TLP chapter 3
Jeff hurried into his house. It was his habit to study at Wilson's house whenever they had tests coming up, as it was far quieter there than at the Ratner abode. He had just enough time to grab a quick bite before he had to get over to the Neptune Grand for his shift.
Gabi and Danni were parked in front of the television set in the living room.
"Mamma-Max?" Danni asked.
"It's supposed to make your boobs bigger." Gabi said. "There's ads for it in the back of the penny saver."
"Sounds like a scam." Danni frowned.
"Ya think?" Gabi snorted. "Did that girl look like it worked?"
Jeff ignored them as he hurried through to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and began pulling out Tupperware. Dumping a pile of leftovers onto a plate, he shoved it into the microwave and hit a few buttons.
"Jeff! Jeffie!" Lucy burst into the kitchen, "Ralphie's dead!"
"Aw, that's too bad, Luce." Jeff carefully extracted the hot plate from the microwave. "but you know rabbits don't last all that long around here."
"But this time it wasn't coyotes, it wasn't!" Lucy said. "I kept his cage on the porch, like you said! Coyotes can't get onto the porch. Can they?"
"No, you're right about that." Jeff said, shoveling his dinner into his mouth. "At least, I've never known a coyote who could open a door. They're not velociraptors."
"What?" his little sister looked at him, clearly worried about some new predator stalking her precious pets.
"A joke." He explained. "Jurassic Park. It's a joke."
"Jeff." She said, solemnly. "Ralphie is dead."
"You're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry your rabbit is dead." He continued to wolf down his dinner. "But you know; that's kinda what rabbits do. They eat, poop, make baby rabbits and die."
"Delia is coming over for the funeral." Delia was Lucy's best friend who lived across the street. "Danni and Gabi said they'd come if I waited till Madam Soapie is over."
"Madam What?" Jeff gulped his milk.
"That stupid show they like." Lucy waved toward the TV room. "Today she's selling booby cream. Will you come? To the funeral?"
"I gotta go to work. Can you postpone the funeral till…um…" Jeff ran through his schedule in his head, "…Saturday morning?"
"I don't think that's a good idea." Lucy said seriously. "It's best to get him in the ground fast." Ralphie was far from first pet whose funeral Lucy had officiated. Since he couldn't attend the funeral, Jeff felt he should at least show some interest in the proceedings.
"Aside from the porch, how can you be sure it wasn't a coyote?" he asked.
"He was still in his cage." She muttered.
"Really? How old was he?" Jeff asked. She shrugged. "Maybe he had a heart attack. Maybe he was really old and it was just time for him to go to bunny Heaven."
"Do bunnies go to heaven?" She looked at him, hopefully.
"Would you be satisfied if you got to Heaven and there weren't any bunnies?" Jeff asked. She shook her head, vehemently. "Well, there you go; Heaven's perfect so there must be bunnies, right?"
"Right." She smiled, relieved. "I'm happy that Ralphie's in Bunny Heaven but I don't think he had a heart attack."
"Oh, okay, Dr. Lucy." Jeff laughed. "why not?"
"His head fell off."
Over the course of the weekend, Jeff was far too busy at work to give a thought to his sister's deceased pet. Neptune High was celebrating Home Coming and the hotel was crawling with well dressed, drunk and horny teens. By Sunday night, Jeff was exhausted from running room service carts, chasing kids out of places they didn't belong and escorting police to rooms where too many teens were making so much noise to have elicited complaints from the occupants of the neighboring rooms. His contempt for all things Neptune High related was higher than ever.
Not high enough to prevent him from checking his ballot for Keith Mars for sheriff on the following Tuesday.
Tuesday evening at the Grand wasn't nearly as bad as Homecoming had been but there was a big election party in the Presidential Suite that included lots of the kids he'd chased out of the hotel the weekend before. Jeff had expected some awkwardness when he brought the first catering tray into the party but not a single one of the 09ers recognized him from three nights before. At first Jeff was relieved but that turned to irritation before he left the suite.
