Wow, more amazing reviews. You have no idea what they mean to me, everything is kind of falling apart around me lately with family and friends and school, and it may seem sad, but getting reviews from you guys, both good and bad, just knowing that others are enjoying something that I do to unwind just brightens my day. So keep them coming. (special thanks to BuffyBC and moustrich for reviewing every chapter, and also oxsummerxo and LoVe23 for also reviewing often. And everyone else rocks too!)
Ok, now that I've been all sappy. A few people have asked when the LoVe was coming. And my answer is soon, but realistically, probably not for two or three more chapters, because from the way they have been in the last two it is clear that they aren't quite ready for that yet. So hold on… it won't be until the last few chapters like the real season. I HATED that. So it will be soon, hold your horses.
Disclaimer: As you all know, I don't own it. Rob Thomas does and whatever network has it at this given moment gets credit as well.
Oh, and this was another hard episode to write… partially because Logan is barely in it, partially because a couple of the scenes don't work anymore with what I'm trying to do, and also because I have a few ideas for the next two chapters… and I really want to write them, so I rushed this one a bit.
Chapter Four: Jealous Much?
Veronica sat in her father's office over a week later and still had the events of that Friday haunting her. Her cell phone didn't help. It just had to ring everyday, saying that Logan was trying to talk to her. The thing was, she couldn't. She went out of her way to avoid him like the plague and he wasn't making it easy.
He started by calling her right after she left as she drove away, of course she didn't answer, ashamed of crying in front of him. He called twice more that day before finally leaving a message saying, "Ronnie, I don't know what happened, but I'm here if you need me, I've always have been."
That had made her cry even more, he had always known just what to say, what was just enough with out prying into her thoughts. She hated that he knew her so well. She didn't want him to, so despite the sudden urge to answer she felt when he called again the next day, she let it go to voice mail.
He only called that one time Saturday, but then on Sunday she got another message at about 10:30 at night saying, "Ok Ronnie, I even called Duncan to see if he's heard from you, and apparently you haven't even talked to Meg. You have us worried. And honestly, you know I'm too pretty to get worry lines, so call back."
The next day at school she hid out, only seeing him in the two classes they had together, which she made sure to dash out of the minute the bell rang. He called her a few times off and on through the week and stopped leaving messages that were at all caring. They start to be just, "Way to avoid me Mars. Oh and by the way, you still have a job I'm paying you for."
She knew about the job, and she had heard around that things were still disappearing from Logan's house, but somehow she just couldn't bring herself to talk to him. The phone that sat on the desk in front of her finally vibrated just once, signifying a message. That was when she actually brought herself to pick it up. The message this time was just, "I'll stop now." Good she thought to herself as a woman with very dyed blonde hair and too pink outfit burst through the door.
"I need to higher a private detective?" The woman said sitting herself down in front of the desk, "I know you aren't open on Sundays, but its kind of an emergency. I need you to investigate my boyfriend, well potential fiancé, now that I found an engagement ring in his gym bag."
"You found it?" Veronica said with a smirk. There was nothing like an obsessively nosey girlfriend, they always paid the most.
"I need total information."
"Well, I can write it all down and leave it for Mr. Mars to look at first thing tomorrow."
"His name is Colin Nevin. What can you get me?"
"Well there's our standard package, background check, criminal record…" the woman shook her head. "Then there's our premium package, we talk to a few friends, maybe chat with an ex."
"See that's what I'm afraid of. Look Colin is a trust fund kid, with a lot of free time. I want to know what he does all day."
"That would call for our silver package. Premium plus surveillance. An all access pass into his private life."
The woman nodded handing her a card. "I'll take it."
"Alright, Miss… Block, I'll have Mr. Mars look into your case." At that her father walked through the door. "Mr. Mars, Julie Block." Her father shook the woman's hand as she made her way out the door, but the smile on his face started to slowly fade until he was at the desk shaking his head.
"Jumpy fiancé?"
"Potential fiancé, with money burning a hole in her pocket. She will pay anything."
"Well, I appreciate that, but I don't have time for the cases as it is, you know now that you convinced me to run for sheriff again. Plus you work at Java the Hut."
"Oh yeah, those tips really pay off. Come on; just let me help out, on the little things, nothing dangerous that would involve a suit of armor. Please?"
"Well, your other job is being a student; can't you just do normal teenage things for once? Just call Miss Jumpy and tell her I can't take the case."
At that Veronica picked up the phone, pretending to dial. She put on her most convincing voice and told the dial tone that Mr. Mars couldn't take anymore cases at the time. My dad may not be able to, but I sure have the time. Plus it will be something to take my mind off things.
