Veronica Mars Read Online Free PDF Page A

Neptune is unsafe, telling them their daughters will be kidnapped or raped or murdered if they set foot in the city limits.”
    “So you want me to …?”
    “Find Hayley Dewalt.”
    Veronica gave her a long, flat look. “Isn’t that what the sheriff’s office should be doing?”
    Petra leaned forward, looking Veronica hard in the eye. “Do you honestly think Lamb will be the one to find her?”
    “Does this mean the Chamber of Commerce is retracting their endorsement of Sheriff Lamb?” Veronica asked sweetly.
    Landros pursed her lips. Veronica read the answer in the woman’s face. Lamb, inept as he was, was just too handy for the COC to cast away. He looked after their interests too well. They’d fund his campaign even while hiring Veronica to do the real police work. To them, it was worth the expense.
    “Will you do it?” Landros asked, avoiding the question.
    Veronica listened to the roar of the crowd. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she could see Hayley Dewalt—the clean-scrubbed brunette whose face had been on every TV station since last week—and felt a sharp pang. She hadn’t known Hayley Dewalt, but she’d known girls like her.
    “My rate is two hundred an hour, plus expenses. I’ll need a daily retainer of seven hundred for the duration of the case. If I find Hayley, I keep all associated reward money, in addition to my fee.” Veronica’s voice was hard and flat. She laced her fingers together in front of her chin.
    She didn’t have the luxury of examining her motivations too closely. If there was that much money at stake, the Chamber would pay. And if she could find a missing girl in the process of keeping her father’s business open, even better.
    They eyed each other across the desk for a moment. The light from the window caught on Landros’s left earring, and for a moment it was so overwhelmingly bright Veronica had to blink. Finally Landros nodded.
    “Not a saleswoman, but certainly a businesswoman.” She smiled. “All right, Ms. Mars. You have a deal.”
    Veronica pulled a pen from the barrel-shaped holder on the desk. “What do you know about the case? Where was Hayley last seen?”
    “At a party up on Manzanita Drive. None of the girls she was with seems to know whose house it was, but according to Lamb it belongs to a rental agency. He’s supposed to be looking into who had it rented.” She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear with a careless hand. “I’ve donated the main conference room of the Neptune Grand for the search efforts. We’ve also set up a website for tips and donationsto help fund the search—you’ve probably heard Trish Turley talking about it. It’s pulled in nearly a half million in three days, and it doesn’t show signs of slowing down. We’ve siphoned off ten thousand dollars as reward money, so if you do find Hayley, there’s an extra incentive for you.”
    “Where’s her family staying?”
    “I have them in one of the business suites. They can put you in touch with the friends who were with Hayley at the time.”
    “Have there been any tips yet? Anything credible?”
    Landros snorted. “The usual disgusting pranks. If I had any particular faith in humanity, the messages I’ve seen come in from anonymous ‘tipsters’ would have shaken it. So far we’ve at least kept her parents from seeing them—we have volunteers filtering through the inbox.” She adjusted a delicate bracelet on her wrist. “I’ve set up a meeting with Sheriff Lamb this afternoon. I’d like you to come.”
    Veronica tapped her pen lightly on the desk. “I’m not exactly his favorite person.”
    “Neither am I.” Her smile was a tight, humorless curve on her face. “But you’re technically working in tandem on this case, and I want to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. Besides, he can bring you up to speed on the details better than I can.”
    She stood up. For a moment, Veronica could picture what she must have been like on a runway, hips pivoting to