"I thought they just didn't remember me," he grumped to Fernando, down in the kitchen, "but it's not that; they didn't see me at all. They just looked right through me. Like I was a piece of furniture or something."
"That's how they are." Fernando said, bitterly. "Those punk ass 09ers don't see anyone but each other. We're worse than invisible to them; we're dispensable."
"Uh, yeah." Jeff said. Fernando was a junior at Neptune High and had only started working at the hotel that summer.
"You guys at Pan have no idea." Fernando went on, "At Neptune we have to put up with it everywhere, every day. Their parents own this town and they know it. They walk all over us, push us around, treat us like dirt and expect us to thank 'em for letting us live on the same planet as them."
"It's bad enough having to deal with those spoiled brats here at work," Jeff said, "It must be a real drag to have to go to school with them."
"Just in case we ever get the idea that we count as human beings, we get reminded that they can actually kill us and no one gives a damn." Fernando shook his head.
"That must be hard." Jeff said. It dawned on him that the younger boy was talking about the murder of Felix Toombs.
"It's hard not taking justice into our own hands and dealing with that punk on our own." Fernando said. "But you can imagine what they'd do to us if we dared to retaliate against one of them."
"Well, yeah, you can't do that." Jeff agreed. "Leave it to the authorities."
"I hate 'em, though." Fernando admitted. "I really do."
"Don't bother." Jeff said. "They're not worth it. Someday, all the crap they do will catch up with them."
Fernando laughed. "You don't really believe that!"
"Yes, I do." Jeff said firmly, pointing at the cross hanging around Fernando's neck, "and so do you."
"Aw, man." Fernando shook his head. "Eternity is too long to wait."
"Eternity is a big price to pay for it." Jeff said. "Whoever killed your friend will either go to jail or to Hell, even if he's an 09er."
"What are you, my priest?" Fernando scowled. "I thought you were a Jew."
"My people have a very long view of justice." Jeff nodded.
"Screw justice." Fernando's lip curled. "We want revenge."
By ten O'clock, Jeff was thirsty for a little revenge of his own; Woody Goodman walked away with the office of Mayor, as expected but Don Lamb clobbered Keith Mars for Sheriff. Justice was dead in Neptune.
Jeff found Fernando back in the kitchen.
"I'm taking another snack trolley up to the Presidential Suite," Jeff told him. "If some of that expired dip got mixed into the fresh stuff, some poor little rich kids might end the night making offerings to the porcelain throne not entirely caused by alcoholic overindulgence…"
"Que?" Fernando glared at him.
"We can give them food poisoning and they'll assume its part of their hangovers." Jeff explained. "But you better be quick or we'll get caught."
"Oh…OH!" Fernando grinned and grabbed the tub of expired dip sitting beside the garbage bin.
Jeff brought the snack trolley back upstairs feeling like he'd struck a blow for justice, race relations and socio-economic equality in Neptune. He felt no guilt at all by the prospect of some of those rotten little shits puking their guts out before dawn.
His self-satisfaction was quickly eclipsed by surprise.
He'd barely pushed the snack trolley off the service elevator when a crowd erupted from the Presidential Suite. Deputy Sacks was pushing Logan Echolls, in cuffs, toward the elevator.
"I assume the press is waiting downstairs." Logan said. "Make sure they photograph me from my left; that's my good side."
"Do you ever exercise your right to remain silent?" Sacks asked.
Jeff watched as Sacks shoved the boy onto the elevator a second deputy had been holding. The two deputies grabbed Echolls by the arms, turning him to face the doors. Just before the doors closed, Echolls looked down the hall and met Jeff's eyes. They stared at each other for the seconds it took for the doors to close.
Jeff blinked. The look on Logan Echolls' face had not been one of smug self-satisfaction or the look of someone who knew they could get away with murder. He just looked scared.
Sometimes Jeff had to be reminded that 09ers were people, too.
