Veronica Mars by Rob Thomas Read Free Book Online

his screen-printing stuff.”
    “Sibling rivalry is not pretty.”
    “Fucking tell me about it.” She stabbed her cigarette out viciously against the bottom of her shoe, then pocketed the butt.
    “Look, I have to ask. Is there any way Hayley would disappear like this on her own steam?”
    The girl hesitated, then shook her head.
    “I kind of wish there were. I wish she’d just show up and say, ‘Sorry, guys, didn’t mean to make you worry!’ But there’s no way. Not with Mom sending her panicked texts every single day. Not with …” Her voice faltered a little, but she steadied herself. “Not with me sending pictures of every single meal I’ve had in this suck-ass town. Mom’s right. Even if she made some kind of mistake, she wouldn’t do that to us.”
    She shoved her hands in her pockets and took a deepbreath. “I guess I’d better go back. Mom freaks out if I’m out of her sight for more than ten minutes.”
    She looked at Veronica for a moment. Her eyes were fierce and apprehensive at the same time.
    “Are you going to find her?”
    It was almost unconscious, the way Veronica’s jaw tightened. The way her shoulders squared off, her fingers curling into fists. She hadn’t realized it before that moment—before meeting Ella’s eyes. But now she was sure.
    “I won’t stop until I do.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    The Balboa County Courthouse occupied a large sandstone building in downtown Neptune, fifteen or so blocks from the Grand. Its front steps were smooth and worn, power-washed daily to keep the city’s grime at bay, though these days the Sheriff’s Department was as dirty as they came.
    She’d spent half her life haunting the Sheriff’s Department. Her father had started as a deputy, and when she was nine, he’d been elected sheriff. She and her mom used to visit him on lunch breaks and, in later years, she did her homework in an empty interrogation room while eavesdropping on the dispatch. After Lilly Kane’s murder, when a recall election had ousted Keith from office, when she should never have had to set foot in that cesspool again, some invisible path always seemed to lead her back. Visiting Logan or her friend Weevil Navarro in lockup. Prying information out of the too-adorable-for-words Deputy Leo D’Amato, now a detective down in San Diego.
    Reporting her own rape, and then being laughed out of Don Lamb’s office, humiliated and aching.
    But that was ancient history, right?
    She made her way down the familiar hallway, decorated in shades of terra-cotta and gold, and turned into the Sheriff’sDepartment. No one manned the tall wooden reception desk. Three or four officers sat at their desks working on computers or talking on the phone. She didn’t recognize any faces. Her father had told her that when Dan Lamb took over, the handful of worthwhile cops left on the force had taken early retirement or transferred elsewhere—along with Inga, the kind-hearted woman who’d been the office manager since Veronica was a little girl.
    She stood at the desk and waited. No one appeared to notice her—or maybe they just didn’t care. One guy seemed to be swiveling his chair away from her as he talked on the phone. No surprise there—she was persona non grata around the Sheriff’s Department. The first thing she’d done when she’d gotten back to town was solve Bonnie DeVille’s murder right out from under the sheriff’s nose.
    Dan Lamb wasn’t the type to forgive and forget. Then again, neither was she.
    She caught sight of a tall man in departmental khaki, walking past with his arms full of files. “Excuse me. Sir? I have an appointment with the sheriff.”
    When the officer turned to face her, Veronica blinked.
    “Norris Clayton?” Veronica’s voice was breathless, shocked.
    The man’s warm brown eyes flickered over her face and his lips curved up. “Veronica Mars. I was wondering when I’d run into you.”
    For a moment they eyed each other warily. In middle school Norris had been