Veronica Mars was officially terrified, her heart was racing, she stared at the email on her screen again, the world started to blur in front of her and she began to feel like she was going to throw up. This wasn't happening… it couldn't have been him.
She had only asked for the information to help rule him out… Suddenly the journalism office in the computer lab was just a smaller room in the much larger Prison that was Neptune High, trapped in a school with the most likely murderer of her best friend Lilly Kane. Logan Echolls. Lillys supposed grieving boyfriend.
Logan had lied about his alibi that day… here it was in black and white. Hard, unavoidable proof… His plates had been confirmed as being flagged up on the border station passing over at 8.24am. The day Lilly had been murdered, Logan hadn't been in Mexico with the Casablanca's brothers… She looked at the time stamp again… he had had enough time to have been right here… in Neptune. She was starting to hyperventilate. Her dad had been right about Abel Koontz… he had given a false confession in exchange for being paid off by one of the wealthiest families in Neptune, Lillys own parents.. but why? Duncan… The Kane's had been trying to protect their son Duncan.. he must have been the one to find Lilly… that was why her Dad had been so adamant about going after Lilly's father, Jake Kane. He had known they had been lying before they ousted him as Sheriff.
Veronica, was very much her father's daughter, Keith Mars hadn't been able to let the investigation go, and neither had she, except instead of cluing her in, he had shut her out of it. Told her to stay away from the murder investigation that had ruined their family and his career, she hadn't listened, she had been sneaking into her father safe for months before it had occurred to her… her dad was a Private Investigator, he knew how to keep secrets. If the Kane's had been involved in covering up Lilly's murder, he wouldn't have left the updates to his investigations as somewhere as obvious as the Mars Investigations Office Safe… he would be sneakier about it.
He would have hidden them at home, guarded by a very territorial 3 year old Pitbull. Veronica had searched his room every chance she had gotten, since he had seemed determined to keep her as far away from the details of the investigation as possible, Veronica had been playing her own game of Spy Vs Spy with her dad for months.
She had found the police files and evidence he had been collecting in a box labelled Playboys in his wardrobe, she had spent hours poring over each of the papers, and she could almost recite the contents by heart.
Her dad had been right… he hadn't deserved to have been ousted as Sheriff and her faith in him had been completely justified. Forces much larger than her had been trying to derail the search, Had Logan's attempts to make turn her against her father been because he was the real killer?
Something tugged at Veronica's brain… something important was trying to scream its way into the fore front of her thoughts. What was it?
"I've got a secret… and it's a good one" Lilly's honey warm voice whispered conspiringly.
Lilly definitely had her secrets… had she known that Duncan thought she was their half sister?
Veronica's mother had confessed to having continued her relationship with her high school sweetheart, Jake Kane in secret a few weeks ago when Veronica had tracked her down. It had raised all kinds of questions about Veronicas paternity, questions she didn't really want to think about.
If it was true… it meant she hadn't just lost her best friend, she had lost her sister and that she was currently about to be locked in a classroom with her killer when the newspaper club met in the next fifteen minutes.
Her mind raced, the walls felt like they were closing in on her, sweat broke out against her forehead. She felt sick. I'm having a panic attack she realized. She quickly closed down her computer screen, wiped the history just encase before logging off completely… she had to get out of here.
Classmates started to filter in to the room and take up positions in their seats, Veronica grabbed her back pack and headed towards the door, she barely made it into the bathroom stall before she started to throw up. Her skin was flushed and she looked slightly green in the mirror under the florescent lights of the girls bathroom. Her father was out of town… he had gone to Vega's to chase down a lead on the Abel Koontz alibi, she had garnered that much from her snooping.
She thought about calling him but what good could that do? He still needed now more than ever to get this witnesses confession before they could move on the evidence she had uncovered about Logan.
She was alone… she couldn't take the evidence she had to Sheriff Lamb unless she could explain how she had gotten it, and even then.. until her dad proved Abel Koontz had lied, he wouldn't believe her. It was just Veronica and Logan. He stalked her about the campus, there wasn't anywhere she went that she didn't feel his gaze watching her, would he notice the change in her demeanor? Would her eyes betray her that she knew?
