the side door. Logan quickly followed.
****************
Speeding down the PCH, Veronica was going through the three different marinas’ that were located within driving distance of Neptune. Although Aaron had drove for quite a while, it seemed that Liam’s comment about finally arriving indicated that Aaron may have simply been taking his time, annoyed with being summoned by the Fitzpatrick’s.
Deciding on trying the marina closest to the docks, since she knew that the Fitzpatrick’s did jobs out of there, she turned the car off on exit 85. While winding down the exit ramp, she felt her phone vibrate, noticing that Wallace was calling, Veronica decided to let the call go to voicemail. She didn’t want to inform her best friend right now what kind of mischief she was getting into, knowing that he would insist on meeting her. While Veronica was sure that she could go undiscovered, she didn’t want to risk anyone else important to her.
Just as she was starting towards the marina she noticed a dark blue sedan that was three cars behind her make the same turn. She had been watching the car the last 10 miles, it seems to always stay three cars behind her and turn when she did. Deciding she wanted to find out if anyone was following her, she sped up a bit and pulled into an alleyway. Stopping quickly, she expected to see the car go right on by; instead it pulled in behind her.
Veronica looked in the rear view mirror and let a small smile creep up her face. Boy was she glad to see who was behind the wheel.
*************
Keith stopped at the door, checking quickly behind them up the driveway and once to the left and right, he decided that no one was hiding in the foliage waiting to take shots at him or Logan.
Raising his hand he knocked twice on the screen door. From inside he could hear the low tunes of a slow reggae beat coming from within. He glanced at Logan from the corner of his eyes and saw the young man pull the hat low on his forehead. Not hearing anyone call out or any movement within the villa, Keith called out, “Hello, anyone home?”
Hearing a chair scrap on the top deck, Keith turned his head toward the noise and saw a man in his thirties hang around the corner, checking them both out. Taking the initiative, Keith held up his hand in a friendly wave, “Hi there, sorry to bother you but we were hoping to use your phone. We’ve had a problem with the jeep we rented up on the main road,” Keith said in his friendliest awe-shucks tone.
The blonde man smiled tightly before holding up his hand, “Just one minute,” he called back.
Keith and Logan watched the man disappear from view and listened as a sliding door was opened from within the villa. A few moments later the man was unhooking the screen door the duo was standing in front of and sticking his hand out to shake to Keith.
“Wow, I can’t tell you how lucky we are that you were home,” Keith said in his tone from earlier, “My son and I are exploring the National Park and my wife will be so worried if we don’t make it back to the hotel in time for dinner like we promised.”
The man glanced briefly at Logan but didn’t appear to really consider him a threat since he was labeled the ‘son’. “Sure, glad to help someone out,” the man said.
“Oh, I’m Mike McGrath and this is my son, Jeff,” Keith said taking the man’s hand in a firm shake.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Marc Schwitzer,” the man said. Obviously he kept a similar name with a small change; this was going to be easier than Keith thought.
Marc led the duo into the villa and pointed Keith towards the phone by the kitchen counter. Keith headed towards the phone, taking note that down the hallway all the doors where open and no movement seemed to be coming from within the rooms.
Marc looked at the teen in front of him, he seemed a little sullen. Logan, noticing the man looking closer at him, turned towards the view off the balcony and said, “Awesome view man, you can’t get any better than that.”
Looking away from Logan towards the magnificent view, Marc couldn’t help but agree, “Yeah, it is great, very quite too, and at night it seems like you can see forever with the night sky on display for endless miles.”
Logan moved towards the open door, “Do you mind if I check it out while my Dad makes the call? We just got here last night and I haven’t even been able to hit the beach yet. Dad was determined to get up into the park today for a hike,” Logan said, trying to interject just enough teen angst. He really was his father’s son.
“Sure,” Marc replied, gesturing for Logan to head out to the deck.
Logan stepped out onto the deck and took in the seriously beautiful view. He really wasn’t lying when he said it was great. Looking down the side of the hill towards the bay he noticed that the house had another deck on the bottom floor and that housed a hot tub.
