"Kanes and Abel’s"
Veronica is still looking at Stella Koontz’s obituary, which reveals that Abel Koontz has a daughter named Amelia (see “Betty and Veronica”). Veronica does a search for Amelia’s name and discovers that she goes to college in L.A. Wiedman heads to the same school, looking for Amelia, but is told that she’s left with a friend. Outside, Veronica tells Amelia that Cliff sent her, since they’ve found evidence that Koontz might be innocent. Veronica notes that Amelia is a treat to the Kanes, thanks to her payoff; Amelia thought the money came from an out-of-court settlement. Veronica takes her to a not-so-fancy hotel and tells her to call her mother and have her send the documents in the Kane settlement. She gives Amelia an untraceable cell phone, telling her to only take calls from her boyfriend but not tell him where she is. Amelia asks Veronica how Koontz is, and Veronica decides not to tell her that he’s dying, since she doesn’t think Amelia would help her if she knew. At school, as other students deal with midterms, a girl named Sabrina complains to her teacher that someone has published a phone sex ad with her picture and phone number. As she’s harassed by Dick Casablancas, she complains that people keep calling her house and someone let the air out of one of her car tires. Her teacher tells her that she can take her midterm at another time and another student, Hamilton Cho, complains that she’s getting special attention. (He thinks it’s because she’s the president of the school board.) Sabrina tracks down Veronica and tells her that she thinks her ex-boyfriend Caz (see “Ruskie Business”) is the one who’s been harassing her; Veronica agrees to help her.
After school, Veronica waits for Caz and tells him to leave Sabrina alone. He denies that he’s doing anything and expresses his love for Sabrina by saying that he’d jump off the roof of the school if she asked him to. Later, while waiting until nighttime to go help Sabrina with her harasser, Veronica looks at her Lilly Kane investigation files (she has files for Koontz, Jake, Duncan, Celeste, Logan, Weevil, and Wiedman. At Mars Investigations, a woman asks Keith to find a call girl for her husband so that she can take compromising photos of him and get a divorce. Keith declines the case, since it’s entrapment and against the law. The woman threatens to take the case to another PI, Vincent Vanlowe, but Keith warns that he’ll turn it around on her and start working for her husband. While Veronica is distracted, Logan arrives and sneaks a peek at her laptop, seeing the files she has in her investigation. He wonders what Lilly would think of Veronica investigating people who loved her, but Veronica says Lilly is the reason she’s doing it. Logan gives her a check for helping him look for his mother (see “Ruskie Business”), but Veronica tears it up, saying that Lynn was always nice to her. Back in Amelia’s hotel room, Veronica messes with the TV (which is showing Harry Hamlin’s movie Clash of the Titans) while Amelia looks through the evidence that proves her father didn’t kill Lilly. Veronica tells her that she thinks the Kanes are behind the cover-up, since they can afford it. Amelia explains her family history and asks Veronica why she thinks the money is coming to her. Veronica thinks it’s Koontz’s way of saying that he’s sorry.
Veronica heads to Sabrina’s house, where she’s supposedly going to be tutored by Sabrina. After Sabrina’s mother leaves, Veronica tells Sabrina that she put a tracer on Caz’s truck, even though he swore he was innocent. Later that evening, Sabrina gets a call for the phone sex ad and Veronica, using a trace program, puts the guy in his place. She notices that a pickup truck keeps driving by, so she pushes a stroller into the street to get it to stop. She discovers that it’s Caz, who swears again that he’s not doing anything to Sabrina. In the middle of the interrogation, a bunch of ravers show up, claiming that there’s supposed to be a party there. Veronica heads back to the hotel, where Amelia asks her to arrange a visit with her father. Veronica says that she will, voicing over that she’ll wait until she has proof that Koontz was paid off. Vinnie Van Lowe (Ken Marino) pays Veronica and Keith a visit at Mars Investigations, thanking Keith for the referral of the entrapment woman. He offers to give Keith some cases in return, but Keith isn’t interested. Veronica reluctantly heads to the Kanes’ for a dinner honoring the top five juniors and seniors at Neptune High. There, she imagines a possible scenario of Lilly’s death - Celeste, knowing that Jake was Veronica’s father, was mad that Lilly brought Veronica over to the house, and their fight turned violent. In the present, Jake announces that starting this year, Neptune’s valedictorians will receive a full scholarship to whatever college they go to. Veronica imagines Jake killing Lilly after finding her with Weevil, then getting Weevil to keep quiet by threatening to frame him for the murder.