She needed a stiff drink. That was it she thought… The shot glass.
Lilly had a new shot glass in her car the day she had been murdered, a novelty tourist shot glass that she couldn't have had time to buy between her time leaving the Pep Squad car wash and getting home by the time her body was found the day when she had been killed.
A novelty tourist shot glass… like the kind one might buy as a gift from someone to his girlfriend after a weekend surfing in Mexico?
I got baked in Encinada… the shot glass read. It meant that Logan had caught up with Lilly that day. Looking at her reflection in the mirror she saw how pale she was, this was no poker face.. she couldn't leave looking like this. She pulled out her make up case and started to apply her eye liner and mascara again, covering her face in foundation, this was something she did sometimes when she got nervous… short of being able to scrub the room clean, she would paint her game face on. She applied some lip gloss and sprayed some perfume. Fake it until you make it home… she thought.
It was three against one. Dick and Cassidy Casablanca's had lied to the sheriff's department about Logan still being with them that day, they couldn't be trusted, so she would have to watch out for them too. She really wished she could speak to Duncan… but he had been a zombie for much of the last year. Her heart was beating like a jack hammer as she left the bathroom and returned to class, passing a pink tardy excuse slip to the substitute teacher, Ms Adrienna Holtz. Oh good, she was here, their little verbal sparring matches were the highlight of his day.
"Seems your trailer park ex has started getting all dolled up for you now" Logan snickered as he elbowed Duncan in the arm and nodded in Veronica's direction. Of all the activities her guidance counsellor had suggested… why couldn't it have involved something other than journalism club? Cheerleading or Basket Weaving…. Anything to be away from Logan Echolls, she hugged her arms tighter to her chest and opened her assignment portfolio, they wanted pictures taken at the football game that afternoon. "Oh come on DK, you gotta at least appreciate the aroma of meth lab, she is pulling out all the stops to impress" he teased winking at her as Duncan did his best to ignore him much to his annoyance while Logan continued to stare at Veronica venomously.
"Your mum still hosting that Barbeque this weekend?" Duncan asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah, she's flying in some rosemary lamb kebabs for the producers for my dad's new 15 million dollar crack pile" Logan declared, bored, he hated discussing the dysfunctional Echolls family dramas, not when it distracted him from his one true pleasure in life, sticking it to Veronica Mars.
"Kebabs. That sounds good" Duncan agreed, passing Logan his assignment folder.
"Yeah, everyone enjoys a good meaty skewer… some more than most" he flashed his eyebrows suggestively at Veronica and gave her a sadistic grin. He waited for her witty retort, but she didn't even look in his direction. He must have been on fire today because he could have sworn he saw her visibly shrink back into herself. An echo of some forgotten protective instinct made him want to go to her and comfort her, wrap her up in his arms and tell her he was sorry. She looked… unreadable, holding her arms around herself like she was cold. It was a part of him he loathed, as much as he had been trying to provoke a response from Duncan, he felt like an asshole, once upon a time they had been friends… but the other part of him hated her. She had been one of his best friends, when they had lost Lilly, he had needed her… they had needed each other. He had lost Duncan when she had sided with her father in his crusade to destroy his best friend's family. She had invaded his dreams, crept into his thoughts at unwelcome times of the day. It was all Veronica's fault. She deserved this. His mind flashed back to night of Shelly Pomeroys party when he been doing shots and licked salt from her neck and kissed a Lime Wedge from her mouth.. she had been dressed in a beautiful white dress, quiet and perfect beneath him… he had been so hot for her.. the taste of her skin still haunted him. Guilt gnawed at his insides. How could he be betraying Lilly's memory like this? Veronica had been her best friend.
"Hey Man, shut up" Duncan warned him, but he never turned around to look at her. Teasing Veronica was one of the only things that ever got a reaction from Duncan Kane these days, but even when he did react, he did his best not to pay too much attention to her. Until this day, Logan still had no idea why Duncan and Veronica had broken up.
"Ok… don't take it so personal.. it's not like you want to be doing your ex now… what with all that time she's been spending with Weevil Navarro from what I hear these days" Logan relented, though there was a hint of jealousy in his voice, even if it wasn't obvious to anyone else. Even if he would never admit it to himself.
