"Mr. Kane, I need to make you aware of…an incident…involving your father."

Duncan closed his eyes and sighed. "CW, my father is Mr. Kane. I know it's difficult for you but please, can you call me Duncan?"

"Alright, sir. He is very distressed and I think you need to be made aware of the circumstances."

Duncan shifted the phone to his other ear. "Is he okay?"

"Physically, yes, but a situation has developed recently that has upset him greatly and I am concerned that his decision-making may be…compromised at this time."

"What's going on?"

"First, sir, are you aware of a group known as The Castle?"

Duncan was aware. At one time, his father had expected him to attend his alma mater as an undergraduate and that expectation had included membership in this secret society. Obviously, the secret part of this expectation had not been kept all that well between the Kane men but Jake was a prominent member of the group and he had made Duncan aware of them shortly after Duncan's induction into Neptune's junior league secret society, The Tritons. Of course, getting his high school girlfriend pregnant and then running away with their daughter in his senior year at Neptune High had put a damper on many of the expectations that Duncan's parents had had for him. Personally, Duncan was unconcerned about these details; he was thrilled to be with his daughter and his parents' refusal to help him achieve custody of Baby Girl Manning after Meg's death still stung. The loss of their goals for him as a result of his life on the run was the very least of his concerns.

"Yes, CW, I know about The Castle. I assume Dad is devoting a lot of time to them since he's on his own now? The divorce is final, Lilly's dead, and I'm in the wind. What else does he have to do? He's got worker bees for all the Kane Software stuff these days."

"Yes, that is an accurate assessment. However, The Castle's…sovereignty, for lack of a better term, was compromised recently. This happened at your father's new home and he has not responded well."

"Obviously not; someone broke into the house? Just for The Castle?" Duncan rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Do you know who broke in? Were they apprehended?"

"Yes sir, we do know. It was Veronica Mars."

Duncan listened in stunned silence as Clarence Weidman outlined the events of the last few weeks. How Veronica and her current boyfriend (not Logan, thank God) had been caught on video in flagrante from a camera feed intended to capture images of a Castle initiate. How that video had been cut and distributed by a collegiate member of The Castle, making Veronica a viral sex tape star (oh God, not Veronica too). How Veronica had attempted to take matters into her own hands (shocking) and had broken into Jake's new house, not even aware that it was Jake's house, to try to exact some vengeance for her humiliation. How her actions, stealing and decrypting a hard drive (defeating Jake Kane's security measures?) had been uncovered, resulting in her father's arrest, disgrace, and ultimate loss at the polls in the recent sheriff's election.

Listening to Clarence's outline of the facts made Duncan feel physically ill. After the scandal with the sex tapes of Lilly and Aaron, Duncan was appalled that Veronica had been victimized in a similar fashion. He was gratified when Clarence advised that the collegiate Castle member who created the tape had been on the receiving end of a sound beating by Logan. Apparently even if Veronica was engaging in sex tape activities with someone else, Logan was still riding to her rescue. Despite his concerns about how might Veronica feel about Logan, Duncan was glad that his former best friend had been there to do what he did best. Beat the crap out of the evildoer.

"Okay, so what is happening now that you're concerned about?"

Clarence's final point was that Duncan's father was now clamoring for someone's blood. He intended to see a Mars behind bars whether it was Keith, Veronica, or both. The events of the last few years had taken their toll. From the moment that Lilly's death was discovered, the Kanes had been on high alert, assuming that Duncan was the guilty party. The actions undertaken to change Lilly's presumed time of death had horrified Jake. Watching his beautiful daughter's body covered in a blanket and a layer of ice had nearly broken him, particularly since her open-eyed face had to be untouched to avoid obvious evidence tampering so had remained uncovered and bloody for the whole process. Duncan was virtually catatonic after finding Lilly's body so he did not have any memories of his own of what had occurred that night but once Lilly's true killer was discovered, many of the details were disclosed to him. Beyond the stress of the cover-up, the pursuit by Keith had been trying and when Jake became aware of Celeste's actions in driving his long-term mistress out of town, that, coupled with the ongoing question of Veronica's paternity, had brought Jake very close to his breaking point. The obstruction of justice case, although ultimately resolved with nothing more than a hefty fine, forced both Jake and Celeste to relive the worst night of their lives and when they lost their only remaining child to a life on the run, the Kanes essentially broke. Jake and Celeste separated, and later divorced. Duncan had thought when that occurred that Jake would re-kindle his affair with Veronica's mother but ultimately, it never appeared that he had. Instead, he had purchased a new estate in Neptune and had tried to hold on. Duncan knew that Jake's work at Kane Software had become virtually non-existent and that he had become something of a recluse in his new home. He had not realized that Jake was now filling all his spare time with The Castle but with nothing else left in his life, Duncan was not terribly surprised.

"I assumed sir, that you would have a different position on dealing with the Mars family."

