Logan Echolls looked at his cell phone lighting up on the dashboard, his father was calling him again. He was out much later than he had intended to be, he glanced at his face in the rear-view mirror. He looked deranged he thought sullenly, looking at his red puffy eyes, they were still watering, he wasn't sure if it was tears from grief or the pepper spray Veronica had blasted into his face twenty minutes ago. His lip was still throbbing.
Of course she had run from him… he scolded himself. He had over powered her, carried her against her will into the Camelott Motel Suite and tried to stop her from leaving. He had taken her phone, disarmed her.. the more he replayed it in his head, the worse it became. What the hell had he been thinking?
His heart was pounding, it felt like the world had just chewed him up and spat him out. The girl he loved thought he was a murderer. The thought whispered unwelcomely around his head. Surely that wasn't why he was so upset? He didn't love her he reasoned. The personalized ringtone continues to ring as Godsmack "I fucking hate you" started to fill the car, his dad had called twice already.
"Where have you gone Veronica?" he muttered under his breath to no one in particular, as if somehow the cold night air would summon up an answer. 30 minutes ago.. he had been sat in this very car searching for Veronica Mars. He had found her at the Camelott Motel carrying some take out back to her room. He had been pissed off at her for leaving him alone to carry out their journalism assignment on his own, he had thought she was going there for some illicit hook up.. but it turns out, she had been hiding from him. Her plan probably would have worked if he had just gone straight home after meeting with the football team, instead, he had went by her house and the former Sheriff, Keith Mars's Private Investigations office to give her a piece of his mind, but mostly because he was sick with worry. She hadn't been there, he had needed to stop and get fuel before he went home when he had seen her crossing the parking lot and going up the stairs to her room.
30 minutes ago… it had just been another day in his life of hating Veronica Mars.
Then she had thrown the grenade that had ripped his whole world apart. She had been hiding from him… because she knew he lied about his Alibi the day his girlfriend Lilly Kane had been murdered.. she had left her car abandoned at school to avoid seeing him, she had run from the motel room in the middle of the night, leaving him curled over and gasping as she had defended herself.
How had she even found out about the Shot Glass? He wondered.
"I don't believe you" she had told him when he had pleaded his innocence. He turned down the most likely road that she would have taken, pursuing her was so much more difficult considering he was confined to the roads and she could run through all the small neighbourhoods he couldn't drive down. He had to talk to her. To make her see his side of the story, the thought that she could even think he was capable of murdering Lilly was destroying him. He could be a jackass sometimes… but he wasn't a bad person. He wasn't evil in the ways she had suggested. He wouldn't have killed Lilly, he wouldn't have destroyed her brother Duncan's family, he wouldn't have ruined his best friend's life, and he wasn't capable of something so hideous.
The phone rang one more time and he lifted it angrily.
"Where are you?" Aaron Echoll's voice growled down the phone.
"I'm in the car… my classmate Veronica… she's had some trouble with her car" Logan excused.
"For the last two hours?" Aaron interrogated, Logan knew from the tone of his voice that he had already decided this would be night spent in the studio room with… what? Child Abusers choice… would it be a belt this evening or one of his prized movie boots to kick against his son's ribcage? Aint love grand?
"She to leave something off at work for her dad.. and then I drove her home… we ended up getting take-out… I'm sorry.. it won't happen again" Logan stammered.
"Veronica? Is that the Mars girl?" Aaron asked cautiously.
"Yeah Dad… We just had a lot of work to do for this article after school.. and I was going to see about calling over to visit Duncan.. use his video editor" he continued, trying to appease his dad. He heard a conversation going on in the background between his parents, his mother's voice calming his father.
"Your mother was concerned about your whereabouts, but she says she is glad to see you reconnecting with old friends" Aaron relented.
"I know it's a bit last minute to ask… but I was thinking… since it's so late by the time Duncan and I will be finished up… maybe I could stay in the Kane's guest house tonight?" Logan suggested. He really wanted to avoid going home, but mostly… he had to find Veronica Mars.
"As long as you don't bother Celeste and Jake" Aaron agreed, his voice was thick with anger. "You and I will continue this conversation tomorrow" he warned as he hung up the phone.
Logan threw the phone against the dashboard and it ricocheted around the car, at least now he had some time. He stared at the small leather bag, it contained her camera and her computer. Maybe there was something in there that could help him to locate her?
He pulled over into a nearby Starbucks car park and pulled out the laptop, he opened it and tried to boot it up… password protected, of course. He tried the usual Password1234. He tried Lilly's name. He tried Duncan's name… he tried the name of her dog Backup123. Nothing worked.
Damn it! He slammed the computer closed again and started to flick through the pictures in her camera… perhaps they would show him something. There weren't many, it seemed like the memory card had been recently replaced, there were several funny pictures of her dog, of kids around school doing various activitys, the odd photograph of license plates… and then there were pictures of the beach, of birds and families playing happily together.. of Neptune City night life, lit up under a thousand beautiful lights. He felt strange looking through her photo's… like he was snooping and reading her diary or something. He was seeing the world through her eyes.. and then there were the to be expected few of Duncan and their old crowd at school, hanging out on the beach.. then he found one of him surfing.. and a few others in between random pictures of school events, another of him caught in a private moment after school while no one else had been looking as he sat outside the Lilly memorial fountain.. She had captured the image of the pensive heartbreak carved into his features, the broken slump in his shoulders. This was a moment that was supposed to go unwitnessed… yet here it was, she had captured him in a moment when he had been supposed to be completely alone… intruded into his grief… something in his gut twisted.
How could she have ever taken this image… looked at him this way… really seen him beyond all the jackass bravado… and still thought he could have killed Lilly?