Weevil Navarro… the local head of the PCH biker gang at school, was one of the few people Veronica considered a friend. She had a habit of helping to bail his club members out of trouble with the local sheriffs department. Veronica's eyes widened in revelation, he could help her. She raised her hand eagerly and told the teacher she was feeling unwell again, asking to be excused to the nurse's office. Logan's heart sank a little, disappointed that she was leaving. She fled from the room as quickly as possible, casting a look over her shoulder at Logan who was watching as he swung on the backs of his chair.
Was that fear in her eyes? He thought as he righted his chair, shifting uncomfortably. Frowning he crossed his arms over himself. What was that about? He had only been teasing. Veronica had never run from him before, not even that day on the beach when he had smashed the headlights in on her car with a crowbar in retaliation for her prank… she had barely even flinched. Part of him hadn't wanted to do it but he had just been so angry after the beating he had been given at home because of her little stunt of hiding a bong in his locker. If she had bothered to even try and be his friend... she would have known how much worse the beatings from Aaron Echolls had gotten. She would have known exactly what her trick had cost him. The question continued to bother him through most of his next few classes, she hadn't come back to the media room after the nurses office.
What was that girls problem? He thought as he caught sight of her again finally in the parking lot, her tire was flat again. Logan and Dick had let the air out of the tire earlier for a prank, it had become an almost fortnightly ritual of theirs, watching her bent over, working up a sweat inflating the tires while they howled and laughed, watching from inside his car. Logan didn't want to admit that it was part of his favourite time of day. He started to walk over towards his car, parked directly opposite hers the way he usually did but as soon as she saw him coming she picked up her bag and darted towards the school bus instead.
Veronica got under his skin in a way no one else could, he knew almost every little thing about her, how she never ate the bread from the sloppy joes, she just liked to dip her fries in the sauce, he had memorized every curve of her face, how she crinkled her nose when she tried to solve a problem, how she got that gorgeous smile and got to some peaceful content place when she snapped a picture that turned out just exactly as she wanted it. She was his fascination… and this wasn't like her. Not that he really knew much about her strange behaviour these days, she was always running around doing Private Investigator work for her dad and playing Nancy Drew around the school.
He watched as she climbed on the bus, leaving her car abandoned in the parking lot.. had he really gone too far this time? He wondered as he watched her hand some crumpled notes to the driver and slide into her seat.
"Must have forgotten her pump today" Logan said absently, staring at the row of seats on the bus before it pulled way, guilt beginning to stir inside him again. Why couldn't he just really hate her? Then his life would be so much simpler. He had wished her family had just moved out of Neptune when her stupid father had lost his job… then he wouldn't have to see her every day, wouldn't have to think about her or feel guilty about the way he treated her. He wouldn't have a constant reminder of his dead girlfriend walking around wearing the heartbreak he felt all over her angelic features.
He wouldn't spend countless nights dreaming about her.
Veronica held her breath as she watched Logan staring at her as the bus pulled away, she hated leaving her car behind at school. She would have no way to hide tonight, her mind raced… she would feed Backup and call her dad, she would stay in a Motel tonight. She would have Weevil meet her in the morning and bring her to school. Her dad should be back by tomorrow afternoon, she just had to stay alive until then…
Logan finished his interviews of the players on the football field and headed back to the journalism office, he looked at the roster, she hadn't shown up for the evening practise he thought as he looked at Veronica's name on the list of the student sign in sheet. She had been meant to take pictures of the team performing their drills… it wasn't like her to avoid an excuse to snap some pictures. Part of him was glad that he wouldn't have to see her, another part felt a cold shudder of What If? And a cold knot of worry began to build in his stomach… why should he be worried about her? He walked back to his car and saw that hers was still abandoned with a flat tire just where she had left it that afternoon. What did he honestly care if she hadn't shown up? He fiddled with his keys as he sat in the car park, biting his nails he stared at her empty car longer than perhaps he should have. He owed her nothing… she was probably out staring at Duncan on the soccer field someplace he thought dismissively, but the panic was already building inside him.