“Wow, you’ve got a hot tub too. Bet your wife loves that, my mom would,” Logan said over his shoulder to the man as he stepped to join Logan on the deck.
“I wish, kid, I’m here by myself. Maybe someday I’ll have someone to enjoy it with me,” Marc said.
Keith hearing Marc’s statement trusted that he really was alone in the house, decided to come clean with who they were and why they were here.
*****************
Veronica stepped out of her car and gave a casual wave to the person in the car behind her.
“How did you find me?” she questioned him.
“I’ve had some men posted outside Echolls’ place for a couple of days. When they saw your car leave they had instructions to follow and inform me. Once I caught up with them I told them to pull off,” Clarence Weidman informed the small blonde girl.
“How did you know to follow me now?” Veronica questioned.
“I have been keeping tabs on you, Ms. Mars, and your father. I know he flew out of Neptune early this morning with one Logan Echolls. I thought that since they were out of town you would have enough sense to stay put, but I can see that I was wrong,” he said.
“Oh, well…yeah I was suppose to stay at the house, but then I heard something on one of my taps that required my immediate attention,” she said slowly while thinking about what she was gearing up to ask him. “In fact, you might be of some help, if you’re willing,” she added hastily when he raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner.
“You know I’ve instructions to help you with whatever you might need Ms. Mars; so why don’t we cut to the chase,” Weidman replied, ever the one get to the point.
“Yeah…okay. I heard Aaron Echolls get shot earlier today by Liam Fitzpatrick. They were probably at the docks or at the marina,” Veronica said in a rushed manner.
“Are you sure,” he questioned, not showing any surprise at her statement.
“Positive, even have it on recording,” Veronica replied. “I was just on my way to the marina to see if I could spot Aaron’s car. They were going to dump him out in the ocean, but I heard one of the goons say he wasn’t dead. I was hoping to get to him before he did die. I don’t plan on Lily’s killer getting away by simply getting killed, I want him to sit in jail and rot while he thinks of what he did. This is just too easy of a way out for him. He needs to suffer,” Veronica said with such vengeance of being a best friend once.
Clarence looked into the stormy blue-green eyes, seeing an array of emotions swimming in their depths. He couldn’t help but wonder how someone so young could already have to deal with the sadness that usually came later in life.
“Well it just so happens that I can help make your search a little easier,” Clarence said to Veronica.
“How’s that?”
“I’ve had a tracker on Echolls’ car since he was released from jail. Let me make a couple of phone calls and we’ll find out where his car is and get a boat so we can try and find him,” Clarence answered.
Veronica was indeed glad that she had run into the Head of Security for Kane Software.
******************
Keith stepped out onto the deck where Logan and Marc were, turning he slid the glass door shut behind him.
Marc, seeing ‘Mike’ behind turned from ‘Jeff’ and nodded his head towards the kitchen, “Any luck in them getting out here soon for you?” he questioned.
“Naw, but that’s okay,” Keith replied, “there isn’t anything really wrong with the car. Sometimes you just want to put the moves on the insurance guys that are your coverage, know what I mean?” Keith questioned.
Marc glanced at the two men, starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the tight space that they were all occupying, “yeah, I guess,” he said a little unsteadily. He went to move around Keith, since he was still blocking the door, but Keith held his hands up to stop him.
“Listen, Mr. Switzer, we know who you are and probably a little why you are here. We aren’t here to hurt you; we only want you to tell the truth,” Keith said calmly, looking Marc directly in the eyes.
“What to you mean?” Marc was very agitated by the time he spoke.
“My name isn’t really Mike and this isn’t my son Jeff. In fact,” here Keith nodded to Logan for him to remove his baseball cap, “this is Logan Echolls.” Keith let the sentence hang in the air as Marc Switzer’s eyes grew comically large like dollar sign symbols. Marc’s breath caught in his throat as he started at Logan, there was no question that he recognized the young man standing before him.
“I didn’t do anything,” Marc said quickly, glancing around for an escape route, “all I did was accept the invitation to disappear after the first of the year.”