Later that night, through a meeting with Julie, learning that she was the typical jealous girlfriend, afraid that a framed photo at his home and phone calls at night equaled cheating. She was also one of those head cases who lied about their money, because she wanted him to want her for who she was. Personally, Veronica thought that who ever her boyfriend was must be crazy, but 2000 dollars spoke louder than the voice in her head so she took the case and promised to look into everything before going to bed and falling promptly asleep.
The next day's classes were all boring, and tailing Julie's boyfriend proved to be just as dull. She sat and watched him run laps for and hour and a half, the only good thing coming out of it was finishing all of her homework. Tuesday wasn't much better, not until she saw Wallace and his AM donut run goodies.
"My dad spend the night again? Do the AM Donut fake out I see." Wallace raised his eye brows at her comment, holding out the bag. Suddenly Jackie came out of nowhere, smacking is butt on the way. I really don't like her. Veronica thought as Wallace waved goodbye and walked away with the new girl, but then got distracted at the sight of Dick and Logan walking in her direction.
She knew she couldn't avoid Logan forever, after all they were supposedly friends, but it was just too hard to deal with him at the moment, so she slid into the girl's bathroom until the bell rang. After school she was prepared to fall asleep at a tennis match, but when she got in her car to follow him to the court, he ended up at 8520 Primrose Lane.
She took a few pictures and gave Julie a call. That was where the caller who he kept talking to on the phone lived and at that information, Julie promptly hung up her phone, leaving Veronica the opportunity to snoop further.
She got out of her car, sneaking around looking around the property, and she had just started to look into the window when she heard tires screech behind her, and a very angry Julie Block came storming out of the convertible.
Veronica shouted to stop she, screamed at her, but it took a football style tackle to get Julie off the warpath. "Julie!" she shouted "He's in there with a rabbi."
"But he's not Jewish. I AM!" Julie said, struggling but Veronica kept her hold.
"Um…." Veronica said, shaking her head, as Julie put two and two together. Then it hit Veronica. Julie was just going to get more impossible the longer it took to get the truth. He thought was confirmed when her cell phone rang at 2:27 in the morning, with Julie, complaining about the woman on the bar. She wanted more. So Veronica gave it to her. The extra thousand she figured would be well worth it.
Veronica however, was not thinking about the extra money as she trudged around school half awake from late night chitchat. She thought she was going to make it through the day with out much fuss, which she appreciated, until good old Weevil decided to show up at her locker after last period.
"So I heard that you got to take a ride downtown last week. Did you flop for the cops? Or better yet, did they hook you up with some ankle bling?" He said, leaning casually again the locker next to hers.
"You know, every time something goes wrong it's my fault! And speaking of bling, I did not know that you were a genie. Are ya holdin' out on me?" She said pointing to the hoops attached to his ears.
"Well you try to find out by rubbing my head and you won't have that arm of yours anymore." That's when it clicked for her. When she got called in about Curly Moran, Lamb had an earring that he accused her of owning. She knew she had seen that thing before, and now she knew where.
"Well, they are better than the disco ball you usually wear. Where is it? Cuz I'm thinking an evidence bag down at the sheriff's office." She stared for a second. "The question is, what was it doing at the Road Hog?"
"I don't know what you are talking about. I don't own an earring like that."
"Really, cuz you're wearing it in your yearbook picture. Hello sheriff's office!" She said pulling out her cell phone.
"Alright alright," he said pulling her away from the rest of the PCHer's, "A couple weeks ago, I got this call saying that Moran was hired to pull off the bus crash by the Fitzpatricks. Said that they were after Cervando."
"As in the Fighting Fitzpatricks?"
"Yeah. Cervando kept saying he had hustled Liam Fitzpatrick."
"That's a lot of info. What did you do?"
"Nothing." She raised an eyebrow. "The Fitzptricks may do a hell of a lot, but they would crash a bus load over a few grand. So I ignored it. I can even give you the number if you want. I called him back already, but it just rings. Look, am I going to be brought in by Lamb, because if I am, I really should put on my good underwear."
"Yeah, you know, if your underwear stand up on your own, you should change them anyway." She said, after she programmed in the number she had gotten off of his phone. She didn't really want to follow through with the gold package, so she stalled, going home, taking a nap, even looking into the Fitzpatricks a bit, but finally she got up the energy to pick up her cell and make a call, putting her plan to get the dirt on Colin into action.
"Wallace, old buddy, old pal!"
"Veronica," he said pulling away from Jackie who was nibbling on his neck. "Are you in life threatening danger?"
"At this moment no, but I really need an AV guy to help me out with a scenario I have going down in a half an hour."
"Hey, I'd love to help, but I have my own little scenario going on right here."
"Wallace, what do you think you would be getting if you had say… two hundred to spend on the little lady?"