It wasn't like Veronica to just disappear without a trace… he could just head over to her house to demand the jpeg files for the paper in the morning? She didn't have to know he was only calling over to make sure she was ok. He pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the Sunset Apartment Complex, he knew from his buddy Sean that she shared a 2 bedroom apartment with her father here, he grabbed the foot pump from his car and went to her door musing to himself he could offer her a blow job if she offered him one, but there was no signs of life from the apartment. Just a large dog barking at the door.
Frowning he knocked on the door again and waited a few minutes. No one was home. Her father is out of town, he had overheard that Fennel kid offering to let her come to dinner while he was gone. She could be at the office? He thought, turning to go back to his car. He sighed and rested his head against the steering wheel, he knew he wouldn't be able to settle tonight unless he saw her and knew she was safe. He drove to the Mars Investigations offices but the shutter was down and there were no signs of life there either.
Why did he even care? He looked at the time on his dashboard, he would have to get home soon, he started driving towards the prestigious 0909 area code, past the gas station near the Camelot motel when he saw a familiar petite blond carrying a bag of takeout food towards a room on the upper floor. Veronica Mars. What could she possibly be doing going to a Motel Suite at this hour?
Fury bubbled up inside him. How could she do this? A strange feeling of possessiveness rolled over him, He had been worried about her.. he had let her get his head all twisted up about her being hurt … and she was going to meet some random guy in a Motel Suite and to think he had been stupid enough to be concerned that she was ok?
He was going to give her a piece of his mind! Was she really going to humiliate Duncan further by living up to her reputation? He made a sharp U-turn and headed back towards the motel, pulling into the driveway, seething he stormed over to the desk and asked the attendant which room the petite blond girl was in. 21B. He stormed up the stairs and found her room, banging furiously on the door.
"I know you are in there Mars!" Logan shouted, banging on the door.
Veronica's heart pounded in her chest, how on Earth had he known she was here? She reached into her bag for her pepper spray and her taser.
"You'd better leave Logan" she warned him, one hand poised to dial the Sheriff's department if she had to.
"I had better leave?" he repeated incredulously. "YOU should leave!" he shouted, punching his fist against the door.
"Logan… please just leave me alone!" she sobbed as she crouched behind the door.
"If I thought for one second you would be spending the night alone, Veronica, I would just leave you to it!" he snapped.
"Just get out of here Logan!" she cried. "Get out of here before I call the Sheriff!" she screamed.
"The Sheriff? From what I remember Solicitation is a crime!" Logan spat sarcastically as he paced outside the door. "You are a MINOR, Veronica!" he reminded her. "You should go home!"
"I'm not soliciting anything!" she yelled indignantly at him through the door.
"Yeah? Then what are you even DOING here Veronica?" he demanded, the red mist was beginning to subside and his voice was returning to normal. Relief was starting to flood through him, she was ok. Pissed at him, but she was alright.
"Hiding out.. but it doesn't seem to be working out so well" she snorted at the irony, resting her head against the back of the door.
"You missed the practise session" he accused her. She laughed bitterly, hysteria starting to climb into her voice as she began shaking. How had he found her? Her phone was too far away from where she sat on against the door.
"Oh I'm Sorry Echolls… I was too busy "getting baked in Encinada!" she giggled, her voice breaking. She had emailed her father everything she found. He won't get away with it.. even if he kills me she thought.
Logan felt his blood run cold. What had she just said?
"What did you just say?" his voice was small, hollow.
"I'd offer you a drink… but that shot glass is locked up in an evidence box somewhere in the Sheriffs department… we will just have to drink out of the bottle instead huh?" she retorted sarcastically, baiting him through the door. She was done being afraid of him. If he was going to hurt her… she wouldn't go down without a fight.
She knew…she knew he had been in Neptune that day. No wonder she had looked so afraid of him today..
"Veronica… please let me in!" Logan pleaded, knocking the door. He was desperate to talk to her, to look her in the eyes, to explain.
"Why? So you can Kill me like you killed Lilly?" she shrieked as he twisted the handle, realizing her voice was coming from much further down the door he crouched down beside where she would be sitting on the other side. He felt like she had knocked the wind right out of him… he felt sick.
"Y-you think I-I killed Lilly?" he repeated in disbelief. "Veronica…."
