A/N – Thanks for all the feedback so far! I hope this chapter is entertaining. Please be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think! Good, bad, meh?
Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.
Chapter 7
Veronica's fact finding mission after dinner had not been very successful. Wallace had suggested they just walk to a new bar that opened up a block from Luigi's and she really didn't want to seem all nosy or like a jealous ex-girlfriend trying to find out what her ex-boyfriend was up to, and she knew asking too many questions in front of Wallace was likely to lead to those kind of allegations. She did casually mention being surprised that Logan was one of the owners of Luigi's. Mac had known about it because he'd asked her to help them upgrade some computer systems shortly after he'd invested in it, but she didn't know any of the details that had led to him investing in it. And then after the bar, Wallace said he'd drive her home since it was on his way and not Mac's.
She woke up when she heard her dad start his shower and decided to return the favor and made him breakfast before he had to go to the office.
"Ah, my daughter's first day… it's almost like when you went off to kindergarten." Her dad said with a smirk. "Don't forget to play nice with the others and share your toys."
"I always play nice with others! Mrs. Applebaum thought I was a complete angel," she replied indignantly.
Her dad laughed, "Mrs. Applebaum was a bit off her rocker."
Veronica stuck her tongue out at him and made a face.
"And there's the face you make when you aren't playing nice with others," her dad continued as he laughed and ate a bite of the French toast she'd made.
Her dad had another early meeting, so he left right after eating, leaving her to clean up the breakfast dishes and take Backup for a short walk before getting ready to go to the Sheriff's office. After she got back from their walk, she took a quick shower and then put on one of the more business like suits that she had worn in San Francisco for work.
She arrived shortly before 10am and found Norris already sitting at his desk working on some paperwork. "Good morning, partner," she said with a friendly smile. He glanced up from his paperwork and smiled back at her and nodded.
He gestured to an empty desk across from his. "Leo said you could use that desk. You'll be sharing it with one of the rookies whose stuck on the night shift, so I'm giving you fair warning, you should be careful when you go through the drawers." Veronica squished up her nose and looked at the desk with a slightly disgusted look.
"Maybe we can work out a system. I'll take the drawers on the right and he can have the drawers on the left." She tentatively went over and opened the first drawer on the right as Norris watched her with an amused expression on his face. Luckily all she found in that drawer was a stapler, paperclips, rubberbands and pens. She opened the bottom drawer and found it looked very disorderly and like there could be things in it that someone wouldn't necessarily want a stranger rifling through so closed it quickly and decided she'd leave a note.
Norris spent the next hour or so giving her a tour of the Sheriff's office, although it hadn't changed much since the last time she'd been there, and then went over some of their operating procedures and details about which forms they would have to fill out for various things. It had been a pretty slow morning so far, with the other on duty team out doing some morning patrols. A college age guy had come in wanting to report that his car had been broken into and Norris said he'd do the paperwork with him. Veronica was sitting at her desk looking through some regulations that Norris thought she should brush up on when Logan came in.
"Morning sunshine," he said in one of his overly fake jovial voices, startling her a bit since she hadn't heard him walk up behind her.
"Yeah, good morning," she said a bit hesitantly as he walked by her to his desk. She got up and walked over to his. He'd already taken a seat and gave her an impatient look obviously wondering what she wanted. "I um… I just wanted to say I'm sorry about last night. I don't know what I was thinking."
"Oh, let me enlighten you then," he said with a smug grin on his face as he started to narrow his eyes at her. "You were thinking Logan Echolls was up to something nefarious I'm sure." He cocked his eyebrows in an 'I know I'm right' way.
"Well I'm sorry," she quickly responded giving him an apologetic expression.
"No worries, Mars." He shook his head slightly before he continued. "It wouldn't be a Tuesday in Neptune if Veronica Mars wasn't accusing me of evil." At least he resisted doing the evil mustache twirl.
She let out a frustrated breath and shook her head. "Look, I was just trying to apologize. You don't have to be such an ass about it."