“But you’ve been following the case, haven’t you,” Logan asked passionately, “you know that you could have been a key witness that could have proven that my father’s Oscar had been in our house a long time after Lily’s murder, right?”
“Look kid, I’m would have thought you of all people would have been happy to see your dad get off,” Marc said.
“Ha!” Logan faked laughed at the statement, “Be happy about a man that beats me, sleeps with my girlfriend and then kills her, getting out of trouble scott free? No, I don’t think so, man,” Logan spat the last words out.
Marc looked at the young man in shock. He had been sure that the people that had asked him to disappear for a while were working for Aaron Echolls, that he had been helping the last parental figure in a family stay with his kids. How wrong he was; the kid he thought he was helping was standing in front of him calling him on his deceitfulness. How could this get any worse?
“Listen, kid, I’m sorry,” Marc started, “I only thought I was helping…” Really what more explanation could he give the kid; he had known from the moment he had been approached that nothing good would come out of this, why had he ever gotten involved. “What can I do to help,” Marc finally asked.
Just then Keith saw some movement out of the corner of his eye; someone was coming down the driveway. He turned and saw that it wasn’t just someone, but a group of guys that were not dressed as tourists. They all had heavy leather jackets on that would only be worn to conceal weapons.
Turning quickly to the two men in front of them, he said, “Come with us Marc, otherwise I can’t guarantee your safety. There was another person that could have put Echolls back in jail and he ended up dead this morning in Los Angles, now you’ve got a group of men coming down your driveway with a bunch of leather jackets on; I don’t think they’re here for any type of help.”
Marc looked through the window and saw that Keith was right, “What are we gonna do?” he asked in a panic.
“Well, were not gonna panic,” Logan said firmly. He turned his head towards Keith, “how do you wanna handle this?”
Keith quickly looked around his surroundings, seeing a trail that lead down to the beach from the lower deck he quickly asked Marc where it lead. After Marc told him the beach, Keith asked about a boat that Marc might have down there for fishing.
“Sure, but it’s just a small boat with a motor,” Marc replied.
“It’ll do,” Keith said. He looked over the side of the railing and determined that it wasn’t too far of a drop, looking to Logan and Marc he directed them, “jump down to the lower deck and start making your way down to the boat, I’ll be right behind you. No, no arguments Logan… just go,” Keith said after seeing Logan open his mouth to argue that Keith should come with them directly.
Logan vaulted over the deck to the lower one and felt Marc land next to him. They quickly got into the trees surrounding the trail down to the beach, following it. After a few moments, they heard Keith start into the brush as well, it seemed to Logan that it was only half a second later that they felt the blast from the house they had just departed exploding in a ball of fire.
Logan didn’t even want to turn and look at what Keith must have done.
***************
After Clarence made a few phone calls, Veronica conceded to ride in his car; her’s would have been too noticeable anyway. Veronica guess of the marina had been a little off, according to Clarence’s information Aaron’s car was at a small private beach that one needed to have a pass code to get into. Luckily, Clarence had the pass code since the Kane’s had once used it for a private party. The information that Veronica thought the most interesting was that the beach was owned by Woody Goodman. She couldn’t help but think that he had become involved in another question that needed answering.
Knowing that the Fitzpatricks might still be at the beach, Clarence decided to go to the marina and pick up one of the speedboats that the Kane’s kept, they would begin their search at sea, rather than on land. He never liked the odds when there were more men then him and one kid, cum detective, that he knew wouldn’t be able to hold her own with that gang.
Once out to sea, Clarence charted a 10 mile radius that was from the Goodman beach, they would begin their search in those miles. He wasn’t sure that they would even find the Echolls bastard, but he was instructed to help Ms. Mars in any way possible and he knew that if he didn’t help, she’d just find another way of doing the search. At least this way he had her under his watchful eye.
What he wasn’t expecting was that they wouldn’t find Echolls, but another kind of trouble all on their own.
********
Again, feedback is great. Also, I've included a like to my blog with the picture of the Goodman Villa in St. John's. Enjoy...
http://leiseman04.blogspot.com/