Lilly… she was gone.. and it still hurt. Guilt bubbled up inside him, why hadn't he been there? It was all his fault. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to chase away the memories of the crime scene video.. her beautiful face tore up on one side, blood everywhere.. her eyes… empty.. vacant… he felt like someone had hollowed out his soul and left him as glassy and void as the dead look in her eyes.
Damn you Veronica…. How could you think this of me? Tears started to steam down his face as he rested his head against his seat and tried to think about what to do… even the suggestion of this would ruin his friendship with Duncan… his one last link to girl he had loved.
Perhaps he should just take her laptop to the Sheriff's Department himself? Call Dick and Cassidy and go down to Sheriff Lamb's office and make a statement? Should he call a lawyer?
He was lost in his own thoughts when a knock on the window beside him shook him from his haze, he looked beside him. It was Meg Manning, Duncan's new girlfriend, and her sister. He pressed the button and wound down the window a little.
"Hi Logan" she smiled pleasantly, wrapping her pink cardigan around her tighter.
"H-hey Meg" he replied. Oh great… witnesses.
"Everything ok?" she asked sweetly, her pretty blue eyes concerned, she was cradling a coffee in her hand.
"Me? Yeah I'm good… just too much Fine from my new freshener" he said playfully as he hit the dice cube air fresheners hanging from his mirror. She nodded and then frowned as she looked at the bag of stuff sitting on the seat beside him.
"You here with Veronica?" she questioned, he followed her gaze and saw that she was staring at the unmistakable identifiable Mars camera on the seat next to him.
"Uh—uh yeah.. we just finished up an article at school" he replied.
"And she left her camera?" Meg probed, she was still close with Veronica… she knew that Logan relished his days tormenting her friend.
"And her laptop… I was just on my way to return it to her" he explained awkwardly. She gave him a sceptical glare.
"Ok… well last I saw she was over by the Java Hut on the Pier near the Arcade.. you know how she feels about Starbucks" Meg informed him. She had seen Veronica?
"How long ago was this?" he said urgently, bolting upright.
"About 10 minutes ago?" Meg's sister suggested as she opened the door to her green mini.
"Did you see where she was heading?" Logan demanded.
"The arcade I think?" Meg told him.
"Thanks!" he called out as he hit the car into reverse and sped out of the car park towards the Neptune Beach Pier. He parked awkwardly and rushed from his car, scanning the faces in the crowd.. he wasn't really sure what the plan was here. It was a very public area along the pier.. but perhaps that could work for him? If she didn't feel threatened.. maybe this time she would hear him out?
"So you can kill me like you Killed Lilly?" her voice screamed at him again.
"Where are you Veronica?" he murmured.. searching for a specific blond petite girl in a beach town like Neptune was like finding a needle in a haystack.
No… she was smarter than this.. she and her dad made their living through blending in.. sinking into the background. She would know how to hide from him.
Why was he even thinking like this? It's not like was hunting her… he had no reason to chase her…
If she had blended into the crowd, then she would be lost to him.. he envisioned her hiding out around the magazine stand in a cheesy tourist t shirt in a black baseball cap hiding her face behind a newspaper, watching his every move. Super Sleuth. She could be hiding out in the girls bathrooms? He thought before going and asking a petite red head girl if she would mind looking for his girlfriend inside as she was upset with him, he had shown her a picture of Veronica and waited desperately by the door… she hadn't been in there.
Why would she have come to the Pier? It was more than just running into a densely populated area.. the security guards on the Pier were notoriously useless, the area was rife with drugs and pickpockets and fat wallet naive tourists. The Neptune Subway platform over to the Stack and Pack where Wallace worked was on the opposite end of the Camelott Motel escape where she had fled from. Surely she would have gone to Wallace? He started to race through the decidedly small list of people he knew she bothered with at school.
Mac.. Meg.. Weevil and the PCHers… Wallace… that stoner kid Rory.. he was still compiling his mental list when he saw her ahead of him, searching frantically through the slot machines and the giant teddy bears, the sounds of the arcade were deafening. She hadn't seen him yet… he followed her slowly, trying to close the distance between them, he was almost within arm's reach when she glanced over her shoulder and their eyes connected. Don't run from me Mars…he ordered silently but she panicked and took off out of the arcade towards the fair ground, it was the summer festival and most of the pier had been turned into a static carnival complete with candy floss stalls, roller coasters and a fun house with mirrors.
"Veronica!" he called desperate to get her attention but it was too late, she bolted up the stairs into the mirror house, he stomped his foot on the ground and gritted his teeth. Of all the bleeding places for her to hide and for him to have to follow her.. she had to pick the mirror maze? Sure.. because this isn't going to be like a cheesy horror movie moment at all? He thought in exasperation.
She was really starting to frustrate him. He climbed the metal stair case and followed her inside, jamming a piece of wood behind the door so no one else would be able to come in.
"Fee Fi Fo Fum Veronica…" He called theatrically as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out her taser. He would give it back to her… let her hold it against his throat if it made her feel safe enough to hear him out.
She felt her heart pounding in her chest as she crouched behind the mirror, he was getting closer. She hadn't been able to find Mateo Lobos.. he wasn't working tonight. Now she was locked in a glass cage with him, she could see several of him as his reflections darted around the mirrors as he looked for her. He twisted the taser in his hands. She did her best to hold her breath, to be small and invisible.
"Aren't you tired yet?" he offered. "Can't you just come out? Can't we just… go and get a coffee and talk about this?" he reasoned. He sounded exhausted. "Please Veronica… Hell… I'll even have coffee in the Sheriffs office and make it official if it would make you feel safer" he pleaded. "You are wrong Veronica…" he told her. "Do you hear me? You are wrong.. you know I didn't kill Lilly.. deep down… you know… because the only other person who loved her as much as I did… was you"