"Ah, but being an ass is my specialty," he replied with a smug expression on his face. "You should know I've had plenty of practice at it."
She was about to speak again when the phones rang and he gave her a devious smile and picked up the phone on his desk. She saw that Norris had lunged for his as well, but since he was still wrapping up the break-in report, he hadn't been quick enough.
"Sheriff's Department, Deputy Echoll's speaking, how can I help you?" Logan said as he answered the call. She could tell by the expression on his face that she wasn't going to like what came next. "Mmm hmm…" he mumbled as he wrote something on the sheet of paper in front of him. "Yes, we'll send someone out right away ma'am… You have a delightful day yourself." Veronica wasn't sure if that was fake happiness in his tone at the end, or sheer joy in what he was going to throw at her and Norris.
The guy that Norris was helping had just stood up to leave, so Veronica knew he wasn't going to provide an excuse for them not to take this call, and by that gleam in Logan's eyes, she just knew it wasn't going to be a fun one.
"You two," he said pointing at Norris then Veronica. "Your call."
"You know Sparks and McKay are out on patrol, we could just call it out to them," Norris replied, also apparently worried about Logan's expression.
Logan shook his head. "Nope, I heard them call in something on the radio on my way in. Weren't you listening to the dispatch calls?"
Norris gestured over his shoulder to the woman he'd introduced as one of their part-time receptionist/dispatchers earlier in the morning. "Selma's here, so she was doing it." He narrowed his eyes at Logan, "But evidently she wasn't fast enough to get that call before you did."
Logan laughed. "Yeah, or I told her I'd take calls for her so she could catch up on filing some paperwork."
Norris cursed under his breath and shook his head at Logan. "Fine, what's the call?" He stood up and grabbed his coat.
"Public indecency... Caucasian male... 65-75 years of age." Logan chuckled and lowered his voice to a whisper. "She said he was quite hairy too."
Norris groaned and grabbed the slip of paper from Logan with the address.
"Have fun you two," Logan said with a smirk as Veronica rolled her eyes and followed Norris out to his car.
Veronica felt like she needed to apologize to Norris on the way to the car. "Sorry about that. We had a little misunderstanding last night and I think he's being extra malicious today."
Norris chuckled. "Don't sweat it Veronica. Actually he probably would have stuck me with it whether or not you were here. That's sort of our thing anyway… stick the other guy with the gross or disturbing type calls."
Veronica cringed slightly. I guess someone has to do them. "Maybe we can get better at beating him to the phones."
Norris chuckled and nodded. "Sometimes I swear it's like he has ESP or something with how quick he gets them."
It was getting close to lunch time when they finally made it back to the station. For a 74 year old guy, he was quite spry and didn't want to be subdued and ran several blocks from them in the buff before they finally got him to stop and put some clothes on.
Logan gave her a smirk as they came back in. "So how was your first assignment?" he asked with the same gleam in his eye that he had earlier. "Everything you dreamed of?"
Veronica felt like saying she didn't dream of naked hairy old guys, but she knew that would only lead to something bad. "It was fine," she replied trying not to give him the satisfaction of any sort of reaction and sat back down at her desk.
"You know…" Logan said with a tone she could tell was him about to be up to no good. "I'm in the mood for brauts for lunch. Can I pick you up one too? I'm sure you'd love a nice juicy braut, right?"
Veronica rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Gee thanks for the offer, Logan." She said in a perky voice. "But I'll pass. You be sure to enjoy yours though… all by yourself."
He snickered and turned back to his desk again. The door to the office opened and a young guy in an expensive looking suit walked in. Veronica's desk was closer to the front than Logan's and Norris was filing the indecency report, so didn't see the guy come in.
"You must be new," the guy said to Veronica giving her a charming smile. She guessed he was probably only a couple years older than she was. He looked very polished and professional, and was carrying a briefcase with him. Obviously a lawyer.