Disturbed, Jeff pushed the snack trolley down the hall to the Presidential Suite. Inside, the kids weren't behaving like a crowd from which one member had just been dragged off by the law but then, Jeff had to admit he didn't know exactly how such a crowd should behave.
Completely ignored by the guests, he began to unload the cart onto the bar counter.
"This is not how tonight was supposed to go." A very pretty black haired girl pouted to her group of friends. "Tonight was supposed to be about the election! The future."
"Do you think Logan will be back in school tomorrow?" the other girl asked.
Jeff's hand hesitated over the tub of tainted dip; Fernando's prime target had left the building.
"What's Logan done now?" someone asked.
"They think he killed some Mexican kid."
"What, another one?"
"Nah, just that one from last spring."
"OMIGOD!" the pretty brunette cried. "That was like, before I even came to school here!"
"This is so bogus!" another 09er cried. "They could have waited 'till morning!"
"Yeah," a large, stupid looking blond kid said, "It's not like that Mexican's gonna be any less dead tomorrow."
His name was Felix and he had friends. Jeff thought, as he set his jaw and grabbed the dip. The scared kid on the elevator seemed to be the least callous Neptune Pirate regarding the murder of Felix Toombs. At home, Jeff's little sisters had shown more concern for the death of a rabbit than this whole bunch had for their classmate. He opened the tub and dumped it into the bowl on the table, feeling a small sense of satisfaction as hands immediately began to grab chips and thrust them into the creamy booby trap.
He caught sight of Duncan Kane in the corner, his arm around Veronica Mars. They were deep in conversation.
Your Dad loses his job to that idiot, Don Lamb and you're partying with these trolls? Probably planning your wedding. Enjoy the dip.
He kept his poker face firmly in place as he wheeled the trolley out of the suite.
His phone woke him early.
"Jeff, it's Frank. Can you come in for a couple of hours this morning? Housekeeping is short handed and we've got a major mess in Duncan Kane's suite. Thanks. See you in an hour."
"Uugggh." Jeff groaned, dropping his phone. He'd forgotten that he'd told the Grand that he had a free period first thing Wednesday mornings.
I should have left it alone, he thought. 'Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord." And Karma really is a bitch.
"Hey, I heard there was some excitement at the Grand last night!" Gabi addressed her brother as she tossed her backpack onto the kitchen floor. "You were there; did you see anything?"
"NO." Jeff grimaced. He was sitting at the table with Lucy. They'd been discussing the pros and cons of a new rabbit vs. a new guinea pig. "I saw more than enough this morning. Yuck."
"What?" Gabi frowned. "I'm not talking about some stupid party: Logan Echolls got hauled off in handcuffs! Again!"
"Oh, that." Cleaning up the battle field this morning had driven out all memory of his original intent from Jeff's mind. "Yeah, actually I saw it."
"I heard he put up such a fight that it took four deputies to drag him out!" Gabi said breathlessly as she dropped onto the bench beside her sister. "Is it true?"
"Isn't that double indemnity?" Danni asked, coming into the kitchen. "They arrested him a long time ago for that."
"Double indemnity would be trying someone twice for a crime they've been acquitted of." Jeff shook his head. "Echolls was only arrested last spring, it never went to trial."
"I heard he told the cops his lawyers would make mincemeat out of all of them and make sure none of them ever wore badges again. I heard he asked them if one dead Mexican was worth ending their careers." Gabi said, luridly.
"No." Jeff shook his head. Nothing he'd actually seen supported such a tale and the details he'd gotten from several sources in the morning were of a completely different shade. "He went without a fuss. He acted like it was no big deal."
"Maybe getting taken away in cuffs isn't a big deal to him anymore." Danni suggested.
"No, it was a big deal." Jeff corrected her, remembering the look on Echolls' face as the elevator doors closed.
"So, did he say anything?" Gabi asked.
"He said he wanted to be the cream filling in an Olsen twin sandwich." Jeff replied.
The three girls stared at him.
"I don't get it." Lucy said.
To be continued...