With that Wallace hung up, throwing his shoes on. "When she tells you to jump, you should really say how high." Jackie said, pouting at the end of the couch.
"We're friends Jackie. She needs my help, so I'm going to come through, she would do if for me."
"Well then, I may have to have a little… chat with Goldilocks."
"I wouldn't do that. Veronica isn't someone you want to piss off."
"Neither am I."
"Fine, just come with." Wallace said finally, pulling his key off of the coffee table and heading to the front door.
Fifteen minutes later, the two were waiting in front of a huge ocean front house as Veronica pulled up in the LeBaron, and stepped out of the car wearing the most slutty yet innocent outfit she could muster.
"Sorry I'm late. Hand me a mic," she said to him, before noticing that Jackie still sat in the passenger's seat. "What is she doing here?"
"Do you own those clothes…?" He said, ignoring her question. "Or did you have to stop at Dirty Co-Eds-R-Us?"
"Ha Ha." She said, stuffing the microphone down her shirt. "And fine whatever, as long as she doesn't get you too distracted she can stay."
"Good because I got to make a little peace with my woman."
"Your woman? Are you sure. I mean I saw her the day after our first Pride and Prejudice night with some guy at Java the Hut."
"That was like a couple of weeks ago, when we had been on like two dates."
"So things have… progressed."
"You haven't seen her with anyone else lately have you now." He said as he went to go let the air out of her tire. "Now you just go do you job, while I do mine."
Veronica pranced up to the door, putting on her best flirt as she got him to come out to help her with her tire. She even managed to stick her butt and her chest out as she leaned over to wipe oil off of her forehead. She thought that would work, but it didn't, so she played the whole 'I need to e-mail my mid-term to my professor' ruse, but it didn't work either. She became so desperate that she attempted to pull off the the whole, I'm a crazy college girl just looking to have some fun thing. But no matter how thick she layed it on he didn't buy it, so she went and snooped at his computer as she "e-mailed her mid-term."
It was taking longer than she expected, and Jackie was getting impatient so Wallace made his way to the door, hoping to speed it along. He had heard that she had found out a lot of what she wanted, so he figured it couldn't hurt, but when he rang the doorbell, Veronica begged him to stall from the top of the stairs. He stood their shell shocked until suddenly he burst out with.
"Would you like so save the hungry, starving children of… the world?" he smiled timidly at the man in front of him.
Colin hesitated for a second, "Are you selling something?"
"Oh, yes. I'm selling pens and… candy. Yep, pens and candy."
"I'll take a few boxes of candy. What do you have?" Wallace was about to panic when suddenly he heard a female voice behind him.
"Actually," Jackie appeared at his side, "We are taking a survey right now as to what colored pens and which kind of candies will sell the most, so that our fundraiser will have the greatest affect on the population." Wallace looked at her with wonder and amazement.
"Oh well, I like black pens and chocolate is…" he started as Veronica came bursting past him with the CD in hand.
"Thanks so much, I e-mailed the paper and called AAA. Your karma's golden!" she pushed Jackie and Wallace away from the door. "Thanks so much you guys. I think I just got everything I needed."
"Well, don't look at is as a favor for you. Wallace was looking like an idiot and I just couldn't have that now could I?" Jackie said pulling Wallace towards the car. Wallace just smiled at Veronica as she mouthed thank you one last time. Then they all got in their cars and drove off.
Veronica couldn't help but feel bad for Colin. He seemed like a good guy, devoted, even going to a rabbi for his girlfriend, while Julie was hiring her to dig up everything. She couldn't sleep that night she wanted to tell Julie what she found so bad. After digging on the internet a bit as well, she found out that Colin Neville had definitely found out the fact that Julie was wealthy.
The next day she rushed out of school to get to the office, calling Julie in. "How was it? Was it awful?" Julie said, most likely about the scenario Veronica had set up.
"Actually, he was a perfect gentleman. He wouldn't stop talking about you."
"I guess that makes me a jealous freak, right?"
"There's more…" Veronica said, sitting down on the couch with a file, "After a very, very extensive investigation, it seems that Colin has been nothing but loyal. Also, everyone I talked to thought he was an amazing guy."
"The bad news…?"
"The house he is living isn't his. He's house sitting, for Nicholas Cage. And also, it appears as though he did look into your background, and probably knows that you are wealthy."
"I should have known! They always just want the money. He told me he had a trust fund, and let me believe that house was his!"
Veronica was about to say something about how she had been digging up dirt on him too, when he father walked through the door. A frown swept across his face at the sight of Julie. "Miss Block, I need to speak to Veronica alone for a minute."
"Oh its ok." She said slowly gathering her purse. "I need to go stand in traffic for awhile anyway."
"Another satisfied customer? Well, please file this under cases I don't have time for but my disobedient daughter can take behind my back."