Duncan thought it was the height of irony that the family's security guy was now consulting with him on strategy. Duncan could still hear Veronica's voice from two years ago, " . ," and wondered if she realized how untrue that statement had become. She had watched him throw away his life of comfort and ease to ensure the safety of his daughter but she had no idea what happened after that. Life on the run had changed Duncan and he thought (hoped) Veronica would find those changes to be...intriguing. His decision to reach out to Clarence Weidman a year ago and order the hit on Aaron's life after the debacle of the trial was done more for the sake of Veronica than any vengeance for Lilly. The rationale he verbalized to CW was the terrible risk that Aaron loose on the street posed to both the Kane and Mars families as well as to Logan. He believed that was true. He also spoke of retribution for taking Lilly's life, and he believed that was true also. However, he was more circumspect about voicing his feelings about making Aaron pay for everything that had happened to Veronica. Lilly's death had changed Veronica, changed all of them really, but the person who had paid the greatest price was Veronica. There were many people involved in exacting that price...Logan, Celeste, Keith & Leanne, he was even mature enough to acknowledge that he was to blame as well. However, it was likely that none of the things that had caused the changes in Veronica would have happened if Aaron Echolls had stuck to affairs with women his own age and, more significantly, if he not been a homicidal maniac. He thought of Veronica clinging to her father on a gurney when he and his father had pulled up to the confused scene after the showdown with Aaron two years earlier. Duncan had had Aaron killed for hurting Veronica as he had. He only wished she knew it.

"Yes, you're correct. I don't want to see either of them prosecuted. If he backs off, doesn't press charges, can this be fixed?"

"Yes, I think it can. The evidence of Ms. Mars' break-in was destroyed; that is part of the case against her father, destruction of evidence. The DA's office can only make a case for that evidence existing in the first place because your father's neighbor supplied Mr. Mars with the security camera that had the images; he watched the film with Mr. Mars who was acting sheriff at the time, before the election. Just like with the tapes from the pool house, the neighbor can testify as to what he saw but if he does not, they don't have a case. I think the neighbor would just as soon let it go but your father is pushing him."

"Have you tried talking to him?"

Clarence's tone was slightly tentative. "Yes, but my opinion on appropriate actions not related to a direct security issue is not something that your father really seeks. I think though that if you were to suggest that he should let the issue drop, he would be persuaded. Truthfully, I thought he was going to drop it when Ms. Mars returned the hard drive but..."

"Wait. She returned it?"

"Yes. I'm not even sure that she knew what she was stealing in the first place. She came looking for information on who taped her and put the video on-line. It was merely an unfortunate series of events that resulted in her walking out with the Castle confessions."

Duncan shook his head. Leave it to Veronica to find the most explosive thing in the house and walk away with it. "Oh shit, really? If she has that information, probably the entire Castle membership is pushing him to prosecute."

"You might think that but the more important members would prefer that he let it drop. They are afraid that if pushed too far, Ms. Mars may divulge some of their secrets. She has a bit of a reputation for being a loose cannon—" Duncan snorted at that "—and they would prefer to just close the issue and pretend nothing ever happened."

Duncan was still chuckling at the understatement of the year. Loose cannon, indeed. "So you think I can convince him to drop this."

"I think that if anyone can, it would be you. Ms. Mars actually came to see him herself, begging for leniency for her father and for protection for young Mr. Echolls, but your father...well, let's just say he was unmoved."

Duncan considered this. Clarence was probably correct. And, who else would try to convince Jake about this anyway? Certainly not Celeste. Despite the fact that Keith and Veronica were as victimized by the affair between Jake and Lianne as Celeste had been, she applied her hatred with a very broad brush and anyone named Mars was subject to her anger. Who else would even think to approach Jake about this issue? Logan? If he wasn't with Veronica, he might not even be fully aware of the situation and if he did know, it was doubtful whether Jake would be responsive to him. Once upon a time, Jake had been fond of Logan. Even when it was obvious that Jake's presumably only daughter was sexually involved with Logan, Jake never seemed to respond to him the way that Keith Mars always did to his daughter's suiters. Perhaps it was that Jake saw the inevitability of Lilly's escapades and figured Logan was a less undesirable option than other potential boyfriends. Or, perhaps Jake was aware of the life that Logan lived with Aaron. Regardless of the reason for Jake's prior leniency with Logan, the revelation that Aaron had killed Lilly ended that. The fact that Logan mourned Lilly and hated Aaron with as much, if not more, passion than the Kanes was not relevant to Jake. For that reason, Duncan knew that any pleas from Logan on behalf of the Mars family might actually be counter-productive. And who else was there? No one. If anyone had a chance of swaying Jake, it had to be Duncan.

"OK, CW, I'm in. But you know I can't come see him in Neptune. You're going to have to get him to me. Any ideas for how you can accomplish that?"