"There's CCTV footage of you crossing the Mexican border Logan…" she sobbed. "I KNOW you were here…. Abel Koontz was paid by someone to confess…" she elaborated, her voice was matter of fact, almost empty. His mind was spinning, he crouched up on the opposite side of the door, old wounds ripping right open. "So you can Kill me like you killed Lilly?" she had shrieked. Veronica thought he had killed the love of his life?
"It wasn't me!" Logan told her. Veronica had been one of his closest friends… how could she think he was capable of something like this?
"I don't believe you… you lied to my dad Logan… 9 times out of 10 its usually the boyfriend" she declared, rhyming off the statistics.
"I would never hurt Lilly !" he roared, burying his head into his hands. "Abel Koontz.. confessed…" he repeated, he began to cry.
"Yea… because someone paid him. Probably someone who threatened him… someone with a temper" her voice was thick with inference.
"I don't have a temper" Logan denied.
"Yeah? Tell that to my CAR" she accused him, suddenly he could see the last year from her perspective. He had turned her into a social pariah at school, he had delighted in taking his pain and frustrations out on her, making her suffer for her betrayal of their friendship and her misguided faith in her incompetent father who had allowed the crime scene video to be leaked all over the internet under his supervision as Sheriff. He had been obsessed with her. Of course she would interpret all of that as a threat now… how could she not think the worst of him after what he had put her through?
"You had put that bong in my Locker…" Logan explained helplessly. "I can't believe you'd think that I could've hurt Lilly" he replied, his voice was breaking.
Was he crying? Veronica thought.
"I don't know what to think Logan… I don't know why you would have lied…" she told him, tears streaming down her face as she held the taser in her hand. She should call Weevil…
"Please let me in.. we need to talk about this…" he pleaded, he sounded so lost. "I didn't hurt Lilly, Veronica… I swear…" he sobbed, grief ripped through his shoulders and shook him. He heard her stand up on the other side of the door, she walked away a few paces, moving around inside for a moment and then he realised she was opening the door. She stared at him for a few moments and then slowly stepped aside to allow him inside, she still held her taser in her hand. She didn't trust him.
"I'm leaving… and you aren't going to follow me" she told him boldly.
"Wait… Please wait" Logan pleaded as she held up the taser and flicked the switch in a warning. His brown eyes bore into her. "Veronica…. Please" he beseeched, his hands held up beside him as he walked backwards into the room and sat down on the farthest of the twin beds. "I won't come any closer to you than this, I swear it… just… please hear me out" he begged, his voice was broken, something in the way he spoke to her was…desperate, vulnerable?
"Why should I believe a word you say?" she demanded, staying by the door.
"Because I loved Lilly, Veronica… I would never have hurt her" he swore, there was such conviction in his tone that Veronica was starting to doubt herself.
"That still doesn't explain why you followed me here.." she pointed out.
"I-I was worried about you" he confessed.
"Ok… now I know you are lying!" she spat at him. He pursed his lips together and lowered his hands to rest in his lap, not quite about to meet her eye. "You have been making my life hell for MONTHS Logan… now the truth comes out and suddenly you are worried about me? Worried about what I'm going to tell the Sheriff more like!"
"The Sheriff?" he rasped. "Veronica…. I haven't done anything… you didn't show up for Practise and I got scared that something had happened to you.." he explained.
"Lying doesn't suit you Logan" she informed him as she ran out and slammed the door behind her.
Logan felt like someone had just ripped the bottom out his world, and he was falling helpless into the abyss of questions this was raising, he was freaking out. Keith Mars had found a witness that proved Abel Koontz had lied?
That meant Lilly's killer was still out there somewhere… That meant he had been wrong about Veronica's dad.. that meant he had been making her life hell for nothing. He raced from the bed and chased after her.
"We were friend's Veronica!" he called out after her. "You KNOW me" he pleaded, he was much taller than her and it hadn't taken him long to close the short distance between them.
"I thought I did Logan… but now I KNOW you are psychotic jackass and by God if you don't stop following me I will taser you" she threatened as she turned to hold it up to him.
"I didn't hurt Lilly" he told her again firmly.
"I don't believe you" she replied.