Veronica heard Logan make a disgruntled sound from behind her and stand up from his desk. "I've got this Mars," he said as he walked toward the man.
Logan wasn't fast enough though and the guy still beat him to Veronica's desk and held out his hand. "Sebastian Townsend," he said with a smile as she reached out to shake his hand.
"Veronica Mars," she replied as she shook his.
"Oh, Keith's daughter?" Sebastian asked with a fond look on his face. Veronica nodded. "He's worked with my firm on a few cases."
Logan let out a clearly audible sigh. "Come on Townsend. Are you here to see your client or flirt with the new deputy?"
"Who says I can't do both," Sebastian said with a flirtatious grin.
"Well since you don't get to charge your clients for the time you spend flirting, unless of course you're flirting with them, I don't think the firm is going to be thrilled with you wasting your time here." Logan said in a less than friendly tone.
Veronica narrowed her eyes at Logan slightly. He just shrugged and gave her a 'what?' look. "It was nice to meet you Sebastian, but I do have some work I need to do," Veronica said giving him a polite smile.
Sebastian nodded and turned away from her to follow Logan back to the holding cells. Logan came back out a few minutes later and sat down at his desk again.
"You don't seem to like Sebastian much?" Veronica commented as she watched him carefully.
Logan sighed and shook his head. "It's tough to like lawyers who help guilty people get away with crimes."
"Oh," Veronica replied. She did know how that felt, though hearing it from Logan was a little surprising for some reason. She'd of course met plenty of lawyers like that in her life, and when they were handsome and charming like Sebastian, she knew they were frequently able to win over juries with their wiles and unfortunately sometimes that resulted in guilty people being set free. And they were both well aware of what had happened in Aaron's case.
She was looking through some other case files that Norris was having her check when Sebastian came back out a short while later.
"Hey Veronica," he said with the same charming smile. "I'm actually on my way to lunch, and thought I'd see if you'd like to join me."
"Thanks Sebastian," she replied politely. "But Deputy Echolls and I already have lunch plans. Maybe some other time."
Sebastian nodded and gave her a smile before he turned to leave. Logan quirked an eyebrow at her when he was gone. "What?" she said in defense. "Didn't you just ask me to get brauts with you right before he came in?"
Logan chuckled and nodded. Norris had been in the back during the start of their little exchange and returned a moment later. He sat at his desk and gave the two of them a curious look, apparently trying to figure out what was going on while he was in the back since they seemed to actually be getting along now.
He glanced over at Logan who had gone back to working on some papers on his desk. "Did Bex come back to town yet?" Norris asked as he picked up a pen and started twirling it in his fingers.
Logan shook his head, "No, she's in LA at least through Friday." He let out a frustrated sigh, "Which means she'll probably stay through Sunday and go to some parties on Friday and Saturday night." Who was the other lasagna for last night then? Just let it go Veronica, maybe they aren't exclusive, and even if they are, it's really none of your business.
Norris nodded. "Are you bowling with us tomorrow night then?" he asked as he kept flipping the pen around in his fingers.
Veronica couldn't help letting a little smirk cross her face. She tried to look down at her desk so Logan wouldn't notice, but he saw it anyway. "Is Chuckles here coming too?" he asked as he gestured towards Veronica.
Norris turned and gave her a questioning look too. She looked back and forth between the two of them and shrugged.
"Can I let you know tomorrow?" Logan asked as he focused back on the papers on his desk.
"Sure," Norris replied as his cell phone rang.
"Hey," he said after he answered it. He glanced over at Veronica. "Yeah, today's her first day." Veronica quirked up an eyebrow wondering who he was talking to although she already had a hunch who it was. "Yeah we're off at 7… sure I can ask…" He pulled the phone slightly away from his mouth. "Brandon wants to know if you want to go out for pizza with us tonight after work. You could… you could invite Mac too if you want."