"Look I'm sorry."
"For taking the case? Or for getting caught?"
"Ok. Both, but I thought it was crazy to pass up on that kind of money when I could handle it."
"Veronica, when you're eighteen you can't handle everything, believe it or not. And you don't get away with it all either. Whether is playing I-Spy after school or having Logan Echolls spend the night when I'm out of town?" With that her father closed the door to his office before she could say anything in her defense. She didn't have Logan over because she wanted to. It didn't matter; she knew he wouldn't listen anyway.
She sat down staring at the computer in front of her when something hit her. She picked up the phone and dialed Julie's number, hoping to catch her before she did anything stupid. "Julie?" she said as she heard a click.
"I just did it. It's over, as soon as he checks his messages." Julie said through tears.
"You broke up with him through his answering… Anyway, Julie, the search he did on your family was done five days ago. You found the ring weeks ago. He was going to propose before he found out that you had money. He was probably just trying to find your dad to ask him permission."
"But he lied about the house!"
"Did he ever tell you he owned it?"
"It was implied! That means he probably lied about the trust fund too!"
"Well you weren't exactly honest with him either."
"It's different. Its one thing to say you don't have money when you do, the other way around is way worse." With that Veronica hung up. Julie was making her sick. So money did matter, just not to him.
She drove home after that, not wanting to be at the office anymore but as she drove something hit her. She took a second look at the handkerchief that Colin had given her to wipe off the oil on her face, and then made a bee-line to the liquor cabinet. When you spend years watching your mother take out bottle after bottle, you start to remember the labels, and the lable of the bottle in her hand matched the emblem on the piece of fabric that lay on the counter.
At that moment she knew what she had to do. Twenty minutes later she was dropping off a box at Julie's house. Its contents included the bottle from the liquor cabinet, a few articles talking about the company, the handkerchief and a note. The note stated simply that everything Colin had ever told her was true. They both had just wanted to be loved for who they were and not for their money and obviously only one of them was.
By the time she got back to the apartment her fathers car was pulled into its spot, making her hesitant to open the door. But when she stepped inside the living room, the face her father was making was not of shame like it had been at the office, but more of a smirk.
"What?" She said raising one eyebrow.
"Alright. Maybe I could use a little help down at the office. A bit."
"I'm sorry come again?" She said, but got nothing in return, "You are never going to tell me what prompted this are you?" He nodded. "Wait! Did you mix up two clients again? You did, didn't you! Ha!"
"I'm just asking you to help out with simple things, files, research, the phones… Just a couple days a week, as long as you keep your job at the Hut!" Veronica shook her head as she headed into her room. With Julie out of the way, she had remember the tip that Weevil had told her about a few days before, and was currently anxious to find out who the mysterious tipster was.
She typed in the number into a search, but what she came up with puzzled her. One phone call later and she found herself staring at her wall again with a look or surprise. But then again, she wasn't really surprised; consider these days he seemed to be the root of most of her problems. With that she went to bed, a new mission set for the next day at school.
When she arrived the next morning, she went on the war path looking for Logan. After ten minutes of searching, she finally saw him casually walking across the quad… alone. She approached him with caution.
"Ok! So now you talk to me. You must want something. Wait wait, I can't take the begging. Let's see, I've already let you have your way with me, but I guess one more time won't hurt." He said with a smirk, readjusting the backpack that was slung casually over his shoulder.
"Saturday September 24th, there was a two minute call on Weevil's cell phone from a hotel room that you had booked at the Neptune Grand. The caller claimed that Curly Moran was responsible for the bus crash, the same Curly Moran who's friends with your dad. Any explanations, cuz I'm sure this ones gonna be good." She said defiantly.
"Alas my day is complete; Veronica Mars has accused me of evil." He twirled his imaginary mustache. "Well first off, who the hell is Curly Moran and how do you know he knows my dad?"
"Well, the proof is the poster in your house that shows that Curly Moran was the stunt coordinator of 'The Long Haul' a movie starring your father."
"Not that poster again… Veronica…"
"Now September 24th."
"That was the night of my Life's Short party."
"Oh yes. A bunch of your classmates plummet off a cliff and you and Dick throw a party. And that was at Duncan's."
"It was in their honor. But we turned it into a whole floor event. Dick and I each got a room too. But you know what, I couldn't have made the call because I was probably on your couch… remember that? You had your way with me only to drop me off in the morning without so much as a goodbye make out session. Plus, apparently after I left someone let your little friends like Weevil and his lackies in, before the police took the kegs for themselves that is. Then again, that doesn't really matter to you, does it? You just accuse me of anything you want." He said starting to turn away. "And to think I actually was worried about you the last two weeks." He finished, walking away, leaving her to watch his retreating form.