An apparition of Lilly calls Veronica outside to the spot by the pool where Lilly died. Lilly asks why Veronica is there and Veronica replies that she needs to find out what the Kanes are hiding. Lilly tells her that the Kanes may have their faults but they’re not murderers. Before Veronica can get more information out of her, she’s joined by Duncan, who says that he likes to come to this spot because he feels like he’s with Lilly. At school the next day, Sabrina complains to Veronica that the stress of being harassed is causing her grades to slip and has lost her her valedictorian spot. Veronica learns that Hamilton is now the valedictorian, which gives her an idea. She heads to Cho’s Pizza, where Hamilton works for his father, and congratulates Hamilton for getting into Oxford. He doesn’t have the money to go, but Veronica points out that if he can stay ahead of Sabrina, he’ll get the Kanes’ scholarship. He’s not sympathetic to Sabrina’s situation, especially since he’s had to fight for his placement by himself. Veronica puts a tracker on his car, despite feeling sorry for him. At the Mars’ apartment, Keith catches Wiedman trying to break in and confronts him. Wiedman shows him a photo of Amelia and says that he thought Keith might know where she is. Keith lets him take a look around, but, of course, he doesn’t find anything. When Veronica comes home, Keith fills her in and tells her that he’s figured out that she’s done something to make Wiedman nervous. Veronica tells him what she’s up to and Keith replies that she’s into something very dangerous. He tells her that she can keep investigating, but she has to be careful. He adds that Jake may have called Wiedman right after he found Lilly’s body.
Veronica investigates Wiedman’s background, imagining Jake calling him the night of Lilly’s death. In the present, she gets a call from Sabrina, who’s annoyed by a car alarm that’s been going off next to her house for hours. Veronica checks out the Chos’ and sees that Hamilton has been there all night. She tells Sabrina to write down the car’s license plate number and leave the house. At school, Veronica asks Logan when he’s planning to tell Duncan that he saw his file on Veronica’s computer. Logan wonders why Duncan never told him that he has epilepsy (see “Mars vs. Mars”). Veronica tells him what some of the symptoms of Duncan’s illness are, and Logan confides that when he was over at the Kanes’ house once, Duncan attacked Jake. Veronica wonders if this happened around the time that Lilly died, but Logan says that it was the week that Duncan and Veronica broke up. At Mars Investigations, Veronica looks up the license plate of the car outside Sabrina’s house and discovers that it belongs to a woman who used to be married to Vinnie. Veronica borrows some of Sabrina’s Spirit Week stuff and heads over to Vinnie’s office, where she sells cookies and a Pirate pin to Vinnie’s mother/secretary. Vinnie catches her and she gives him a Mars Investigations pen as a peace offering. She then asks him who hired him to harass Sabrina, but he denies any involvement. On her way out, Veronica pulls off his fake mustache. Outside, Veronica and Sabrina wait in the car and listen through the listening device in the pen. Vinnie starts singing “Private Eye” to Veronica and drops the pen out the window. Sabrina thinks they’ve been defeated, but there’s also a listening device in the Pirate pin, which allows Veronica to hear Vinnie telling his mother to call Mr. Cho.
Sabrina, her mother, Hamilton, Mr. Cho, Celeste, Jake, Clemmons, and Veronica gather at the Kanes’ house, where Mr. Cho complains that Hamilton never had the advantages that Sabrina did. Jake decides that if Hamilton and Sabrina are valedictorian and salutatorian, they can split the scholarship. Sabrina’s mother refuses to take this deal, since she thinks that the valedictory slot and the scholarship belong only to Sabrina. The only thing she’s willing to accept is Hamilton removing himself from the race. Clemmons tries to reason with her, but Hamilton announces that he’ll drop out. Afterwards, Veronica tells Hamilton that she’s sorry he’s losing out, but he thinks that he’ll be successful anyway. That night, Wiedman goes to Amelia’s school and asks her boyfriend if he can use his cell phone. Amelia calls Veronica and tells her that her mother sent the settlement papers. She takes a call that she thinks is from her boyfriend but turns out to be from Wiedman. He announces that Veronica isn’t who Amelia thinks she is. Veronica tells Keith that Amelia has the papers and the two of them head to the hotel. When they arrive, Amelia is gone and Wiedman is there; he tells them that Amelia was upset that Veronica didn’t mention Koontz’s poor health and could be anywhere now, since she has her own Swiss bank account - she’s finalized Koontz’s settlement with the Kanes. Back at Mars Investigations, Veronica mopes until Keith shares his files on the Lilly Kane investigation with her. Veronica learns that Celeste and Jake lied about their alibis (see “Betty and Veronica”) and that Keith suspected them of covering something up because he was supposedly the first person to arrive at the house. The Kanes were doing laundry, which Keith found suspicious - even more suspicious was the fact that the clothes were Duncan’s soccer uniform. Veronica announces that Duncan wouldn’t hurt Lilly, but imagines the possibility anyway.
WELCOME TO NEPTUNE: Vinnie
THE TITLE IS A PLAY ON... The Biblical brothers Cain and Abel.
THE LILLY KANE CASE: Veronica’s main suspects are Celeste, Jake, and Duncan.
Jake may have called Wiedman to take care of things after Lilly’s body was found.
When Keith arrived at the Kanes’ house, Duncan’s soccer clothes were in the drier.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: “Hello? Yes, this is Miss Sabrina. Bad boy, well…Mr. Greeley of Encinitas. Twenty grand on credit cards, two divorces and a repo’d Sebring. You have been a bad boy. Miss Sabrina commands you. Put your pants back on and get a job!” - Veronica
Written by Carolyn Murray; directed by Nick Marck