Veronica tried to hide the small smirk that was dangerously close to crossing her lips again. She ran her hand over her mouth since she didn't think she'd be successful and hoped it just looked like a thoughtful pose instead. She shrugged. "I'm not sure… I'd need to ask Mac too."
Norris nodded and started talking back into his phone. "She's not sure, but we'll let you know later… okay bye."
As he was setting his phone down, the department phones rang and Logan and Veronica both lunged for theirs at the same time. Veronica realized her line was completely dead without even having a ring tone as Logan talked with the caller. She stood up from the desk and walked around to the other side, looking at the cord that was supposed to connect her phone to a phone jack, but instead it was just lying on the floor under her desk. She picked up the cord and gave Logan a suspicious look. He'd finished taking the call and hung up the phone and chuckled.
"Hey I swear I had nothing to do with that!" he exclaimed holding his hands up defensively.
She looked over at Norris who also shrugged. "Hey, we could go hook him up to the polygraph if you don't believe him," Norris offered with a chuckle.
Logan shook his head and laughed again. "Seriously, I swear Veronica. I didn't unplug your phone. Anyway, someone should take this call. It's a fender bender and they need someone out there to see if anyone needs to be ticketed and to help with traffic." He looked at Norris. "Do you know if McKay and Sparks are still tied up?" Norris shrugged. "I'll give them a quick call and see," Logan said as he stood up and went over to where Selma had been earlier and called them on the radio there.
He walked back over to his desk and told them the other two deputies had it handled. He was just sitting back down as the phone rang again and all three of them lunged for their phones with completely determined expressions on their faces. This time at least Veronica heard a dial tone, so she knew her phone was working. Norris hung his phone up and looked expectantly at Logan. Logan's smirk wasn't as big as the indecency call, but he still had a small twinkle in his eye. When he hung up the phone, he smirked at both of them.
"You'll both appreciate this one. A tip off of drugs at Neptune High." He looked back and forth between the two of them and then smiled at Veronica. "Want to see how it feels to be on the other end of the locker search process?" She smiled and nodded back. Logan glanced over at Leo's office and saw that he seemed to be tied up on the phone with someone. He gave Norris a quick look. "You'll cover for us right? Don't tell Leo we took this one together? Just a one time deal."
Norris smiled and nodded. "Sure but bring me back an In and Out burger will ya?"
"You got it," Logan said with a smile as he grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. He glanced down at his watch. "Devlin should be her in another fifteen minutes, so he can help you if anything else comes in while we're out. Otherwise, you can grab Leo." Norris nodded and gave them a little wave.
Veronica followed Logan out to one of the cruisers. "What'd your dad think of you coming back to Neptune?" Logan asked after they'd climbed in and he pulled out of the parking lot.
Veronica shrugged. "He wasn't overjoyed, but he wasn't totally opposed either." She paused a second. "Well at least he didn't yell or throw anything."
Logan chuckled. "Even though I'm a deputy now, your dad still sort of scares me," he said with a little smirk.
She laughed and shook her head. "I'm sure you'd enjoy having some reason to arrest him wouldn't you?"
Logan laughed and nodded. "Oh, now that would be too good! Maybe you can arrange something… plant a little contraband from the evidence locker for me."
Veronica gave him a mischievous smile. "Definitely not my first week back. I think I'd better save up some serious brownie points before I try a stunt like that."
Logan chuckled again and shook his head. "We'll have to keep it in mind for a special occasion then."
A minute later they were pulling into the parking lot at Neptune High School.
"Ah, all the fond memories," Veronica said playfully. She pointed to a random parking spot as they slowly drove by. "I think that's where you slashed my tires once."
Logan cleared his throat a little uncomfortably, but then he laughed. He pointed to a red Xterra. "Wrong color, but it still brings back plenty of memories of you in the backseat of mine."
She couldn't help but blush and shake her head. You started it Veronica. What were you expecting with a walk down memory lane? She hoped he didn't notice the blush. "Gee, nothing comes to mind. Must not have been that memorable," she said as she quickly tried to recover and teased him back. He chuckled and pulled into an empty parking spot.
