4

During 2nd period, I was called into Principal Clemmons office.

I sat facing him, while the long faced, weary looking man spoke in a very condescending manner.

"Veronica." He said, "I've been hearing serious complaints about your conduct."

I said, "What I, or anybody else did at Gwen Kalenski's party isn't any of your business, Mr. Clemmons. It was not on School property, or during School hours, or at a School sponsored function."

"That's not what I'm talking about, but from what I've heard; I feel sorry for all your parents.

"What I'm talking about Miss Mars, is your conduct here in Neptune High, during School hours. It's been reported that you chased one male student into a boys lavatory, and then you went right in after him."

"That's right." I told him, "I had reason to believe, that there might be an illegal drug deal going down in there. I was mistaken."

"It's been reported that while you were in there, the other boys all yelled at you to get out. My son Vincent was there at the time, and he said that you made a very humiliating comment to him."

Humiliating comment? I remembered that I'd called out "I've seen better!" to all of the guys who'd been shouting at me. I just happened to be looking straight at Vincent Clemmons, who everyone calls "Butters", when I said that.

As I was leaving the lavatory, I heard the younger Mr. Clemmons call out, "You'll pay for this Mars!"

Now, as I sat there in the Principal's Office I said, "You ought to see what's written about me, on the lavatory walls Mr. Clemmons. You've got a bunch of real classy guys at this School."

Then Mr. Clemmons told me, "I know you see yourself as Super Crime Fighting Girl around here Veronica. While you thought you had a very good reason for your 'bold', action; your boldness shows a distinct lack of ladylike decorum. I'm sorry, but I must take disciplinary action in this matter.

"First of all, I want you to apologize to every male student, who you saw in there. Second, I want you to..."

At lunchtime I carried my tray outside, where I saw Weevil seated alone, at a table near some palm trees. I came over to him.

"Hi Weevil." I said, "Could I sit with you?"

"Sure Veronica. Please be my guest."

"Thank you for being a gentleman Mr. Nivarro."

I sat down and said, "I've had just about enough of guys who aren't."

"I understand where you're coming from Miss Mars. There's something new written about you, on the wall in the boys room."

"What's it say?"

"'I fucked Veronica Mars.'"

"That's nothing new. Every girl in this school's got that written about her on some restroom wall, whether it's true or not."

"But under 'I fucked Veronica Mars', there's a new one that says, 'so have I.'"

"That's not new either."

"But there's a newer one after that. It says, 'Who hasn't?'"

"It's like I said Eli." I told him, "There're too many guys in this school who just aren't gentlemen. It's the same in the girls room. In there, someone's written 'Veronica Mars is a skanky ho"
He said, "Then maybe you should avoid going to parties, like the one you attended Saturday night."

"Believe me." I told him, "After all this that won't be any problem."

Then I asked, "Could you tell me something Eli? How did you know what was written on the pantyhose that killed Molly Fitzpatrick? Only the police have seen it, and they haven't released that to the media."

He'd been sipping milk through a straw, from a half pint container. He halted. Then he put the container back on the tray.

He asked, "Do you suspect me of killing her?"

"Should I?"

He said, "The reason I know that you signed them, is because I'm the one who gave them to Molly."

"You gave them to her?"

He nodded. "You see, on Monday morning, Dick Casablancas was passing them around to all the guys, and they were all laughing. I didn't like that. I think you deserve better than that; so I grabbed them, rolled them up and put them in my jacket pocket. I was gonna return them to you."

"Again I say you are a gentleman Mr. Nivarro. But you didn't return them."

"I gave them to Molly instead." He lowered his voice, "We'd been meeting in secret, making out."

I was really caught off guard with that, "What? You and the Crime Family Princess?"

He hushed me. "That's right. The daughter of the head of the local Irish Mafia was screwing a Spick, who'd be emasculated, if her father found out about it."

He went on. "Well on Monday afternoon I met her, and we started making out. Then an accident happened, and she got a really big stain all over the pantyhose she was wearing."

"An accident?" I smirked, "Semen stain?"

He was annoyed, "Hey! It could happen to anybody! Well anyway, she couldn't go home wearing them, so I gave her the pantyhose that I had in my pocket."

"The ones with my signature?"

He nodded, "Then she left. Then the next thing I heard about her, was that those pantyhose had been used to killed her."

"But not by you?"

"Are you kidding? There's no way I'd even think of killing the daughter of Liam Fitzpatrick. There's no way I'd do any harm to the mother of my child."

When he said that, it took a few moments to sink in.

"Your child?" I said, "You got her pregnant? The daughter of 'The Cement Kamona Man'?"

"That's right. Tell me Veronica. What's the worst thing that's gonna happen to you, as a result of your safe sex escapades, at Gwen Kalinski's party?"