They climbed out of the cruiser and walked toward the office. They had to pass near the courtyard where Lilly's fountain was. Logan must have seen her glance in its direction. "You can go and see it while I check in at the office if you want?" He said in a softer tone than she'd heard him use the entire time she'd been back.
She shook her head. "Maybe on the way out." He nodded and walked over to open the door for her. They walked into the office, where a secretary said the Principle would be right out. Logan gave Veronica a smirk and gestured toward the nameplate on the office door.
A moment later Principles Clemmons opened his door. He let out a very audible sigh. "Echolls and Mars?" He shook his head in disbelief.
"You were expecting Crockett and Tubbs perhaps?" Logan said in a joking tone. Veronica chuckled softly as she gave Clemmons a small wave. Clemmons sighed loudly again, and pointed at a young kid that was sitting along the wall.
"Bobby Delano, these officers need you to open your locker," Clemmons said to the boy. He looked scared to death and just nodded and stood up from his seat without another word.
"Who gave you the tip?" Logan asked Clemmons as they started to leave the office.
"Another student. Jimmy Hanson." Clemmons answered giving Logan a questioning look.
Bobby led them to his locker and stared at it for a moment before reaching up with a shaky hand to do the combination. Logan put his hand on his shoulder before he pulled it open. "If you have drugs in there and confess beforehand, we'll go easier on you. Just tell me what it is first." Logan said softly. Bobby looked at him with a worried look and shook his head.
"I… I don't know. I didn't put anything in there." He said in a shaky voice. Logan nodded and gestured for him to open the locker. Inside there was a small bag of marijuana, but it was clearly small enough that anyone could have shoved it through the vents in the locker. "It… it's not mine," he whispered mostly to himself as he saw it.
Logan gave Clemmons a pointed look. "I want to look in Jimmy's locker too."
Clemmons nodded and turned to walk back to the office leaving the other three standing in the hall.
"Does Jimmy have a reason to want to get you in trouble?" Logan asked the young kid calmly.
The other boy swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah. He got kicked off the soccer team for having a vial of E on him and I took his starting position. He thinks I'm the one that narked him out for it. But I didn't."
Logan nodded and gave him an understanding look. Clemmons returned a few minutes later with an angry looking boy who was glaring at Bobby. Clemmons pointed at Jimmy's locker and he went and opened it. Logan started looking in the locker, through the backpack that was in it and around his folders and books.
Veronica noticed Jimmy was fidgeting with his hand in his coat pocket. "Give me the jacket," she said in an authoritative voice. Jimmy's eyes got wide and he froze for a moment.
"Jacket," Logan said harshly. Jimmy let out a sigh and took the jacket off handing it to Logan. Logan pulled out a larger baggy with more marijuana in it.
"Bobby, you can go back to class," Logan said without breaking the glare he was giving Jimmy. Veronica watched Bobby let out a shaky breath and nod, before he turned and practically scampered back down the hall.
"Let's go have a chat in Mr. C's office," Logan said as he put a firm hand on Jimmy's shoulder and forced him to turn toward the other end of the hall.
"How'd you know Bobby was innocent?" Veronica asked as they walked back out to the cruiser a bit later when they finished up in the office. Jimmy had been suspended and his parents were called and Logan issued him a citation and confiscated all the marijuana.
Logan raised his eyebrows questioningly at her. "Really?"
Veronica shrugged. "He could have just been really good at playing innocent."
Logan shrugged in reply. "I've been down here at least once a week and you quickly learn what the guilty kids look like and who they hang out with. Bobby's a smart kid and he's trying to get a soccer scholarship. There's no way he'd risk that by getting mixed up with drugs."
Veronica gave him a small smile and nodded. She was definitely surprised by how well he seemed to know what was going on at the school. He lifted up the baggie of marijuana and shook it slightly. "You sure you don't want to frame your old man?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he laughed as he climbed back into the car.