"The worst thing?"

"You're gonna get grounded for maybe a few months at most, and have dirty things written about you on the restroom walls. I wish that was all that could happen to me. Unfortunately much worse can happen, and a cement kamona would be the easy part."

I heard a guy call out, "Hey Veronica Mars!"

I looked and saw Vincent "Butters" Clemmons, the Principal's son moving around the nearby tables, coming in my direction. He was big and chubby, and was a guy who everyone had always picked on, from the middle of the sixth grade, until now. His self esteem was zero.

He came over to the table, and stood beside me, with his hands on his hips.

He demanded, "Isn't there something you're supposed to say to me Mars?"

Weevil told him, "That's 'Miss Mars' to you Vincent!"

The boy looked at Weevil uneasily.

I said, "I can handle this Eli."

Then I said, "I apologize to you Vincent, for making a humiliating remark, that you mistakenly thought was personal; while I was in a place where I did not belong."

Vincent spoke in a condescending way. "That doesn't sound like you're sorry at all, 'Miss Mars'. It sounds like you're just saying that, because my father ordered you to do so."

"That's true." I told him, "I see no reason to apologize for being honest Vincent." I glanced at his crotch and smirked, "From what I can see, I was being truthful."

He took a threatening step toward me.

Weevil sat up straight. "Careful there Butters!"

Vincent stepped back.

"This isn't over 'Miss Mars'. You're gonna pay for this."

"Hey Butters!" Eli warned, "You don't make threats to anybody."

"There's more than just threats here Nivarro. Everybody around here's been treating me like crap ever since the sixth grade. That's about to end."

Then Vincent told me, "You're not always gonna have your hoodlum boyfriend around to protect you. Molly Fitzpatrick didn't have her gangster family around to protect her, so what could this single juvenile delinquent do?"

The alarm went off for me, at that moment.

I said, "What do you know about her murder?"

He said, "Only what's on the News."

Now Weevil stood up. "If any harm comes to Veronica 'Butters', you're the first person I'll come looking for."

"I don't have to lay a hand on your skanky ho, Nivarro. She's the one who's already done the harm." He smirked, "Her father's gonna lose the election, because of her skankiness."

"Vincent." I asked, "Are you the one who's been sending blackmail notes to me and Gia Goodman?"

"Blackmail?" He sneered, "You're not worth the risk of me going to jail for doing anything illegal; but if somebody is blackmailing you two, you skanks brought it on yourselves."

Then Vincent turned around and walked away from me and Weevil, heading toward the entrance to the indoor cafeteria.

Weevil sat back down. He asked, "You don't think he killed Molly, do you Veronica? He hasn't got the cahones."

"He probably doesn't. Right now it looks like he's just blowing smoke, but I should add his name to my list of possible suspects."

"How many do you have on your list?"

"Two. First there was you. Now there's him. As far as I can tell, you'd have had a much better motive."

Then there was a stir among the students, who were seated at the tables around us on the cafeteria patio. Sheriff Lamb and Deputy Sachs had come onto the patio, and were moving among the tables. They came over to the table where Logan was having lunch with Gia Goodman and Dick Casablancas.

They spoke to Logan for a few moments. Then the loudly protesting Logan Echolls was being led around the lunch tables, past all our bewildered classmates.

The Sheriff and Deputy brought him over to me and Weevil.

Sheriff Lamb said, "Both of you stand up."

Weevil and I both stood up, and were then handcuffed behind out backs by the Sheriff and Deputy Sachs.

I asked, "What's this about?"

My father's opponent in the election for Sheriff said, "Veronica Mars and Eli Navarro! I am arresting you along with Logan Echolls for suspicion of complicity in the murder of Miss Molly Fitzpatrick."

"What the Hell?" Logan said, "We already told you we had nothing to do with her killing, and you believed us."

"Not any more Mr. Echolls.

"All of you have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right..." The Sheriff went through the standard litany of rights.

When he was done I asked, "Why don't you believe us now?"

"I've just received the Medical Examiner's report. It seems that Miss Fitzpatrick might have been raped, before she was killed. She had fresh semen inside her. According to the Report, the DNA came from Eli Nivarro, AKA 'Weevil" here."

"I didn't rape her." Weevil said, "It was consensual."

"According to the report, Miss Fitzpatrick was also two months pregnant. The father's DNA came from Logan Echolls."

I screamed, "Logan? Two months ago? While we were dating?"

My ex-boyfriend said, "I have the right to remain silent Veronica."

Sheriff Lamb went on. "As you already know Miss Mars, she was strangled with a pair of pantyhose that had your signature on them. It looks like each one of you had a good motive for killing Molly Fitzpatrick.